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Airtame Wireless HDMI Streaming Dongle Review

A Closer Look at the Airtame

Airtame itself is a simple and small device, measuring about 67 by 40 mm. It isn’t light, but it isn’t heavy either. It’s a device which feels like solid quality to hold. The top and bottom don’t have any distinct features as such, but the top has the logo and the bottom has the serial and models numbers.

Front and Back

The HDMI connector is gold plated and integrated directly into the stick. The dongle is firmly placed in the port when inserted. No wabbling or similar, but a stable connection.

On the other end of the device is a combined LED and button. The blue LED indicates the state of the device with a heartbeat. The heartbeat has three steps, indicating the CPU usage. The button can be used to reset the wireless settings and also to initiate a factory reset.

USB Connectors

There are two USB connectors on the Airtame. The first one is exposed and it is the power connector. You can power the device from any 5V 1A source, may it be an AC/DC adapter or a USB host port.

The second USB port is closed with a cap. This is the accessory port which can be used with an Ethernet adapter for a wired option.

Accessories

The included HDMI extension cable has two uses. The first would be when there isn’t sufficient room for the Airtame device to plug directly into your monitor. It could be due to other connected cables, for example. The second use would be to angle the Airtame to get a better wireless network reception.

The included power adapter can deliver up to 1.5A on its 5V output.

The fully assembled power supply, as I’ll be using it in my setup, looks like this.

Insides Out

Airtame is brilliantly designed, on the inside as well as on the outside. The outside has a simple yet stylish design while the internals are brilliant in multiple ways. The dongle is built well and with quality components. Not only that, it runs off a removable micro SD card. That fact replaces a point of failure with an easy reparable feature as well as offers hardware hackers the options to change in the device’s functionality. Now, granted, that will void your right to technical support and probably the warranty too, but it might be a price some are willing to pay in order to modify the system to their specific needs.

It’s also a pleasure to see the use of two RAM chips over a single one. That is a thing that’s partially responsible for the device’s good performance.