Hoo-Too Trip Mate Titan

Caravanning today is a far cry from what it was when I was young. Our entertainment on a wet day was either read a book, play a board game or build a house of cards.

Nowadays however it’s a different world. Apart from the caravan being so much better equipped, my children are now glued to their phones or tablets, in fact WiFi is now a serious requirement for many camp sites.

But the problem remains, what to do on a wet day? We could watch the TV. With hundreds of channels of programming that no two people want to watch, this would only lead to an argument, boredom and more cabin fever, and the family don’t really want another game of cards right now.

Let me introduce the HooToo Tripmate Titan. It is travel router, a wireless access point, USB media streaming device and a USB power bank all built into this handy package.

The device itself has 2 USB sockets (one for charging only) a network connection and on the top it holds an on / off button and some indication LEDs.

This has many features lets start the beginning.

The WiFi hotspot.

Switch on the TripMate and as soon as its booted up you will have a WiFi hotspot. The Tripmate has the ability to connect to an existing WiFi network. Using only 1 connection then being able to “bridge” that means you only need to pay for a single connection when out and about. This is a cost effective way of getting online for the whole family. The network port also provides you a wireless bridge to a wired connection for when you are in a hotel for example.

The USB Media streaming.

The coolest thing about this TripMate is the ability to connect a USB hard disk or USB memory stick with downloaded films, music or eBooks and being able to stream them to your devices. So While Chloe watches Cinderella, Tom can be watching a more age appropriate movie, while Angela catches up on her latest books and I listen to some music. All of which is stored on the USB device.

For me though, the nicest feature is this. I can copy (backup) my camera photos and movies to another card or hard disk just by using the free app. This means I can free up space on my Cameras SD cards, without the need for a computer. Perfect and safe !

The power bank

The TripMate has a 10,400mAh battery built in. Its capacity is huge. HooToo claim you can charge 3 smart phones and keep an iPad running longer just from the single charge. My own tests confirm that you can charge 3 iPhones and still be able to charge a Kindle from dead to 100% on this single battery. Its incredibly versatile.

 Conclusion ?

So this is many things all wrapped up in one box. Its simple to use either via a web page or the free app that is available from the Apple Store or Google Play.

The device works just fine on our phones and tablets with just 2 exceptions. Chloes older (Mk1 iPad) tablet was unable to either run the app (it requires iOS 6 or above) and was unable to run any of the videos through safari.

Also, there is no application available for Windows phones and again the webpages were unable to be displayed properly on the phone meaning that Chloe was unable to watch any movies on her own devices.

The Wifi bridge also promised more than it delivered. On many campsites now you need to log in via a web portal to use the WiFi. This means you login in on the TripMate, but authenticate your username and password on your phone or tablet. So in reality this wont be a great money saving device for sites that offer WiFi, with web authentication.  However I was able to bridge more than 2 connections to my phone. So the family were able to use my internet connection for online browsing.

Here is my video review of the TripMate, if you have any thoughts or questions please feel free to contact me.