It's a great device. I got it off a friend, who had no use for it, but it's a perfect fit for my Lenovo Yoga Tablet. The tablet only comes with one micro USB entrance, however with this hub, a mouse can now be connected, converting a mere tablet with keyboard into a the worlds best little travelling laptop, plus it enables you to load an unload tons of data in an easy manner. (see article below)
Hopefully, this device will endure and stand the test of time, but from the initial usage I can say that the USB and SD hub works perfectly.
Here was a helpful review from Bill L.:
It reads most common media including SD/MicroSD and Sony Memory Stick. It correctly handles both Fat32 and exFAT formatted cards. This is not as simple as it sounds since many of the usb card readers do not necessarily support or correctly identify exFAT formatted devices, and end up reporting them to systems as unformatted 32 GB cards when they are actually 64 or 128 GB cards that have been high density formatted with exFAT.
This is a powered hub, and it takes power from a standard usb charger instead of a traditional wall brick. That means that you can power the hub from any usb charging source including a usb charger that supports standard usb 2.0 connection in a cigarette lighter in a vehicle. This makes the device a powered hub that is truly mobile. It works unpowered as well, so it works anywhere there is no power as well as it works anywhere that there is power. In unpowered mode, it suffers from the same issues that are present in any unpowered hub. Extremely intense power drainers like usb pocket hard drives do not always register properly. When powered, they do register correctly though, which should actually be expected behavior from devices of that type.
I have tried over a dozen usb devices plugged into it including externally powered hard drives, pocket hard drives, flash drives, unifying mouse/keyboard adapters, N300 network adapters, usb connectable floppy disks, usb connectable DVD drives, and usb 10/100 network adapters, and it properly reports all of them to Windows. Some of that is not supported on smartphones, so I did not even bother testing them with a smartphone. Let's remember, though, that this device is billed specifically for use with smartphones and android tablets. The manufacturer probably needs to alter the description on the device because it works even better as a hub to connect to Windows tablets that support OTG ports than it does to connect to Android devices.
It works really well with my Cyanogen modded Samsung S III Mini. That point is covered in the description for the device, but does need to be emphasized. Your phone needs to be modded to work with most devices of this type if it is not running at least 4.3 Android, or is older than maybe 18 months. The various things that this device supports, and the tech it represents, were just not supported on older devices and versions of Android. It should work out of the box on unmodded S 4 and Tab 3 generation devices, everything else is speculative. You have to unlock and root a device to mod it, so doing that is a first step.
If you do not feel comfortable unlocking and rooting your device, you are going to want to take it to a professional because there is a real concern that you could brick your device if you do not have the necessary experience. I firmly believe that every Android device should be unlocked and rooted. Otherwise, you are a hostage to your manufacturer and carrier, and subject to their discretion as to what Android operating systems may eventually be downloadable to the device. Unlocked and rooted does not mean you have to mod, but it is nice to have the option of going to the newest version of Android whenever you want to, and support things that the base versions of Android may not support unrooted.
The one thing that the hub does not do, but could maybe be adapted to do in future manufacturing revisions is to provide power to charge the tablet or phone. However, as with the adapter cables that are designed to perform that function, I am guessing that if there were a lot of devices plugged into the hub, and taking power over usb, that the hub would end up with no power left over to trickle charge the tablet or smartphone, and that is maybe why it is not a feature in this hub. Still, the tech exists, and would be a nice addition to the device.
No comments:
Post a Comment