This review is for BESTEK USB Wall Charging Station which will not show as "Amazon verified purchase" as my coworker got this for me. That said, he always had this issue of running out of wall sockets for his plethora of gadgets that he has which includes various tablets PCs, Cellphones, iPod's, Bluetooth headsets, Hands-free car speakerphone just to name a few. He requested me to come up with a solution for him wherein he could forget all those unique chargers that comes with his gadgets and just use one for charging. I told him - oh Yeah! I can build one for you but it will look like a Frankenstein monster with tentacles not to mention shock and fire hazard that comes along with a version 1 of a "home-brew" project.
Having said, I started researching products that is already out there on the market and this one from BESTEK stood out in the crowd. Why? because it seemed perfectly engineered for this specific charging purposes that I had in my mind for my coworker for all those USB based gadgets out there and also because there is so many positive reviews on it on Amazon that prompted me to give this one a try before I start to build my Frankenstein monster for him.
When I suggested him to buy this gizmo first and give it a try. He placed order for two of these units and to both our expectations it sure seems a pretty good contraption for charging those plethora of gadgets that we both have (albeit only to some extent read below) but at the same time there are some annoyances too for me to report in this review.
Observations:
As you may notice. There are total of six 110v A/C outlets on this unit to begin with which itself is a big plus as this device will take up two wall sockets to install reliably and in-turn give 6 outlets which I consider a good thing as it is not eating up valuable wall sockets.
Next it has four illuminated USB ports two marked as 1A and the other two 2.1A. I attempted plugging in all the devices that we have and found it works for most USB based gadgets that needs charging. But to our dismay the Samsung Galaxy tablet 10.1 failed to charge on the 2.1A USB port.
Samsung Galaxy tablet (running Android 3.2 OS) recognized it as a "MTP device" and started scanning for media??? - This seemed very strange as it did not charge the device and there was a X on the battery charging icon. Shutting down the Galaxy tablet and plugging into this charger again does make you feel that it is charging it as the Battery charging Logo comes on the tablet but I do not think proper handshake takes place for charging the battery as it sits there with the Battery logo but never really seem to charge it.
Annoyances:
IMHO, The BESTEK logo design seems to have gotten utmost importance by the manufacturer in the product as it shines bright blue and is a major annoyance of this product. One could put a black electrical tape around it but it would not be aesthetically pleasing. So I opened the unit to see if I can disable those lights internally. BTW, for electronically inclined readers of this review there are about QTY 5 of bright surface mount LEDs on the circuit board inside that is intended to light up the BESTEK logo which seemed like an overkill. I did manage to disable them permanently by de-soldering them off the circuit board and also put a black electrical tape to the underside of the BESTEK logo so that it does not stand out staring at you.
Other notes:
When I opened unit to get rid of the BESTEK Logo LEDs I noticed that The A/C outlets are merely connected together in parallel as it it were some sort of extension cord. This clearly tells me not to consider this being a surge protected type of AC socket as I did not find anything in-terms of coils or RF suppressors in that circuit at all.
The charger circuit itself is a "beefier" Switch mode power-supply and share the four USB ports out of one 5V 5.2A DC power source but there are some current limiting circuits to provide adequate voltage and current to the USB ports and iPod connector.
Bottom-line:
For the price you do get a decent quality charger for most of your USB based devices and the charging current of 2.1A based USB ports does help in charging those power hungry gadgets reasonably faster in a clutter free environment.
But the main drawback of this product is that the LOGO which IMHO is too bright and not to mention certain devices like Samsung Galaxy tab 10.1 (Possibly others) that does not seem to charge properly.
With all that said, for this review this product gets three stars from me! - OK product.
Happy Charging!
Having said, I started researching products that is already out there on the market and this one from BESTEK stood out in the crowd. Why? because it seemed perfectly engineered for this specific charging purposes that I had in my mind for my coworker for all those USB based gadgets out there and also because there is so many positive reviews on it on Amazon that prompted me to give this one a try before I start to build my Frankenstein monster for him.
When I suggested him to buy this gizmo first and give it a try. He placed order for two of these units and to both our expectations it sure seems a pretty good contraption for charging those plethora of gadgets that we both have (albeit only to some extent read below) but at the same time there are some annoyances too for me to report in this review.
Observations:
As you may notice. There are total of six 110v A/C outlets on this unit to begin with which itself is a big plus as this device will take up two wall sockets to install reliably and in-turn give 6 outlets which I consider a good thing as it is not eating up valuable wall sockets.
Next it has four illuminated USB ports two marked as 1A and the other two 2.1A. I attempted plugging in all the devices that we have and found it works for most USB based gadgets that needs charging. But to our dismay the Samsung Galaxy tablet 10.1 failed to charge on the 2.1A USB port.
Samsung Galaxy tablet (running Android 3.2 OS) recognized it as a "MTP device" and started scanning for media??? - This seemed very strange as it did not charge the device and there was a X on the battery charging icon. Shutting down the Galaxy tablet and plugging into this charger again does make you feel that it is charging it as the Battery charging Logo comes on the tablet but I do not think proper handshake takes place for charging the battery as it sits there with the Battery logo but never really seem to charge it.
Annoyances:
IMHO, The BESTEK logo design seems to have gotten utmost importance by the manufacturer in the product as it shines bright blue and is a major annoyance of this product. One could put a black electrical tape around it but it would not be aesthetically pleasing. So I opened the unit to see if I can disable those lights internally. BTW, for electronically inclined readers of this review there are about QTY 5 of bright surface mount LEDs on the circuit board inside that is intended to light up the BESTEK logo which seemed like an overkill. I did manage to disable them permanently by de-soldering them off the circuit board and also put a black electrical tape to the underside of the BESTEK logo so that it does not stand out staring at you.
Other notes:
When I opened unit to get rid of the BESTEK Logo LEDs I noticed that The A/C outlets are merely connected together in parallel as it it were some sort of extension cord. This clearly tells me not to consider this being a surge protected type of AC socket as I did not find anything in-terms of coils or RF suppressors in that circuit at all.
The charger circuit itself is a "beefier" Switch mode power-supply and share the four USB ports out of one 5V 5.2A DC power source but there are some current limiting circuits to provide adequate voltage and current to the USB ports and iPod connector.
Bottom-line:
For the price you do get a decent quality charger for most of your USB based devices and the charging current of 2.1A based USB ports does help in charging those power hungry gadgets reasonably faster in a clutter free environment.
But the main drawback of this product is that the LOGO which IMHO is too bright and not to mention certain devices like Samsung Galaxy tab 10.1 (Possibly others) that does not seem to charge properly.
With all that said, for this review this product gets three stars from me! - OK product.
Happy Charging!
You can buy this from Amazon by using the link below:
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