Turn Your Tablet into a Media Centre

Tablets these days offer great graphics and often do an impressive job of playing back video. Usually 7-to-15 inches in size, they often provide a good-sized screen for playback.

Sound, on the other hand, can often be less than ideal and the built-in speakers aren’t always of a high quality. Also, while it’s nice to have the portability of a tablet to watch videos or listen to music, you may find yourself in an area with a weak Wi-Fi connection, making streaming difficult. Ultimately, all these practices will also significantly drain the device’s battery so you might find your self in a situation where the movie stops midway through, leaving you hanging.

Add power, Ethernet, peripherals & more

However, these problems and many others can be resolved with the right adapter, such as LAVA’s Charge-Plus LAN HUB.

The Charge-Plus LAN HUB is one of LAVA’s Home Series SimulCharge adapters. It features an Ethernet port for a wired network connection and two USB-A ports for peripherals. The adapter provides compatible USB-C devices with a 10/100-capable Fast Ethernet connection for streaming videos, music and games –  a more reliable and faster connection than Wi-Fi can provide.

Upgrade your sound with speakers

As the sound can be low on some tablets, you can use one of the USB-A ports for speakers or headphones. This will vastly improve the sound quality. Sure, you could simply use earphones that connect into the tablet’s USB-C power port or opt for wireless ones. However, there’s more variety with USB-A headphones (especially on the higher end). You also don’t have to worry about the headphones dying as you would with wireless ones.

Simplify navigation with a keyboard

For the Charge-Plus LAN HUB’s second USB-A port, you could attach a keyboard to make it easier to search for content on Netflix, Spotify and other streaming services – or use a thumb drive for movies and music. This would ensure you would be able to access the media you want when you don’t have access to Ethernet or Wi-Fi.

Get your game on

Alternatively, if you are a gamer, you could attach a game controller to one of the USB-A ports. This will allow to have a mobile gaming experience that is more on par with playing on a console.

Keep your tablet charged

While running in SimulCharge mode, the tablet is continuously charges while you use it, so there is no fear the battery will die while you’re watching your favourite TV show or movie or playing a game. In addition to SimulCharge, the Charge-Plus LAN HUB features an OTG mode, where the mobile device runs off its battery and both communicate with and power the adapter and peripherals.

A portable media centre

This is advantageous if you take your setup on the go with you. It might be difficult to connect to a network via Ethernet, depending on where you are. However, the rest can be easily setup. You can then stream movies and music at a coffee shop, in the park or anywhere else you have access to a Wi-Fi connection.

Of course, in OTG mode, the tablet’s battery continues to drain as you use it, so you will need to plug it in to charge eventually.

Battle weak Wi-Fi, poor sound & battery issues with Charge-Plus LAN HUB

While tablets often have great displays to watch movies, sound quality sometimes suffer and the connection may be a little shoddy at times. You also might run into other issues, such as poor navigation and a low battery from constant use.

By adding LAVA’s Charge-Plus LAN HUB, you can enhance the sound with speakers or headphones and get a more stable connection to the streaming server with a wired Ethernet connection. When plugged into power, the adapter provides simultaneous charging and data to the tablet, meaning it won’t lose its charge while it is in use. For a more portable setup, you can switch to OTG mode, where the tablet runs off battery power.

LAVA’s Charge-Plus LAN HUB is not compatible with all USB-C mobile devices. Please see our compatibility list for more details.