User review: 1byone SuperSpeed Aluminum USB 3.0 4-Port Hub
The following review is by Daniel Smith who was a winner in the “get a prize and a job” contest a bit back” – you can check out his blog here.
Physical overview
Visually this hub has a basic design with a few unique twists we have a cylindrical aluminum body and a section intended for a velcro strip although this is narrower than i’ve seen on other hubs it’s enough to be secure when installing/removing devices The choice to place ports on opposing sides is interesting but ultimately will be based on user preference, it allows more clearance between ports but also can depending on placement allow ports to be blocked.
The status LED is small and unobtrusive although I would have prefered it be flush as opposed to recessed as that would have presented a more premium appearance.
Additionally the cable is not detachable something I find rather limiting with towers usually under desks the option to use a longer cable is generally appreciated, that being said this cable is long enough at 15” to not be too restrictive when used with a laptop or on top of a case/next to a small tower.
Performance wise the hub can feed a single port with nearly transparent speeds I used an 840 pro in a usb3 enclosure as a target device and saw performance within 2% across multiple test sizes for sequential data, Random data followed a similar pattern but does not reach the interface limit and therefore is less interesting.
When attaching multiple devices(3 flash drives and a wireless adapter for a mouse) I had little trouble with power thanks to the added power of usb3 but as with any hub more demanding devices such as hard drives have the potential to cause problem in this scenario as the hub is unpowered.
At the items list price ($26.99) its premium appearance and adequate performance make it an attractive item for anyone looking to match the aesthetics of a current generation apple device or any of the current ultrabooks that have followed a similar design language however the item is available on Amazon for 12.99 currently at which I can find no fault with it other than the offering of a single color, I would love to see black at minimum offered as it matches a large quantity of business systems and with the ease of anodizing aluminum more colors are always appreciated.
The item is available for purchase on Amazon currently.
