Review: Ugreen’s 500W charger is the futureproof power hub your tech deserves
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This unassuming little charger can deliver a whopping 500W – and it might just be the last desktop hub you ever need - Gareth Butterfield was one of the first people to test it
This innocuous little box is a world first. It costs over £200 and it doesn't even have a digital display. But the mighty Ugreen Nexode 500w can handle a load, through its six USB ports, of up to 500 watts. And that's the big headline here.
A quick disclaimer: If you're quick, you'd get one on Amazon for £164.99 at the moment, but I realise I've got to convince you that's a good idea first. Bear with me.
It's still a lot of money for a desktop charging station, isn't it? Anker does a really good one with a 200-watt capacity for £79.99, and that's more than enough for most people.
So why would you need 500 watts? Well, some people do. And, quite importantly, lots of us might, in the future.
It wasn't that long ago that the most powerful smartphone charging speed was around 40 watts. Now 100 watts is becoming the norm and there are a few out there that can handle 240 watts.
And then there are laptops. Some of these will charge at up to 140 watts and, if you add tablets into the mix, they're starting to knock on the door of 100 watts. All of this has happened within a few years.
If you wanted to charge up all this tech in one go, then, a 200-watt charger just wouldn't cut the mustard. That's why there's absolutely a market for this sort of machine.
And, if your current gadgets don’t need to have a 500-watt charger, your next ones will. So it's a bit of an investment in the future.
Ugreen kit, and I know this because I've owned some of it for years, is properly built to last. And this new launch is built with a suite of 11 protection protocols to ensure it's also incredibly safe. It even throttles its own power if it's tipped over, to ensure it's always maintaining the right temperature.
It plugs into a mains socket, and there are five USB-C ports and one USB-A port. It's starting to become tricky to find genuinely powerful charging stations that include USB-A now, so it's a welcome addition.
But the real party piece is the top USB-C port, because that can support an output of 240 watts. That's not unusual to see in modern charging stations now, but the other four can each support 100 watts each. And they all support PD charging. And, remember, they'll all pump out their 100 watts at the same time.
So this weighty little unit is something seriously impressive, and it's going to be just what many people have been waiting for.
You'll have to spend a bit to buy five USB leads capable of taking up to 100 watts, and then one more lead capable of handling 240 watts, because it doesn't come with any - but if you've got the sorts of devices that demand huge power, then you might already own them.
I love the fact that all of this power and heat control trickery is contained in a unit that takes up so little space. Ugreen could have been tempted to make it bulkier, but it covers a very small footprint on a desk. And that's ideal.
If it still seems like this is a lot of money to spend on a desktop charger, it's probably not for you. But if you do need this sort of power, and you've been waiting for technology to catch up, you'll realise it's actually a bit of a bargain.
Bravo Ugreen, others will doubtless follow, but you got there first. And it's ace.