USB 3.0 Switch, USB Switcher 2 Computers Share 4 USB for PC
USB 3.0 Switch, USB Switcher 2 Computers Share 4 USB for PC Mouse Keyboard Printer Scanner, USB KVM Switch Selector Compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux
| Weight: | 190 g |
| Dimensions: | 14.1 x 11.3 x 3.9 cm; 190 Grams |
| Brand: | BENFEI |
| Model: | 000354black |
| Batteries Included: | No |
| Manufacture: | BENFEI |
| Dimensions: | 14.1 x 11.3 x 3.9 cm; 190 Grams |
MacOS shows this as a USB 3.0 hub, and transfer speeds to a Samsung T7 (writing random data) are about 230MB/s vs about 270MB/s when writing direct to the disk.
The case is plastic but it feels tough (I’ve tried bending the plastic and it didn’t crack or creak). It has a microusb socket for power, but I suspect that’s only for power-hungry devices as the switch itself can be powered from the host connection.
This could be useful if you’re needing to switch disks between hosts, but I think it would be more useful to me as a keyboard/mouse switch.
I often have my laptop nearby while I am on my Desktop. Whenever I travel out, I do some work on my Laptop. While I utilise cloud storage, sometimes I am faced with a slow internet connection so I end up having to transfer such files to my Desktop using a Flash Drive or an external SSD.
Now with this on my desk, I do not have to swap Flash drives, I just move files to external storage devices and they are available to both connected computers.
I have a couple of Benfei products, cables, HDMI USB switches/cables and I have generally been impressed.
This USB switch has been incredibly useful in my home office where I use multiple computers. It allows me to share devices like a printer and scanner between two computers effortlessly. The data transfer speed is fast, making file transfers between devices quick and efficient. The switch button is easy to use and the LED indicator is helpful in identifying the active computer. The option to add extra power for high consumption devices is a thoughtful addition. It’s a great tool for anyone looking to streamline their workflow in a multi-computer setup.
Over the years I had gradually used up all my USB ports and needed some help. This little box of tricks has resolved the issue and I’m very pleased with it.
It can be used to allow two different devices to share Peripherals, but I just use it on my PC in a standalone mode. The box itself is very small so easily located and feels good quality and quite sturdy.
The cables provided with it are also of a good quality and it comes with a simple instruction manual as well, which is helpful.
It has now relieved the port pressure by adding for extra USB ports to my PC and it is working very well indeed.
Review of BenFei USB 3.0 Switch, USB Switcher 2 Computers Share 4 USB,
This switch works really well, easily moves between two computers to give each access to the four connected USB items, used on Windows 10 or 11 USB switching is easily accomplished without dismounting so data corruption is avoided.
This small unit will accommodate 4 USB 3.0 thumb drives or pens side by side unlike some other slim switching units, unfortunately the two USB 3.0 cables supplied and micro usb power cable are only about one metre long, no problem for on desk use but for PC’s stored under desk a bit short, however this personal choice.
Once connected the switcher is flawless in use, a press button on top moving all four items from one PC to another PC, laptop, notepad or other, this also applies to the 5v power lead micro usb cable, to which a Type A USB connector is fitted for the actual power supply.
This unit seems well made and transfers data at speed, whilst a mobile phone cannot be used via the two PC ports due to it not supplying 5 volts to the switcher I have connected my Huawei phone to one of the USB 3.0 ports and transferred data from a USB pen drive on another USB 3.0 port directly to the phone and vica versa, 5v power is required from PC or supply cable to the switcher unit.
The 5v power runs internally to supply power hungry portable devices such as hard drives, having this independent power supply allows the unit capable of other configurations beside switching between two PC,s.
All in all a useful item to have to hand if quick data transfer is needed.
This is a small & lightweight all plastic cased switch. There are 4 rubber feet on the base, providing some grip to the desk.
It has 2 USB3 Male/Male cables 1 Metre long and a Micro USB / USB Male cable to provide 5v power to the device if needed: I tested with an Illuminated Keyboard and Optical mouse – which were connecting then disconnecting without 5v being provided, repeated when just having my camera connected, which may have been due to it automatically starting slow charge when plugged in.
With a 5v supply provided the switch was stable, even with 4 demanding devices plugged in.
A button on the top switches between the devices it is plugged into – this worked flawlessly, with the same caveats regarding external power.
A quick test of transfer speed – sending a 1.16GB folder from my camera to PC, 3 times, averaged 67 MB / Second, so no issues with speed, it is fine. (My camera is the fastest transfer device I have currently, so it made sense for testing)
Minimal packaging, which is good, lightweight and useful. I marked down one star as the promotional header mentions KVM, which it isn’t…
This item came in a sealed and well packaged box. Upon opening, the main component was also in packaging which I removed for the photo. Each wire has a cap on the end, which was great. There is also instructions included to aid your use of the item. This is perfect for my PC and exactly how I hoped it would be. Everything is strong and well made. Would recommend.
A nice little unit. It comes with 3 cables: 2 USB A-A cables to go to each computer, and one USB A to Micro B cable to help power the unit if ever needed (perhaps if both host systems are asleep and neither provide power to the USB port whilst doing so?). I didn’t need this extra power cable, though – it was just powered by either host.
It has 4 USB3 ports for switched peripherals, you push the button and boom, everything switches over.
I haven’t had an issue with switching, but will update if I do encounter something.
Simple and does what it says, lets me switch between my laptop and desktop, and acts as a usb hub.
There is a slight delay of maybe 2 seconds, although this may just be how long my computers take to register the new peripherals. I was (pleasantly) surprised how small it was
Benfei 4 port USB 3.0 to 2 port USB 3.0 splitter.
Share 4 USB’s to 2 PC’s via a selector switch/button.
You get,
The splitter
Mini USB power cable/cord to use on a 5v USB charger.
2 USB type A male to male cables to connect your PC’s to the splitter.
I used this device to share a USB mouse dongle and USB keyboard dongle to 2 PC’s and found no issues switching between the 2 PC’s
Everything looks well made and worked.
Working from home I am frequently switching between my work MacBook and my Windows desktop computer, and I use the same devices (mouse, keyboard etc) on both, which makes swapping between them fairly tedious.
I had already partly solved this problem with a USB hub which meant I only needed to swap 1 USB cable between them, however why have to swap 1 cable when I could be just pressing a switch and have all of the devices switch seamlessly?
This is where this USB switch/KVM caught my eye. I only have 3 or 4 devices that I need to swap between computers, keyboard, mouse, external microphone and a USB DisplayLink adaptor (bought so I could have an extra monitor on my M1 Macbook, but works just as well in Windows).
Packaging was good, the small cardboard box was shrink wrapped (wish they hadn’t) and the contents inside neatly laid out.
You get 2 USB 3.0 cables to connect to your computers, both 1m in length and look of good quality.
You also get a Micro USB cable (1m length) to connect to power, which I connected to a powered USB socket.
The USB switch itself is much smaller than I had thought, measuring 10cm on the long edge. Made of a tough matte black plastic with 4 input USB 3.0 A ports on one long edge, and 2 USB 3.0 A ports to connect to your computers.
The top of the device has a round button, used for switching between devices, and 2 blue LED lights to signify which device is connected/active. These blue LED lights are not particularly bright, which is good in my opinion, just bright enough to be seen.
In real world use with my USB devices connected, the layout of the ports does become a slight problem, as the “front” is the side with the 4 USB ports, so you do get a bit of a mess of cables.
This may not be too much of a problem if you are just using it for USB flash drives, USB wireless controllers for mice/keyboard, but for normal USB devices with cables it would have been better for cable management to have all ports on the back.
I tested on macOS Sonoma and Windows 10, both recognise the device without needing to install drivers.
All my devices work when switching between computers, so I’m happy there.
I tested a NVMe external drive I have, which gave a sustained 410MB/s+ (not Mb/s) transfer speed, which shows this is a USB 3.0 hub.
Be aware, whilst you can use this without the Micro USB power, I tested without it and did get some devices being disconnected and reconnected, so I would advise to use this to avoid data loss on external drives etc.
Overall, I am happy with the device, 1 star off for the port layout, as it should be obvious when designing the device that this could be an issue, otherwise it works as intended and I can now just switch devices with the press of a button.
I have a PC and laptop which I frequently use at the same time. It frustrates me having to downgrade to integrated keyboard and trackpad as I don’t have the desk space for a 2nd keyboard and trackball. So, this is the ideal solution.
It’s a tiny device, about 2/3 the size of a pack of cards. It has a small flush button and 2 LED in one corner to signify which feed is in use. Operation is very simple.
I have my keyboard and trackpad connected and can easily switch between the 2 computers. There is a brief lag, c2s at switching, but functionality is perfect, there is no screen lag, and I’ve had no issues with the signal degrading. Everything works exactly as if plugged directly.
The unit comes with a USB power cable, but using it with passive devices like this means I don’t need it. I anticipate you need it for HDD to power them, but as a previous review stated, I would be concerned about using this for data storage devices because of the risk of data loss through unsafe unmounts. For a disk drive, it’s far better to connect it to your router or an Ethernet switch if you need to access it from multiple devices.
In the box are also 2 high-quality USB-A to USB-A data cables to connect your I/O devices. The USB ports claim to be USB 3.0, but I haven’t tested data transfer so cannot confirm. Packaging was minimal and no plastic, which is nice to see.
Recommended produc
These device sharing switches allow multiple USB devices to be shared between two PC connections, one at a time. This one is now installed under the top of my desk where I can touch the switch button easily but all the wiring is hooked up out of the way.
The device has two sockets on one side which connect to two PCs with the cables supplied. The switch button selects which PC the USB devices get connected to, indicated by a small LED. Up to four USB 3 (or USB 2) devices can be connected; the unit also acts as a hub. A USB 3 flash drive plugged in for testing worked at its full speed. Switchover is almost instant; there is some delay depending on the USB devices connected and the operating system as it connects to them but that is not dependent on the USB sharing switch itself. Note that switching back and forth rapidly can confuse both USB devices and Windows, so wait at least a couple of seconds or you might have to wait 15 seconds while they sort themselves out again.
My switch is now switching a keyboard, mouse and wireless 3DConnexion dongle between my two PCs in the office. Each has its own monitor (and I need to see them both like that) so a conventional KVM switch is not needed, and in fact this item is in some ways better. Note that the advert for this item describes it as a KVM switch; it really isn’t unless you are running your video through USB. A true KVM switch has monitor connections (DVI, HDMI, whatever) too. I know… I have several.
I said this unit is better in some ways than a true KVM switch… the reason is that some fancy mice and keyboards to not play well with KVMs. That includes my mouse. All the mouse’s special functions are lost when used through a KVM switch. Not the case with this simpler USB sharing switch; as far as the mouse and PC are concerned, it;s just plugged into a hub as it normally might be and everything works perfectly. There should be no compatibility issues with this switch, with any USB device.
Finally, should your USB devices need more power than can be provided by the single PC USB interface that is currently connected, the switch can be powered from an additional (not included) 5V USB adapter to provide up to 2A current. Or you could plug it into another USB socket on the PC and just get half an amp extra, if you only need a little bit. Long story short, it’s a powered or unpowered hub as required.
Highly recommended.
This review is for the USB 3.0 Switch, USB Switcher 2 Computers Share 4 USB for PC Mouse Keyboard Printer Scanner, USB KVM Switch Selector Compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux
15.59 at the time of review.
Benfei make good stuff and this switch is no exception. It is all plastic and that is the only negative I have about it. You get the switch, two USB cables and a USB A to C charging cable which you can connect to the switch if you are using a device that needs more power than USB can supply from your computer.
I have it connected to a laptop and a desktop that share a single monitor (using 2 ports on the monitor for video from each). They are usually not on at the same time, so bear that in mind.
This switch is advertised as a KVM switch, and it isn’t. It doesn’t have any video ports on it at all, so it cannot fulfil the middle part of the Keyboard Video Mouse (KVM) category.
However, I am using it to share a wireless keyboard and mouse, with a single dongle, between the two PCs in my setup, and it works brilliantly. I also have 3 spare ports to which I can attach thumb drives, a scanner and so on.
Remember that pressing the button to switch computers is the same as pulling out a USB drive without disconnecting it first.
The switch is small and pretty discrete with the switch button on the left front at the top. It needs to be visible so you can switch computers, but it also needs to be visible so you can plug and unplug USB devices into it as well.
I can’t really see any downsides and the price is not unreasonable, so 5 stars from me and highly recommended. Just remember though that this is a USB switch and not a KVM switch.
I have two PCs on my desk, one running Windows, one running Linux. I’m using this product to switch my keyboard and trackball between them. For this purpose it’s working well.
A word of warning though – the product description mentions using it to switch disks or flash drives between computers – personally I would not risk doing this. If you do this you will need to be very careful to make sure that any operations on the drive have finished before you switch, on Linux you need to unmount the drive, for flash drives you need to “Eject” the drive on Windows or Linux. Getting this wrong could lead to corrupted data or even an unusable drive. I’m just not going to risk it. (This also means I have no need to feed the switch with external power.)
We use this to switch between a printer and a mouse as our laptop only has one USB A outlet. It was plug and play so no set up required. Works well and as expected. Just a handy thing making life a little easier.
It’s obvious this isn’t the highest-end KVM switcher on the market, but it’s about as small as it can be and the button is firm enough to not be accidentally pressed.
This is the first time I’ve seen one of these include a cable for additional power. Normally they just have the port and tell you to get your own cable. So that could come in handy.
I’ve been needing a USB expansion port on my PC for some time and this is it. And there is an added bonus that it can switch between two computers as required so the peripherals and memory drives can be swapped around at will.
I’m not sure what the “micro B power port” is for as the device seems quite happy to draw its power from the PC input connector. Maybe it’s for using it with peripherals that require more power then the PC can provide.. Bur for me it didn’t seem to matter if it was powered via this or not.
It was a bit fiddly to get working the first time, the ports are not well marked, but once I’d got he right connections it works fine. Very useful.
I’m into retro computing and was looking for something that could allow me to share my keyboard and mouse with my modern Mac and old Windows XP PC.
After a little initial frustration (the hub I was using on the Mac just didn’t work with this switcher), I eventually got it to work by plugging it in to a different hub. The Windows XP side worked without issue.
Niggles: I wish all the ports were along the same side of the unit, as that would make cable management much easier. Also, if it had the option of a software switch, it would be perfect – then I wouldn’t need to keep it on my desk to access the button.
Overall though, I think it’s a good value USB switcher that does what it says it will.
Ever since the events of 2020 I’ve been working from home. As a programmer I’ve got my own PC and a work’s laptop that I use with my multiple monitor set up.
As a cheapskate programmer, I’ve been using an old USB hub and a couple of USB extension leads under the desk to switch keyboard and mouse.
I use a HDMI switch box for the monitors. For the keyboard and mouse – 08:30 every day I scramble under my desk to plug the USB hub into the correct machine. 17:00 every evening I reverse the process.
I never even thought about looking for a product like this before. I’d used KVM switches back in the days of PS/2 ports but I didn’t know there were USB switches. This thing works really well. Connect up to 4 devices on the front of the device, connect 2 PCs/Macs etc using the supplied cables at the back. Press the button on top to switch between them – not much else to it!
There’s a supplied USB A to Micro USB cable that can be used to provide extra power to the device (no power brick though). This can be useful if you need to attach an external hard drive etc where more power would be needed. Just a precaution though – remember pressing the button on the device is effectively the same as yanking out the USB cable – so if you are using storage devices remember to ‘safely eject’ them first.
The unit itself feels very light but solidly built. The cables for connecting to your host devices are about 1m long. I’m having to use a USB extension for one of my machines due to positioning.
Well worth it just for the 20 seconds a day I’ve saved from unplugging USB cables. That’s 86 minutes a year I’ve got back!
/Andy