I got the cheapo laptop, so it didn’t come with Bluetooth built in. I was going to get the official Toshiba part, but the third party that handles all the Toshiba part/component orders has a minimum order amount well above the $35 part, and the shipping is nuts. Fabio showed me the tiny USB Bluetooth adaptor he got when it first came out over half a year ago, and I thought that would be a fair alternative. The boutique Kensington one (as opposed to the mystery PRC no-name ones that are probably from the same factory) went on sale at the red colored discount electronics store, so I picked one up. I would have rather bought it at the blue and yellow store since the red store’s politics suck, but it never went on sale there. It’ll probably go on sale next week now that I bought from the bad guys!
I had no illusions that the unit would not stick out the side of my machine. Just a cursory glance shows all but the least observant person that the metal part of the USB connector is significantly longer than the one on a standard cable. The plastic part that houses the very end of the tiny internal circuit board has little pointed ears molded in, further enhancing the illusion that the unit is so small, hinting that the ears are needed just to sneak your fingernails around to get the darned thing out! In reality, the metal part extends a millimeter past the outside face of my laptop case, so the entire unit extends out about 6mm. If you look carefully, the unit is basically a circuit board, the plastic housing, and the metal shield. The contacts for the USB connector are part of the circuit board.
Installation and operation were simple and straightforward. I plugged it in, the machine detected it, loaded the drivers, and all was good. The Bluetooth support files and utilities were preloaded into the machine, so it was good to go without using the disc that came with the dongle. A quick test of the utilities showed that I could detect my Bluetooth-enabled phone and push and pull files to and from it. Good. Done.
The sharp ears and edges caught on fabric and skin almost immediately. Within 6-hours of ownership, out came the Swisstool file and off came the ears and side mold marks! It does bug me a little that is sticks out, but maybe I’ll get one of those mini PCI breakout cards that Fabio showed me that had a USB connector on it and bury it inside the machine where the factory Bluetooth unit would be.
Recommended
Approximately $20 on sale
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