Ugreen 65W GaN DigiNest Cube Charging Station Review – The Cool Cube of Power

One can never have enough charging outlets, especially seeing the amount of appliances and gear the average house has these days which is where Ugreen’s latest charging station comes into the picture. Featuring the dimensions of a dark grey Rubik’s cube with the ability to charge at least seven items simultaneously, it looks like the perfect solution for technophiles with a ton of gear to juice but not a lot of outlets to do it with. 

We got our hands on their latest cube-shaped charging station a few weeks back and if you’re on the fence on getting this quaint looking power strip, here’s our Ugreen 65W GaN DigiNest Cube Charging Station review where we share if it’s worth its lofty RM200 or so price tag.

Ugreen 65W GaN DigiNest Cube Charging Station review – Build and Design

Where the majority of Ugreen’s charger designs tend to prioritise portability with compact form factors, their latest charging station goes entirely in the opposite direction and eschews portability for versatility and performance by taking the concept of a charging station to its fullest potential melded with their current gen GaN hardware for safer and faster charging. 

In essence, the Ugreen 65W GaN DigiNest Cube Charging Station is a cube shaped power strip that hosts a trio of UK-style AC power outlets across its top and sides for you to plug in other peripherals or appliances with a maximum collective threshold of 2,990W.

Up front, it hosts a quartet of USB ports which collectively offer up to 65W of power. For added versatility, the USB ports consist of a pair of USB-C ports  along with a pair of USB-A ports, all of which support most fast charging protocols for the majority of smartphones in the market save for proprietary charging designs such as those from Huawei or Xiaomi.

Ports aside, our Ugreen 65W GaN DigiNest Cube Charging Station review sample is primarily done up in matte black polycarbonate with a grey panel for the USB charging ports up front that feels quite sturdy.

The design itself is made to lie on a quartet of rubber feet on the base with the front USB ports facing the user and while it is quite balanced by default, plugging in a heavier plug or peripheral on the side AC ports can make it lean precariously or tip over. Overall build quality is excellent and even with heavy use over the past several weeks, there’s no chipping or wear on any of the ports or outlets.

The rear of the design hosts a master kill switch to turn every outlet including the USB ports off as well as a non-removable charging cable that stretches out to 1.5 metres length and which terminates in a UK-style plug to plug it into a wall outlet. 

While it is well built and sturdy, our Ugreen 65W GaN DigiNest Cube Charging Station review sample proved to be rather heavy at about 500g and bulky to boot on account of its non-removable charging cable. The cube-shaped nature of the design and its spread of ports across four of its six sides means that it can’t be taped to a wall with a 3M strip unlike more conventionally shaped flat power strips makes it best suited for static deployments on a desk at home or in the office. 

After experimentation, it works best plonked next to a work table in the office or on a night stand where it offers easy fast charging access for your gear. In a pinch, it could be stored in a check-in suitcase if you’re looking at an extended work or holiday overseas but the sheer bulk of it makes it something you’ll have to consider carefully before packing your luggage.

Ugreen 65W GaN DigiNest Cube Charging Station review – Performance

Unlike the majority of power strips and other fast chargers, our Ugreen 65W GaN DigiNest Cube Charging Station review is designed as a hybrid of both. The design lets you plug in up to three other appliances via the three AC outlets across its sides and charge up to four smaller items of tech via the four USB ports up front which helps save quite a bit of your cable and hardware footprint.

Much like their other designs, the front-mounted set of USB ports in our Ugreen 65W GaN DigiNest Cube Charging Station review unit has different outputs depending on which port you use and how many you use at the same time.

Assuming you stick to one USB-C port, you can get the full 65W charge though the USB-A ports can only output an 18W charge. On paper, Ugreen rates the USB-C port to be able to charge a MacBook Pro 13 inch to full in about 2 hours and an iPhone 14 Pro to 60% in half an hour.

On the other end of the scale, if you use all the provided ports, you can get a 30W and 20W charge on both USB-C ports and about a 15W charge divided between each USB-A port which basically lets you trickle charge a bunch of lesser devices like earbuds or watches while the USB-C ports can juice a phone or tablet.

On paper, our Ugreen 65W GaN DigiNest Cube Charging Station review unit and its three AC outlets are rated for up to a collective maximum of 2,990W which leaves plenty of room to power almost all home appliances. 

The front USB ports work separately from the AC outlets and offer up to 65W of charging power. According to their official literature, the charger is able to fully charge a 13-inch Macbook Pro 13 in two hours, an iPhone 14 Pro to 60% in 30 minutes and a circa 20233 iPad Pro 11 to 70% in an hour if using a single USB-C port. Basically, the more devices you charge, the slower it gets as it has to reallocate charging speeds to optimise the load.

On paper, the UGreen  65W GaN charging station offers USB PD3.0, PPS, FCP, Quick Charge 3.0 and 4.0 as well as Apple charging protocol support while the two USB-A ports offer Quick Charge 3.0, FCP, AFC and Apple charging support which covers most phones and tablets in the market.

Just for a lark, we had one AC outlet power the Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED UX6404 which requires a hefty 200W power brick just to keep it running in the field.

For science, we added on a MSI Cyborg 15 A12V and its 120W charging brick to another AC outlet. Both laptops charged in a smooth fashion. For the last AC outlet, we bunged in our trusty table fan. Even at full load with all three AC outlets in use, the charging station worked without any excessive heat build-up in the chassis after running for over a week.

To fully test the potential, our Ugreen 65W GaN DigiNest Cube Charging Station review sample was assigned to charge a Huawei MateBook X 2022 laptop off one of the USB-C ports with the other USB-C port juicing a Galaxy Z Fold5.

The Galaxy Z Fold5 which typically requires a 25W charge via power delivery was able to charge a slightly slower 20W which adds a few more minutes to its one hour and 20 minutes charging time. The notebook itself took quite a bit longer with almost double the charging time as the other USB-C port was only able to offer 45W charging whereas its own default charger offers 90W charging.

At full load with all ports used, our Ugreen 65W GaN DigiNest Cube Charging Station review sample managed to offer 30W and 20W respectively via power delivery on both USB-C ports and about 5V/3A on the remaining two USB-A ports.

Naturally, charging speeds are faster when devices are charged individually but the speeds when charging multiple devices are adequate for overnight charging or when you’re at work and aren’t wandering about much. 

If needed, you can daisy chain another charger to one of the other three existing AC outlets and we managed to get the Ugreen 2-port 100W GaN fast charger we tested working at its fullest potential though this naturally assumes you have additional multi-port chargers lying around for use.

Should you buy the Ugreen 65W GaN DigiNest Cube Charging Station ?

The Ugreen 65W GaN DigiNest Cube Charging Station is a great choice for users who require the means to charge multiple devices reliably with its three AC outlets and its 65W charging off its quad USB ports though its bulkiness means that it works best in static deployments at a desk or beside your nightstand.

Specifications
Price RM199.90
Ports 3 AC outlets, 2 x USB-C, 2 x USB-A
Total Output： 65W (USB-C + USB-A)
AC Output： 2,990W Max 13A Max, 100-240V～50/60Hz
USB-C Output： 5V/3A, 9V/3A, 12V/3A,15V/3A, 20V/3.25A, 65W Max. PPS: 3.3-21V/3A
USB-A Output： 5V/3A, 9V/2A,12V/1.5A, 18W Max
USB-C charging protocols PD3.0,PPS, QC4+(QC4.0/QC3.0), FCP, AFC, APPLE 5V2.4A, BC1.2
USB-A charging protocols QC3.0, FCP, AFC, APPLE 5V2.4A, BC1.2
Size/Weight 76 x 76 x 76mm / 498.95g

Ugreen 65W GaN DigiNest Cube Charging Station courtesy of Ugreen. To purchase please visit their official Shopee page at https://bit.ly/49RJ4Uy