Belkin Mini Bluetooth Adapter

This post was written 1 year 5 months 19 days days old, so is a bit old now. Feel free to read and comment on this post, just remember some things change with time and any facts in this post may not be accurate anymore.

The Belkin Mini Bluetooth Adapter (which I bought from from Amazon for £6.98) is a tiny USB device that barely sticks out of the size of your PC/laptop when plugged in. What it does do, though, is provide your computer with Bluetooth capabilities.

It has a 10 metre range and uses Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) “to provide optimal performance”. According to WikiPedia, EDR provides secure simple pairing (SSP) which improves the pairing experience for Bluetooth devices, while increasing the use and strength of security. It also includes features which reduces the power consumption in low-power mode. Essentially, less power and easier to connect.

The package includes instructions and a drive disk, neither of which I used. Simply plugging the device into a Windows 7 machine, drivers are automatically installed. Which is probably a good thing – the packaging doesn’t state that it supports Windows 7 and the latest drivers on the Belkin website doesn’t suggest it either. Indeed, as far as I can tell, no Belkin Bluetooth adapters are officially Windows 7 compatible. But, then again, trying to find where Belkin hides Bluetooth adapters on its products pages is an art in itself.

None-the-less, it works well with the default drivers.

Summary of Belkin Mini Bluetooth Adapter

It works as fast as you’d expect a Bluetooth device to (not very) and does, well, what it should. And in a tiny package, which is very convenient.

Reviewed by David Artiss on 24th August 2010.