PowerCube Extended USB review: Quirky and efficient, but no surge protection

June 11, 2014

Few things are more irksome than a poorly designed power strip. So I was intrigued when Allocacoc pitched me on their PowerCube line of power outlets. If you’re like me, you probably have as many devices—smartphone, tablet, media player, and so on—that rely on USB cables for charging as you do hardware that needs an AC power cable. So I’ll cover four of Allocacoc's products here, but the rating above is specifically for the $25 PowerCube Extended USB.The first thing you’ll want to know about the entire PowerCube line is that they don’t offer any power conditioning or surge suppression; these devices are designed primarily for convenience. They are, however, equipped with a resettable fuse, so they should provide at least some protection to the devices you plug into them. But unlike Tripp-Lite and some other companies that manufacture true surge suppressors, Allocacoc doesn’t provide insurance to cover your devices should their product fail to protect them from AC power transients.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2361841/powercube-extended-usb-review-quirky-and-efficient-but-no-surge-protection.html#tk.rss_reviews