REVIEWED: Powertraveller Spidermonkey 4-port USB Charger Hub
The ideal space-saver for power-users, couples and families on a charge around the globe
Price as reviewed: £40
Always got something to charge? If you, like us, travel with a lot of tech and gadgets, you’ll know that constantly swapping cables and devices between your sole USB wall charger is a pain. It will be overkill for some, but the Powertraveller Spidermonkey 4-port USB Charger Hub makes a convincing attempt to solve that problem.
Great value
Just £40 for this incredibly solid, well made slab of aluminium-grafted tech is fabulous value. Why can’t all gadgets be as brilliantly constructed as the Spidermonkey?
Weighing a reassuringly solid 105g and about the size of a smartphone, the aluminium-covered Spidermonkey has four USB outputs and a mains charger – that’s it.
Works everywhere
That 9V wall charger is equipped for use in the USA and Japan with three adaptors in the box for the UK, Europe/Asia. Happily, all of those adaptors are of super-slim profile and are very lightweight. There’s a lot of thought that’s gone into how the Spidermonkey will be used – and by who.
A green LED beside each USB slot lights-up when it’s busy charging-up something; two are optimised for Apple products and the other two for Samsung and Nokia, though that’s of minor importance.
Micro USB option
The folk behind Spidermonkey knows that most travellers won’t want to take a wall charger on their trip, or could well lose it during a journey. So as well as an 5V charging tip (for another device’s wall charger, or for Powertraveller’s Powergorilla chargers) there’s a micro USB to hook it up to a laptop (which will also sync a smartphone and tablet) or to make use of an existing USB wall charger.
Dream product for travel
It’s all about travelling with as least stuff as possible.The Spidermonkey is made by people who travel – that’s obvious. Hard-wearing, so simple and brilliantly effective, it’s the kind of dream product that TravGear.com was created to sniff out on behalf of the world’s travelling millions. Best buy with a bullet.
Buy the Powertraveller Spidermonkey 4-port USB Charger Hub