Belkin USB 2.0 4-Port Ultra-Mini Hub
by Belkin Components
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List Price: Our Price: $4.66 You Save: $10.33 (69%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Belkin USB 2.0 4-Port Ultra-Mini Hub
Customer Review: Awkward shape
Summary: 3 Stars
It looks sleek in the picture, but it is rather inconvenient in practical use. As other reviewers have noted, the four ports being at opposite ends of the device mean that it is nearly impossible to organize your cables all in a row. One or two cables have to be sticking out in an odd direction.
Consider the layout of your USB devices before purchasing this. If you can picture cables coming in from four directions, then this hub should be nearly perfect. If you want everything going out the back of your workstation, then this hub will only get in the way. The cable that connects the hub to the computer is depressingly short as well, which increases the hindrance that the shape of the hub makes.
It cannot receive external power, but its speed otherwise is good. Ignoring physical design, the device performs well digitally.
Customer Review: This thing does more....
Summary: 5 Stars
I usually don't write reviews, but this one is the exception.
I travel quite a bit and have multiple USB devices with me. My laptop only has 3 USB ports, one of which is constantly being used by my wireless mouse.
Anyway, this this is pretty small and really easy to carry around. It does it's job and does it well, a 4-port usb hub.
BUT WAIT...THERE'S MORE...
The last night of my business trip, I had to charge a hand full of things but only had one charger. Luckily, the charger I had was a USB port charger. Thought to myself, I wonder if this thing can charge all 3 things at once? Hummmm. Low and behold, it did. Plugged the hub into the charger, then plugged in all 3 of my devices (phone, bluetooth, external battery). Not only do you get the convenience of a mini USB hub, you also get a USB charger splitter thingy.
Customer Review: Belkin USB 2.0 4-Port Ultra Mini Hub F5U407
Summary: 4 Stars
Small.
Works, as a Hub if you need 3 more USB ports.
Power is drawn from the USB port the 4-port Hub is connected to, which means no external power source is needed.
But be aware, if any one or more of the the USB device(s) connected via the four ports draw more than the USB port the Hub is connected to can supply, you'll have a problem with the connection.
Best test this by connecting one port, then the next, etc, up to the four ports. I connected a mouse, then a micro-keyboard, then a CD ROM reader, and finally a WD MyPassport 250GBytes external memory. All connected devices worked, except the WD memory had to be re-initialized a couple of times to read, so this connection represents a marginal power setup. I disconnected the WD and connected a 1GB flash memory stick, which worked great.
Customer Review: Simple and Effective
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought 4 of these Belkin Mini Hubs from one of Amazon's partner retailers for business and personal use. One of the four units did not work when received and was promptly replaced by the retailer. All of the other units have been working fine since I bought them 6 months ago. I have been able to get various hardware devices such as external USB hard drives, keyboards, jump drives, printers and cameras recognized by Vista and XP on every computer boot up, with no problems. Getting computer products that work is great! I have one caveat on my purchase which is to make sure that you put the items in your shopping cart and check out the shipping and handling charges because some of Amazon's retailers gouge customers on S and H. After searching for a while, I was able to find an Amazon partner who was reasonable in its S and H charges.Customer Review: Great way to extend existing powered hub
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought two of these to replace some older USB 1 hubs. I would definitely buy these again - they are cheap, work well and don't take up a lot of space.
I have them attached to another (i-rocks brand) powered USB hub, and all of the ports are in use on all three hubs. Mostly I have just cables coming out of the Belkin hubs, where I attach cameras, phones, mp3 players as needed, but there are a few devices that are constantly connected and drawing power (microphone & mouse I think).
I think the above is probably the ideal configuration and usage for these hubs. The connector cables are very short, so you almost have to daisy-chain them off of another hub or each other. My recommendation is that you have another primary (powered) hub, and just use these to extend the number of devices you can connect.