You deserve a travel power adapter you actually like for your next trip

When I was a writer for The Wirecutter more than a decade ago, we were obsessed with finding and recommending the singular best version of any specific product, because it felt like there was so much crap to wade through online. Today I wistfully long for the Amazon of 2013, before it came to be overrun by endless samey garbage from alphabet soup “brands” called things like HORUSDY and EHEYCIGA.

If you’re really looking for the cheapest thing you can get, you’ll find those same products without the dropshipping markup on Aliexpress; and if you want the “best” thing, even seemingly personal recommendations on sites like Reddit are fraught as companies astroturf the site hoping to game AI search. So when I find a bit of kit that I really like that falls somewhere in the middle and is simply good, I feel like it’s my duty to evangelize it a little bit.

That’s the case with the Ceptics Travel Adapter, which has accompanied me to China, Korea, the UK, and Brazil in the last few years. There are a gazillion power adapter options out there that’ll get the job done, but this is the only one I’ve owned that I can say I really like for international travel, and that’s because it’s simple and flexible.

If you own a travel adapter, chances are it’s enormous. Almost every model out there is some variation of an oversized chunker that crams three or four different plugs into a single body, with one, maybe two sockets for you to plug your stuff into. And then they’re usually chock full of USB ports that put out a measly few watts if you plug in more than one device.

The main reason I don’t like these things is how bulky they are. They can be hard to fit onto a cramped socket, and there’s also a chance the all-in-one approach won’t actually work for the country you’re traveling to. Annoying!

The Ceptics model is svelte by comparison and its sockets can be swapped out with a hearty click, so you can buy and pack just the specific plugs you need for your trip. I love that it takes up less space both in my luggage and at the wall socket, and its sole USB-C port delivers 30 watts—enough to quickly top up my phone without even bothering to plug in a proper charger. (Ceptics sells another model that also has a USB-A port on the side, but both ports are unfortunately limited to lower wattage).

The Ceptics travel adapter and its bafflingly named “SWadAPt” interchangeable plugs feels like a nice screwdriver kit with interchangeable bits instead of a freaky Leatherman with every tool combined into one. It just feels good to know I have the exact right tool for the job with none of the cruft, you know?

Depending on what I’m shopping for these days, I tend to either go for the high-end option that’s more expensive than I really want to pay because I know the quality is worth it, or I go the really cheap, Aliexpress import route. For the former, I recently bought Peak Design’s Slide Lite cross-body camera strap and a Cuff wrist strap, which were pretty expensive. But they come with a great warranty, are based in San Francisco where I live, and have some really clever design touches, like a magnet that holds the Cuff in place like a bracelet when it’s not attached to my camera.

There are knock-off versions of Peak Design’s gear on Amazon that cost like a third the price, but the quality difference for the real deal felt like it was worth the money.

What didn’t feel worth the money, when I was looking for a fun little keychain camera to take on vacation, was the Kodak Charmera, which costs $35 on Amazon. I bought the same thing on Aliexpress for 10 bucks.

Ceptics’ stuff lives in that rare middle ground that seems hard to find now. It’s Chinese (despite claiming itself as a “USA-based” company), and it’s not some super fancy but ultimately overkill GaN adapter with 100 watt über charging or whatever. It’s just a good price, it’s simple, and it saved me from ever having to use one of those clunky megabricks with annoying sliders for each plug type ever again.