Anker USB 3.0 Portable Gigabit Ethernet Adapter Supporting 10/100 / 1000 Mbps Ethernet for Macbook, Mac Pro/mini, iMac, XPS, Surface Pro, Notebook PC, and More

I bought this device to keep in my laptop bag with my new Lenovo Yoga 710 laptop. This laptop, like many modern "thin and light" laptops has no on-board Ethernet. Whilst I only rarely need a wired connection there are times when only a wired connection will do.The device installed completely flawlessly in Windows 10. No pop ups no driver installation. It just worked. I tested the device by using "Lan Speed Test" from Totusoft (an excellent free tool) and repeatedly achieved in excess of 800 Mbps transfer speed to my NAS.Construction seems fine and there are three tiny LEDs which indicate power, network connection and data transfer. Anker also offer a metal-housed version for twice the price. Unless you really like shiny metal things I wouldn't bother; it's the same chipset in either case; probably the same PCB inside.All in all excellent value and truly useful. I have a couple of other Anker accessories and this seems to be a theme,

Can charger & cable brand deliver a top notch network gear? Anker proves it sure can.Adapter arrives in small cardboard box and that's a neat start: no excess paper wasted, everything kept to absolute minimum. Adapter's case is made of durable plastic with matte finish which is just ok - aluminium case (also available, but only in silver colour) would provide much more premium look and even more havy duty toughness.Total adapter's length is 182mm and its work is signaled by 3 LEDs on top of the case: red (power), green (connection established) and blue (data transfer). The cable is quite flexible, but thick enough (3.6mm) to handle full USB 3.0 power & data demands.Installation on WIndows 10 means only one thing: plugging it into the USB 3.0 socket. That's it, OS will automatically recognize it as "Realtek USB GbE Family Controller" and your ethernet connection is running. Using Linux, MacOS or older version of Windows? No problems either, just head to official Anker website and download the drivers you need.Speed and performance is off the charts as after weeks of use I've never experienced any issues. That includes not only everyday broadband use, but also home network with file transfers >100 MB/s. So no matter how demanding user you are - you will get those gigabit speeds any time you need them.Summary: quality adapter which in most cases will surpass the potential of ethernet cards built into you laptop or desktop PC. Fast, reliable and easy to use, all that backed by premium manufacturer and top notch customer service. Highly recommended!

**EDIT**So, Anker recently got in contact with me regarding the 3 star feedback I gave for my previous review. They were very professional about it, and replaced my faulty device, and told me not to bother returning the faulty one.I've tested it out for about a month now, with stable connections being made and an obvious speed difference between this and the faulty one. It's also much faster than my wifi, given that this is gigabit rated (my wifi card is only 10/100). I am now able to download at my current broadband speed of 150mbs. Thanks Anker!**EDIT**I prefer to test electrical products out for a while before leaving reviews, and in this instance it was probably a wise move.Physically, the device is lightweight, very plasticky but as described. Upon connecting it for the first time, I noticed a massive difference between using my ethernet port on my laptop (which is rated as 10/100mbps) and my wifi (of which the chip is also rated at 10/100). As I'm current on a 150mb internet connection I was pretty much losing 33% of my speed, if not more.Sadly, this device worked up until the beginning of this month (meaning I've had about 3 months use at the speeds I can receive) before it's bottlenecked at 100mb again. I've uninstalled the device, reinstalled, reconnected, updated drivers to no avail.Will probably buy a replacement from another maker as I'd like to be able to download files in much less time than I am currently, unless I somehow manage to fix whatever is wrong with it (if it's software related anyway!). If it's a fault, I'll have to weigh up my options as it's covered I believe in warranty. Will keep updated if / when I know more.

I have ordered two of these Anker USB 3.0 Gigabit Ethernet Adapters and they work well.The overall build quality is good, however I had a couple of issues that were quickly resolved:- One unit had disconnect issues. It was refunded by Amazon and I could order a new unit.- Another unit developed a cable fault after a few months. It was still under warranty and was promptly replaced with a new unit by Anker.I add technical information for Linux users:This adapter is based on the popular and well-supported Realtek RTL8153 chipset. It works natively on recent Linux distributions and also supports sleep mode and resume without any major issues (it might disconnect on resume depending on your USB controller, but will be reconfigured automatically if using a network manager). If your computer supports booting from a USB network adapter (this is the case with recent Dell laptops that lack a built-in ethernet port), this adapter will be recognised as a USB NIC device and will enable PXE booting. The network connection remains perfectly stable during use (no transient disconnects).