Trust us, this thing will recharge anything

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Product: Trust 4-in-1 Power Adaptor
Website: WWW.TRUST.COM
System Requirements: Notebook with compatible power connector
Price: £40, $70

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SO IT'S TIME for another trip somewhere, time to pack up the laptop, the mobile phone, the PSP and the DS, the MP3 player and probably the internet enabled kitchen sink as well. Now we need to pack a another bag full of chargers adaptors and converters, depending precisely on where you're going, or perhaps not thanks to the Trust 4-in-1 Notebook Power Adaptor. As long as your notebook and electronic paraphernalia are compatible that is.

The main power unit is about the size of a small brick, pretty much par for the course for notebook chargers and has three connectors, one for plugging it into the wall and two for charging your goodies. The input socket uses a standardised figure 8 connector, which is a blessing to anyone whose every tried to find new cables for their chargers, be it to replace a misplaced one or as an easy option for changing the plug depending on what country you're in. The outputs consist of a USB port and a strange little two-prong number.

All in one and one in all… hang on that's not right

Along with the main block, cable and associated paperwork, the box contains two strips of rubber bristling with a variety of connectors which form the backbone of this thing's capabilities. All in all there are fifteen different connectors available, nine swappable mobile connectors and six notebook ones. The notebook connectors are configured to attach themselves to the odd little two prong doo-hickey and the range of mobile connectors all plug into a cable that itself plugs into the USB port. Unfortunately two of the mobile connectors are entirely useless. The reason being that the Nokia connector is identical to the plug that all the connectors attach to and the iPod connector is just a female USB socket, so unless you need the extra cable length you may as well just plug it straight into the power block.

On the plus side, because the secondary connector is just a USB port any other devices you have that charge via USB can just be plugged straight into it thereby opening its compatibility option even more.

Connectors explained

On the main unit you'll also find a slider switch which sets the notebook output to one of seven voltage settings between 15V and 24V, so along with checking which connector you need for your notebook(s) you'll also need to make sure you set it to the correct output voltage. It's also worth bearing in mind that the adaptor has a maximum power output of 90W, but that was plenty for every notebook I could get hold of to test this on. Or should I say for every notebook that I could find that used one of the provided connectors. According to the blurb in the paperwork the provided notebook connectors will support Acer, Asus, Compaq, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Sony, Toshiba and others, with a complete compatibility listing on the Trust website, sadly after scouring the site I couldn't find the list anywhere, so you'll have to be careful to make sure you're notebook can be charged with this adaptor. A list inner and outer measurements of the various adaptor heads is available on the product page so it isn't too difficult to check them against your existing notebook charger that should have that connector size and output voltage printed on it.

Strangely there was no compatible adaptor head for my work Dell Latitude notebook, but the adaptor worked just fine for my Asus notebook as well as a Fujitsu-Siemens Tablet notebook. A quick spin around the labs showed the adaptor was compatible with about 80% of the laptops lying around, with the main problem being older notebooks.

In Short
An excellent idea for those people who travel with a menagerie of electronic paraphernalia, unfortunately Trust is hamstringed by the massive lack of consistency in the industry. Every manufacturer wants to make sure that if you buy if a new charger for their product you buy it from them. Notebook manufacturers seem to have standardised their power settings a lot more over the last few years so there is a greater and greater chance that your notebook will be amongst the list of compatible devices the newer it is. The bottom line is that if you're thinking about getting this device then make sure your notebook(s) is compatible.

Additionally, most people will only have a need for two or three of the various connectors provided, so the questions becomes do you carry around the superfluous connectors and keep them all together in the provided rubber holders, or do you run the risk of separating them and having the small heads scattered to the four winds? ?

The Good
Removes the need for countless chargers
USB port opens up charging option Usable anywhere in the world

The Bad
Limited notebook compatibility
Can see losing the small individual connectors over time

The Ugly
Two useless mobile connectors
Fairly bulky

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