REVIEW – My wife and I recently returned from a trip to Europe. We brought along our iPhones, a Kindle Paperwhite, an Apple Watch, and a small curling iron. If you’ve ever traveled internationally, you’ll know that plug types and socket shapes are different around the world, so we brought along a new travel adapter from Arsmel to power our gadgets.
What is it?
The VisaProd is an international travel adapter that can plug into many outlets, accept many plug types, and has four USB ports for charging.
What’s included?
- Arsmel VisaPro Travel Adapter
- USB-C to USB-C cable
- Manual
- Bag
Tech Specs
The adapter has the following specs:
- Size: 3.75 x 2 x 2 inches
- Weight: 9.8 oz
- Material: Gallium nitride (GaN)
- Protocol: PowerDelivery 3.1
- Ports: One USB-A, three USB-C
The output power capacity of the Arsmel VisaPro Travel Adapter is unclear. One webpage says it is 140W, and another says it is 170W.
For our trip, we needed a type G plug for England and Wales and a type F plug for France, and the VisaPro has both of those.
Design and features
The VisaPro makes efficient use of its exterior surfaces. One side has its plugs, another its outlets, another its USB ports, and yet another its selectors. While most travel adapters have a boring all-black look, the VisaPro takes inspiration from anime to cover its surfaces with a mecha look. It feels like it could be a power module pulled from a giant robot.
Assembly, installation, and setup
The Arsmel VisaPro Travel Adapter arrived in a sturdy box with everything packaged carefully inside. No assembly is required to use the adapter. All I need to do is use one of the selectors to pop out the desired plug, plug it into the wall, put a USB cable in one of the ports, and connect it to a gadget. It could not be easier to use.
Before we went overseas, we tested a couple of our gadgets at home to make sure the adapter was working. As both a baseline comparison and an emergency spare, we bought another travel adapter on Amazon, one that consistently shows up in “best travel adapter” articles. Here are the raw numbers that we found:
Arsmel
- iPhone 13 mini 14% to 99% 107 minutes
- iPad (10th gen) 4% to 93% 107 minutes
Epicka
- iPhone 13 mini 11% to 94% 79 minutes
- iPad (10th gen) 11% to 96% 146 minutes
Having verified that everything worked fine, we packed the VisaPro in a suitcase and headed to the airport. We spent the initial part of our vacation in the UK, which uses type G plugs.
We first tested the adapter in a gastropub near Oxford where we spent one night. The outlet was set just above a small table, and I found it interesting that each outlet in the UK has its own switch that turns the outlet on and off. We not only charged our devices, but we plugged in a lamp that was in the room as well (the large black plug).
The VisaPro worked perfectly, powering the lamp and charging our gadgets at the same time.
We then drove to a resort in Wales, where the outlet was set up near a small coffee bar in our room.
Once again, the Arsmel VisaPro Travel Adapter recharged our gadgets without any problems.
Our final stop in the UK was a boutique hotel in London near Hyde Park where the outlet was installed near the floor. The VisaPro again worked flawlessly; I love gadgets that do exactly what they are supposed to do without any fuss.
To be fair to the Arsmel VisaPro Travel Adapter, we underutilized it on our trip. It has at least 140W of power, but our iPhones and Kindle only uses a small portion of that. This travel adapter is really designed for powering a laptop and several gadgets simultaneously. Even my wife’s travel curling iron only drew 30W, which was no problem for the VisaPro.
We took the Eurostar from London to Paris, which uses type F plugs, where we finished our vacation.
We stayed in a boutique hotel in the Latin Quarter, and that’s where we found something unexpected. I don’t know if this is true for all outlets in France, but the ones in our hotel had a deep, round plastic cover as part of the socket; in other words, the outlets were not flush against the wall like they are in the States and in the UK. Both travel adapters were too large and rectangular to fit in the round socket cover.
When I tried to use the Epicka adapter, the plug was too short to reach into the socket. If this were the only adapter we had brought, we would have been in big trouble. We would have been unable to charge our phone, which we absolutely needed to navigate around the rat’s nest of streets in Paris and to find the nearest metro stations! The plugs on the VisaPro, however, were much longer and had no problem connecting to the socket. Arsmel saved the day!
The VisaPro has a fuse, and it also has a spare. The original can easily be popped out of its housing using a small flathead screwdriver. When I attempted to remove the spare, however, the screwdriver tore through the plastic cover instead of opening it. If the fuse pops on this travel adapter, it won’t be possible for me to replace it with the spare. This is obviously a design fail, but thankfully it wasn’t an issue on our trip.
Arsmel has not provided any options for support in the VisaPro manual. Their website has one email address, one labeled for marketing, not support. There are no phone numbers or street addresses. It was unclear to me if I could get help if I had a problem with the VisaPro, so I sent a question to the marketing email. They answered my question within a few hours, and that on a Saturday! Well done, Arsmel. Clearly, I have no reason to be concerned about getting support.
What I like about the Arsmel VisaPro Travel Adapter
- Worked great in England and France
- Plenty of recharging power
- Cool mecha design
What needs to be improved
- Redesign the fuse cover
- State specifications consistently online and in the manuals
Final thoughts
The Arsmel VisaPro is a travel adapter designed to work in a variety of countries, including those in Europe. My wife and I tested it in four different locations in England and France on our vacation, and it worked every time. Recharging our devices, especially the phone that we used to navigate with Google Maps, was an absolute requirement for a successful trip, and the VisaPro never let us down. It charged everything we brought with us, and I am very glad that we had this adapter.
I do have a couple of concerns: I was unable to remove the cover of the spare fuse, and Arsmel has been unable to accurately state the power of their own device. These are issues that Arsmel needs to address, but neither are showstoppers for me. As this gadget worked great on our trip, I recommend it to you. Before buying it, please make sure it supports the countries you will be traveling to.
Price: $69
Where to buy: Arsmel
Source: The sample for this review was provided free of charge by Arsmel. Arsmel did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
