Anker 3-in-1 Charging Cube with Magsafe reviewed: clever cube

Wireless charging every important device in your life is great, but it can erode the space on your bedside. Not with the Anker Cube, a clever little compact charger mostly made for iPhone owners.

Living in a wireless world has some obvious wins, and one of them is charging. Cable charging may well be faster, but wireless charging is extremely convenient, allowing you to snap a phone on a wireless slab and let the battery almost magically recharge.

It isn’t magic, but can feel close, bringing to mind Arthur C. Clarke’s comment that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Wireless charging isn’t magic, but it can certainly feel that way.

Seeing this magic in action often requires an accessory to match today’s wirelessly charged phones, and they can be relatively sizeable things. You leave them on your desk or bedside tablet, and they can charge phone, earphones, and watch.

But they don’t have to be all that big, as Anker is discovering. Rather, they can be compact and clever, which is what the Anker Cube aims to be.

What is the Anker Cube?

Officially called the “Anker 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Cube with MagSafe”, the Anker Cube (which is what we’ll keep calling it) is a panel of three charging pads packed into a three dimensional square.

Huey Lewis once sang “It’s Hip To Be Square”, and that might be the best explanation for this gadget. In an era where almost nothing is designed like a perfect square, and every company has something softer and more circular (or even squircular), Anker has actually sharpened the points and made a cubic charger. It’s a bit of a refresh.

What does it do?

Like other desk and bedside wireless chargers, the Anker Cube includes panels to recharge items in your life that can be wirelessly charged.

There’s a panel up top that can be tilted, a panel underneath, and a pop-out panel on the side made just for the Apple Watch. Three chargers for three devices. Ideally, they’re for specific devices, covering a phone on the top-most, earphones just beneath this, and a watch charger on the side.

You won’t find a spare USB port on this model, so it’s just the three wireless charging panels, which for many people will be totally fine.

Does it do the job?

Own a recent iPhone from the 12 up with MagSafe, and an Apple Watch plus a pair of AirPods or another wirelessly charged set of earphones? This handles all of them in one of the most compact uses of space.

Do you have a recent Android phone with Qi support? It’ll technically charge that device, too.

That top most panel handles 15W of wireless charging, while the other two panels underneath and to the side are up to 5W on each, though Android owners will likely be spending more than they should with only one panel being tremendously useful.

What does it need?

There’s something clever about the Cube design. It’s space aware, tightly compact, and yes, it’s pretty much close to a cube. The Borg would dig this thing, that is if the Borg were interested in a way of recharging their phones and not communicating as a collective.

You don’t need to worry about the Borg (unless you’re Picard), and you also don’t need to worry about the Star Trek reference. But you may be interested to know what the Anker Cube needs, and height and a light switch may be it.

Let’s talk about height, because while the Cube is clever, it means the height of the Watch charging fob is such that it might be too low for some watch straps, such as the one on the Apple Watch Ultra 2 we’ve been using. It just looks a little clumsy in place, and we think height might be the reason why, as it doesn’t tuck in comfortably.

There’s also a small charging light at the back of the Anker Cube, and while it’s not obnoxiously bright, it’s still noticeable in the dark at bed time.

You can’t turn that light off; provided something is being charged on the back part of the charger — the part ideally for earphones — the blue light switches on.

Strangely, it doesn’t switch on when either the MagSafe/Qi or Apple Watch charger is used without the rear charger, which is all kinds of confusing; it only switches on when you charge your earphones.

Honestly, the whole blue light thing is just so confusing, we’re not sure if Anker maybe just forgot to turn off something in testing.

Anyway, lesson learned: don’t recharge your earphones while you sleep, or turn the other way in bed. Got it. Cool.

Is it worth your money?

At $299.95, however, Anker’s clever Cube might be priced a little too high for the competition, which could push people to something else.

Belkin’s charging stand options cost $229.99, and so does the Twelve South HiRise 3 Deluxe. Both of them are excellent, and roughly $70 less than the Anker Cube.

About the only major differences Anker’s gadget has going for it are the size and the fact that you could technically take it travelling due to the size. As to whether that’s worth the $70 cost difference, we’re not entirely sure.

It’s also more expensive than the $219.99 Twelve South Butterfly, which is arguably built to travel with due to its compact size.

Frankly, we’d say the Anker Cube should ideally be closer to $250 rather than the $300 mark, especially since it also lacks Qi2 support. However, that might just be splitting hairs, and we’re not Anker’s marketing department.

Overall, it’s little overpriced by comparison, and you get all the Borg Cube references you can wrap into a review (ok, no more).

Yay or nay?

High cost aside, the Anker Cube is a surprise we’re growing to like. It’s one of the first bedside charging stands that really thinks about space in a positive way.

This is a clever cube. Anker has worked out how to place everything you need in as tight a space as possible that you actually get nightstand space back, and that matters.

We’re not going to lie: the Anker Magnetic Cube isn’t perfect, but it’s still a clever cube. It provides both a regular charging panel for all three devices in many iPhone owner’s lives, and one they can take with them. And if you don’t have an iPhone and prefer to dance with an Android without the magnets, you can flatten the charging panel and tuck that Apple Watch charger away without any hassle.

As we said, it’s a clever Cube, and worth checking out. Recommended.