Phones used to ship with a lot of accessories that usually included headphones, a charging cable and a USB wall charger.

Today, phones ship with a charging cable and that’s about it, so you’re on your own for a wall charger. A lot of people will just go with whatever charger they happen to have tucked away in their junk drawer, but chances are you’re shortchanging yourself and the time you spend charging your phone.

Here are two devices that separately do a great job charging your devices, but together, they may be all you need to bring on your next weekend trip to keep your phone or tablet or laptop going strong.

Anker Nano Charger 45W

Anker has introduced a new charger aimed at iPhone users that can identify the model of the phone (for iPhone 15 and later models) and provide the optimum amount of power to keep the battery charged up quickly and keep it healthy for longer battery life.

The Anker Nano Charger 45W, Smart Display, 180-degree foldable ($39.99, anker.com), is tiny, but it will make your iPhone very happy. It has a single USB-C port to charge your stuff.

The Smart Charger uses AI to adjust the voltage throughout the charge to provide the fastest charge without overheating.

The charger has a rotating smart display to provide a live view of the real-time wattage being provided, status icons, battery progress for compatible devices and it will auto rotate depending on the plug orientation.

The prongs of the foldable plug let the user orient the charger 90 degees or 180 degrees to best fit their plug situation. If you have an iPhone 15 or newer, the charge level of your phone’s battery will appear on the charger’s screen, along with the exact rate of charge and a description of the charge, such as FAST, STEADY or TRICKLE.

There is a button on the charger to toggle through several data views and to switch between two charging mode — auto and care. Care mode actively lowers the temperature after the initial fast charge, protecting the battery during overnight charging.

The Nano Charger 45W comes in four colors to match this year’s iPhone colors.

Don’t think that this is just for iPhones. It also recognized my iPad Air and will work equally well on my MacBooks. It will also work on older iPhones and Android devices.

This is the wall charger Apple should be including with their devices.

BMX SolidSafe 5K Solid-State Magnetic Power Bank

I’ve got half a dozen power banks designed to magnetically snap to the back of the iPhone for on-the-go wireless charging, and there is not a lot to distinguish them from each other.

Lately I’ve been testing the BMX SolidSafe 5K Solid-State Magnetic Power Bank ($79.99, heybmx.com), which looks a lot like the others, but it is hiding a secret under its precision unibody aluminium case — a solid state battery.

What is a solid-state battery?

According to BMX: “Most power banks today use lithium-ion or lithium-polymer battery cells filled with a flammable liquid electrolyte. When those cells overheat or get damaged, that liquid can react under pressure and cause fires or explosions.

"SolidSafe uses a semi-solid-state cell, not a traditional liquid one. The liquid content is reduced to about 2.5%, replaced with a gel-like electrolyte that stays cool and stable.”

We’ve all seen news stories about lithium batteries starting fires that are hard to extinguish. BMX’s website shows someone driving a screw through their power bank with a hammer and it doesn’t start on fire.

The SolidSafe 5K provides 5,000 milliamp-hours of power, which can charge up most cell phones one time, so with the battery stuck to your phone, you’re doubling your battery life.

The Qi 2 wireless charger provides up to 15 watts of charging power, and the magnetic ring keeps it securely mounted to a MagSafe-compatible iPhone or Android phone with a magnetic charging case.

It has a USB-C port to charge your gadgets that can’t wirelessly charge. The port is also used to charge up the battery. The port provides pass-through charging, so you can attach the battery to your phone and charge your phone and battery at the same time.

On the front, you’ll find a small LED display showing the charge level of the battery and the exact amount of power flowing in or out.

The SolidSafe 5K also has a small lanyard loop that conceals a short USB-C charging cable. That cable is one of the neatest accessories I’ve seen in a long time.

There are cheaper power banks, but for the price, the SolidSafe is safer, light, thin, has a very informative status screen and can charge two devices at once with its included charging cable.

There’s nothing I’d change about this battery. It is just a darn handy gadget to keep on hand.

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