> Anker’s products haven’t always proved completely reliable, but it has made up for any foibles with excellent, no-questions-asked customer service.
I have a bunch of Anker products because they have been, in my experience, the best quality and most reliable at good prices. I have a 5-port charger with "PowerIQ" that was the first for me that could fast-charge both Android and iOS devices (that for a while followed different charger standards, haven't checked recently) and not just on one port. My team also bought a box of some of their USB3 hubs/chargers because they worked well with some of our finicky pre-production hardware.
In summary: Anker provided what I wanted from a "brand" in a field flooded with dubious no-name products: quality I can trust.
I've only ever had one Anker product fail out of 50+ over the years. It was a USB A to micro B cable - the micro B connector started to bend and eventually snapped off. There was a lot of complaints on Amazon - it seems that it had affected a large number of customers. I contacted Anker, who readily acknowledged that this was a batch issue with that particular model but as they couldn't ascertain exactly which batches were affected, a replacement may well develop the same fault.
The offered me the choice of another cable (different product line) or a refund.
In that one instance where I had a problem, I think they handled it really well. The acknowledged the issue, were completely honest that a replacement with currently circulating stock could develop the same fault, and offered a solution.
With that sort of service at that price point, it's hard NOT to recommend them.
I too have always found their products to be very high quality for the price point. I trust them more than a brand like Belkin.
I once heard that Anker was started by a bunch of ex-Googlers, does anyone know if that's true??
"Anker was founded in 2009, the brainchild of a group of friends working at Google. Fast forward a few years and we’re now the industry leader in mobile power."
Our vision is to create a world where mobile truly means mobile. A world where nothing holds you back from where you want to go, or what you want to do.
Oh god, I just understood the ironic pun in the name, Anker/"Anchor".
I agree. And the result of their reputation and my own personal experience is that I now seek out Anker products. I've been impressed with the solar panel, the external battery, and the braided Lightning cable.
I do have some failure to report. We have 4 of their 5 port chargers and 1 of the 6 port, each ordered at different dates. Curiously two of the 5 port chargers have had the fifth port stop working after a while (the first 4 work fine).
(I haven't bothered chasing it up with customer service since I don't know which unit corresponds to which purchase date, or cared enough.)
I understand that each port has a circuit-breaker which can be reset (by unplugging everything and powering it off and on again, or something like that).
EDIT: Apologies, it looks like they used to use fuses before they switched to resettable circuit breakers. Here's a Reddit post where somebody shares an (excellent IMHO) customer service email from Anker on the issue:
https://m.reddit.com/r/perktv/comments/2fd00z/anker_dead_por...
One of the things I noted recently is that I have purchased RAVPower, Aukey, Anker, and OMAKER products which all came in nearly an identical packaging style. I suspect many of them use the same products or same distribution vendor which whitelabels the products for them.
I used to notice this a lot more often for Anker, but their stuff seems to be diverging. I wonder if they bootstrapped from some of that stuff but have been moving more towards their own products.
My first Anker product was some USB cables. They were faulty. The excellent customer service though completely won me around and the replacements they sent have not failed yet (unlike many other usb cables I have owned).
I too have had positive experiences with their products. The products I used were well-priced, high quality and generally work. Why aren't they using their own brand?
I'm curious why they chose to launch as a separate brand rather than continuing to use the Anker name for these products. From what i can tell, they have an exceptional reputation for making quality products, it seems weird to throw that away just to enter a new market.
My guess is they feel the brand capital is too invested in "battery chargers" and believe it will be easier to rerun their playbook for building cachet with the new brand rather than risk their current single category focused brand.
Interesting, however none of the products mentioned are related to home automation - well maybe the roomba clone. A desk lamp, a humidifier and a couple of desk lamps? None of these are automated, connected, 'smart', or in any other way automated... Odd choice for a headline.
If you haven't already tried out a vertical mouse, Anker makes one for about $20 that works great. I use it at work and would never want to go back. If you have any symptoms of RSI or wrist pain do consider getting one.
I bought the first gen one a few weeks ago. The scroll wheel failed within the first week (middle click still worked).
I just bought the second gen one, and it seems to be going alright so far.
As an aside regarding Anker, I left a review on the original mouse on Amazon saying how the scroll wheel wasn't working and got an email with a day from Anker confirming my address to send out a new one.
It hasn't arrived yet, but I was pleased with their customer service in that regard (I didn't expect it, hence ordering a new one!)
I want to try it out but https://amzn.com/B00BIFNTMC says "Note: This mouse is not compatible with Mac OS X El Capitan." Hm... can anyone confirm or deny?
It also says the thumb buttons can't be used in OS X, but I haven't been able to get them to work on my MS mouses either, so I can ignore that.
When I started experiencing forearm pain a few months ago, I bought several vertical mice from different manufacturers. The Anker was the clear winner for me. It fits the best in my hand and is shaped so I can easily lift it up and re-position it.
I love their vertical mouse. I used the $160 one that people like to get and the $20 one is just as good for what I need it to do. It fits my hand perfectly too.
I also love their $15 wireless mini keyboard too. Super light and nice, responsive keys that are comfortable to type on.
Wow. First time I bought a product from them, it had a typo on it - "AC Adater". They've proven that there's still a market for quality products, not just for race-to-the-bottom goods.
Stockholm in the winter time can be _really_ dry. I remember when I would take my hands in/out of pockets on my jeans. It would crack the skin on my knuckles and they would bleed. This is a shock when you come from the West coast of Scotland where it is always a bit damp!
OP's probably never been to a region so dry that people actually appreciate a bit of humidity. Living in a relatively humid region, it's easy to see humidity as a nuisance that no-one would actually desire.
I didn't get it until I first visited Las Vegas. Nosebleeds, and static electric shocks every time I touched a door handle.
Yes, my SF apartment gets moldy and musty smelling if I don't run my dehumidifier all the time. I think I have some kind of allergy. Does wonders for my PG&E bill.
Yeah, as others said, I just can't imagine it - totally foreign concept. I didn't mean to be insensitive.
That said, I have friends from Europe who struggle in Summer because although they're used to much higher temperatures, they say it feels hotter because it's so humid. (To which I think "is it?!")
We used one here in the UK when our daughter was young and had a series of chest infections (coughing throughout the night etc.) at the recommendation of the doctor (and it seemed to work).
It might not be big, but there is a market for most things, most places. Your (and my) experience is often not generalisable completely.
Over here on the US West (ie, the left of the rocky mountains), yes, humidifiers are needed.
Worst I experienced was Southern Utah - while driving down from SLC I could feel the moisture leaving my lungs. I imagine Arid-zona is probably even dryer.
I remember when I was a child: my grandparents used a very simple humidifier attached to the heating in each room [1]; I'm not sure how effective these are, but I guess they don't require any real maintenance. ;)
While they're no longer sold in America, this Zojirushi warm steam design https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000PVXOX4/ requires very little in the way of cleaning and maintenance, just add some citric acid to the water and run its clean cycle when scale deposits get thick enough. Mine is still going strong after 7 winters.
I wouldn't, however, be inclined to buy an ultrasonic model like they're selling, you're depending on its filter way too much to keep dissolved solids and bacteria out of the air.
I prefer to buy ones without any integrated humidity control (I've had poor luck with them) and instead connect them to a humidity controller like this one:
Winters in Chicago can be positively arid, to the point where the cold, dry air will wake me up in coughing fits. I bought a humidifier last year to combat this and it's been much, much more livable.
I would like to mention Blitzwolf as some of their products overlap with Anker. I have recently discovered their products when ordering from a chinese website. For the price (cheaper), the build quality seems excellent. I am very happy with their quickcharge wall charger and the reversible micro-usb cable.
Well, I personally upvoted this because I have used Anker stuff before, and they usually pop up in verticals dominated by no-name things banking on taglines/designs for sales (e.g., cables, battery packs, etc). They managed to distinguish themselves by providing a generally consistent line of quality in this crowded and loud market. I think it's neat they're now expanding in to more product-ey products.
I don't get why they're making a new brand, though.
i bought their USB cables off amazon. they are like $18 when competition are $7 for 3.
after 6 months they got loose. I can only charge my devices if i wrap it under the phone. and even then it is not guaranteed to work.
I wrote a 2 star review, since it was 7x the price and failed within a year.
They contacted me in less than a week, send me replacement cables of much better quality (they even had a cloth pouch!) and then kept spamming me to give them more stars at amazon. Which i did. One. And waited another 6months to see if the same happened. It did. So while i guess they do hit hard on support, i don't think they want to improve their products.
I have a bunch of Anker products because they have been, in my experience, the best quality and most reliable at good prices. I have a 5-port charger with "PowerIQ" that was the first for me that could fast-charge both Android and iOS devices (that for a while followed different charger standards, haven't checked recently) and not just on one port. My team also bought a box of some of their USB3 hubs/chargers because they worked well with some of our finicky pre-production hardware.
In summary: Anker provided what I wanted from a "brand" in a field flooded with dubious no-name products: quality I can trust.