iClever Super Speed Aluminum 7-port USB 3.0 Hub
In my opinion there is no such thing as too many USB ports. I use multiple peripherals, and like being able to plug them in at will without clogging up too much of my computer’s precious real estate. A 7-port hub as this one would be ideal for my purposes, but I have also discovered that it has several restrictions.
As a dedicated USB 3.0 hub it works great. It has enough ports, and all of them depend on external power. The file transfer speed was quite noticeably faster than for my USB 2.0 devices, but I didn’t really clock it so I can’t give you a precise measurement of it. One thing you need to keep in mind about all USB ports and hubs is that the data transfer speeds are shared across all of the attached devices, so mode devices you attach, the slower the transfer speeds will be. Thus, a 7-port hub can really make each one of the individual ports really slow if all of them are used simultaneously. The only major shortcoming of this hub, though, is the required use of the power supply – it adds more cable clutter to the desk (something I was trying to avoid) and the power supply “brick” covers too much of the precious real estate on my power strip.
The hub is, as advertised, also backward compatible with the USB 2.0 standard, but here in particular I wish that I didn’t need the external power supply.
The hub can also double as a stand-alone charger for multiple USB-chargeable small electronic devices.
The hub is well built, and looks and feels solid. It is solid black, and it looks good on my office desk. I wish there were a silver colored option as well, as it would go well with my Apple work environment.
Conclusion
If you have multiple USB 3.0 devices and peripherals, then this hub would be a great way of consolidating them and connecting them all to the computer. However, for less peripheral-intense users the hub doesn’t deliver as much of a value.
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