iClever 6 port USB Charger Review

iClever 6 port USB Charger Review

Thanks to iClever for the sample.

First Impressions

Wow, loving that name there, it just rolls of the tongue doesn’t it?  Okay it’s not like I could come up with something better because let’s face it, it’s a charger.  A sexy product it is not, no one’s is going to “oooooh” or “ahhhhhh” over a USB charger are they?  However……. While the product category may not be cool it is very, VERY, necessary.  If you have any sort of mobile gadget you can bet nine times out of ten it’ll need USB power to charge it.  Now sure, when you buy anything that needs a USB charger it’ll probably give you wall charger but it’ll be a single output charger.  This baby can replace six of those damn things, so while not sexy its highly practical and not just from a space saving, putting all into one place but the ports are all beefy 2.4 amp ones.  Woo hoo!!! 

Out of the box and it looks pretty nice for a charger, I don’t quite get why one side is rounded though, not that it is in anyway a negative, I just don’t get what gain there was by doing it.  Maybe it was just for aesthetic reasons?  It looks pretty good to me, I like the matte black soft touch finish to it all.  Matte is so much nicer than glossy plastic I always feel

Aesthetics

As I have just mentioned, the thing looks alright.  It’s still essentially a black plastic brick but I like its matte finish and the rounded side does make it look a little different.  It looks more than sufficiently good for me to be perfectly happy having it like on my desk.

Performance

On paper it, with its smart charging whatever, can pump out upto 2.4 amp’s on each of the ports.  It is in total able to spit out 50 Watt’s, now some very basic maths.  6, the number of ports, times the voltage and amperage, USB being 5 Volts and the current being 2.4 Amps.  So that’s 6 times 5 times 2.4.  That comes to 72, that being 72 Watts.  So while the unit can put the full 2.4 amps out to each and every socket, it cannot do it to all of them at the same time.  I don’t know why they all do this but in all honesty it doesn’t matter.  Most devices won’t pull 2.4 amp’s anyway so it’s extremely unlikely you will have plugged in 6 devices all at once and they are all capable of pulling 2.4 amp’s.  I mean what are the odds you going to have all 6 ports in use at any one time in the first place? 

Still, using my little volt / amp meter showed they all output 5 volts and the current varied depending on device, though nothing seemed to want to pull more than about 1.8A. 

Temperature

Yeah chargers can get warm, but this stayed pretty cool.  It did get gently warm with a few things charging but never “hot.”  I’m good with that, things that get too hot worry me.  It is also a measure of efficiency, the less efficient the more energy loss to heat takes place. 

Value

Coming in at just £15 for 6 ports, that’s just £2.50 per port.  You wouldn’t get 6 individual charging plugs for that, never mind ones that can do 2.4 amp’s of output too.  It is also a damn sight more neat and tidy than 6 individual plugs would be too, a snip of the size too.  These multi USB socket chargers are something that everyone ought to have at least one of.  This one is as nice as any I’ve seen and it would appear to work nicely with a good level of total power output.  I mean the £15 is probably worth it just for the bonus WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) it gives to your device buying.

Conclusion

So it’s a charger, is it sexy or exciting?   Errrrr no, it’s not.  Nevertheless the world we live in, full of gadgets, mobile gadgets, mobile gadgets with stupid tiny short battery lives.  Thus chargers by the fistful are a life necessity. Okay, “first world problems” but we really do need these.  Get one of these at home, one in the office and you can plug in whatever, whenever.  Additionally, because it take a standard figure 8 input, you can bring just one appropriate cable if you’re traveling abroad.  Its soooooooo much easier to bring one of these than to bring half a dozen singles all running off a plug adapter and then power strip. 

It may not be sexy or glamourous but the iClever 6 port USB charger is a highly practical thing to have around the place, if not a life essential.