HB4002G USB 3.0 Hub

2 MacBooks provide a paltry duo of USB ports. This portable hub turns one port into four. It features a short but (5mm) thick integrated cable. It’s bus-powered, and lacks a port for a mains power adapter, or a Y cable to pinch it from a second port – its extra plug is a micro USB adapter for tablets. However, the hub passed through a built-in port’s 900mA. Naturally, devices contend for bandwidth but, depending on simultaneous demands, fast ones such as the SSD we review on page 84 can still reach their peak transfer rates. Alan Stonebridge

This is a convenient portable hub, but it lacks the ability to provide more power to several demanding devices.