Small and compact, circular and smooth, Vizo has unleashed it’s latest USB hub and it’s freakin cool looking.
If you are like me, you probably have a gazillion things to plug into your computer. Cameras (both digital and camcorder), a PSP (Playstation portable), card reader, Nintendo DS charger (yes, they make those) and whatever other gimmicky thing that comes down the pipe that I get cause I’m addicted to gizmos. It’s a disease, I understand that, but it’s one that my wife has accepted and I have chosen not to fight. So, in order to keep everything plugged in and at the ready, I am reviewing the “UFO” Usb hub by VIZO.
The UFO actually comes in standard bubble casing and does a good job of flying in under the radar. Like a lot of USB hubs, it has a 5 Volt, 1A, AC adapter port (that isn’t included) for increased dedicated power, not that you need it, but it’s nice to see options. It does however come with the USB 2.0 cable for plugging it into your computer, Yay!
OK, enough fluff, let’s talk about why this thing is cool. First and foremost, the shape of the UFO, it’s a circular shape with a cover that spins clockwise to expose the ports (four in total), the round shape eliminates the worry of USB devices interfering with each other.
One thing of note though, I would have thought the folks at VIZO would have placed the AC in and power ports as the first two ports visible when opening the round case. That way you could open the hub up only enough to input the devices you need, and the case would cover any unused ports, thus preventing dust from entering unused ports.
As it is, you must open the hub up all the way in order to plug it into your computer, and by default al four USB ports are exposed. So if you only use two of them, then the other two would catch some dust or other debris that we all hate getting in our stuff. A pretty big design flaw if you ask me.
Fortunately, I do have enough things to plug into my UFO, so I don’t worry about the dust, but still, some folks won’t use all four ports all of the time.
The UFO does have some good things going for it, flaw and all, here are some of the highlights:
- 4 USB 2.0 ports for easy expansion
- Round shape design prevents interference between each device on the hub and cable trouble
- Rotary hub prevents dust
- USB version 1.1/2.0 Specification Compatible
- Support a data transfer rate of up to 480 Mbps
- Support Bus-Power, 4 USB ports up to 500mA
- Support Self-Power (option , 5V/1A Adapter not included)
- Plug & Play with USB Devices
- Hot Swappable
- Over-current detection and protection for individual ports
- LED status Indicators
You see that third one up there? That only applies when the HUB is not in use and unplugged from the computer, only then can it close completely. Now like I said before, I had several high speed items plugged into this HUB all at the same time, nothing bogged down, or cause any sort of problem, so I will say that the HUB can take a heavy workload. Please remember that to have a high speed hub, you must plug it into a high speed port on your computer. Otherwise it will only act as a USB port, and high speed devices will not work.
Lastly, the Hub features two rounded feet on the bottom that slightly elevate the ports when exposed, this allows for an easier grasp of cables that need to be removed from the hub without picking it up completely.
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