Mophie powerstation hub review: Travel charging with no extra cables necessary

Whenever I leave my house for more than 24 hours, I always need to take three or four charging cables for my gadgets and a way to charge them all. I'm a huge fan of wireless charging hubs and mophie just came out with one that puts a smile on my face. The powerstation hub lets you charge your gadgets on the go, wirelessly, and doesn't even need its own cable to plug into the wall.

• Charges 4 devices at once
• Compact design
• Collapsable wall plug
• International adapters support (coming soon)
• Qi-supported

• Doesn't charge MacBook Pro
• Expensive

Charging everything

powerstation hub: The features

The powerstation hub measures just three inches squared but manages to be an incredibly versatile little charger. It has two USB-A ports, a USB-C power delivery (PD) port, and the top is Qi-supported so you can wirelessly charge your compatible iPhone.

Instead of another cable that you have to manage, the powerstation hub has a wall prong built-in, so you can plug it directly into a wall socket and then plug your gadgets into the hub.

When it's all charged up, you can unplug the powerstation plug from the wall and carry it around as a wireless hub for all your charging needs. It's small enough to fit into your pants pocket, and will give you just the amount of juice you need to get you to the next wall socket.

The onboard status light lets you know how full the powerstation hub's charge is. If you're running low, just plug it into the wall to re-up its juice.

The powerstation supplies a 6,000mAh battery, which should give your iPhone a charge from empty at least two times. The USB-C port is a power delivery (PD) port that can fast charge up to 18 watts. There is one USB-A quick-charge port that can charge devices at 15 watts and one standard 5 watt charging port. And don't forget that wireless charging pad on the side that works with Qi enabled devices, charging at 5 watts.

The powerstation hub is designed to recognize and charge up devices before charging itself up, so when your low on juice, you don't have to wait for the hub to fill up before getting to your iPhone.

So compact!

powerstation hub: What I like

I love how small the powerstation hub is. I also have the Nomad Wireless Hub, which is significantly larger (and requires a charging cable). I can literally fit the powerstation hub in my pocket. It'd be uncomfortable, but I could fit it.

Since the powerstation hub plugs directly into a socket, there's no power cable to worry about. This makes the hub much more convenient for travel than any other charging hubs I've tested. If you're only bringing a Qi-enabled iPhone with you, you literally don't need any cables at all!

MBP drain

powerstation hub: What I don't like

Even when plugged into the wall, the powerstation hub doesn't charge the MacBook Pro. I'm sure there's a good reason for why it doesn't, but I'd give up some of the compact size in exchange for a wall plug that actually works as a wall plug instead of just a 18w portable charger that plugs into a wall socket.

The battery is only 6,000mAh which is fine because it's also got a convenient wall plug for charging up fast, but with such a limited capacity, it's got a hefty price tag. Most 6,000mAh powerbanks range at about $25 - $30, though they don't have the same versatility and convenience as the powerstation pro.

Bottomline

powerstation hub: Conclusion

I may have found my new favorite travel charging hub. It's compact, versatile, and doesn't require a separate power cable. I can plug my iPad Pro, Apple Watch, and Powerbeats Pro cables into the compatible ports and set my iPhone on the wireless charging pad. Everything can get juiced up at once. When the powerstation hub runs low, I can just plug it directly into a wall socket without need of a power cable.

It's frustrating that I can't use the powerstation hub as a wall plug for my MacBook Pro, while charging my other gadgets, but it's more convenient than any other travel charging hubs I've tested.

If you want a small travel companion for charging up to four devices (including one Qi-enabled device), take a look at mophie's powerstation hub.