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The ConnectCharlie 12-in-1 USB Travel Charger -- REVIEWED!
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May 29, 2025
Whether you're a road warrior or just live in a place where there are too few power plugs for all your adapters and gadgets, we all constantly search for USB power and an extra power outlet or two. The ConnectCharlie offers up an innovative and effective solution that combines 9 USB-3.0 plugs with three 110V power outlets, along with an integrated surge protector and night light. Tech expect Dave Taylor of https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ finds that it's not without its limitations and design glitches, however, some of which are pretty major and important to know. Still, if you need more plugs and more power, ConnectCharlie might be a good match! Learn more: http://amzn.to/2DKG51x
View Video Transcript
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will this solve all your charging woes
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while you're on the road let's find out
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[Music]
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Dave Taylor here and this time I'm
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looking at charging specifically I'm
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looking at charging things while you're
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on the road I know like me you've been
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to hotels and they have one outlet and
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only as one plug you got seven things to
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charge now what do you do I often end up
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using the plug in the bathroom but
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that's not really good because if I
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forget while I'm showering humidity not
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good for devices so enter connect
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charlie this is this really interesting
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new device and it gives you 12 different
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ports on each of the three sides it
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gives you three USB 3.0 and then on the
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front obviously you get three electrical
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outlets now it plugs into the wall on
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the back and so that gives you all that
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it also gives you a nightlight on the
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edge we'll come back to all of this in a
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second I want to tell you these guys did
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a Kickstarter campaign and did really
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well they raised almost $25,000 for this
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and as you can see comes in cherry red
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but here's the thing how does it
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actually work so there's a couple of
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issues you need to know before you get
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one of these the first is that in total
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all nine USB plugs have a maximum
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collective of 15 amps now that might
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sound like a lot and if you're just
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plugging in two or three devices that's
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fine but nowadays 2.4 amps is pretty
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typical for a single charger so you do
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that divide those nine by the 15
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available and it turns out you can't
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really plug everything in and have it
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work and in fact a lot of users have
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given them feedback that you know they
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can only use 3 4 maybe 5 plugs for
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slower charging if you're doing it
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overnight it's probably ok but just
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because there are 9 ports doesn't mean
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all nine of them are going to be rocking
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and rolling for you with charging also
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it does have three electrical plugs
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which is good because plugging this into
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the wall covers up the other outlet you
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can see in this photo that you really
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can't get access to the other plug
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when this thing's plugged in so now you
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trade two for three not bad but it'd be
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nice to have this not cover the other
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outlet and then you trade two for four
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that would be better but the other thing
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to notice in the photograph is the blue
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lights now this is a pretty well lit
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photograph but at night the night light
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is pretty bright and here's the thing
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that's kind of a design mistake there's
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no switch on here there's no way to turn
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off that night light and since it's
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spread across the entire diagonal
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surface it's pretty inconvenient to be
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putting tape over the whole thing so I
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wish they would have put like a point
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light in the middle instead perhaps that
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would then be more easy to cover up with
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a sticker or better have some sort of a
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switch that says I don't really need the
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night light so let's turn that off some
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people I have friends that need to sleep
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an absolute pitch darkness and this
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would drive them crazy in a hotel room
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so though it's pretty much everything I
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want to say overall the functionality is
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pretty cool and it's obviously something
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you can easily toss in your suitcase
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again might have been nice for them to
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have this fold down rather than just be
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sticking out design now the only other
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thing I will say is I actually kind of
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wish they didn't have the logo front and
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center the whole thing whether you're
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looking at the black or the white or
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this red unit it all sort of screams to
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me Walmart and Kmart and really low cost
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you know sort of places even like a you
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know gas station on the road while
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you're heading on a road trip or
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something I wish they would have spent a
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little more time maybe at the Apple
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Store or Best Buy and said you know
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let's maybe put the logo on the back and
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let's have this be just a sleek brushed
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aluminum even for a couple more dollars
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I think that would have given this a
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much different feel now I saw their
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prototype of their next-gen at CES and I
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can tell you that they have exactly that
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they have a nice silver one coming out
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that's a lot more discreet with the logo
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and everything that's great this one you
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know it's probably not a big deal but I
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think that there will be people that
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will wish it was a little bit more
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profession
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looking so that's all I got on the
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Kinect charlie it is pretty cool so
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before I talk about the price let me ask
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you to do a huge huge favor for me go
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ahead and subscribe and once you've done
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that if this is useful and interesting
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to you why don't you also give me a
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thumbs up
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oh and you know what I have a handy
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power strip so let's plug it in and just
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as you can see here this is actually
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probably a worst case scenario I'll plug
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it in on the bottom and it clearly
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indefinitely covers up the second outlet
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but it also gives you the blue light and
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what you can't maybe see too easily in
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the video is that also illuminates the
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USB ports so you know kind of a neat
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design unless you don't like the light
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in which case it's an annoying design
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there you go
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can't win everything right now how much
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of these guys cost in black or white or
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red this will set you back 38 bucks at
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amazon.com this is the Kinect Charlie
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twelve and one portable charger with
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three power outlets and nine USB outlets
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Steve Taylor and I'll catch you in my
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next week
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[Music]