Stop connecting your Mac to TVs with a cumbersome cable. The Belkin ConnectAir Wireless HDMI Display Adapter saves you from needing to stretch a wire across your living room, classroom or conference room.
All it takes is plugging one component into the USB-C port on your Mac, iPad or iPhone and the other component into the HDMI port on any TV. Now you’re ready to watch a movie.
I put the new accessory to the test, including its promise of plug-and-play connectivity. Here’s how it performed.
Belkin ConnectAir Wireless HDMI Display Adapter review
Wireless video adapters make it easy to connect a computer to a TV without running long HDMI cables across the room, keeping your spaces cleaner. And because the connection is wireless, you can stay seated on the couch or walk around while your content stays on the big screen.
They’re especially handy in living rooms, classrooms and meeting spaces where people want to share a screen without streching a cable across the room. Beyond cutting clutter, no one is going to trip over a wireless connection and knock your MacBook to the ground.
Wirelessly mirror and/or extend from a display-enabled USB-C host device in business settings like conference rooms or classrooms. Present from a laptop, tablet or phone with ease. Cut the cords and keep the connection to effortlessly plug and play without requiring network, WiFi or Bluetooth.
- Hi-res video without the cable
- Plug-and-play convenience
- Wireless signal struggles going through TV
- Not 4K
Table of contents: Belkin ConnectAir Wireless HDMI Display Adapter review
- Portable and easy to connect
- Plug-and-play setup
- Hi-res performance
- Range: Good and bad
- Belkin ConnectAir Wireless HDMI Display Adapter review: Final thoughts
- Pricing
Portable and easy to connect
There are two parts to the Belkin ConnectAir Wireless HDMI Display Adapter: a transmitter and receiver.
The transmitter is a dongle that measures 3.0 inches by 1.75 by 0.75 inches with a 2-inch USB-C cable sticking out. It’s basic black.
At first glance, I thought Belkin hadn’t sent me the receiver, just a USB power cable. Then I realized that cable was the entire receiver. It’s simply an HDMI connector and a USB-A connector joined by a 23.5-inch cable.
The wireless video adapter is really quite portable — ready to go in your backpack, laptop case, briefcase, etc. It’s much smaller than an HDMI cable of any useful length.
Plug-and-play setup
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Using the Belkin ConnectAir Wireless HDMI Display Adapter is actually easier than plugging in an HDMI cable into most Apple products. You don’t need an adapter — simply plug the transmitter into your Mac, iPad or even iPhone.
The receiver plugs into your TV or projector. It needs a USB-A port for power, but these days those are standard. My 10-year-old basic TV has one, for example, as does my projector.
After plugging everything in, just wait a few seconds. Transmitter and receiver will find each other and connect all on their own. They don’t need access to your Wi-Fi network, or even for there to be a Wi-Fi network available. They communicate directly.
Hi-res performance
Photo: Belkin
In my testing, the Belkin ConnectAir Wireless HDMI Display Adapter provided easy-to-watch video at 1080p and 60Hz.
For most people, 1080p is all they need. A Netflix Standard plan streams video at that resolution, for example. But some people demand 4K — if that’s you, then this wireless adapter isn’t what you’re looking for.
Most video and movies are filmed at 24fps, so 60 Hz is plenty fast. But gamers and graphics professionals typically want more, and will have to stick with HDMI cables.
Belkin promises latency below 80ms, and I found the wireless connection to be fast enough to enjoy gaming.
Range: Good and bad
Belkin promises a range of a whopping 131 feet (40 meters) from the wireless video adapter. That’s farther than I can test, but I did get the two components 30 or 40 feet apart and they stay in sync.
That said, I had a problem with the signals going through my TV. With the receiver behind the TV and the transmitter in front, the connection would occasionally drop. This didn’t happen when I used a second TV with its HDMI and USB ports on the side.
During testing, I watched hours of video streaming from my iPhone and iPad over this adapter. When the transmitter and receiver had a line-of-sight connection, it worked great. But with something — like a TV — between them, the connection wasn’t so reliable.
During the times the wireless connection dropped, it always reconnected in a second or two. If not, there’s a reset button to press to make it resume trying. I never actually needed the reset button, though.
Belkin ConnectAir Wireless HDMI Display Adapter review: Final thoughts
When I go on holiday, I want to be sure I can watch TV — even a week at the beach includes rainy days. I don’t enjoy fiddling with smart TVs in rental houses, and a wireless video adapter like Belkin’s lets me easily connect my own computer to any large screen for watching movies or TV shows from all of my streaming services.
The gadget is very portable, and generally reliable. That said, it’s not as reliable as some of the other wireless video adapters I’ve reviewed, like the Nyrius Orion Prime Wireless USB-C to HDMI Video Transmitter & Receiver.
★★★★☆
Pricing
The Belkin ConnectAir Wireless HDMI Display Adapter lists for $149.99.
Wirelessly mirror and/or extend from a display-enabled USB-C host device in business settings like conference rooms or classrooms. Present from a laptop, tablet or phone with ease. Cut the cords and keep the connection to effortlessly plug and play without requiring network, WiFi or Bluetooth.
- Hi-res video without the cable
- Plug-and-play convenience
- Wireless signal struggles going through TV
- Not 4K
Belkin provided Cult of Mac with a review unit for this article. See our reviews policy, and check out more in-depth reviews of Apple-related items.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. He’s written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
