The Gadget: Ideative's Socket Sense surge protector that expands in order to fit more bulky AC adapters all on one strip.


The Price: $29.99

The Verdict: One of the best expandable surge protectors we've used yet. It's incredibly useful on road trips (CES) as well as at home, and beats even the Power Squid in our eyes in a general comparison.


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The special thing about Socket Sense is that it can be expanded from 13 to 18 inches and has 6 angled outlets, allowing you to fit more adapters on one strip. Because of this, the Socket Sense is significantly bigger than a lot of other power protectors—fully extended, it is the length of a 5'4'' female's arm—and weighs a lot more too.

However, compared to squid outlets, the design and size of the Socket Sense gives it a heavy, flat bottom, which makes it easier to use without having to deal with bundled up cords and cables all over the place. Moreover, surge protector allows you to individually extend each outlet when needed, allowing you to adjust how much space it takes up to some extent. Also, there is enough tension on extender so that the strip doesn't flimsily slide open or close, but it doesn't give off so much resistance that a relatively weak girl can't extend it easily.


Overall, Socket Sense is a reliable piece of hardware for those who need a power strip that offers more space between each adapter. It has 2160 joules of surge protection, compared to the 540 joules of the $30 power squid (the $50 squid offers 1080 joules and the $70 squid offers 3240 joules). For $30, it's hard to find a better overall surge protector with this amount of space per socket, although the EZSpace UFO is pretty good as well. [Ideative]


Large enough to allow you to plug in six of just about anything in the strip




Slightly larger than a normal power strip




Slightly pricier than a normal strip at $30

