Anker 535 Car Charger 67W Review: Three Ports, One Cigarette Lighter, Year-Long and Counting

The Anker 535 car charger is the small black brick that lives in the cigarette-lighter socket of our family car and charges three devices at once. I have had it about a year. It is still going strong. It charges my wife’s phone, my iPhones, my kids’ tablets, and the AirPods case. It does what the listing says it does. The only thing it does not have is a display, and the only reason that earns a mention instead of dropping the grade is the price.

Grade: A—if you want one car charger that handles three devices at once and stays out of the way.

Which Anker car charger this review covers

I bought the Anker USB-C Car Charger, 67W, three-port model, the version the listing describes as the “535 Car Adapter with PIQ 3.0.” It plugs into the vehicle’s 12-volt cigarette-lighter socket. It has two USB-C ports and one USB-A port on the front face. It comes with a 3.2-foot USB-C to USB-C cable in the box. The Amazon Special Link in this review points to that listing, ASIN B0BSVB93DK.

The listing name is the Anker 535 Car Charger. I am not reviewing the smaller two-port versions like the 323 or the larger 167.5 W model with three ports. I am also not reviewing any non-Anker car charger in this style. Everything below is about the 535 we have.

Voice-note correction up front, for the record: my review notes had it as “one USB-A, two USB-C” but the listing describes it as “two USB-C, one USB-A,” which matches the shape of the brick. The shape says it: two USB-C, one USB-A, three ports total. The 67 W number on the listing matches what I remembered; the listing claims a PowerIQ 3.0 67 W USB-C port plus PPS / PD support.

Everything I say is about how the charger behaves in our car over the time we have had it.

Living with it

I bought this charger because the family car had a single-port charger and three things that needed power on every drive: my wife’s phone, my iPhone, and the kids’ iPad. With three of us riding in the car at once, someone was always without charge on a longer drive. I bought the 535 to replace the single-port charger and the answer is that we now charge three devices at once and no one runs out of battery before we get wherever we are going.

The brick itself is small. It looks like a slightly chunky black rectangle with three ports on the front face. It sits in the cigarette-lighter socket with most of its body sticking out about an inch and a half. The body of the brick is the same width as the body of the car charger socket, so it does not stick out further than it has to. Once plugged in, it looks like a small piece of the car’s interior, not an aftermarket addition.

The three ports are arranged in a triangle on the front face: two USB-C ports and one USB-A port. The listing describes the port layout specifically: two USB-C ports, one USB-A port, total of three. The total output of the charger is 67 W. When all three ports are in use, the listing says the USB-C 1 port delivers 45 W and the rest of the wattage is split across the other two ports. I do not have a USB-C wattmeter to verify the split across ports, but I can tell you that the iPhone says “Fast Charging” when it is plugged into the USB-C 1 port in our car, and that the iPad says “Charging” when it is plugged into either USB-C port. Phones plugged into the USB-A port charge at the slower rate, but they charge.

The 67 W number is the total output of the brick, not the per-port output. That matters for laptops. The listing explicitly says the USB-C 1 port provides “full-speed charging to USB-C laptops including the MacBook Pro 14-inch.” I have not tried this in our car because I do not commute with a laptop, but the framing is that one of the USB-C ports is the heavy-lifter for laptops and the others are for phones and tablets.

The cable that ships in the box is a 3.2-foot USB-C to USB-C cable. That is the right length for a car charger: long enough to run from the center console to a phone on the passenger seat, not so long that it is dangling. I have a couple of my own USB-C cables around the house, and I plug in whatever is closer when we get in the car. The included cable is not the only thing I use, but it is the one that ships with the charger for those who do not have a drawer full of cables.

The brick has been in the car for about a year. It has seen daily commutes, road trips, and the full range of summer heat through the windshield and winter cold through the trunk. It has never failed me. It charges what it claims to charge. It does not get hot enough to worry about on a long drive in a hot car. The contacts on the 12-volt plug are still firm. The brick does not slip out of the socket.

The charger has no display and no app, no firmware updates, no companion software. It is a charger. It does what chargers do. The only thing I am missing on the 535 is a small numeric display that would tell me how many watts are going to the phone. That is the feature I called out as something the charger could improve on. Everything else, it does.

The charger does not have wireless charging. That is fine. Wireless charging on a moving car interior where everyone has a phone on a moving seat is more trouble than it is worth. The 535 is wired, and wired is right for this environment.

What I do not know is how the wattage is split across ports when three devices are plugged in. The listing says 45 W to the USB-C 1 port when all three are in use. I have not tested that with a meter. The review is about how the charger works in our car, and in our car it works.

What I like

• Three ports means three devices, no one runs out of charge. This is the central thing. The reason to buy a 67 W three-port car charger is that you can plug in three things at once. The 535 does that.
• The 67 W total output is enough for the modern phone stack. When one device is plugged in, it gets the full 67 W. When multiple are plugged in, the split is documented in the listing and the brick is honest about which port gets the heavy-lift wattage.
• It has both USB-C and USB-A ports. USB-C is the future. USB-A still works for the things we have not yet upgraded. The 535 supports both, on the same brick.
• The brick is small. It does not stick out far from the cigarette-lighter socket. The body is roughly the same width as the socket housing, so it does not look aftermarket.
• A USB-C to USB-C cable ships in the box. A lot of car chargers do not include a cable, which is annoying. The 535 includes one. It is the right length for car use.
• It has survived a year in our car. Daily commutes, summer heat, winter cold. The contacts are still firm. The brick has not failed. That is what I want out of a car charger.
• It is quiet. No fan. No hum. No light that does not need to be there. The brick charges and stays out of the way.
• The price was reasonable at the time of purchase. I do not have the receipt in front of me, but the 535 has been below $30 on a sale more than once. For a 67 W three-port brick that lasted a year and counting, that is the right kind of price.

What annoys me

• No display showing watts being delivered. The brick does not tell me how many watts are going to the phone. I would have to plug a USB-C meter into the chain to see the number. For the price, a small numeric readout on the brick would be the right kind of upgrade. I do not need it, but I notice the absence of it when I am comparing the 535 to chargers that do have one.
• I cannot verify the per-port wattage split with my own gear. The listing says 67 W total, 45 W to USB-C 1 when all three are in use. I do not have a USB-C meter to check the actual numbers on the cigarette-lighter end of the cable. The review is honest about this limit.
• The brick is not the smallest car charger. There are smaller 12V car chargers, in exchange for fewer ports or less wattage. If you only ever charge one phone in the car, a smaller brick is fine. The 535 is the right size for three ports, but it is bigger than the one-port options.
• It is only 12 V. The 535 works in any vehicle with a cigarette-lighter socket. It does not work in vehicles without one. If your car has no 12 V socket, the 535 is not the tool. The car I have has one, so this is not a constraint for me, but it is a constraint in general.
• It would be nicer if the USB-C cables were labeled to indicate which port is the heavy-lift. The brick has two USB-C ports on the front face. The listing says USB-C 1 is the heavy-lift port. The brick itself does not label them. I have to remember which is which, or read the listing every time, to know which one to plug the phone into.
• The price has crept up since I bought it. $35 list now. I am not paying $35 for a car charger at this point. I would still buy it on sale.
• The included cable is short. 3.2 feet is enough for a phone on the passenger seat. It is not enough to reach a phone on the back seat. The cable is fine for most cases, but it is not the most generous cable.

Who it is for, and who should skip it

If you have a family car with multiple devices that need power on every drive, this is the right car charger. It charges three things at once, it does not overheat, it has survived a year of being plugged in. The 535 is what you want if you want the answer to “everyone’s phone is dead” to be “plug something else in.”

If you only have one device that needs power in the car, look at the smaller two-port 40 W Anker or even a single-port charger. The 535 is overkill for one phone.

If you want to charge a laptop from the car socket, the 535 is rated for the MacBook Pro 14-inch per the listing. I have not tested this. If laptop-in-car charging is your primary use case, look at a 100 W car charger instead, since the 535 is documented for laptops up to a point but will throttle on the higher-wattage laptops.

If you need wireless charging, the 535 does not have it. If the cable is the reason for the friction, look at a brick with a built-in cable or a wireless car charger pad.

Verdict

A small three-port 67 W car charger that does the job, ships with a cable, and has survived a year of real-world use. The only thing it does not have is a numeric display showing watts being delivered. For the price, that is one feature. Otherwise, it is exactly what the family car needed.

Grade: A—if you want one car charger that handles three devices at once and stays out of the way. Buy the linked listing if your use case matches mine.

For the nerds

Detail	My Anker 535	Linked Anker 535 Car Charger
Brand	Anker	Anker
ASIN	—	B0BSVB93DK
Model number	535 (per listing)	535 (per listing)
Wattage total	67 W	67 W (per listing)
Ports	2 USB-C + 1 USB-A	2 USB-C + 1 USB-A (per listing)
USB-C 1 port when three in use	45 W (per listing)	45 W (per listing)
Cable ships in box	Yes, 3.2 ft USB-C to USB-C	3.2 ft USB-C to USB-C (per listing)
Charging protocol	PIQ 3.0, PD, PPS (per listing)	PowerIQ 3.0, PD, PPS (per listing)
Socket type	12 V cigarette lighter	12 V cigarette lighter (per listing)
Display	None	None (per listing)
Wireless charging	None	None (per listing)
Warranty	18-month	18-month warranty (per listing)
Devices I charge with it	Apple phones, kids’ tablets, AirPods case, my wife’s devices	—
My time owned	About a year	—
Operating conditions	Daily commutes, summer heat, winter cold	—
Cost at purchase	Below $30 on sale (per my notes)	$35 list (per listing)
Other car chargers excluded	Not reviewing Anker 323 or 167.5 W	Different ASINs