Review: AmazonBasics 4.0 Amp Dual USB Car Charger

AmazonBasics 4.0 Amp Dual USB Car Charger

6.9

Power

7.5/10

Design

7.0/10

Build

6.0/10

Reliability

7.0/10

Pros

  • Charges Quite Fast
  • Easy to Use

Cons

  • Bigger than Most 2-Port Car Chargers
  • Charging Problems that can lead to safety issues
  • Slower Charging than most Car Chargers
(Last Updated On: May 10, 2019)

Amazon has an array of products that they sell that are known as Amazon Basics products.

These products touch the basis of a product category and bring either the standard or better than the standard of what a product has to offer. Amazon even offers their own line of charging products like power banks and car chargers.

In this case, we’ll be reviewing this 2-port car charger from Amazon and see how well it fairs to other car chargers.

Does Amazon really have their game together or are they simply spreading themselves too thin?

Other Types of 2-Port Car Chargers:

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Power

Output Charging:

This Amazon car charger has two charging ports, you can charge two devices at the same time.

Charging speed of each of the ports is 5V/2.0A. It’s not the fast charging speed that you can get with a car charger but it’s alright. The max output of the car charger is 4.0A, so there’s no need to worry that the car charger is lessening its power from one port.

With all that said, we’re disappointed to see this big car charger not being able to deliver a max standard charging rate of 5V/2.4A.

We’ll get to its design in a second but to be clear, this charger isn’t small and we were expecting at least for it to deliver max power potential.

You can charge an iPad at 2.0 Amps but not at its full potential of 2.4A because even if you charge a tablet with just a single port and leave the other port empty, the max output per port is still only 2 Amps.

Smartphones will fair well with the car charger but don’t expect the charging speed to meet the same standard as something like Anker’s PowerDrive 2.

Read Review for RAVPower Mini Dual USB Car Charger

Design

As we mentioned in the Power section, this car charger isn’t the smallest car charger you will own and it’s definitely lagging on its size dimensions and being lower profile.

The length of the car charger is 3.1 inches, so you can expect the charger to stick out quite a lot. The stem of the car charger is about 1 inch, so you can expect 2 inches of the car charger to be sticking out.

So if you’ve got a standard that a car charger should be sleek and low-profile. Or if you have functional things in the surrounding area where you’d put the car charger, then we recommend looking for a smaller car charger.

Perhaps the RAVPower 2-port car charger may suit your needs better.

Although the car charger does indeed have a bulkier design than most car chargers out there, its design was meant to be very straightforward in nature.

The stem of the car charger is clearly shown that it’s supposed to be put into an outlet and the charging port portion of the car charger has the two charging ports shown to be very prominent.

Other than that, the Amazon Basics car charger doesn’t try anything new and in this case, it’s not the most disappointing thing but it’s very distasteful.

Similar Car Charger

Build

Structure and Material

You would think that a car charger from Amazon Basics would actually be built quite well but it’s not nearly as strong as you’d think.

The car charger’s size is its biggest downfall and that’s because it has too much going on with its many build components.

A charger should have the least amount of parts and pieces that are connected together because there’s less of a chance of things coming apart. The Amazon Basics car charger doesn’t follow this rule.

The most prominent weakness of this car charger is its head, which lays on top of the car charger’s stem. It’s not built in very well and if you remove the car charger from the electrical socket, the head of the charger stem will come out and render the car charger useless.

Tech

Another thing with the car charger is that it can cause temperature increases within itself and the charging cable that’s plugged into it. This increase in heat can damage the car charger, the cable, and even your smartphone or whatever device that you’re charging the car charger with.

Ultimately, the Amazon Basics car charger fails to provide any safety charging technology and as a result, it puts your devices and itself in jeopardy of being damaged.

Lastly, the car charger isn’t making a constant connection with current flow. This may be a few cases for the Amazon Basics car charger but it’s actually quite common.

What this means is that the car charger will take current and charge the device that’s connected to it, but other times it may not because the car charger loses its connection from the current.

This constant ON/OFF of charging a device can damage the device that’s charging.

If we’re talking about the material that the car charger is made of, it’s made of plastic. It holds well, other than the stem’s head coming off.

Reliability

Amazon Basic products are meant to be reliable. They really are, because they’re meant to solidify the standard of a certain category of a product but that’s not the case here.

The car charger doesn’t provide a consistent and worry-free experience and has a high chance of wearing down and eventually breaking itself, or even worse, it can damage your charging cable and your device.

The car charger can deliver on the power side of things, although we hoped for a powerful speed. The design can be obtrusive and it’s significantly bigger than other car chargers within its class.

It’s a car charger that truly does bring the basics of a car charger but by not going over simple standards, the car charger under delivers.

Summary

Power:

The power of the car charger is lower than you’d expect for the size of the car charger. You’re able to charge two devices potentially at 2 Amps.

Although the charging speed of the car charger is quite alright, you have to take into account whether or not the car charger will charge at those speeds constantly, because of discrepancies regarding its build quality.

Design:

It’s a large car charger in comparison to the many other 2-port car chargers currently on the market. It’s not going to be as low profile as you’d like and might even obstruct some things surrounding the car charger.

With that said, the car charger does have a straightforward design and it’s at least easy to use.

Build:

The build quality of the Amazon Basics car charger needs to be re-done. The car charger’s stem head is very easy to come off and will make the car charger useless.

The charging is not kept constant because the car charger has trouble keeping a constant current flow to the device it’s charging and as a result, it can damage the device.

Lastly, the charger doesn’t seem to have any safety charging tech, because its temperature can increase a lot and heat up itself, the charging cable and the device that it’s charging.

Reliability:

It’s not the most reliable car charger because of its lack of safety tech. You can’t really rely on a charging electronic that can’t support itself in the long-run and that’s what’s most important.

Know the Best Quick Charge Car Chargers

Specs of the AmazonBasics 4.0 Amp Dual USB Car Charger:

  • # Of Ports: 2
  • Output: 2.0A Per Port
  • LED Power Indicators: Only One
  • Size: 2.32 x 0.98 x 0.98
  • Weight: 0.3 ounces
  • AmazonBasice 1-year Limited Warranty

Conclusion:

The Amazon Basics car charger does meet the minimum of what it means to be a good car charger. It tries to boast itself as being really good but it’s behind the times and is due for an upgrade.

The car charger should already have a max charging speed of 5V/2.4A and its size needs to be reduced quite a lot.

Safety features like Temperature control and Current control would solve its detrimental chance of damaging the device it’s charging and the car charger needs to have a more uni-body design.

This car charger goes to show no matter how many ratings and popularity an Amazon Basics product has, it can really all be due to the hype.

 

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