Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Travel Adapter, Converter, USB Charger from Travelon


If you are an American traveling abroad, this nifty electrical converter and adapter from Travelon eliminates the guesswork without taking up much room.

This universal 3-in-1 device is a converter, adpater, and USB charger all in one. It automatically steps higher voltage down to 110 volts and reduces the wattage at the same time (so nothing explodes or starts smoking). Through some Transformers-style engineering, the various plugs adapt to those in some 150 countries around the world (though in all fairness, most of them between Canada and Chile are the same and you don't need an adapter.)

This is all well and good, but what if you have an MP3 player or camera that charges by USB? They've got that covered too, so you can charge up your portable gadgets without booting up a laptop. You can even use this at the same time as you're using a different electrical item with a plug.

The Travelon converter and adapter generally retails for around $58, but sometimes you can find it for less at Amazon. If you don't need a built-in voltage regulator (most laptop cords have one built in), Travelon makes a slightly thinner model of this without the voltage adjuster.

I've reviewed plenty of travel electrical adapters over the years, but this is the one I'll be taking with me on my next trip beyond the Americas.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well it burned my wii adaptor and I had to buy a new one. I threw the converter away.

Tim said...

Mine is still going strong---have been using it since this review ran, in six different countries. A Wii and international travel don't mix. Get a handheld game device.