原创 Meet my 4-Port beast of a USB charger

And, while we're on the topic (or off-topic, depending on your point of view), two other lines from An Essay on Criticism that almost everyone knows -- although many folks mistakenly attribute them to William Shakespeare -- are: "To err is human, to forgive divine," and "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread," but we digress...

 

This all started when Alan Shen from HisGadget.com emailed me to say that he enjoyed reading my columns; that his company is Amazon's #1 Best-Seller in iClever smart chargers; and that -- using their SmartID technology -- these iClever chargers can recognize the electronics device to which they are connected and use this knowledge to maximize charging efficiency, thereby minimizing the amount of time it takes to charge things. Alan went on to ask if I would care to take a look at some of these little scamps.

 

As fate would have it, Alan's email arrived at a very apposite time because -- only the day before -- I had been bemoaning the amount of time it took to charge my iPad Pro. I don’t know if this is still true, but I remember being told that the batteries in things like iPads can exhibit a sort of "memory" effect that impacts their charging ability -- also, that it's best to let the charge fall to around 10% and to then recharge to 100% in a single sitting. The problem being that it takes about four hours to fully charge my iPad Pro and -- on the day in question -- I wanted to go somewhere and take it with me, at which point time seemed to slow down to a crawl.

 

Thus it was that I said I'd be delighted to look at anything that would charge my iPad faster, and Alan promptly sent me the three iClever BoostCube units shown below:

 

On the left we have a Single-Port Unit; in the middle we have a Dual-Port Beauty; and on the right we have a Quad-Port Beast.

 

To be honest, until I started looking at these iClever devices, I'd sort of vaguely assumed that all USB chargers were pretty much the same. Of course, based on myself, my wife, and my son having numerous electronic products scattered around the house, I was aware that some chargers (like the ones that come with smartphones, for example) are a bit smaller and lower power, while others (like the ones that come with iPad Pros) are a tad heftier and boast a little more "umph," but that was about as far as I'd got.

 

This is where the "Little knowledge..." part comes in. Before I started to play with the iClever devices, I went for a bit of a root around the web. On my travels, I read somewhere that iClever chargers can be used with a plethora of smartphones, tablet, and other devices, including: Kindle(Fire), Apple iPhone 6S 6S Plus, 6 Plus, 6 5S 5C 5 4S, iPad Pro/Mini/Air, Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge S6 S5 S4 S3 Note 4 3 2, Tab, HTC One X V S M9 M8, LG G2, Optimus F3, Nexus 5 6 7 9 10, Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX, Blackberry, external battery packs, Bluetooth Speakers/Headphones, MP3 Players, etc.

 

I also ran across countless claims that these chargers recognize the electronic devices you plug into them and use this information to maximize charging efficiency, thereby charging the device much faster. On the Amazon website, for example, we see statements like "Charges up to 80% in 35 minutes" and "4x faster than a conventional charger," all of which set me quivering with excitement.

 

On the other hand, "I R an Engineer," which typically means I want to test everything for myself. I started off by watching Doctor Who on my iPad Pro until it was down to 9% charge, then charging it to 100% using its regular charger while flicking it on every 10 minutes to check the current charge and log the results.

 

I used the timer on my iPad Air 2 to "ping" me when it was time to check things. It's amazing how quickly 10 minute chunks of time pass by. Since it actually ended up requiring 262 minutes to reach a 100% charge, this meant I was bouncing up and down like a yo-yo. My wife (Gina the Gorgeous) was less than amused by all of this, not the least that -- by some strange quirk of fate -- it seemed like every time she started talking to me about anything I had to absent myself from the room to take a new reading. When Gina discovered that I was going to be repeating this experiment on the iPad Pro using the iClever charger, and then starting all over again with my iPad Air 2, she banned me from doing so while she was in the vicinity.

 

Actually, this all worked out for the best because I ended up bringing everything into work. I found a handy-dandy timer utility at Timer-Tab.com and set this running in a web browser in the corner of one of my screens. This meant I could be happily working away at my desk, and every 10 minutes the timer would remind me to take a new reading. Below we see a couple of the numerous pages of measurements I recorded.

 

First the bad news…
I must admit that, when I originally set out on this quest, I was hoping to discover all sorts of interesting results to report. I'd envisaged being able to present interesting and artfully drawn graphs showing weird and wonderful variations in charging rates over time. I'd also anticipated being able to demonstrate how the iClever chargers dramatically reduced the amount of time it took to return my iPads to a 100% charge.

 

Sad to relate, none of this was to be. First, while using the regular charger on the iPad Pro, the charge rate was a painfully boring an extremely regular ~4% every 10 minutes, resulting in a 9% to 100% charge time of 262 minutes. And then, when I repeated the experiment with the iClever 2-port charger, I saw... pretty much exactly the same thing; that is, an almost unbelievable linear charge rate accompanied by a total 9% to 100% charge time of 255 minutes, which equates to a saving of 7 minutes over 4+ hours. The iPad Air 2 results were pretty much more of the same, except that the total charge time was ~200 minutes.

 

Initially, I must admit to being a tad disappointed, but then I returned to the Internet and rooted around some more. You can only imagine my chagrin to discover that: "iOS does not support the Quick Charge function, so -- when used in conjunction with Apple devices -- iClever chargers will act like conventional chargers." I also discovered that Quick Charge-compatible devices include the following: Samsung Galaxy S6 / S6 Edge / Edge Plus, Note 5 / Note 4 / Edge; Google Nexus 6; Motorola Droid Turbo, Moto X 2014; Sony Xperia Z4 / Z4 Tablet, Z3 / Z3 Compact / Z3 Tablet Compact; LG G5 G4, LG G Flex2, LG V10; LeTV Le MAX Pro; HTC One A9, M9 / M8, HTC Desire Eye, HTC One remix; and the Samsung Fast Charge Qi Wireless Charging Pad.

 

Now the good news…
Well, one item of good news is that -- based on the various review comments I've read -- if you actually own a Quick Charge-compatible device, then these iClever charges will indeed reduce your charging time. Of course, this doesn’t do me any good, but there's more...

 

If you are like me, you will own a plethora of USB-powered devices. In the past, while I've been on the road, I've often been frustrated by having only a single-port USB charger to accompany me. Of course, I could have purchased more chargers, but -- you know how it is -- I simply never seemed to get around to doing this. Also, now that I come to think about it, you are often limited to just a couple of power sockets in your hotel room, and you need at least one for your notepad computer.

 

All of which brings is to the 2-port and 4-part iClever chargers. It turns out that some multi-port chargers on the market supply different amounts of power to each port. In this case, one or more ports may be intended to accommodate lower-power devices like smartphones, while only a subset of ports are capable of driving higher-power products like iPad Pros.

 

We all know how well this is going to work. You return to your hotel room dazed, weary, and confused at the end of a long, hard day, and you set your phone and tablet charging in preparation for the journey home that will commence at the crack of dawn. What are the odds that you are going to forget which port is which and plug the wrong devices into the various ports?

 

Now consider that, in the case of the 2-port and 4-part iClever chargers, each port is capable of driving 5V at 2.4A (yes, of course these little scamps boast international compatibility of 50 to 60 HZ and 100 to 240V, so they'll work around the world).

 

Another small, but useful feature is the LEDs that illuminate each port from the inside. Once again, this is the sort of thing that can be really handy when you wandering around a strange hotel room in the middle of the night. (I should perhaps note that none of these units come with USB cables, but I could care less because I have more USB cables than I know what to do with.)

 

Last but certainly not least, a big selling point for me is the price. The original list price for the 4-port iClever charger shown above was $119.99, which was pretty steep if the truth be told, but I just checked and the current Amazon Prime price is a very reasonable $19.99. Meanwhile, the original list price for the 2-port unit was a not-inconsequential $59.00, but the current Amazon Prime price is only $10.99.

 

The bottom line is that, even though my iPads aren’t capable of taking advantage of the Quick Charge function, having multiple ports is worth its weight in gold. In my case, the 4-port iClever charger is now firmly ensconced in my backpack. I know it sounds silly, but I'll be chortling to myself when I'm happily charging multiple devices in my hotel room.

 

Also (even though we all know that it's not the size of your charger, it's what you do with it that counts), I certainly won’t be ashamed to slap my 4-port behemoth down on the table in the Speaker's Ready Room and then bask in the glow of the surreptitiously admiring glances of my peers.

 

What say you? Are you still living in the past, staring balefully at a single-port USB charger sitting on your desk with your lower lip quivering and a little tear rolling down your cheek? It doesn't have to be this way; you too can proudly "strut your stuff" with a 2-port beauty or -- dare we say it aloud? -- a magnificent 4-port beast!