Buying Guide: Best iPad and iPhone car charger: 5 tested

Best iPad and iPhone car charger

There's nothing worse after a long journey than arriving at your destination with a flat battery in your iOS device.

So to ensure you can still make calls and browse the web when you've parked your car keep your batteries topped up with one of these in-car chargers.

01. Belkin Micro Auto Charger - £15

URL: www.belkin.com/uk
Lights up? Yes
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

Unlike the similarly-sized Gear 4, below, the Belkin comes with its own charging cable. It has a green charging light, which doesn't change colour when charging. It's not listed as iPad compatible, but we found it worked fine for charging the iPad, too.

Verdict: 4/5

02. Gear4 Roadtour Micro In-car USB charger - £15

URL: gear4.com
Lights up? Yes
Works with: Everything

It's small, comes in stylish Apple white and has an ice-blue LED that glows when something's charging. Shame there's no cable - all you get is a USB port to plug things into - but that means it can work with more devices. It's also well-made and ultra compact.

Verdict: 3/5

03. iLuv Dual USB Car charger - £13

URL: i-luv-uk.co.uk
Lights up? Yes
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

Why settle for one USB port when you can have two? That's the message of the iLuv. It doesn't officially support the iPad, but we found that ours did charge. The charging head can rotate to make the USB ports more accessible, and a big blue light tells you when it's charging.

Verdict: 3/5

04. Griffin PowerJolt Plus - £13

URL: griffintechnology.com
Lights up? No
Works with: Everything

This well-made charger comes with its own springy cable and is a nice size to make connecting easy. Unplug the rubber cap at the top of the device and you can pop in a second car-charging device, so you could charge two things at the same time!

Verdict: 5/5

05. Philips Car charger for iPhone and iPad - £20

URL: philips.co.uk
Lights up? Yes
Works with: Everything

The Philips is an uncomplicated solution, but we like it. It comes with its own cable, so you don't need to bring another, and glows white when plugged in and orange when charging, making it easy to know if your device is charging properly in the dark. It's big enough to easily plug in without looking.

Verdict: 4/5