After months of searching back and forth with several accessory makers, I can confidently say that the Kuxiu X40 is the best 3-in-1 charger around.
The first unit I bought for myself late last year was a little lacking because it could not fast charge the Apple Watch Ultra, but the company sent me the ‘new’ x40, and it checks all my boxes.
It’s very small, well built, and it can quickly charge all my Apple devices in one convenient location. As a desktop charging station, it isn’t easy to beat. The only thing that would improve it would be to add USB-C with power delivery so I could plug in earbuds without wireless charging or other small accessories.
How it works
You may be skeptical of the X40’s folding motion, but that’s actually one of the best parts about it, and I can confidently say that it holds up great. I’ve had one on my desk for six months, and the joints still hold their shape perfectly. That said, if you travel a lot and constantly pack up your charger, you might wear it down faster than I have. Regardless, in my experience, the hinge tolerances feel great, and I expect them to hold up well.
On the foot of the device, there’s a small Qi wireless charging pad for topping up wireless earbuds. It’s designed for AirPods, so earbuds with larger cases like the Nothing Ear don’t fit as nicely. If you fold the stand like in the photo below, you can make them fit and still get access to iOS Standby mode, but the stand isn’t as stable as it would be with a bend in the midpoint.
In the middle section, there’s a small circle that folds out toward the rear of the charger. This allows you to place an Apple Watch on the stand to charge like a little backpack. Not only can the Kuxiu fast charge Apple Watches, but it can even handle the Watch Ultra, something a lot of other 3-in-1 chargers won’t do.
The final section is the main MagSafe connection point. This will charge your phone vertically or horizontally, and if you have new AirPods, you can even charge those. While I thought a 3-in-1 charger was what I needed, one thing I learned throughout this is that I could have easily made do with a 2-in-1 that does Apple Watch and iPhone. Since my AirPods need to be charged so infrequently I could have easily just used one of those charge points to power them. That said, for instances where everything is dead, it’s nice to have one location to charge all my devices.
While I originally bought myself an Anker Cube, I saw an Instagram ad for the Kuxiu a week later and decided I’d get both to test. While there’s nothing wrong with the Cube, it couldn’t fast charge my Apple Watch Ultra. Combine that with the Kuxiu charger being more compact for travel and cheaper, and you can see why only one of these chargers is included in the title of this article.
At the end of the day, it’s not perfect, since I don’t find that either of these chargers are getting the full 15-watts of promised power, but they’re a great way to keep your phone topped up throughout the day. In my experience, the Kuxiu charger takes a little under two hours to charge my iPhone 15 Pro and hits a max power draw of a little over 10 watts.
Getting your own
Kuxiu actually sells a few different versions of this charger. The X40 is my favourite because I like the aluminum design and the rear-facing USB-C port for power input. It costs $98 on Kuxiu’s website as of the time of writing (that’s where I ordered mine from and it arrived in about a week). It’s also available for $76.49 on Amazon (15 percent off right now).
There’s also a slightly cheaper X55, which is basically the same charger but plastic and with a USB-C port on the right side. My mom has this one and is happy with it in her kitchen. However, since I have mine on my desk and care about cable management, the rear port on the X40 is better.
There’s also the X55 Plus that’s the same as the X40 but larger and with a side-mounted USB-C jack. The regular X40 and X55 fit both regular and plus-sized iPhones, so it’s unclear why you’d want the larger charger.
All models come with a random travel case, a USB-C to C cable and a 20-watt wall charger. It looks very similar to the Apple 20-watt brick, but the USB-C port is turned 90 degrees.
The X40 is available for $76.49 on Amazon (15 percent off right now).
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