Any port in a storm.
This is a review of a small black box with holes in it. It won't be sexy, as this thing doesn't fly, can't vacuum your home, and does not respond to voice commands. However, as we found, you will come to love it, especially if you use a modern laptop with bugger all USB ports on it. We check out the Lindy 7 Port USB 3.1 Hub.
This hub from Lindy, whose headphones have appeared on this site many times previously, has been designed not only to give you more flexibility in terms of USB connectivity to your computer, but also new charging possibilities. That is because as well as the ports all being super-fast USB 3.1, they can each provide a charge of 5V.
If you use a small, slim, modern laptop, you might have noticed the number of available USB ports is pretty low. We know this all too well, and in fact this review is being written on a laptop with only two. However, right now, those two ports are used; one for the wireless mouse dongle, and the other for the external keyboard dongle. If we ever need to plug in a flash drive, or charge a phone, we need to sacrifice one of those dongles.
So, you simply plug the USB 3.1 wire into your laptop, whack the other end into the Lindy 7 Port USB 3.1 Hub, then connect the wall socket adaptor. Immediately you'll get seven full-sized, super-fast, USB ports ready to serve you. However, because you actually need to plug the hub into a power socket, this isn't a mobile device. What it is, is a solution to home-based computing; one that frees you up to get the smallest, thinnest laptop you can buy.
So although it is bloody handy for the likes of editing footage on a laptop, letting you plug in cameras, hard drives, and microphones microphones, we also enjoyed suddenly having seven available ports for charging all those devices. If you have a lot of kit laying around that is always running flat, as we do, this is great.
So it won't win any beauty contests, and you might just want to skip by this review to read about something more interesting, but the Lindy 7 Port USB 3.1 Hub is one of those gadgets that once you have it, you can't live without it.
£50
Available from www.amazon.co.uk