APC BackUPS BE700G review

Protecting your Mac setup with a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) is always a good idea, especially if you live in an area that's prone to power cuts or outages. If your mains electricity supply cuts out, the UPS takes over and powers your equipment from its internal battery.

The BackUPS BE700G from APC gives you eight surge-protected power sockets, four of which are covered by the battery backup. That's enough UPS sockets for your Mac, monitor and essential peripherals like an external hard drive or router.

All eight sockets take standard three-pin plugs, which is much more convenient than the kettle leads favoured by some UPS systems. A neat powersaving feature defines one of the UPS-enabled sockets as the master outlet, and three non-UPS ports as controlled outlets.

When the device plugged into the master outlet is switched off, the controlled outlets power down. This feature is optional, and is switched off by default.

When drawing its full 700VA load, the BE700G gives you just under four minutes of battery time. In our tests, it powered two iMacs with one playing a digital video in QuickTime and the other web surfing for more than 20 minutes, which is commendable.

You can, of course, opt to have your Mac shut itself down in an orderly fashion before it drains the battery completely. Software is supplied, but you could use OS X's native UPS support.

The versatility offered here, coupled with its fair price, make the APC BackUPS BE700G ideal for the home user.

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