{"id":135474,"date":"2025-12-30T18:50:43","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T18:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/appleinsider.com\/articles\/25\/12\/30\/andrews-best-tech-in-2025-aqara-g5-pro-25w-qi22-anker-laptop-battery"},"modified":"2025-12-30T18:50:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T18:50:43","slug":"andrews-best-tech-in-2025-aqara-g5-pro-25w-qi2-2-anker-laptop-battery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2025\/12\/30\/andrews-best-tech-in-2025-aqara-g5-pro-25w-qi2-2-anker-laptop-battery\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew’s best tech in 2025: Aqara G5 Pro, 25W Qi2.2, & Anker laptop battery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Based on the ever-churning rumor mill, it sounds like 2026 is going to be a banner year for tech fans. That said, I still found a bunch of great gear in 2025 to tide me over from Apple Home<\/a> devices to chargers.\n<\/p>\n

2025 didn’t end up being “Year of the Smart Home” as I initially hoped it would be. Apple punted its next-generation version of Siri<\/a> till 2026, along with its much-discussed phantom smart display. <\/p>\n

Accessory makers weren’t held back though, with a ton of new smart home devices launching. Despite a growing list of favorites, I managed to try to winnow things down to a few mass-appeal items that I think stood above the rest.\n<\/p>\n

Aqara G5 Pro<\/h2>\n

A few years ago, I didn’t have a single Aqara item in my home. I had tried a few, but I wasn’t a fan of requiring a hub to do everything.\n<\/p>\n

Jump forward to 2025 and I can’t think of a smart home company pushing boundaries more than Aqara is. I’ve purchased probably a dozen G100 cameras for family members and its FP2 presence sensor is incredible with little competition. <\/p>\n

The one that I wanted to highlight though is the Aqara G5 Pro camera that comes in both USB-C and POE-powered versions. This Apple Home-enabled camera supports HomeKit<\/a> Secure Video, Aqara’s cloud platform, or even a local NAS for video recording.\n<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

The Aqara G5 Pro is so fast, it’s the best Apple Home camera out there<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It has a durable design that works both indoors and outdoors, even with the USB-C version, to withstand the elements. It has a built-in spotlight that can be independently controlled with excellent night vision and 2K video capture.\n<\/p>\n

With an onboard Thread radio, it can act as a Thread router, extending your Thread mesh network to the outdoors. This is great for remote sensors, like the ones I have on my mailbox to let me know when it is opened and closed.\n<\/p>\n

Best of all though, it’s fast. Shockingly so compared to every other Apple Home camera I have tested. When you access the camera, it goes live almost instantly and never goes offline.\n<\/p>\n

That is with the Wi-Fi version, and I have to assume the hardwired POE version is even faster. Simply put, this is the best camera for Apple Home users right now.\n<\/p>\n

If you’d like to try one, they have them on Amazon for $119<\/a> right now. The G100 are much simpler, but I can also attest that they are equally as fast and reliable if you don’t need all the bells and whistles.\n<\/p>\n

25W Qi2.2 standard<\/h2>\n

My second favorite launch of 2025 wasn’t necessarily a single product, but rather a new spec. Qi2.2 was made official, which is the wireless charging spec based on Apple’s MagSafe<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

The Qi2.2 version ups the supported wireless speed to 25W, from only 15W. It supports magnetic wireless charging all the way back to iPhone 12<\/a>, but on the latest devices \u2014 like iPhone 17<\/a> \u2014 it supports the maximum 25W.\n<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

The Anker Prime Wireless Charger is sleek, fast, and customizable<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I appreciate these faster speeds, which go hand-in-hand with the new larger batteries, as I use my phone for work frequently. I want to set it down, get some fast juice, and keep moving.\n<\/p>\n

Qi2.2 gives you the convenience of MagSafe with nearly the speed of a cable. Since Apple adopted it, we’ve seen several chargers launch from all the major players like Nomad, Belkin, Anker, Aukey, and more.\n<\/p>\n

Of those out, I have three favorites. They are the Anker Prime Wireless Charger, the Belkin UltraCharge Pro 3-in-1, and the Kuxiu X40 Turbo.\n<\/p>\n

\"Smartphone<\/a><\/p>\n

Belkin was the first to release an actively-cooled 25W Qi2.2 charger<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The UltraCharge Pro from Belkin was the very first to hit the market and has a nice compact design with a soft-touch finish to the body. I like the chrome look, and it has active cooling to keep the temperatures down.\n<\/p>\n

Anker’s solution is impressive as it not only has fantastic speeds but several other nice touches. The power supply is a tiny 65W GaN charger, it has an NFC tag to run automations, and Bluetooth support to customize the display or charging performance. <\/p>\n

Kuxiu is solid because the X40 Turbo folds down into a tiny little puck that is great to take with you. It is the most compact by far and even comes with its own travel case.\n<\/p>\n

All three are currently listed on Amazon. The Anker Prime Wireless Charger is $160<\/a>, the Belkin Ultra Charge Pro is $129<\/a>, and the Kuxiu X40 Turbo is $79<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

Anker 165W laptop battery pack<\/h2>\n

Rounding out my list is another power product, the Anker laptop battery pack. It has a massive airline-friendly 25,000mAh capacity, three 100W USB-C ports, and a total of 165W of power output across all four outputs.\n<\/p>\n

It even has both a retractable cable built-in and a second cable to act as a lanyard. There’s a useful display that shows all current input and output speeds, battery health, and temperature.\n<\/p>\n

\"Portable<\/a><\/p>\n

Anker’s 25mAh battery pack has been my go-to battery for travel<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This originally launched at CES 2025, and I have been using it almost constantly ever since for travel. It’s the perfect size to slip into the side pocket of a backpack while also packing enough juice to charge even my 16-inch MacBook Pro<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

I love the retractable cable too because I don’t need to always have a Type-C cable handy. If I do want to plug in something like a MagSafe puck or legacy USB-A device, the two female ports are there if I need them.\n<\/p>\n

You can buy it on Amazon for $87 at the moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Based on the ever-churning rumor mill, it sounds like 2026 is going to be a banner year for tech fans. That said, I still found a bunch of great gear in 2025 to tide me over from Apple Home devices to chargers. 2025 didn’t end up being “Year of the Smart Home” as I initially […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apple-insider"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}