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Hints and answers for Connections for March 17, #645.

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle No. 1,367 for March 17.

Anker Charger 140W, 4-Port, PD 3.1 review

The Anker Charger 140W, 4-Port, PD 3.1 – that’s a bit of a mouthful isn’t it. But don’t be fooled, this charger isn’t compensating for anything with its epic name. With four ports, an admirable maximum power output of 140W and even its own display, this charger is undoubtedly a top performer. But is it worth its high asking price of $89.99 / £89.99?

Well, if we’re talking about performance, the answer is yes. You can get up to 65W and 45W from USB-C port 1 and 2 respectively when quad-charging, with a maximum of 140W overall. You can even get that full 140W routed to either of these ports when charging one device at a time – not bad at all!

And when I tested out the charger to verify its prowess myself, I was delighted with the results. Even while utilizing all four ports, I was able to get the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE from 0% - 100% in less than 80 minutes. That’s the kind of speed I’d expect from some of the best Android phone chargers and best iPhone chargers.

If you want to see just how fast your devices are charging, this model has a neat display located on top of the charger. When you first plug it in, you’ll be greeted with a robot-looking face – one that’s not quite emotive as that of the UGreen Uno Charger 100W, mind you. Anyway, after the initial startup, you can sift between three different displays: power consumption per port; temperature monitoring; and total power use (in watts).

I tended to stick to the first menu in order to check the changing power use in each individual port, although the temperature monitoring screen was handy too. This display provides a rating depending on how hot the charger gets or can let you know if it's in High Performance / Cooling Mode – always good to know!

Something else that I liked was the positioning of the ports. They’re located on the underside of the charger, meaning your cables will dangle down if you’re using a wall socket. This is ideal in my view, because if you’re using a socket close to a desk or couch, for instance, the cables won’t be pressed against a surface. That makes the charger ideal for use in tight spaces. Combine that with its foldable prongs and compact size and you’re onto a real winner for portability and seamless usability.

But that’s not all – this is also a very nice-looking charger. The display is nice and bright and the outer casing has a premium-looking finish. Not only that, but there are two classy color options – Dark Gray or Silver. Well, that is if you’re in the US – I do wish the Silver option was there for us UK folk.

But that’s a pretty minor qualm I have – what’s the real catch to this charger? Well, if I had to pick something out, it would probably be the price. At $89.99 / £89.99 (about AU$140), this model is by no means cheap. But this charger does come with its own USB-C to USB-C cable and given its inclusion of a display, I’d still argue it’s great value. That’s especially true when you consider that the UGreen Nexode Pro 160W 4-Port charger – a clear rival to this Anker alternative – costs $119.99 / £99.99 and is display-less. So, it’s fair to say this entry from Anker gets almost everything right and it’s well worth grabbing – if you have the cash.

(Image credit: Future) Anker Charger 140W, 4-Port, PD 3.1 review: Price & specs

(Image credit: Future) Should I buy the Anker Charger 140W, 4-Port, PD 3.1? Buy it if…

You want high-level performance
This model can offer fast charging speeds, no matter how many devices you have plugged in at once. With a maximum power output of 140W, there’ll be plenty of power for your phone, the best wireless earbuds, tablets and more. Even if you want to juice up 2024’s Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M4, you should be able to get it back to life in no time.

You’d like to get the visual on charging progress
One of the unique benefits of using this charger is its inclusion of a display. If you want to monitor temperature or power output and management, this is definitely the charger for you.

Don't buy it if…

You’re on a tight budget
OK, so this charger packs a lot of punch and has plenty of ports, which makes it a good value option. But that still doesn’t mean it comes cheap. It’s knocking on the door of the $100 / £100 mark, so if you’re on a tight budget, maybe consider another option, like the UGreen Nexode Pro 100W 3-Port charger, for instance.

You want some neat color options
This model is available in Dark Gray in the UK and US, but the smart Silver option is exclusive to the latter. And although I personally like the look of this charger, those with a preference for more vibrant colours may find it a little plain.

Anker Charger 140W, 4-Port, PD 3.1: Also consider

UGreen Nexode Pro 160W 4-Port charger
Although I’d consider this Anker charger to be a stronger value option, there’s no denying the impressive power and quality of the UGreen Nexode Pro 160W 4-Port charger. You get a bit more juice out of this model thanks to its maximum power output of 160W and ports are positioned on the end of the charger – rather than underneath, if you’d prefer that. There’s no display here, but I can assure you, this thing will bring your devices back to life – and fast. On top of that, there’s intelligent temperature monitoring and four USB ports. The lack of foldable prongs on the UK model are a little bit of a miss though. Read our full UGreen Nexode Pro 160W 4-Port charger review.

AOHI Future Starship review

The AOHI Future Starship is a large power bank with plenty of power to charge large devices on the go.

It adopts what you might call a cyberpunk aesthetic, with yellow markings and accents imparting a futuristic industrial look. The overall form is also reminiscent of some kind of a sci-fi gadget, injecting some interest in the typically straight-laced world of power bank design.

No doubt some will like it and others will hate it, but it’s not brash enough to totally preclude it from more professional settings.

At 23oz / 650g, the Future Starship isn’t exactly light, but its dimensions are relatively compact – it's not as thick or as long as some power banks with a similar wattage. The overall build quality is good, although there’s a small amount of flex to the side panels, so it’s not constructed quite as sturdily as some of the best power banks.

The large panel for the screen is somewhat misleading, as the actual display only occupies a very small area. What’s more, since it packs in quite a lot of information when charging, it’s hard to read at a glance if you want to quickly see how much battery power remains. It’s also relatively dim, which only adds to the visibility problem, especially at certain angles.

Still, the information the Future Starship displays is useful, as it includes readouts for each individual port, displaying their real-time wattage. There’s also an indicator to show whether the power is being outputted or inputted, which is useful to make sure the bank itself is actually being charged when plugged into an outlet.

Battery life is given as a percentage and in bars, which presumably is designed to make it easier to scan. However, in addition to the aforementioned issues with the display itself, the bars are too small to see from a distance because there are too many; four or five would have been enough, but there are 10, which is too many to parse quickly.

There are three ports in total on the Future Starship: two USB-C ports and one USB-A. It seems like another USB-C could have been squeezed in, and there are similarly large power banks out there with four, so it’s a small shame not to see this.

The two Type-C ports can deliver a max 140W each, both for output and for input. When used at the same time, one will drop to 100W, meaning the total output for both ports is 240W. It also comes with a USB-C cable rated for charging at 140W, which is nice to see, as not all large power banks include high-power cables.

The Future Starship managed to charge a Dell Latitude 5410, with its 68Wh battery, in just over two hours, which is an impressive performance, especially considering that I was using the laptop at the same time. The bank depleted from 100% down to about 20%, so it’s nice to know you’ll get one full laptop charge out of it, with a bit left in the tank for smaller devices.

It also stayed cool throughout, only warming slightly. Charging the bank itself also took just over two hours, which again is an impressive performance considering its large capacity.

However, the Future Starship is a very expensive power bank, and not many users will need such a massive output – and those who do would probably wish for a higher capacity to charge large devices multiple times. There are many cheaper alternatives out there that can handle laptop charging just as well.

(Image credit: Future) AOHI Future Starship review: price & specs

(Image credit: Future) Should I buy the AOHI Future Starship? Buy it if…

You want plenty of power
With a total of 240W, there aren’t many USB devices the Future Starship can’t charge.

You want plenty of info
The screen might be a bit small, but all the useful metrics are there, including real-time wattage figures.

Don't buy it if…

You want something cheap
The Future Starship is expensive full stop, and many probably won’t utilize all the power it has to offer.

You want multiple laptop charges
Yes, it can charge a laptop completely – but it can only do so once before you have to recharge the bank itself.

AOHI Future Starship: also consider

Anker Laptop Power Bank
It might be less powerful, but the Anker Laptop Power Bank is more than capable of charging most large devices thanks to its 165W output, and it has close to the same capacity at 25,000mAh. It also has two inbuilt USB-C cables for added convenience, and to top it all off it’s much cheaper than the Future Starship.

Read our Anker Laptop Power Bank review

• Despite predictions, HDDs are here to stay and increasing in capacity
• Seagate recently sold one exabyte of HAMR storage to two hyperscalers
• The "tens of thousands of drives" likely cost between $33 and $35 million

Although the likes of Pure Storage, IBM, and Meta believe the writing is on the wall for hard drives, the technology doesn’t look like it will be going away any time soon.

Seagate and its main rival Western Digital are working on magnetic recording methods that will allow the drives to continue increasing in capacity, helping them maintain a clear advantage over SSDs when it comes to storage density.

The main technology leading this charge is HAMR, or heat-assisted magnetic recording, which could see HDDs hitting incredible 100TB capacities. HAMR works by briefly heating the disk surface with a laser to make it easier to write data at higher densities. HDMR - short for heated dot magnetic recording - is HAMR’s likely successor and could lead to even larger drives by focusing the heat and magnetic energy into smaller, more precise areas for even denser data storage.

Not an unreasonable outlay

In a recent The Wall Street Journal article, John Keilman wrote an article covering Seagate’s “fight to store the world’s data”, and mentioned something which caught my attention. “Seagate said two large cloud-computing customers have each ordered one exabyte’s worth of HAMR storage, which works out to tens of thousands of hard drives.”

Keilman didn’t name names - Seagate wouldn’t have told him who the buyers were - but we can narrow the list of suspects down to the usual big US hyperscalers, including Apple, Oracle, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta. It’s possible that Chinese hyperscalers could have come shopping for the drives, but that seems unlikely to me.

Keilman doesn’t say what capacity drives were sold, but we can assume they will have been Seagate’s highest commercial HDD, the Exos M, which ranges from 30TB (CMR) to 36TB (SMR), with a breakthrough 3TB-per-platter density. Based on timing, it’s likely we’re talking about the 30TB models, as the 32TB drive was only added to the range in December 2024, followed by the 36TB model just a month later.

Assuming the hyperscalers in question paid bulk pricing of around $500 per drive (refurbished models of Seagate's Exos 28TB HDD can currently be purchased for as low as $365), their combined bill likely came to somewhere between $33 and $35 million. For a full exabyte of cutting-edge, high-capacity storage, $16 billion or so isn't an unreasonable outlay.

Seagate previously revealed that a 60TB drive was on its way, and the firm recently announced plans to acquire Intevac, a HAMR specialist, which could help it achieve that 100TB capacity goal faster, as well as ramp up HAMR drive production.

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