In a world where we’ve successfully put touchscreens on refrigerators so they can tell us we’re out of oat milk while we’re standing right in front of them, the tech elite have finally found their line in the sand: a 45-watt wall charger.

The Verge recently took aim at the new Anker Nano 45W charger, clutching their pearls over the fact that it includes a tiny, full-color screen. Their verdict? “Not every device needs a screen.” Groundbreaking stuff. Truly, the Copernican revolution of tech journalism. But while they’re busy mourning the loss of “utility” in an era of “gimmicks,” let’s take a second to look at why this critique is as stale as a launch-day smartphone battery.

First, let’s address the “gimmick” allegations. The article claims the screen—which features an animated character and real-time charging stats—is just a marketing ploy. Well, obviously. We’re talking about a company that specializes in moving electrons through a plastic box. Without a little flair, an Anker charger is just a utilitarian brick that lives behind your nightstand with the dust bunnies.

The assumption here is that a device’s value is purely tied to its productivity. If a screen doesn’t help you respond to a Slack message 4% faster, it’s a waste of space. But in reality, tech enthusiasts love data. Knowing exactly how much power your Steam Deck is drawing versus your iPhone 15 Pro isn’t just “occasionally useful”; it’s a diagnostic tool. If your “fast” cable is actually trickling out 5W like a leaky faucet, that “gimmicky” screen is the only thing telling you you’ve been scammed by a gas station charging cord.

Then there’s the complaint that the charger “would feel less gimmicky if it did more.” This is the classic “feature creep” trap. What exactly do we want a wall plug to do? Should it host a Zoom call? Should it have a built-in air fryer? It’s a 45-watt GaN (Gallium Nitride) charger. For the uninitiated, GaN technology is the reason these chargers aren’t the size of a literal brick anymore—it’s high-efficiency, low-heat sorcery. Anker managed to cram that tech, plus a display, into a footprint smaller than a box of Tic Tacs. Asking it to “do more” is like asking your stapler to provide weather updates.

The article assumes that “more features” equals “less gimmick.” In reality, more features usually just means more things that can break. By keeping the screen focused on power delivery and a cute mascot, Anker is leaning into the “functional toy” aesthetic that has made brands like Teenage Engineering or Panic’s Playdate so successful.

Heaven forbid we have a little whimsy in our hardware. If we followed the logic that “not every device needs a screen,” we’d still be staring at monochrome LCDs on our thermostats and checking the oil in our cars with a physical dipstick like it’s 1954.

The Anker Nano 45W isn’t trying to be a smartphone; it’s trying to be a better version of a boring object. If you want a plain black box, they sell those for twenty bucks. But if you want to know if your GaN-powered charger is actually hitting the Power Delivery (PD) specs it promised while a little robot smiles at you, then the screen isn’t a gimmick—it’s the highlight.

Stop pretending that tech has to be miserable to be meaningful. Sometimes, a screen is just there because we can, and in the case of the Anker Nano, “because we can” is a perfectly valid reason to buy a charger that’s smarter than your last laptop.