Anker

Anker is a Chinese company specialising in chargers and portable batteries. It started with chargers and cables, then widened into portable power. What marks it out technically is the charging circuit rather than the casing: a system that recognises the connected device and gives it the current it needs instead of one fixed current, with protection against heat, over voltage and deep discharge, the protections that keep a battery from failing early. It also went early to gallium nitride semiconductors, which shrink the charger and keep it cooler.

Anker suits anyone who goes far from a power point: the falconer charging a tracker, a radio and a phone through a whole day out, the camper who spends days in the desert with his light and his camera, and the hunter who relies on his car alone where nobody passes.

Two items are in the electronics section: the Core 13400 power bank for phones, small devices and rechargeable lights, and the car jump starter, which gets the engine going again without a second car to take a spark from. The shop carries Anker without holding its agency.