My 5-port USB Charger

Amongst the five of us, we have three mobile phones, two tablets, a Kindle, five iPods, a couple of cordless Bluetooth headsets, and miscellaneous other bits of electronics that are charged via a USB connection.  Sure, most of them came with a charger and, of course, they can be plugged into a computer to charge them, but in practice, we usually end up playing musical chargers with the two we leave plugged in in the hall.  Until now, that is.

Last fall, I was putting together my list of desired holiday gifts for the Secret Santa exchange with my wife’s siblings and I added this 5-port USB charger to the list, thinking that it would be much easier to take on vacation than a bunch of separate chargers.  I did receive it as a gift and, it did reduce the contents of my travel tech bag.  But it wasn’t until just recently that I realized how much more useful it could be outside the bag at home.

I happened to notice that it was on sale and so I ordered another for the house.  It now lives in that same hall, taking up the same space as the two previous chargers, but providing connections for five devices.  Now, the description claims you can charge two iPads (at 2.1A each) and three phones (at around 1A each) at the same time, at full power, but I’m not sure I believe that, given the 5A (total) rating.  Nonetheless, while it may not charge as fast as the individual chargers that came with each device, it’s plenty fast enough that everything is fully charged when we get up in the morning — assuming we remember to plug them in before we go to bed.

I also grabbed a 10-pack of micro-USB cables because I’m forever losing them and, frankly, you can never have too many of the things.  If you’d rather have more capacity (and thus, as I understand it, faster charging times), there is a 40W/8A version that is very similar and also highly rated, for a bit more.

If you’re a connected family and want to make life easier — at least when it comes to charging your gadgets, this is an affordable solution.

Tags: android, cell phone, cellphone, charger, electronics, galaxy, ios, ipad, iphone, kindle, micro usb, microUSB, mobile phone, power, samsung, USB

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 1st, 2014 at 9:00 am and is filed under Gear, ParenTech, Product News, Product Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.