EVGA UV Plus+ UV16 USB 2.0 Video Adapter

Bundle & Experience

For those of you expecting games and HDTV adapters, you are reading the wrong review! The UV Plus comes with everything that it needs to get the job done. As you can see above EVGA includes a DVI-VGA adapter, a retractable USB cable (more on this in a minute), a felt carrying bag, the driver CD, and the manual.

UV Plus in action & summary:

Setting up the UV Plus could not be easier. First youll want to plug your monitor into the display adapter. As the manual states, drop in the driver CD, install the driver when prompted, reboot. Once Windows comes back up youre ready to hook up the USB cable to your laptop/desktop. After an extremely brief found hardware your display may flash, and then will be visible on the newly attached monitor. On the two systems that I installed this on the monitor started in clone mode. A simple click on the system tray icon brings up options to change it to extended and even lets you choose which way you want to extended it. Other options available are the resolution and color depth. If you needed more than one monitor added the UV Plus has you covered, you can add up to four of the devices, as long as you have 4 open USB ports. The devices are stackable and as you can see in the pictures, have small bits of rubber to help keep them in place.

The EVGA UV Plus 16 really is a great and handy device. I used it for several days including while at work to evaluate how it performed. As our forum members know, our team has been engaged in a folding war amongst our own team members and I have been doing my best to stay on top of the stats. My laptop has a standard resolution of 1024×768 and trying to keep a stat spreadsheet on such a small screen can be frustrating. Adding a second monitor really helped in this situation. I also tried to trip up the UV Plus by unplugging the USB cable to see how the driver and OS would react. The driver detected that the link was gone and simply shut down with no drama. I tried a few other things but never encountered a single instability and that is truly impressive. I was able to play DVD movies and videos on the new display with no hiccups.

There are only a couple of things that I would like to see improved, one of which is extremely minor. My first nitpick is that the carrying bag is big enough to fit the device and the retractable USB cable, but is a very tight fit when trying to get the DVI-VGA adapter in also. Perhaps a pocket could be added to the outside and make this a little easier. My second and more problematic concern is that the retractable USB cable is a bit too flimsy. Within seconds of opening the package I was testing the cable and the assembly went flying in pieces across my dining room. Luckily its only the two side pieces, two USB cables, and a metal clip which is bent to act as a tensionor. The problem is that both of the cables are wound the same way around the spindle, so that when you pull both sides of the cable out, even just a millimeter or two, and then retract, it gets tangled up. Pulling each side further out only complicates the issue and you end trying to untangle it for a few minutes, or pulling just hard enough to see the whole thing come apart. The second option takes almost no effort.

At the current retail price of $75 the EVGA UV Plus 16 is not the cheapest way to add additional monitor support to your desktop computer as even most low end graphics cards come in under this price. It is however almost the only way to extend monitor support on a laptop and is half the cost of buying a docking station.

Legit Bottom Line: The EVGA UV Plus 16 is solid product that allows laptop users to add multiple monitors without the need for a docking station and at $75 is not a huge investment.