Here’s a great little travel gadget from Belkin. You always use a surge protector with your laptop at home, so you should use one when you travel. Most surge protector strips are too big to fit easily in your laptop bag, but the Mini Surge Protector with USB Charger fits in with room to spare. It has three standard power outlets and 2 USB power outlets – all surge protected. (The USB outlets are for power only; they cannot be used as a hub or for data transmission.) The power plug rotates 360 degrees, with 4 locking positions, so you can fit it on any outlet. It comes with 1 mini USB cable. It also comes with a lifetime product and $75,000 connected equipment warranties. You can purchase the Mini Surge Protector with USB Charger at Belkin for about $25 or at Amazon at a discount.
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This item is often on sale through various retailers. Dell.com and ncix.com amongst them: I have 2 of these, paid $10 each.
I own this product and it is well made and I appreciate it. I use the USB ports for iPhone and headset charging. However, I’ll have to point out it is very, very large, and I never take it along when I am traveling because of its size and weight.
When I travel, I usually forgo surge suppression and just use a $3 2-prong outlet replicator, and a couple iPhone tiny USB chargers; much smaller.
It IS a little kludgy for the gear bag. If the prongs folded, it would be more compact. We really do need a good travel/gear bag power cord option, don’t we?
I bought this, but gave it away to a friend and instead got an alternative because while its for “traveling” its useless for two reasons:
1) Non-folding prongs
2) Only 110 Voltage!!
Instead, I picked up this Monster Outlets to Go 3 Laptop for less than $20… http://tinyurl.com/4vm3ut5 – it folds up, has 3 outlets and 2 USB, and handles 240 voltage.
I have been using one of these for two years and it is the best that I could find. I agree with Nilay that the non-folding prongs and the 110V can be an issue, but everyone has a international voltage kit when traveling. This is a must have for those that frequent airports as the airports don’t have enough power plugs to charge my gadgets….Which ever one you buy enjoy it!
It is big, and the prongs don’t fold.
Have 2 of these for about 2 years and use them at home instead of traveling due to size. Well made, better to add additional outlets and USB to a home outlet.
For home, I got a few of the USB outlets installed from FastMac:
http://fastmac.com/usocket.php