In this review we will analyze ORICO USB Hub, an interesting accessories for PC and notebook that allows you to expand exponentially your connectivity capacity via USB. Certainly a performing product, but also nice to see. But will it meet our expectations?
Perhaps some of our readers will remember how for some time in the recent past where people walked around with their bags full of floppies marked with the indelible to recognize their contents. Then came CDs and DVDs, but the great revolution that allowed us to take data out of the PC and always carry it with us was certainly the USB (Universal Serial Bus) standard. Introduced in 1994 by a consortium of companies with the aim of unifying dozens of different connectors and protocols under a single standard, it was so successful that today most electronic devices – PCs and notebooks, but also smartphones, tablets and TVs – use one or more USB ports. This standard is now used to interface with any accessory, but also for charging and data exchange. So many accessories sometimes that USB ports aren’t enough anymore. In this review therefore we present thehub USB di ORICO, a product that will allow you to expand your PC’s USB connectivity to infinity and beyond.
Design and construction | ORICO USB Hub Review
The stylistic choice of this ORICO USB Hub is truly original. The case is made of aluminum that at first glance a feeling of solidity, while the brushed finish is really very elegant. The top is protected by a transparent plastic cover which allows you to see the logic board that manages the device. This design winks at an audience of enthusiasts, but which nevertheless in its originality does not make the product lose elegance, which is also suitable for a sober and elegant desk. Excellent choice in this regard! On the other hand, plastic goes to lower the bar of build quality as it tends to scratch easily.
The ports of this ORICO USB Hub are well locked in the body and this should avoid accidental breakage of the connectors at the PCB level, although we found it a bit difficult to plug in our devices. Doors tend to exert excessive resistance, both in the insertion and extraction phases. We fear it is due to the imperfect alignment of the plastic top cover, which actually is not assembled very well and is a bit of a dancer. Each door is equipped with a button to be able to activate and deactivate it at will, but also in this case the quality is not the best. The switches make a lot of noise, like those on an old bedside lamp or an old mouse. On the back there are two transverse rubber feet that give a very good grip on different surfaces, preventing this ORICO USB Hub from slipping off your desk; also on the back there are two holes that allow you to hang the device on the wall with two simple screws, supplied for more, very convenient! Finally a small note on the power supply: for a 24 W unit it is a little too bulky. Let’s say that in general it seems that no latest generation components have been used. Overall we like the design and it is functional, but some construction choices could be revised if you wanted to aim for a premium product.
Functionality and performance | ORICO USB Hub Review
This ORICO USB Hub allows you to expand the USB connectivity of your PC with 7 new USB 3.0 ports. Each port can be used for both data exchange and device charging. In this second case the BC1.2 charging protocol allows to deliver up to 2.4 A intelligently for charging different devices. Therefore, the possibility of fast charging is missing, now very widespread in many smartphones and tablets, but which requires a higher output current intensity.
As for data transfer, the USB 3.0 standard of this ORICO USB Hub allows you to achieve a speed of 5 Gbit / s (about 625 MB / s), obviously that must be distributed in the 7 ports of the Hub. Using all 7 we should have about 100 MB / s available for each fully loaded port. ORICO USB Hub seems to be able to handle multiple streams well, distributing the band equally between the different outputs. In our tests we found no problems even with several connected devices. The device can manage even heterogeneous devices – mechanical HDDs, USB sticks, SD card readers – by feeding them correctly.
Each door has an indicator LED that lights up when the port is available for data exchange. They will not turn on just for charging so, in practice, the LED lights up when the device becomes a load for the PC. However, the switches on the side of each port are very convenient if you want to avoid constantly unplugging and reattaching a device, risking to ruin the connectors.
Conclusions
ORICO USB Hub is an expansion station without too many frills, which does its job properly. The extra touch is given by the switches that can enable and disable connected devices, without the need to detach and reattach the connectors. The design is very original, but at the same time elegant: goal centered in this sense, even if with some small flaws on the quality of some components.
Certainly the USB hub functionality is well accomplished by this Orico product. The unfortunately the price is not really low and here opens a question on which we would like to push you to reflect before closing the review: do you really need so many USB ports? Some modern ultrabooks tend to reduce the number of ports available to keep the size compact, this is true. But how many things do we have to connect? Muose, keyboard, webcam, external HDD, headphones and we are only 5. The world among other things is moving more and more to wireless or cloud technologies, now we no longer have pockets full of USB sticks. Even if you need to connect multiple HDDs, you might want to buy a dedicated NAS or enclosure – manufactured by ORICO itself. So we think a hub with so many ports is a very niche product. That’s all from the hardware section, keep following us for many other news and reviews!
Points in favor
- A truly original design …
- One switch for each input
- Well-managed basic USB functionality
Points against
- … with some flaws in terms of construction
- No fast charging
- Price