Five inches long, two inches deep and an inch and a half wide, Belkin’s Mini Surge is a useful and versatile portable power strip. It’s just a smidgin too big and heavy for the manbag, however, making it better in the hotel room than the coffee shop.
Readers asked us to check it out after we gave Monster Cable’s Outlets To Go a positive writeup: it’s actually a very different kettle of electrons. Whereas Monster’s item is a sturdy, tiny but otherwise standard power strip, Belkin’s box contains a surge protector and adds two USB power ports. It has three grounded outlets, and can swivel around the prongs to fit in tight spaces, locking at each 90 degree interval.
Sturdy and relatively easy on the eye, the Belkin Mini is $20-ish.
Mini Surge Protector with USB Charger [Belkin]
Update: Monster’s Outlets to Go now has a USB port.
I have had one of these for awhile. I could not use both USB ports to charge my iPhone and blackberry at same time. Had to plug apple charger into power.
Other than that, real high quality.
I bought one of these not too long ago when they went on sale. It’s been great.
Pretty nifty but my MacBook Pro power adapter weighs it down, so it looks a little sloppy… :/
STURDY
US current only – not a solution for the international travelor.