This Hong Kong hardware startup makes charging devices a snap for travelers

If you travel a lot with a computer, phone, or both, you’ve probably already come to this realization: power can be a pain. Different countries have different kinds of outlets, and carrying around adapter plugs for all of your devices — your computer, phone, tablet, digital camera, iPod, etc. – can be pretty inconvenient, especially if you’re visiting countries with different outlet systems during the same trip. Plus, there are still plenty of hotel rooms in the world that lack enough power outlets to actually plug in all your devices.

Thankfully, the folks at OneAdaptr have a solution. These Hong Kong-based hardware junkies have created some products that are aimed squarely at reducing and simplifying power outlet woes for travelers. Especially travelers with Macs. They’ve just launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund their device, so I’ll let them explain how it works:

Altogether, the company offers four separate Twist products but they’re all variations on a theme: an all-in-one universal adapter with four USB outlets in addition to a MacBook connection (except on the baseline Twist, which only has USB connections).

OneAdaptr’s Rene Henriksen sent me a couple of the devices – one Twist Plus World Charging Station and one Twist World Charging Station – for review. While I haven’t had the chance to take them on the road just yet, I’ve been using them to power my gadgets for the past couple of days, and I’m pretty impressed.

The plugs on the World Charging Station really are as easy to adjust as the video suggests; just a twist or two will have you ready to plug in to most of the world’s power outlets. And I can’t tell you how useful having four USB plugs is for charging. With a single Twist Plus and one power outlet, I can now charge my laptop, my phone, my wife’s phone, and my Kindle all at the same time. If I had an iPad, I could be charging that too. And I’m happy to report that both the Twist and Twist plus seem to stick in all the outlets I’ve tried them in. Even with the Macbook’s power brick attached, you shouldn’t have to worry about a Twist falling out of the socket.

The product isn’t perfect, of course. It’s nice that the Twist is lightweight, but it does feel a little flimsy. I’m not sure how many years of hard travel a Twist could take before an overly zealous luggage attendant throwing bags around might break its plastic casing. And it’s definitely a little bulky – it’ll use a lot more room in your luggage than the average power adapter, and it’ll take up a whole wall outlet even though it only needs to plug into one of the two sockets.

And of course, Twist’s convenience comes at a price. If all you want is a universal adapter, there are much cheaper options. However, I’ve used plenty of different cheap adapters in my travels, and most of them sucked. Some are prone to falling out of the wall socket, others simply aren’t as universal as they claim, and a few have straight-up broken right out of the box.

So, even at about US$30 for the Twist Plus World Charging Station, I still think it’s probably a worthwhile buy if you’re frequent traveler who likes to keep her gadgets charged. The peace of mind alone is worth the price of entry: no more trying to remember what kind of plugs they use in Jakarta: just toss the Twist into your luggage you’re ready to go anywhere. No more worrying about whether you’ll have time to charge all your devices: just find one outlet and you can charge them all simultaneously.

It’s easy enough that the next time I take a trip, I’ll probably bring along the Twist Plus and leave all my other adapters at home. If you think you’d like to do the same, you can reserve one by donating to the Kickstarter here.

See: After a solid crowdfunding campaign, Hong Kong’s Ezeecube nabs $100k in seed funding from Nest