AnkerŪ Uspeed USB 3.0 7-Port Hub with 36W Power Adapter and 3ft USB 3.0 Cable [VIA VL812 Chipset]

I have only one usb 3.0 port on the laptop I tend to use the most, so was looking for a decent hub to take advantage of the extra speed on offer with USB3.

I wanted to be able to run my backup to my existing usb 3 external hard drive and add a USB 3 Blu-ray disc re-writer without continually swapping for one or the other.

This hub itself is good,if a little too shiny for my taste and, as is mentioned in other reviews it has no rubber feet -- there my gripes end though.

The supplied cable to connect to your blue USB 3 port is short but really substantial, as USB 3.0 has to supply much higher current, it is encouraging to see very good quality leads included with the product. DC does not travel well over long cables at the best of times so perhaps that is why leads are kept short.

Anyways, I plugged in the USB 3.0 hard drive and the USB 3.0 Blu-ray Drive and the lights illuminated for each connected device. They both continued to function as they were doing individually.

There's been no issues with the supplied power supply overloading nor any faulty usb3 out terminals as of yet so basically so far so good.

I'm getting very fast transfers between all USB3 devices connected to this and it is absolutely fine plugging in USB 2 at the same time,which run at the same speeds as they were doing in a Belkin USB2 hub.

All i'd advise is to preplan where you intend to use it before plugging a lot of things in or you're going to end up with a spaghetti tree of cables :)

I copied over 2.4 TB in one go using this to see how hot it might get, and it stays luke warm. I measured it performing close to 4.2Gb/s (which may be the speed limit of the device i was using)
The transfer stayed reasonably constant.

If you can,get the updated version,as it's very responsive to idle power states and usb wakeup events with a power supply that's not a wallwart.

I'd recommend this -- it's not cheap but it's been made well electronically and should last.

Overall the hub works pretty well, better than expected. I've got 5 ports connected to a variety of USB2 devices (Logitech mouse, HP printer, Western Digital external drive, etc) and haven't experienced any dropouts or other issues. Also, impressively, the throughput is virtually identical to plugging a USB3 external drive directly into my Macbook Pro 2012. So yeah, everything looks good.

I am having two issues though for which I'm going to be contacting Uspeed, both which appear ONLY on my Macbook Pro 2012 running OS X 10.8.2. Everything is working fine on another laptop running Windows 7 and a gaming box running Windows 8.

On the Macbook Pro only, my Seagate Backup Plus 1TB USB3 external drive is not detected when plugged into ports 1-4 on the hub, only ports 5-7 work. I don't know if this is a USB2 vs USB3 connectivity issue or what, but I have no problem connecting USB2 devices to ports 1-4. Also, when I reboot the computer, no matter what port the drive is plugged into it is not detected. The light is blue on the hub, but the drive doesn't show up in the Finder. I have to unplug the drive manually from the hub, then plug it in again to get it to show up. Its hard to tell if this is an issue with the hub or OS X, but my hunch is that its an issue with the hub since plugging the drive directly into the Macbook shows no such issues. Then again, everything works fine on the Windows laptop so who knows. These issues persist regardless of having installed the Seagate drivers that came with the Backup Plus.

I'll update this review after hearing from Uspeed, whom I've heard has excellent customer service.

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Updated!!!

I've spoken with Uspeed and they were extremely helpful and prompt. They confirmed with their technical team that the hub does have a defect and issued me a full refund. Also, they kindly indicated that I need not return it, so that saves me some cash in return shipping. I really wanted this hub to work, it's almost perfect and it appears for Windows users it is! I'm sure on their next revision they will fix up these issues on Macbook Pros with USB3 controllers and I'll gladly purchase again. Thanks again Uspeed team for working with me to resolve this issue so quickly.

This looks to be quite a nice hub, in a popular 'piano black' case. The seven device ports are quite well-spaced and should allow some of the wider than usual USB flash drives and other devices to be connected without blocking an adjacent port as other hubs sometimes will.

The illustration is somewhat misleading in that it appears to show that the port indicators illuminate at all times. They do not, but only when a device is connected and 'live', in most instances that will be switched on or activated. The connector from PC to hub uses the stacked standard USB 3.0 connector, which should provide a more positive connection than the wafer thin micro connector sometimes employed and which seems unsuited to the rather heavy cable needed, which in this instance is no more than 0.9 to 1 metre in length. However, being a standard connector, the cable can either be replaced by a longer one or extended if needed. The mains adapter is the usual plug type, rather than plug and brick, but its lead is also rather short, again about 1 metre, so placement will need to be carefully arranged.

As there was a 'bulk' discount offer when buying 2 or more when considering the item, and as I had encountered issues with device disconnections of some devices regardless of which USB version they used with my previous hubs (some USB 2.0 and others USB 3.0), I decided to update all my hubs to these. Unlike another USB 3.0 hub I had purchased previously and which seemed very unhappy when used in a chain (one hub connected to another), these appear to be quite happy when used that way, as they would need to be if you have a solitary USB 3.0 port as on most current laptops.

Although it is early days and I have only used them for the briefest period, they do seem to work as they should, are barely warm in use (the power adapters are also very cool-running), but they can be used self-powered provided all the devices connected are either mains powered or low power (mouse, keyboard, wireless dongle etc).

Although a little pricier than some alternatives, and every comparable USB 2.0 version, these do offer 7 ports rather than 4 and compared to another that provides only 4 ports but costs about half as much again, it appears relatively inexpensive.

If there is any criticism, it is the absence of any non-slip feet, as the hub can slide around very easily on most surfaces, an inconvenience when needing to connect or remove a device which would then need both hands; a few blobs of Blu-Tack or a couple of adhesive pads will work if you cannot find some thin adhesive feet (Tandy used to sell them, but I have not seen them for some time).

It works as expected, is reasonably priced (especially if the discounts apply), is not too obtrusive and the indicators are not excessively bright. Recommended.

UPDATE @ 6-2012
As the product has proven to be generally reliable and stable, I have since purchased a couple more. Very occasionally, some or all of the devices connected to a hub will fail to come on-line (the port light will not illuminate and the device is not available). Should this happen, the best way to resolve it is to reset the hub by disconnecting the power cable and data output lead (the stacked one, not those leading to the devices) and to reinsert them after a few seconds. Two others have also had this happen, myself with 3 different brands of USB3 hubs, so it is not an issue specific to this product or to one PC. I don't recall it ever happening with older USB products and it appears to be an unpublished 'feature' of USB3.

UPDATE @10-2012
It is interesting to note that the product has now been updated with the latest version of the VIA chipset, but more importantly with a beefed-up PSU. The original produced only 2A which, when distributed between the ports, allows less than 300mA each. The new PSU is rated at 3A and thus allows more than 400mA per port, much closer to the maximum 500mA permitted although a 3.5A PSU would have been ideal. This should reduce the incidence of Power Surge fault reports, not that many, which occur with the older version.

If you know that your devices, external drives in particular but not exclusively, will demand 500mA the obvious solution is not to overload the hub by using all the ports - leave one or two unoccupied or connect a mouse or keyboard which have much lower power demands.

POSTSCRIPT @04/2013

Please note that the review and comments above relate solely to the version with all 7 peripheral ports on one side and the USB and mains input sockets on the opposing side. The version with the additional charging port and with the ports equally divided along the longer sides is very different and it DID NOT WORK on either of 2 PCs to which it was connected, on one of which it was the sole hub used. It bonged endlessly and was never recognised. On one of those PCs it resulted in a screen message 'Insufficient USB Resources' which I have never previously seen despite sometimes using several hubs simultaneously on a single PC. Selected primarily as it includes a 48vA power supply (12v at 4A), which is greater than any similar hub, although a chunk of that power would presumably be more or less dedicated to the extra USB charge port it proved a total disappointment.

Although I have used other Anker products very successfully and they actually support their products, the 7+1 hub is NOT RECOMMENDED unless it can be demonstrated to work as intended. Accordingly, I would give that product a too generous 1-star rating!

I had contacted Anker whose reply stated that either the hub, its PSU or the USB cable could have been faulty but, as they are the three constituent parts, they are stating the obvious.

Anker Uspeed USB 3.0 10-Port Hub
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This is a completely different design than their 7- and 4-port varieties, where with those, connections are made along a long edge. Here, the main ports are top-mounted and connections to PC and mains are at one of the short sides. There is a difference in presentation between two optional models; the silver Mac-styled version and the all-black version. The silver has a smaller power button adjacent to the power and USB input sockets but the black has a larger top-mounted one.

This design has another advantage and that is due its box shape with a foot on each bottom corner, it is actually far more stable on the desktop. It also has a minor inconvenience in that it has a switch to enable/disable the power input and that it obviously needs to be engaged for the device to become 'live'. The LEDs for USB connectivity do not illuminate until a device is inserted or connected and, if necessary, powered and switched 'on' which is common to the other designs, too.

As it is only very slightly more expensive than the 7-port model but offers 3 extra ports and better accessibility, this is the better choice for heavy users. For those needing an extra port or two, it makes little sense. There is no functional difference between the two options, but the black is plastic-cased with rounded corners and the silver is aluminium and a little more square.

As Amazon have grouped together all the Anker USB 3.0 hub products, and individual reviews are therefore impossible, I would also have awarded this a 5-star rating.