Belkin Surge Protector with Two USB Type-C Reviewed
Once again something I’ve received for test has been subsumed into my office, become an essential part of my setup and been forgotten for far, far too long. This time it’s Belkin’s eight socket surge protector, a product that – I’m sure will come as a surprise to precisely nobody – I find extremely useful.
I forgot about this surge protector/wall adapter for eleven months!! Suffice to say it had served me well.
It’s nothing special, with eight sockets tucked close enough together to be – like pretty much every adapter – a problem for the wrong orientation of wall-wart (or DC adapter, if you will). What piqued my interest, however, was the USB Type-C ports. It has two of them. I can never have enough power-only USB Type-C connectors since they’re used to power or charge all manner of devices. I thought these would be great for running a Raspberry Pi or two. Unfortunately I was wrong.
While the USB-C connectors will power a Pi 4 you’ll run into low voltage complaints pretty quickly, and forget running a Pi 5 from them. In addition to this, plugging in the second connector while one is running will cause a momentary loss of power. Yup, if you’re running a little single-board computer solely from USB Type-C power on this adapter, it’ll promptly get browned-out and reboot if you absent mindedly plug your phone in to charge.
Suffice to say these aren’t a reliable source of power for devices that need one, but they are perfectly fine for charging phones. Alas the dream of having a bevvy of plug sockets combined with an integrated, high-current GaN charger remains out of my grasp.
Nonetheless I have used this adapter every day for… uh… ELEVEN MONTHS!?… Okay I don’t think I should have looked that up. Anyway in that time I’ve not had a single other problem with it- fitting sockets next to each other notwithstanding- and the USB Type-C ports have still been useful, even if they weren’t quite what I wanted. I think it being so reliable that I forget about it for eleven months probably counts as a win, right?
If you’re so inclined, you can pick one up directly from Belkin for a hair under £45.