Quick Review: Retrak Netbook Power cable

If you read my previous review of Retrak’s Laptop power cable you will know I loved the concept but was worried about the information supplied to enable me to use it with my device.

My comments stand on knowing which cable you need for your laptop(70 watts not helping a user like me!) but I have to say Emerging Technologies were in touch and advised that you look at the battery, to work out which cable you need. If you are very electrically savvy then this won’t worry you but as a user and not an electrical engineer it’s always helpful to have a good clue.

Retrak have a separate cable aimed at netbooks again using their slim plug and removing the brick from the cable. This is a different design from the laptop cable and incorporates a leisure charger and a USB charger so you can charge your phone/iPad etc.

The connection for the cable into the plug is a DIN plug which I haven’t seen since some old Serial cables but does make it very secure. The cable as ever retracts into a winder making this small and light. It comes with a selection of tips and even one to fit my Samsung another fitted a Sony in the office.

Now here is a good feature if you buy the cable and find there is not the right tips for your device just get in touch and the customer service team will send you the right tip for your device. That is a good feature as I would hate to have bought a sealed packet only to find it doesn’t fit my netbook.

I do have one gripe with this plug in that the way it has been structured sideways means you have to think carefully where you plug it in! If you take a look at the photo you will see that if  plugged into a multi way adapter it could take out 3 of the sockets. This I imagine may be a problem with some of the tighter sockets in odd little corners or hidden under desks in hotel rooms. So something I would recommend they consider on the next version.

It however does come with a handy little case so you can keep the tips and lead and plug all together and best of all no cable to untangle. It users the same slimplug as previously seen on the notebook charger but also comes with a ‘cigarette lighter’ plug for your car – although if you have a recessed socket you may struggle to fit it in.

All in all a very useful device which will save quite a bit of space on travelling but with a few minor things I would like thought about.

So whose with me for getting Retrak to produce a decent noise cancelling in ear headphone  to save hours of untangling cable for my MP3 and one with the microphone for Skype?