rewrite this title My search for the ultimate car charger is over – and this one has a flexible superpower

Your car probably has a couple of built-in USB ports, so you’d think that the days of the dedicated car charger are numbered.

Also: I found a compact power station with solar charging, and it’s a new off-grid essential

But you’d be wrong.

Baseus has taken the car charger and upgraded it, bringing it into 2025 and making it a total in-car charging system for people with a lot of gadgets. The Baseus PrimeTrip VR2 Max is a car charger with a difference. It’s bristling with ports and retractable cables, and it even swivels and rotates to fit in with your needs.

The PrimeTrip VR2 Max is quite an impressive device. It has cords on the top. It’s essentially a car charger with two retractable USB-C cables on the top. These cables can each extend out to 2.6 feet (80 centimeters) and can lock at various lengths.

It’s tough, magnetic, and swivels

Baseus has built and tested the retraction system to handle over 10,000 smooth pulls and retractions, and in my testing, it has proven tough — there’s nothing to worry about when it comes to quality.

As for power, one cable delivers up to 67W and the other up to 33W. That’s enough power to top up a laptop and keep a smartphone going, and you can do this without having to remember to bring any cables.

Also: Your car’s USB port is seriously underrated: 5 features you’re not taking advantage of

As for charging protocols, the charger supports all the big ones — PD, QC, SCP — so you can be assured that your gadgets are charging at the fastest possible rate.

The whole unit can swivel and rotate through 180-degree vertical rotation and 270-degree horizontal rotation so as to present the cables at the best possible angle for whatever device you have connected.

And to keep the cable ends from flapping about in the breeze, they are magnetically held down when not in use. This is a really nice touch, and the sort of attention to detail that I’ve come to expect from Baseus.

That’s not all

Below the swiveling dual cable retractor unit are two more USB ports, another USB-C that can push out a maximum of 33W, and a USB-A that’s good up to 30W.

Also: I finally found the ultimate car charger for my iPhone

That’s a lot of power, and a lot of power-delivery options.

One drawback is that, thanks to all the swiveling and ports, the PrimeTrip VR2 Max is a bit on the large side, and it might be a bit too big for some cars depending on the location of the 12V port. That said, I’ve tested it in a number of vehicles, and not had a problem.

ZDNET’s buying advice

The Baseus PrimeTrip VR2 Max is, without doubt, the smartest, best-designed car charger that I’ve tested. It pushes out a decent amount of power to up to four devices, and does so safely, without the charger turning into a glowing ember. And the price is just unbelievable — currently this charger is only $30 on Amazon.