Review: aLLreLi’s four port travel charger

Purchase
  Released by  aLLreLi, I’ve had the pleasure to try out a wall charger of their this week. It’s designed for travellers, as it now only includes several types of attachments for a variety of wall outlets, but they can be swapped out with little difficulty. Frankly, this is the kind of outlet that is useful to have around for the times when travelling, especially internationally.
  The appearance of the unit (as well as the diffent attachments) is entirely black and comprised of plastic, save for the metallic connectors. The connectors are all interoperable, with the charger proper. Any one of them can be snapped into place, and it is locked there until the users depresses a button to release it, at which point  it can easily be removed. While I am unable to test out three of the four attachments as i live in the US, I did try out swapping the different attachments, and it was both simple and reliable. The three other attachments are designed to work in the UK, EU, and AU. On the side that is opposite from where the attachments go, are all the ports that users can attach charging cables. There’s a single Type C port (which I can’t test as I don’t have a compatible devie) that’s colored in black, a pair of Type A connectors that are “smart” chargers that cap out at 2.4 amps that are colored in blue, and a single Quick Charge 3.0 port colored in red; all colores are on the inside of the ports, but are easily visible, and all are stacked vertically.
  In testing its performance, I tried a couple of different combinations. First, I tested both my tablet (NVidia Shield running stock 6.0.1 and 5,200 mAh battery) alone on the standard  (type A, 2.4 amp) USB port, where it went from 46% – 64%, over a twenty minute charge. I then tested my phone (a Nexus 6 running stock 7.0 with a 3,220 mAh battery) went from 60% – 73%, over the same amount of time. On the subsequent evening, I tested out the Quick Charge on my phone. Now the Nexus 6 is running QC 2.0, so bear that in mind that a newer device would likely perform better. By itself, the phone jumped from 27% – 53%. After letting the phone rest for a while, I then loaded  up on the charger with my tablet and smart watch on the Type A ports, and my phone again on the QC port. Giving all three a concurrent, twenty minute charge, I saw similar results. The phone went from 33% – 59%, and the tablet 68% – 81%.
  On the whole, it’s difficult to knock this charger. The ports are colored differently (save for the two that are alike in function as well as color), so users don’t easily get crossed up on which one they’re using. The attachments can be easily swapped out, and locked into place during use; never once did I have reason to think that the attachment would come out when I was pulling the charger out of an outlet. I think if I were to suggest a change to it though, it would be over the arrangement and selection of ports. I really think that Type C will become the standard in the next few years, so my guess is that the demand for Type C ports will increase, thus reducing the long term utility of this charger. It’s not a bad purchase for now, going into the next couple of years, as I’m betting Type A to Type C cables will be all the rage during this transitional period. It’s when I look beyond that, that the utlitiarian value of something like this loses its appeal for me. I may have added a second Type C port, *possibly* at the expense of one of the others. So while i’d give this a 10 for today’s functionality, I’m beggining to give added weight to Type C ports; it’s completely reasonable for anyone (myself included) to expect their next phone to use Type C, and thus keep that in mind as they purchase accessories that will outlast their current handset. So, I’m giving it a 9.5. Those interested in purchasing this charger can use the discount code OT011720. It gives a 20% discount, and is grood through the end of March, GMT time.
Ryan is married with two kids, and loves heavy metal and super hot Buffalo wings

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