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. The only shortcoming 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 comes in two colors – black and silver – and which one you choose will probably depend on your overall workspace decor. The silver one goes really well with my all-Mac 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.