What's actually the best portable EV charger people have used?

I've only ever used the Tesla Mobile Connector, so I can't really compare. Car has 100k miles on it and the connector has been fine the whole time. It has no display, just a couple of lights, and I've never wished it had one. The cable is about 20 feet, which is occasionally annoying depending on how I park.

we just use the ones that came with the cars. the kia one has been sitting out in the rain for over a year at 13 amps, no complaints

You're going to find that most people only ever own one, usually whatever came with the car, so real comparisons are hard to come by. If I were buying one I'd want adjustable current and an actual UL or ETL listing. A lot of the Amazon ones just have a CE mark and nothing else, and that tells you nothing.

The Ford mobile charger that came with my Mach-E went in the frunk once the 14-50 was installed, and I think I've used it twice since. The bigger question is where you will actually use it. If it is going to be your daily home charger, a wall unit will hold up better than something you coil up and toss in the trunk all the time.

Huh, I guess I assumed more people had gone through a few of them. It'd mostly be at home for now. I'm renting and the landlord said I can use the dryer outlet in the garage but I can't install anything. Does it matter much whether I get a 14-30 or 14-50 one?

On the display question -- I've honestly never looked at the screen on any charging cable. The car and the app tell me everything I want to know.

If it's a dryer outlet it's probably a 14-30, or a 10-30 if the place is older. Look at the slots before you buy. Either get one with a 14-30 plug or one with swappable adapters, and make sure it's set to 24A, not 32. The Tesla one sets that automatically when you use the 14-30 adapter. A lot of the generic ones don't, so you have to set it yourself.

24 is a lot more than you think you need. we do two cars on 16

Agree with sbergstrom. 16A at 240V is roughly 3.8 kW, which is about 12-15 miles per hour of charging. Over a 10-hour night that's 120+ miles back. Unless you're commuting 150 miles a day you'll never notice the difference between 16 and 24. There's also a good reason to stay low on a dryer outlet. Dryer receptacles were made for a dryer, which runs for an hour a couple of times a week. Pulling 24A through one for 8 hours every night is a different job. Most of them are cheap builder-grade parts that have been plugged and unplugged for 20 years and have loose contacts. That's where the melting stories come from, and it's not the EVSE's fault. If the slots turn out to be a 10-30 (three prongs, no ground), stop and think. There's no equipment ground there. Some adapters bootleg the neutral as a ground to make the EVSE happy, and that's... not great. In that case I'd honestly just run L1 off a regular outlet and see if it covers your driving. For most people it does.

Ioniq 5 owner here, 120k miles... the cord that came with it has mostly lived in the frunk since I put the JuiceBox in. Never once looked at a display on any of them lol. For what it's worth, I'd buy one with the plug ends you can swap. If you move out of the rental you aren't stuck with a 14-30 cord and nowhere to use it. And you can take it to the kids' houses on a 120 outlet. Slow....but it works!

It's got 4 slots so I think 14-30. Hadn't really considered how old the outlet itself might be, the house is from the 90s.

24A on a 14-30 is fine by code, that's literally what the 80% continuous rule is for. A 30A breaker feeding a 30A receptacle, 24A continuous is within spec, and the dryer itself pulls ~22-25A for an hour at a time anyway. The receptacle isn't magically a different part because a car is on the other end. That said, gbrenneman isn't wrong about the actual hardware. The risk isn't the amperage, it's a worn receptacle with loose contacts or a backstabbed/poorly torqued terminal, and that's going to get hot at 16A too, just slower. If the house is from the 90s and that outlet has had a dryer plugged and unplugged a few times, it's probably fine, but I'd pull the cover and look at it, or just ask the landlord if you can swap the receptacle for a decent Hubbell or Bryant one. That's a $30 part and most landlords don't consider replacing an outlet "installing" anything. Feel the plug after the first hour or two of a charge. Warm is ok, too hot to hold is not.

I run 16 amps every night and it's more than enough for a Bolt doing 70% of our family's driving — 38 kWh overnight, 200+ km. So I'd start low and only bump it up if you actually find yourself waking up short. You probably won't. On which unit: mine was about $380 and I'd buy it again, but honestly the biggest thing is whether you can set the current yourself. Everything else is pretty secondary.