Customer Reviews

Belkin Swivel Hub

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I purchased two of these units to use with my Macbook Pro's (one for work, one for home). Connected everything up at work and all seemed to work OK....EXCEPT when I connected it to my Western Digital External USB 500gig drive. The drive never mounted. So I unhooked the hub and connected it straight to the usb port on my Mac. Still, it wouldn't mount. I figured my Extrnal USB drive just died on me coincidentally at the same time I connected it to this hub.

Took the second Belkin swivel hub I purchasd home. Hooked it up to my home Macbook Pro (a different machine) and to a different Western Digital exteranl 500 gig USB hard drive (my home unit). Same result Smoked that drive too.

BUYER BEWARE. THIS UNIT IS SERIOUSLY FLAWED.IT SMOKES WD USB HARD DRIVE CONTROLLERS.

I'm a computer tech, so I was able to bypass the SATA controller and get the data off both my external USB Western Digital Drives. But this unit TOASTED BOTH CONTROLLERS. Keep in mind, this was two different Belkin swivel hubs smoking two different external USB 500Gig Drives on two different Macbook Pro's.

STAY AWAY.

I had a gift card to *electronics store* so I thought I'd buy a hub. I was going to use it with my laptop so I didn't want something with a huge cord or anything. I saw this one and I thought it would be perfect.

I do really like the fact that it is so small. The whole thing easily fits in a pocket without having to wrap up any kind of cord. It also swivels to fit into difficult USB ports.

One thing that took me a while to notice is that it doesn't handle multiple devices well. I don't mean without the power supply attached, I mean period. I usually have three cords plugged into it at all times: an MP3 sync cable, a printer cable, a mouse. I did notice early on that hooking up my MP3 player and mouse at the same time would give me some odd behavior. I eventually started using the MP3 player on its own separate port. I left my mouse and printer plugged into the hub and I figured that would be fine because I didn't always have the printer on and the printer powers itself of course. Well, eventually it got to where my mouse would act up even though the printer was turned off. So eventually I stopped using the hub altogether.

I eventually hooked up the power supply, which was a major pain because of how far away the nearest outlet is, and I was utterly amazed. I had the exact same problems! My mouse would turn on and off randomly. I know it's not my mouse's problem either, it works fine plugged directly into my laptop.

So much for convenience and so much for impulse buying!

This works great for the back of an iMac because it can swivel and tilt at an angle where it doesn't block other ports and not take up desk space. Price is a little high if you don't need its unique functionality.

We purchased this device to function with a macbook air and a superdrive external CD drive. The drive does not function when plugged in this way. Belkin customer support informed us that this hub does not supply sufficient power when plugged in to these higher power external devices (we did have the external power plug attached to the Belkin hub as well).

Called Apple as well and they said that the macbook air's USB device sends power at a different rate than most standard devices and this was why there was no compatibility.

I was looking for the smaller single port swivel hub, but couldn't find it anywhere, so I ordered this 4 hub model. It works fine, but it is heavy, so it doesn't stay where you want it too. It drops down when I move my laptop around. I only use it to put the receiver in, for my wireless mouse.

I was hoping that this would solve my problem. However, the connection seemed to be bad. So, I'm not using it

This hub is a great addition to my iMac. I have a number of peripherals connected to my iMac and was running out of USB ports. This hub sits behind the iMac, out of sight and helps me keep my peripherals connected.

It does include a power adapter to power the USB hub, but I haven't had to use it. For example, my MIDI keyboard that would complain about needing a powered hub when I used an older no-name USB hub, works fine without the additional power in this one.

Highly reccomended for iMac users! I took one star away because it is priced too high.

Attention iMac and LapTop users: Buy This Product. Most Laptops have, at most, 3 USB Ports and all iMacs have only 3 USB Ports and 3 is never enough... You all know this is true. With this Hub You Double Your USB connectability from 3 to 6 Ports. (You only Add 3 Ports because it plugs into 1 of your 3 Ports.) ZERO Signal Loss and Extremely High Quality Connections, as always, with a Belkin Product. Swivel moves a lot more than you would expect. Amazon's price was less than half of Retail Price. Amazon.com: $ 15.26 Retail: $ 39.99

I bought this in order to optimize my space and not clutter up with more wires. It works great as a USB hub for my Airport Extreme router.

The first Belkin Swivel Hub I bought just wouldn't stay in the position I wanted, so I returned it which was a good thing because when I removed it from my MacBook, the hub literally fell apart in my hand. I'd had it for less than a week so there was no problem. The replacement also doesn't stay in position, but it really makes sense that it won't because the entire hub is lightweight and USB plugs and cables have a weight to them especially when you have 4 plugged into the device. I've learned to live with this and am happy to be able to swivel it around and expose my second USB port rather than having it obstructed from usability. The shape of this hub allows for a very comfortable fit in a briefcase or laptop carrier or even a file folder for that matter because it's less than an inch thick. My computer has had no difficulty reading any device plugged into the hub whether it's a hard drive, iPod, camera or printer. I was fortunate to purchase this bundled with the Belkin BZ103050vTVL Mini Surge Protector/Dual USB Charger which I also find to be a useful addition to computer peripherals.