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http://www.getcomputeractive.co.ukDO I REALLY NEED...
240W USB-C
cables?
What are they?
Cable manufacturer Club 3D (www.
club-3d.com) has announced a new
range of USB-C cables, capable
of delivering 240 watts
of charging power to
devices. They’re faster,
too, offering transfer
speeds up to 40Gbps.What do they do?
They let you charge even the most
power-hungry laptop from a
compatible USB-C port, so they don’t
need separate power sockets and
chunky power adapters.What’s the catch?
Currently, there are no 240-watt
charging blocks to plug these cables
into. However, we expect this will be
resolved soon. Also, at the time of
writing there’s been no confirmation of
price or launch date.So can I do without them?
If your laptop can’t be charged with a
USB-C cable, you’ll already have an
alternative. It might leave you carrying
more than one charger when you travel,
but that’s not the end of the world.VERDICT An affordable Wi-Fi 6 mesh
system that compromises on raw
speed, but provides excellent reach
around your home★★★★★
ALTERNATIVE BT Whole Home
Wi-Fi £170 If you don’t need Wi-Fi 6,
this impressive
Wi-Fi 5
alternative is
much cheaperSPECIFICATIONS
Dual-band Wi-Fi 6 •• AX4500 speed rating •• 4x
Gigabit Ethernet ports per unit •• 185x86x86mm
(HxDxW) •• 454g per unit •• Three-year warranty
http://www.snipca.com/41950
On Sale Weds 8 June
Acer TravelMate
Spin P4
Flip this laptop’s
screen right over to
use it like a tabletBeelink SER 4 4800U
A surprisingly
powerful
Windows 11 PC
in a tiny caseMESH ROUTER ❘ £300 for three from Box http://www.snipca.com/41950
Linksys Atlas Pro 6
Goes the distance
adjoining bedroom and the downstairs
living room. We connected a NAS to the
main station via Gigabit Ethernet, and
used a laptop to copy a set of files to and
from the NAS from various locations
around the house.
The 5GHz network provided a strong
download speed of 60.2MB/s (480Mbps)
in the same room. With older mesh
devices we’ve seen a big drop-off in speed
further away from the primary unit, but
even in the hard-to-reach bathroom at
the back of the house, the Atlas Pro 6
maintained a solid speed of 44MB/s
(352Mbps) – enough for a rock-solid
connection. For most households there’s
little sense in spending more.This Linksys Wi-Fi 6 mesh router
looks a lot like the company’s previous
mesh products, which went under
the Velop brand. However, this more
affordable new range only uses dual-band
Wi-Fi – one basic 2.4GHz network and a
second faster 5GHz network.
As there’s no third band, the
5GHz channel ferries both the
communication between the mesh
devices and the data sent and received
by your Wi-Fi-connected devices. This is
a compromise, but keeps prices at a more
affordable level.
Linksys claims the three-unit set can
cover an area of up to 750m2, which is far
larger than the average UK home. For
three bedrooms or fewer you can make
do with a twin-pack (£200 from Box at
http://www.snipca.com/41951)..) The set also
lets you connect multiple wired devices,
with four Gigabit Ethernet ports on the
back of each unit.
Setup is handled by the Linksys mobile
app, which detected our first node
almost instantly and guided us through
choosing our network name and security
settings. Once your Atlas system is
running, you can use the app to check on
connected devices and carry out basic
management tasks. If you prefer, you
can manage it from a PC browser, though
we found the ageing user interface to be
slow and fiddly.
In our tests, Wi-Fi speeds were
excellent. We set up the three stations in
our test house, situating the primary one
in our home office, with extenders in the
Even in our hard-to-
reach bathroom,
it maintained a rock-
solid speed
Issue 632 • 25 May – 7 June 2022