Platinum Range : Traveller Slimline USB 2.0 Hub product reviews

I have often wanted a good high-speed hub. After all, what is the point of a laptop with the abilty to move 480Mbps if you are bottle-necking it through a 12Mbps hub?
After seeing the Belkin 7-port hub I thought that would suit me, but after a bit of thought I realised it was a bit overkill. After all, I only have a mouse, a scanner and occasionally an ethernet network adaptor to attach. Even if I slapped in a nice webcam like the one I saw here I would still only need 4 ports. If you compare the prices, a 7-port hub at $100 = $14.29 per port, but $55 for a 4-port = $13.75 per port... that makes this a far better deal to me.
So, after a quick install (plug it in and let Windows do it's thing) I started attaching devices. The speed increase for the scanner was by far the most noticable, since that pushes the most data in any single session. Even accounting for the fact the scanner was only USB 1.1, there was a definite speed boost, since I don't think my previous little unpowered 2-port hub ever reached top speed. The mouse is hard to assess, but it just seemed to run a little smoother and be a bit more responsive to sudden changes in direction. So to really test it, I plugged in the network adaptor. With it's specs, it should have easily gobbled up the extra bandwidth allowed - and it sure did. I was able to shove some DVD ISO's from my home network to the laptop in a fraction of the time.
Add to that the 'looks cool' aspect lent to it by the aluminium case and the nice tidy compact nature of the unit, this is a hit winner with me. I think I should explore the webcam options now. Only thing is, with this unit's requirement for a power supply, it's not always practical for the on-the-go user. It really is best suited to a desktop location. For a more portable unit, perhaps the flip-top slimline unit is a more appropriate choice.