Review : Belkin Aircast

The Belkin Aircast lets you make hands-free calls and play music from your playlist directly through your car speakers. It easily connects your smartphone to your car stereo, no need for professional installation. Simply plug it into your car’s auxiliary input jack and use Bluetooth to pair with your phone. These system usually cost a fortune to be installed into cars but the Belkin Aircast is a much cheaper alternative. The question is, will it perform well? Here are my thoughts.



The Good


The Installation. It's extremely easy to install. Just unwrap the package. Connect the power cord and the audio cable into your AUX input. Find a good spot for the mic (see picture down below) and attach it. Enable Bluetooth on your device. Press and hold the mic button until it starts to flash and you are up and running. Fast and simple.

The Sound quality. I actually thought the sound quality would be questionable, but it's really good. It isn't quite as good as if you'd connect your device with a cord to the AUX input, but it's gets darn close.

The Mic button. With the mic button you can answer calls, play and stop music, skip to next track and if you're using a iPhone, you can activate Siri. Imagine how useful it will get using Siri instead of fumbling around with the device in your hand while driving. Just activate Siri and tell her to call, text, activate a reminder or add a calender event. Smashing!!

The Extension cord. The package include an extension cord in case you will have to connect the device a bit farther away from your AUX input.

The Light flashes. The mic button will flash if you have an incoming call. This is good if your playing on your CD player or using the radio and don't hear the phone ring.


The Bad


The Mic button. You need to use some force while pressing the button. This makes it hard to double tap which will skip to the next track. I managed to skip 4-5 times out of 10 tries. Not good at all.

The Mic quality. I have had some complaints from my friends that they sometimes are having trouble hearing what I'm saying. I really need to speak up in order for others to hear which can get a bit frustrating. I should also mention that my car can get a bit loud at higher speed. It might also have contributed.


Conclusion


If you are looking for a cheaper way to connect your devices to your car stereo, the Belkin Aircast might be a pretty good option. The sound quality is surprisingly good and using it as a handsfree works like a charm...... that is if don't own a loud car like me. With it's low price (79.99$, 499SEK) I really recommend this unit.

Score 7 out of 10