The Accell Electrical power Dot can take some style and design cues from the company’s earlier Poweramid surge protector (now avenue priced at $20), provides a USB-C charging port, and scoops out its middle to make a recessed hollow for a good speaker. On the downside, it has two fewer outlets than the Poweramid and expenditures two times as significantly.
Offering four outlets in an 8-inch footprint as a substitute of the Poweramid’s six allowed the Energy Dot’s designers to place the shops further apart. With about 1.75 inches among just about every of them, you will have no challenge plugging in outsized wall warts. I was able to plug the a few-inch-vast, right-angled AC adapter for a 10-inch Lenovo Intelligent Show into any of the 4 shops without having blocking any other outlet or the two sets of USB charging ports.
This evaluate is section of TechHive’s coverage of the best surge protectors, the place you are going to obtain reviews of competing items, moreover a buyer’s manual to the features you ought to contemplate when buying.
Eliminating a 5-inch plastic plate from the center of the Energy Dot exposes a recessed cavity developed to accommodate a spherical sensible speaker this kind of as an Amazon Echo Dot or a Google Nest Mini. You may believe the detachable plate is a squander of plastic, but (as I uncovered) it helps make the fantastic system to host an Echo Place intelligent screen. If you do not have a good speaker, you could use that cup to wrangle paperclips, spare improve, or other tiny objects. Resist the temptation to use that hollow as a drink coaster, while you would not want to spill liquid into those people retailers.
The spherical form component and the broadly spaced shops permit the Accell Electric power Dot to accommodate even oversized AC adapters without blocking adjacent retailers.
The AC shops are angled up in their default situation, generating it less complicated to plug electric power adapters into them, but they also pivot down to a 90-diploma angle if you discover that would make it less complicated to plug in frequent electrical power cords. Unfortunately, the Electrical power Dot’s pivoting outlets are not all that practical, and it normally takes a large amount of effort to transfer them to boot. If that style and design attribute is dependable for making the Electric power Dot so costly, it was a blunder.
The Energy Dot offers 1,080 joules of protection throughout its 4 stores, with 400 volts of utmost clamping voltage on just about every leg (line-neutral, line-ground, and floor-neutral). A “protection” LED will glow until finally the unit’s MOVs have burned out, but the LED’s location earlier mentioned the on/off swap and beneath the best area would make it difficult to see.
Michael Brown / IDGThe Energy Dot’s 4 shops pivot, but it usually takes a lot of pressure to transfer them.
The posture of the LED is specifically problematic if you arrange the Energy Dot so that its 8-foot electricity twine goes straight to the back of your desk, as that places the swap on the proper-hand aspect and out of your line of sight. (Must you come across that twine also small, there’s an additional product with a 16-foot electricity cord that’s priced at $60.) The LED was rough to spot even when I arranged the unit so the swap was going through me—at the very least when I was standing (given that I’ve started utilizing an Evodesk XE Pro sit/stand desk, I hardly ever sit when working). The indicator LED was a very little far more seen when I was seated.
USB charging ports
Michael Brown / IDGThough Accell says its Electricity Dot doesn’t guidance the USB Energy Delivery common, it did demonstrate capable of speedily charging my Pixel 2 XL when I plugged it in to its USB-C port.
On the top surface of the Electric power Dot and flanking the on/off change are a total of four USB charging ports, which share 5 volts, 4.8 amps and 24 watts. On the still left facet of the switch, you will find one USB-C port that delivers a most of 5 volts, 3 amps, and 15 watts.
The 1st of 3 USB Variety-A ports sits beneath the USB-C port, with the other two positioned on the proper-hand aspect of the ability change. All a few of the USB-A ports can supply up to 5 volts, 2.4 amps, and 12 watts. If a gadget plugged into the USB-C port is pulling the most of 3 amps, the three USB-A ports will have to divvy up the remaining 1.8 amps and vice versa. As Obtain discussed the prioritization: “The hungrier the system, the additional ability it will get.”
All four ports are sufficiently spaced to accommodate oversized plugs. Accell says the Power Dot’s USB-C port does not assistance the USB Electricity Delivery regular, but my Pixel 2 XL nonetheless noted that it was charging fast when I plugged it in (the app Ampere claimed the telephone as drawing a least of 780mA and a greatest of 1,040mA).
Verdict
You will come upon loads of significantly less-expensive surge protectors that can accommodate a ton extra devices when you go procuring, but the Electricity Dot’s round form factor and its skill to host a small intelligent speaker do render it special in a sea of longitudinal electrical power strips. Irrespective of whether that would make it worthy of an additional 10-place for 50 % the shops you will get with its additional common rivals is up to you.