BESTEK 8-Outlet Power Strip and 40W 6-Port Smart USB Charger Reivew
It’s been a little while since we looked at a desk style charger. Bestek recently reached out and asked us to look at one that takes deskside charging to a new level. Not content to just glue a few usb chargers together, or slap one on the end of a powerstrip Bestek has sent us one of the most interesting chargers we’ve seen to date.
Unboxing and quick tour
Packaged in a well labeled but simple box you can quickly see most of the relevant product information. This includes a US phone number(A rarity for foreign sellers). Unfortunately some of this is poorly translated with “photosensitive induction” appearing to point to the indicator lights. Fortunately their actual functions appear well documented. Coming from regular beige 4-8 outlet strips without usb power to the Bestek strip was a bit jarring aesthetically. When placed on a desk those jarring aesthetics however all work to it’s advantage. The orientation and spacing on the power ports allows the use of all 8 even with the largest adapters. The platform provided by the top is a convenient spot for a tablet or phone that’s in the process of charging.
Surge Protection
The power strip is arranged into two independently switched sets of 4 outlets. These outlet sets are all behind a single circuit breaker. A rating of 1500 joules is considered high enough for typical office equipment. However this would be a touch low for a server(please don’t use regular power strips for servers). That 1500 joule rating is in line with most smaller strips. It won’t protect equipment from a direct lighting strike but is good enough for most other things. The entire unit is rated for a 15AMP/1875W load. Although that might sound low, here in the US it’s typically just below what your circuit breaker is rated for. I was able to trip it by applying an estimated 2kw load to it without any ill effect. One nice feature here is an indicator for ungrounded or improperly grounded outlets.
Usb Charging
Equipped with 6 USB ports I found it a welcome addition to my desk at work. At any given time I might have two tablets, two phone, headphones, and my watch demanding charge at the same time. The charger was able to deliver a peak 40w as promised although that required some of the ports dialing back from their full 2.4 amp potential as that would require a peak of 14.4 amps(72w) almost twice the rating.
Closing thoughts
Overall I’m quite impressed with the utility of this little box. Coming into this I expected to walk away thinking this was a silly combination or that the size would do it more harm than good. However neither of those was the case, the size allowed more flexibilty(and actually returned me some desk space) and the usb charger is more than capable of keeping up with the devices I’ve thrown at it. Anyone working in a field where they routelny handle multimple small devices, or needing a way to handle large AC adapters should consider this particlar unit. At 39.99 either in black or the tested blue this isn’t the absolute cheapest solution however it is one that makes few if any comprimises.
