We’ve all been there: sitting in a hotel with an iPod or smartphone on its last leg, but without the laptop needed to charge the dying battery. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve personally been forced to power-down an iPod until I could get back to the juice-providing safety of a USB port. Or the number of days at E3 this year when the tweets and photos killed my Android’s battery with such efficiency that I had to turn off the device mid-afternoon just to call home later in the day.
Short of working magic and transferring power through the air, Aluratek has created the next best thing for people who find themselves in just that situation: a dual USB charging station that plugs into a standard outlet, while doubling as a three-outlet power strip, while providing surge protection up to 612 Joules.
The Aluratek mini surge dual USB charging station is pretty straightforward, both because it does what it says and it functions simply. The device isn’t tiny, measuring 1-3/8” thick by 4.25” tall by 2-1/8” wide. In other words, it’s one-third skinnier than an iPod Touch but four times as thick. But what it’s lacking in sleekness it makes up for in industrial design.
Standard charging cords generally have such thick heads that they take up more than one slot on a power bar. The Aluratek mini surge dual USB charging station, however, takes up only one plug even though it offers three outlets and two USB charging ports. It achieves this through its rounded top and a grounded plug that folds in and out of the device like a cell-phone charger. From a practical standpoint this doesn’t mean much, because size doesn’t affect charging potential. But if you’re ever in a bind for additional outlets and have this device handy, it’s nice to have the one-outlet sizing feature.
As far as its actual functionality, the mini surge dual USB charging station charges iPods and smartphones perfectly well, and since the power comes from a wall, charging two devices via the USB ports doesn’t “drain” anything. If you’re looking for a reliable charging device for times when you’re sans laptop, or just a nice charging device in general, the Aluratek mini surge dual USB charging station is worth your time and money. You can check its pricing from Amazon by clicking this link: Aluratek Mini Surge Dual USB Charging Station
– Jonas Allen