By Alan J. Pierce EdD
pierceaj@techtoday.us
Overall Rating
Copyright © 1996 - 2019 Dr. Alan J. Pierce
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A Review of the MyCharge HubMax Universal (MSRP $99.99)
When MyCharge created the HubMax series of chargers a number of years ago they called their design the “Swiss Army Knife of Portable Chargers”. This descriptive name came from the fact that this line of their chargers has pop out prongs so you can plug them into a regular electrical outlet for recharging.
In another first, MyCharge indicates that they are the first company to produce a charger with an integrated USB-C cable. This makes it possible for the HubMax Universal to charge the newest phones and tablets using the newest USB standard that can transfer more power through a USB-C cable than the older USB-micro technology. The Universal also has an integrated Apple® Lightning™ cable for your iPhone and a built-in USB-A port that can support everything else that you might want to charge by using your own charging cables.
HubMax Universal has a lot of power (10050mAh) in a reasonably small package (size - 4 5/8 X 2 7/8 X 7/8 and weight - 9 oz). Battery power is measured in milli-ampere hours (mAh). The mAh number of a portable battery tells you how much electricity the battery can deliver before it will need to be recharged. The larger this number, the more electricity a battery has to recharge your devices.
Pros
The best features of the HubMax Universal is the amount of electricity that it holds and how fast it can recharge your tech if you are plugging into its integrate USB-C cable. I also loved the fact that it can be plugged into a standard electrical outlet for charging. I put it through its paces on a recent trip to the British Isles and even though I was constantly maxing the power output of my Samsung Note 8 to shoot photos and videos I was able to keep it and my wife’s iPhone powered up during our day trips off the ship. Obviously I didn’t only bring this charger with us but since it was the one that still needed to be reviewed the other two that I took remained on standby and I never needed to use them. The most interesting fact was when we returned to the ship, after a day of sightseeing, and I plugged in the HubMax Universal for recharging two out of the 4 charging lights on the charger were, on most days, still green indicating that it had power to spare.
Cons
The integrated charging cables are very short and when using it with a large smartphone it is not really possible to hold them together comfortably while using the phone. When out and about in the British Isles sightseeing I found it necessary to use its USB-A port with my own charging cables so when our phones needed a power boost the battery could sit in a pocket tethered to one of our phone’s while we shot photos and videos.
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