Now here is a powerful desk charger for those looking to juice up all of their favorite devices in one place, while still being able to take advantage of the ability to fast charge each one at the same time. This is the UGREEN 500W 6-Port GaN Desktop Fast Charger, offering nearly all the options one would need at their desk.
Desk charging has had a lot of demand over the last few years, as gaming laptops have put a lot of pressure on the need for intense charging to keep up with the latest GPU chipsets and processors. For a while there, laptops were falling into the 45W-65W category. Then suddenly, 100W+ started becoming the norm again, and the popularity of ditching the typical AC adapters for USB-C solutions required the need for EPR USB solutions (extended power range).
Enter the UGREEN 500W 6-Port GaN Desktop Fast Charger. Capable of charging the hungriest of laptops that take charge from their USB-C ports, it can also charge your tablet, smartphone, and more. It offers a total of six USB ports for these devices, including one that is capable of up to 240W, maxing out the capabilities of (modern) USB-C specs.
This is one of the biggest and heaviest desktop chargers we have come across, thanks to what is packed into it. Essentially, a 240W charging course paired with a 260W, coming together to create a 500W (max) charging solution.
Looking at the ports running across the front of it, you can see it has five USB-C ports and one USB-A. Each is labeled with its “max” output capabilities (keeping in mind that the max overall wattage is 500W between them all).
The top USB-C port is the dedicated 240W source for the hungriest of (USB-C chargeable) laptops. Making sure that this is compatible with literally any USB-C chargeable device on the market right now. With only a few limitations, such as the MSI Titan 18 HX AI, which still requires a typical AC adapter due to needing a massive 400W source.
Despite the white box drawn around the USB-C ports (which is only to desperate them from the USB-A for visual design purposes), that top port is separate from the rest. All other ports, including the USB-A port, are fed from a single but separate source inside.
Where some chargers will balance out “all” power depending on what you have plugged into an adapter (ie, 2x 60W or 1x 100W + 20W, etc). With this one, only the bottom five ports balance out. Normally, this would be fine, as that leaves a lot of ports to balance between, but since the top port reserves 240W of the total 500W, it doesn’t leave much to balance out among the rest. Which kind of feels a bit wasteful. But then again, this seems like a this or that sacrifice.
By that, I mean UGREEN was likely faced with two to three options. For example, they could have balanced three ports and three ports between two sources inside, which can limit things a little if you have a 100W+ laptop plugged in. The route they chose gives you the most additional USB ports available if you have up to a 240W laptop plugged into that top port. There might not be any optional configurations of the parts inside to provide a combined 500W source between all ports. Or more importantly, a configuration that isn’t going to completely overheat and melt down, as I am sure this is more about its thermal properties than anything else.
Either way, this still acts as an incredibly powerful charging solution for all (or at least, most) of your devices. Allowing you to plug everything in at the same time. Including multiple laptops, depending on the variety, you have to plug in. You could plug in a 240W laptop, along with two 100W laptops, while still having 20- 60W to play with, depending on whether you plug something into a USB-C or USB-A port.
As this is just a charger, it doesn’t come with much as there isn’t anything needed beyond a power cable, except for the USB cables running to your devices (which normally either come with the devices or are purchased separately). So it just has a well-insulated (and grounded) power cable that runs between the charger and the wall.
Beyond that, there is just some simple documentation to read through.
It is very well-constructed and includes padded feet on the bottom so that it doesn’t scratch up the surface it is sitting on. That last mention is a given with almost any product, but even more useful due to its weight. UGREEN seems to have put a lot of thought into the design of this, focusing on a robust build while also trying to minimize its overall size. Yes, it is a noticeably large desktop charger, but the sheer weight of it alone gives a solid idea of what is inside and the limitations they had to work with.
I am just worried that packing so much into a dense space might make it hard to dissipate the heat inside. So long-term use of this charger with multiple hungry devices plugged in at the same time could result in this heating up pretty good (or more likely, thermal-throttling to compensate for said heat, thus resulting in a slower combined charge). Only time will tell, and if we find this to happen, we will come back to update.
Finally, there are no unimportant features, like LED lights. When you plug this into the wall, nothing lights up. The ports do not glow or anything. Which is fine, as this would just add to the overall design, add to the number of parts within its construction, and likely add to the price. So this model is more about a balance of usefulness than prettiness. Which I honestly prefer as I like to pay for performance more than I do looks.
Our Conclusion
This makes for a powerful charging solution for all (or at least most) of your favorite devices. Including the hungriest of USB-C fed gaming laptops. Although it is both massive and heavy, none of this seems like a flaw since you can only do so much with the space and weight of what needs to be packed inside.
We tested it against as many combinations as we could think of, although the hungriest laptop we could find in our arsenal was 140W, so we haven’t been able to put the top USB-C port through hell just yet. But we did plug that in while plugging in various devices, such as two other Dell laptop models that are 65W each, along with a modern smartphone. Everything was charged as needed without any noticeable issues. So if you are looking for an all-inclusive charging solution for your devices, look no further.
UGREEN is so proud of this one, they say it could even take on the charging of something like an e-bike. This is one thing we didn’t confirm since the e-bikes we have lying around (or any model we have tested in the past) come with wall plug (Edison) power and not USB. However, the specs seem more than capable of getting the job done as long as any given e-bike model doesn’t require more than 260W to charge.
The only issue (overall) that we could find was that it doesn’t completely balance power between the ports (in all). What you see is what you get with the top port, and the rest balance out separately. It would have been nice to see the 240W shared among the mix as well (for a combined 500W of shared power), but this “could” be a limitation (as mentioned) of what manufacturers have to play with when it comes to the parts inside (or more likely the thermal properties of those parts). So they might not have had a choice.
Additional Images:
Specifications:
- Max Wattage: 500W
- Configuration: 240W (up to 240W / dedicated port) + 260W (shared across 5 ports)
- Ports: 5x USB-C, 1x USB-A
Are you a manufacturer or distributor that would like us to test something out for review? Contact us and we can let you know where to send the product and we will try it out.
