Mine is the kind of household where, if you’d asked me before Elivebuy reached out to me, I would have told you that we absolutely did not need any more power strips. I was wrong. As a work-from-home father, and a geek with more mobile devices than some electronics stores, my power strips used to be a mess of USB adapters, with three times as many USB cables waiting to be unplugged and switched out when a different product needed charging. Every time a product cropped up that didn’t charge via USB, the problem got even more complex as my number of USB adapters was forced to decrease.
When Elivebuy reached out to me, I immediately noticed their USB-equipped power strip. Now, I’d seen these things before, but never paid enough attention to bother buying one. This time, I decided to take the plunge. About five minutes after rewiring my desk to accommodate the change in power strips, I was glad I had. With 5 USB ports (2 specifically for the higher draw of tablets) I’ve yet to be in situation where enough devices required simultaneous charging to necessitate plugging in even a single USB adapter. For perhaps the first time since I set up a home office, I have open outlets on a power strip.
Aesthetically, the Elivebuy power strip is nothing special. It’s matte black plastic, all writing in a pale grey, with 6 outlets arranged in a layout that is a bit of a double-edged sword depending on the shape of your oversized plugs. Like all power strips, it’s still a game of Tetris to determine how many of the 6 ports will be accessible due to the oversized power plugs that should have died in the ’80s. With built-in USB charging, however, you stand a better chance of not needing all of your outlets.
At $26.99 for the 6-outlet model (either $2 cheaper or more expensive for the 4 or 8 outlet models) on Amazon at the time of writing, this power strip is a good solution for anyone looking to regain some of your power-strip real estate.
