Innergie mCube Mini Car/Air Charger Review

KitGuru's often find themselves on the move with various gadgets including laptops, smartphones and MP3 players and usually have to carry around a small mountain of chargers to accompany these devices. Today we are going to look at the Innergie mCube Mini which Innergie claim to be the worlds smallest car and plane travel adapter which has enough grunt to power your laptop (providing its not a beast from Cryo) and another device at the same time. Features World's Smallest - The most powerful revolutionary charging solution in the smallest profile possible. Auto/Air Power Adapter - Charge your laptop on the move in cars and airplanes. Adjustable Output Voltage - Supporting range of 15-21 volts, the mCube Mini is able to support a wider range of laptops. Fast USB Charging - With special design USB power port, it gives you the capability of charging all your standard USB devices. Energy Saving - With extremely high power efficiency, you can reduce your energy costs and reduce your CO2 emission. Multi Built-in Protections - Never worry about unstable voltage anymore, the built-in protections ensure Innergie products are safer than ever. Travel Safe - Credited by the RTCA aviation certification, safe usage within airplanes is guaranteed. UL2089 secures usage in cars. Great Compatibility - Charge most popular brands of notebooks between 15-21 volts, up to 17" in LCD size, and 65 watts consumption. Including Acer, Asus, Compaq, Dell, Fujitsu, Gateway, HP, IBM, Lenovo, Sony, Toshiba, and more. Free tip support to ensure Innergie offers the widest laptop compatibility coverage. Specification DC Input 12-15V / 8A DC Output 19.5V DC/3.3A Output Power (Continuous/Peak) 65W/75W Dimensions (LxWxH) 60 x 26 x 18mm Weight (excluding cables) 67.5g Built-in Protection OCP, OVP, OTP, OPP, SCP The mCube Mini is supplied within a clear plastic packet that allows us to see just how small the charger is without opening. Behind this there is an inner cardboard box which contains the accessories. On the back of the packet there is some information about the charger along with some brief information about the compatibility. Overall the packaging is attractive in design and robust enough to provide decent protection for the charger. Aside from the charger unit itself, Innergie supply a car adapter, airline adapter and a variety of different charger ends for different laptops. They have most of the major brands covered (although not Apple) but we would recommend checking their website before you buy. Measuring only 60 x 26 x 18mm (LxWxH), we would find it hard to believe that the mCube Mini isn't the smallest travel charger in the world. It should fit in most laptop bags without adding much bulk at all so is ideal for those on the move. The charger is also very sleek in appearance, finished in high-quality gloss white plastic with a small blue-light which illuminates when charging. Unfortunately this sleek look isn't likely to last forever as white plastic is renowned for picking up scratches and grime over time. The ends of the charger are black, as are the ends of the in-car and aeroplane plugs (pictured above). Thankfully, Innergie have coloured the cables gray which should disguise grime a lot better than white. They also provide a protective bag to store the charger in when travelling and a separate pouch for all of the different laptop connections. This is a welcome addition as most users will want to leave the other laptop connections at home when travelling. Unfortunately here at KitGuru we don't have our own aeroplane to test out the air functionality of this charger but our resources do stretch to testing the in-car charging functionality. To test the charger we used a VW Polo, a Compaq Mini 110 Netbook (borrowed as our Macbook isn't supported), and a HTC Desire smartphone. First we are instructed to set up the charger to the laptops requirements and then it it ready to plug in. We're happy to report that it managed to provide enough juice to power and charge both simultaneously. For those on the move, the mCube Mini is perfect. It combines top-notch build-quality with an extremely portable design, making it perfect for those who travel a lot, whether it be by car or plane. It is very easy to set up, requiring us only to select the correct voltages and then the charging end for our laptop and then plug everything together. For portable devices, there is a USB socket in the charger which provides power to them directly. At a price of £63 at Scan, the mCube Mini doesn't come cheap but those who are willing to pay this won't be disappointed! It's a fraction of the size of rival products and is certainly built well enough to justify the premium price tag. KitGuru Says: A quality product that is perfect for frequent travellers, only let down by a high price tag.