Review on Enhanced PortaPow USB Data Blocker (Red 2 Pack) - Safeguard against Juice Jacking by Daniel Ton

PortaPow 3rd Gen Data Blocker generally works as advertised allowing you to charge (or work and charge) many devices without the risk of data transfer and probably better than anything 500mA from older USB ports. However, you should avoid high expectations. In recent years, USB charging has become a remarkably difficult situation, with various partially compatible standards vying for dominance. Given the complexity, PortaPow probably manages to a.) charge instead of nothing and b.) for advanced devices with high-speed charging capability, provide some charge rate _between_ the maximum the device can achieve with a compatible charger, and as little as 500mA. Original USB. To test the above, I selected a Quick Charge 2.0 compatible phone for which I already had various charge speed data and compared that data to observations made with the PortaPow data blocker. At just under half charge of the phone, charging rates via the PortaPow data blocker via the "Smart 2.4A" USB port and the Quick Charge 3.0 port were slightly below and slightly above 30% pt/hr (percentage points per hour), respectively. . Good, but certainly less than the 56%pt/h I saw when connected directly to a Quick Charge 2.0 charger. The charging speed via the PortaPow data blocker was the same as charging the same phone wirelessly. On the other hand, I put together a few Garmin GPS modules and found them easy to use. Garmin Nuvi models tend to go into data transfer mode when connected to something that doesn't look like a Garmin power cable. This prevents the user from working unless someone circumvents this trend (some models expire and restart in production mode, the easiest workaround). With the PortaPow data blocker between the laptop and each Garmin, only the oldest, the Nuvi 200W, went into data transfer mode; All later models I tested just continued to work as usual. So if you need a convenient way to control your externally powered Garmin Nuvi GPS without being in your car, the PortaPow data blocker can get the job done without a lot of extra Garmin charger. Of course, you can't receive traffic unless you're using a smartphone to do so. It might be more interesting to supercharge the performance of Garmin Nuvi models via the Portapow data blocker. Newer models reported "Suspend" or "Unknown" as the input current limit setting, while the older model reported 1A. Leaving almost half the charge and your individual device running over the PortaPow data blocker for a while would be a way to gauge whether it's charging (enough) or at least not discharging while in use.