Customer Reviews

TARGUS APA01US Universal Notebook AC Power Adapter

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(43)

 

 

This adapter uses interchangable "smart" tips to configure itself for various notebooks. When one of the 5 supplied tips is attached, it will fix the adapter's voltage to a pre-set level. Using a meter, I found the voltages range from 15 to 19.9 depending on the tip used. Here's my point. Just because a tip may "fit" your notebook's DC jack, doesn't mean it's putting out the correct voltage required by your notebook. Make SURE your notebook is on the list this thing directly supports, or DON'T BUY IT. You could damage the adapter, or worse, possibly your notebook. A list of of compatible notebooks is available from the Targus website.

It is much lighter and smaller than my stock AC adapter and gets quite warm after an extended use. This worries me a little, but so far it's still working fine after several months of intermittant use. I'm keeping my fingers crossed I don't have to report a failure problem like others here have.

I bought this item for my hp pavilion laptop. On the original package it's writen that it's compatible. However after using it only a couple of months, it suddenly stopped working. I called the company and they told me that it was written wrong on the package. They accepted their mistake but they would not do anything about it! They are still selling this product in the market although the information on the package is wrong! The customer support of this company is useless...Do not trust and buy this item! it's just waste of money!

There are a lot of reviews about this product that I think give the wrong idea about this product, particularly ones about compatibility issues. I own an Averatec C3500 tablet PC, and the Averatec website led me to this product as being the only one compatible with my laptop, and this was verified on the Targus website, and I knew well ahead of time that this would be the appropriate AC/DC adapter I would need for my laptop. (of the many tips included, mine uses tip #3)

The thing I like about this device is that it powers my laptop from either an AC outlet (internationally, and by the way--I brought it with me to Thailand, where the voltage was much higher than the US, and it saves you from buying a power converter if your existing power adapter isn't able to accept varying input voltages). It also will let you power your laptop using a car/cigarette DC power source (which comes with it), and with a quick removal of the cigarette lighter extension is the power plug that inserts into the EmPower outlets used by several airlines, especially US carriers. Those adapters usually cost $70 or more, and this has the adapter plus the AC/DC options too. So it's good for travel because of its versatility. While many of the modern aircraft, particularly on international routes (e.g. Singapore Airlines and Thai Air both featured this on their new planes) are upgrading their in-flight power supplies so that you can plug a standard AC plug into the seat instead of the EmPower, at least with this Targus device, you'll be equipped to handle both types of power sources. Plus, on the Targus website, they publish a list of airlines and their aircraft that use the airline power plug that's included with the device, so you can get a rough idea of if you would find this useful.

Yes, this product has its quirks, and mine in fact shorted out on vacation, which I'll admit was disappointing. But as soon as I got home, I contacted Targus, got through to someone very quickly and explained the problem, they gave me an RMA number, I sent it back, and they immediately replaced it for no charge with a brand new, in box, model that works just fine, and there was no hassle or long waits involved. No replacement with a refurbished item or anything--a brand new replacement is what I got, which is more than I can say for some other companies when you need your product replaced.

I would give it five stars but it loses one star for the same reason that a fellow reviewer mentioned...the power cord that goes into the outlet is indeed too short. While it's simply a design flaw, it's an annoying flaw, as the weight of the main power supply (with the blue light--a feature i actually like) is heavy enough that it will yank the plug right out of the wall if you try to extend it, so if you're looking for length in addition to your power supply, you ought to buy an extension cord to go along with this model, as the unit won't give you much range to move it around, as I learned the hard way in some hotel rooms where the nearest plugs were a few feet too far from where I wanted to work on my laptop.

As for the option to power multiple devices (e.g. PDA, cell phone, etc) in addition to your laptop, you CAN with this device, but you need to purchase additional hardware that is not included with this device. I knew this before I bought this because the description of this item on the Targus website makes this pretty clear....there's an outlet where you can plug in another Targus device which will allow you to charge additional electronic items, so look for it online and buy it if this is important for you.

Bottom line: I've seen this being sold at Staples and other stores for over $100, and you can get it here and elsewhere on the internet for around $30, which is a bargain. It's great for travel, it's portable and comes with its own little bag, and if you want a second backup device for whatever reason, this is a great option. If you want to avoid any disappointments, just look on the Targus website and make sure your device is compatible--it's pretty clear what is and what isn't--otherwise, you'll have no one to blame but yourself if you've purchased this item and find that you can't use it. If it's listed as compatible but still doesn't work, contact Targus and they'll send you a replacement, as your item probably doesn't work for some reason. Give it a shot...I did, and I don't regret it.

I purchased this product, but after 3 months of frustrating use wound up throwing it away.

The first problem is that the structural support of the power tips between the laptop plug and the cord plug is the electrical solder! The effect of this is that if you use the adapter on the road where it's subject to a lot of plug and unplug and varying mechanical stress, the solder breaks. You then at best have a tip with an intermittent connection. I replaced the tip twice before giving up and getting another better designed adapter.

The second problem is that when I unplugged the power adapter from the wall, it would cause my laptop (IBM T20) to emergency power off. Unplugged at the laptop plug was fine. I understand this to be an issue between the T20 power system and a surge issue in the adapter.

I replaced this with a Kensington 33197 120W adapter. It looks almost like the same product (same OEM?) except they have stronger power tips. It also didn't have the power-off issue.

I loved the form factor, but the product just didn't work.

After waiting over 10 days for Toshiba to replace the OEM AC adapter, we got impatient and bought the Targus APM10US Universal AC/DC Adapter, which has been powering our Toshiba Tablet PC (model R15-S822) successfully from the time we plugged it in using the #6 tip. The adapter also recharges the battery fully too. So far so good, and we are able to use our computer while we await the OEM adapter from Toshiba. Yes, we did read the reviews here, before we bought it. However, Toshiba does advertise Targus adapters on its website and sells them too. So that's why we went ahead and bought it.

Specs looked soooo good. The ultimate answer, 120W, AC/DC, and lightweight and slim, too. Can you spell "too good to be true".

I got one, it died after a couple of months. Before dying, it managed to cause my IBM T41 to abrubptly shut off(!!!!) a few times, which was extremely alarming (I didn't even know laptops do that). It died in the worst moment, midst of a business trip. Targus support replaced it. The one that was shipped blew off immediately as I connected it to the mains outlet! Back into the box, ship back as DOA. Third one is still alive, although it managed to cause my laptop to die abruptly one more time. Ugh.

Build quality is rock bottom, *all* connectors have flimsy contact, and worst, you never know when it's gonna die on you - when in fact a power supply should be one of your more reliable pieces of gear.

Avoid like the plague. (17 Jul 2005)

EDIT 29 Sep 2006: The unit has just made a series of loud pop sounds and died. Again. This is unit number three. Did I say "stay away" yet?

I was drawn in by the slim design, the 120W rating, and the convenience. I bought two of them, one for my old Sony VAIO and one for my new Asus M6Ne. They worked for about 8 months. Like some others here, I broke 2 tips in that time, just by lightly bumping into the plug while it was plugged into the laptop. The build quality of the tips is ridiculously bad. Also their connections are so loose, they were always disconnecting from the adapter cable unexpectedly.

A couple weeks ago, one of the adapters burned out while I was away on a trip. I had two hours of life on the battery and then I was stuck. A couple days later the other adapter died while running my other laptop. As others have said, Targus customer support is totally miserable. I tried to get RMA#s for both of the units, but after rounds of pointless emails back and forth ("what's the nature of the problem? what kind of laptop? blah blah blah") I'm just tossing them in the trash.

I found the Fellowes model 98448. It's only rated for 70W, which is just about enough (my laptops each need about 65W) and so again I bought two of them. The build quality is much better, the tips are rock solid on the cables and won't pop out accidentally.

I've only been using them for a few days, but so far so good.

I bought this with the expectation I could carry one power supply for my laptop, phone and PDA. Well, "fuggedahbatit" as they say in NY. I've never been able to buy the tips for the phone or PDA even though they are very common models. And when my company upgraded my laptop to a very common (and current) model of Dell, Targus told me that they had discontinued the tip for that Dell! Targus' proposed solution? Buy a brand new power supply. To add insult to injury, the tip compatible with the new power supplies won't charge the laptop, only power it when plugged in.

Other flaws with this product:

1) The power cord is too short. The power supply is left dangling from the wall, and the weight easily pulls the plug out of the socket.

2) I've yet to find an aircraft with a compatible socket. I paid a premium for this supply because it claimed to support both car and plane power sockets.

So thanks to Targus' poor product and worse service, I now have a one-hundred-dollar-plus paperweight. You won't find me buying any Targus product again.

I was (wrongly) advised by tech support to buy this instead of waiting for a new supply of power supplies from Voodoo. Be sure your computer is supported, because Targus tech won't give you any info about voltage , amperage or wattage on this thing, so you can't safely maake it work with an unsupported computer. So Amazon, As usual, graciously took it back. Love Amazon. I just now read the other reviews and now consider myself lucky I didn't keep it and try to make it work.

I own a Sony Vaio laptop. I bought this adapter to replace the heavy Sony power adapter supplied with this computer and to be able to power my laptop from airplane and auto power sources.

A power adapter, no matter how versatile, has to be 100% reliable. When your power adapter fails, it's all over for your laptop in about two hours.

I have owned this power adapter for ten months. During this time, I have had to replace two power tip adapters. In addition, I have noticed that when my laptop has some heavy processing to do--such as producing a large PDF document--this adapter cannot keep up with my laptop's power demands. Operating voltage drops and the laptop becomes slower and slower.

In the future, I will be relying on the heavier, more powerful Sony power adapter.