Rocoren 140W GaN Fast Charger Review — leave your laptop charger at home, for good

Rocoren 140W GaN Fast Charger

9.2

The Rocoren 140W GaN Fast Charger delivers plenty of power in a smart configuration that makes it perfect for modern laptops.

What's Good?

• Designed to charge laptops, then your other devices
• Supports most industry standards
• Just barely warm even at 120W output
• Compact design with integrated plug

What's Not?

• Non-detachable plug
• Power split may not work for everyone

As more and more of our devices do not come with chargers, shopping for power adapters has suddenly become important. While browsing through Lazada, I found this Rocoren 140W GaN Fast Charger, or Rocoren Starshine GaN Adapter 140W PD 3.1, depending on where you look. Now, to quickly get up to speed on what you need to look out for in your next charger, you can check out the following articles:

• Guide to picking the perfect travel charger
• Selecting the Right Smartphone Charger for Your Device

You might have noticed that both of the above articles discussed UGREEN chargers, and that’s because they are one of the better-known brands. I am, however, a cheapskate, and I wanted something greater than just 100W. UGREEN offers a similar 3-port 140W solution, but it’s gonna set me back RM429. So I decided to take a chance with the Rocoren 140W GaN Fast Charger, which cost me less than half that figure. So far, I am quite impressed. Without further ado, let’s go through what’s good, and what’s not about this charger.

What’s Good?

Designed to charge laptops, then your other devices

On top of looking at the peak power output of these GaN chargers, another important aspect is to look at how they split the power when more devices are connected. For example, the UGREEN Nexode GaN 140W Charger will split it into 65W + 65W when two USB-C devices are connected. When three devices are connected, it will be split further into 65W + 45W + 22.5W. This configuration, can be good, if you want to charge multiple devices quickly. The Rocoren 140W GaN Fast Charger does things slightly differently, and you can refer to the following table:

When two devices or more devices are connected, the main USB PD 3.1 port continues to deliver 100W. This is perfect for those of you who are using a laptop. Laptops like my Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition gets the full-fat 100W power delivery, while any additional devices I connect share from a pool of 20W. If we cut that figure down to 65W, a warning would appear on my laptop, telling me that the charger is not delivering all the power it needs. So if your main priority is powering your 16-inch MacBook Pro, or fast charging your phone, then the Rocoren 140W GaN Fast Charger is perfect. Otherwise, it might even be considered a drawback of its design.

Supports most industry standards

While the main draw of this charger is its support for 140W output over the USB-PD (USB Power Delivery) 3.1 standard, it also supports PD 3.0, Qualcomm’s Quick Charge (QC) 2.0, 3, 4+ and 5, Samsung’s Adaptive Fast Charge, HUAWEI’s Fast Charge Protocol (FCP) and Super Charge Protocol (SCP) as well as the old Battery Charging (BC) 1.2 standard. There doesn’t appear to be support for Apple’s 9V 2.22A (20W) charging, but Rocoren claims 55% charge in 30 minutes for the iPhone 13, so I guess there’s still some support for Apple’s standards, or lack of them. We will probably check back when the iPhone 15 drops with the much-anticipated USB-C port, which should hopefully support faster USB-PD standards.

Just barely warm even at 120W output

The sheer density of GaN chargers usually result in them running on the toastier side of things. I was therefore quite pleasantly surprised that the Rocoren 140W GaN Fast Charger just barely got warm despite outputting 120W. It still got warm, but I would say that it is around the range of 50°C, which isn’t all that hot when you consider that it is feeding out 100W to my laptop and 20W to my ROG Ally. Not too shabby at all. Compared to my older UGREEN 100W charger, this runs way cooler.

Compact design with integrated plug

The Rocoren 140W GaN Fast Charger is really compact, and while we can’t verify these claims, it is apparently 25% smaller than Apple’s 140W USB-C Power Adapter. Compared to the included 100W charger that comes with my Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition, it takes up essentially the same footprint. Featuring a matte finish across most of the surfaces, with just a touch of glossy plastic and softly curved edges make for a nice-looking charger. Or at least, as good as chargers can look. I also like that the ports are somewhat spaced out, so you won’t run into any issues with cables featuring chonkier connectors. I do have a grouse with the design though…

What’s Not?

Non-detachable plug

This may be for durability’s sake, but the plug does not come off. As I went with a UK plug variant, it features these “wings” that take up more space than the actual charger’s body itself. I would have loved it if it was detachable, or at least foldable, as that would mean I could slide the charger into tighter bags and store the plug separately. On that note, if you really want a narrow charger, you could get the EU plug version.

However, that one will give you an entirely different issue. It will slide easily into your bag, yes. But it also means the charger will plug in horizontally. Depending on how wide your extensions are, it will likely block the plugs next to it. Plugging it directly to the wall should eliminate all issues with spacing, but then are you really going to use up a precious wall plug for one charger?

Rocoren 140W GaN Fast Charger Specifications

Rocoren 140W GaN Fast Charger — should you buy this?

Yes, if you are looking to prioritize charging for one device. As mentioned earlier in this review, the Rocoren 140W GaN Fast Charger delivers 100W to the USB-C1 port, regardless of how many devices are connected. So if that’s what you want, this is perfect. If not, UGREEN’s 100W or 140W GaN chargers might be better with a more even split between the ports. Of course, we have to take the price into consideration. I got this for RM159, and I think it’s a real steal. It seems that the regular price is around RM189, which is still very affordable when you compare it to UGREEN’s 140W GaN Fast Charger’s asking price of RM429. But once again, it really boils down to what you need.

Help support us!

If you are interested in the Rocoren 140W GaN Fast Charger or UGREEN’s 140W charger, we would really appreciate if you purchase them via the links below. The affiliate links won’t cost you any extra, but it will be a great help to keep the lights on here at HelloExpress.

• Rocoren 140W GaN Fast Charger (Lazada): https://s.lazada.com.my/s.gHuRx
• UGREEN Nexode 140W Charger (Lazada): https://s.lazada.com.my/s.gHFQc