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Comment by yoodenvranx | Hacker News Reader

I play Ingress a lot (a GPS based mobile game where you run around a lot in the real world so most players use external batteries) and at least 60-70% of the whole community uses Anker products. I personally know at a dozen people who use Anker wall plugs and all of them (including me, 1 wallplug and 2 battery packs) are very happy.

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Anker and recently Aukey. And iOrange for cables. The problem is that smaller brands hit the Amazon lottery and get a lot of early 5-star reviews, then swap out their product with one made of cheaper components.

I think for Anker, their brand has become a bit bigger than is gamble-able on a bait and switch, so I'm continuing to use their products.

Do you know of a reliable 4 in 1 USB cable manufacturer?

I do not, sorry :/

Anker is ex-Google employees.

Interesting! Source?

Just like Ingress used to be Google!

Just want to add: With Anker make sure you're buying through an authorised channel. Fake Anker products DO exist.

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be an authorised reseller in Australia

Yes there is. macfixit.com.au and mushtato.com.au both stock anker. Unfortunately, because of this Amazon has stopped shipping the brand to AU and the prices here are twice or more that overseas.

Bugger. Off to priceusa.com.au

When talking about Ingress, I suppose you primarily talk about USB power packs. These are not as dangerous as power supplies that are connected to 110V or 220V (although they can catch fire).

Instead of trusting a particular brand, I think it makes more sense to trust the various security certifications that were created for this purpose.

The ones I am aware of are:

* TÜV Nord, TÜV Süd, TÜV Rheinland (TUV, Germany)

* GS (Geprüfte Sicherheit, Germany)

* UL (Underwriter Laboratories, US)

* CCC (China Compulsory Certification, China)

There are probably more that are trustworthy and that actually check the safety of the devices.

> I suppose you primarily talk about USB power packs

No, somehow we have to charge all those batteries ;) A lot of people use Anker products for this as well.

I pretty much only get Anker products now and recommend them to anyone, super high quality and very affordable. Pretty good customer service as well.

Beware: Anker became so successful that now Anker knock-offs are a thing.

Does anyone know if the RAVPower products are any good? I have a few (4-port USB charger, 6-port USB charger, and a battery pack) and have been impressed with their performance (they are the only chargers I have found that my Vita will recognise, for example), but can't find any teardowns etc. discussing build quality.

I'm happy with the one product of theirs I have. They have multiple products on Amazon with several thousand positive reviews each. I don't know if that means they will be reliable in the long term, but they seem to have one of the best names on Amazon to me.

I have this funny feeling that Tronsmart, RAVPower, Aukey and Anker are using the same factory for these - very similar specs and features for all of these chargers. If I had the cash to get 5x ~$50 devices tested by someone like Clive, I'd definitely do it. I do worry about the internals of the device being swapped out silently by the manufacturers, though.

Anker is fantastic. With one weird exception - when I use my Anker USB to Ethernet adapter, my (Microsoft brand) wireless mouse stops working unless it put it right next to the USB receiver. I bought a much crappier-looking Ethernet adapter and had no issues.

I believe many USB3 devices emit noise in the 2.4 GHz spectrum, jamming nearby WiFi and Bluetooth.

Yep. This is a known issue, and there are ways hardware manufacturers can mitigate it:

http://www.usb.org/developers/whitepapers/327216.pdf

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