Apple’s CarPlay interface is a nifty feature that brings your phone’s apps to your car’s infotainment screen. You can carry out everything with ease, from making phone calls to navigating using Maps. But, if your car doesn’t have wireless CarPlay, it can be a hassle to fiddle with all the cables. You may even face connectivity issues. So what’s the solution, you ask? Wireless CarPlay adapters.
CarlinKit 3.0 Wireless CarPlay Adapter
The CarlinKit 3.0 Wireless CarPlay Adapter is one of the popular adapters. It’s small and compact and plugs directly into the car. At the same time, it’s a well-built device and establishes the connection via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
The setup process is simple. It pairs with your phone via Bluetooth first. After that, it will stay connected to your phone via Wi-Fi. The only catch is that you need to ensure that the device has the latest firmware.
It bundles an LED light on top and glows green when working. But the green glow can sometimes be distracting, especially when driving at night. The company sells two variants of the adapter. The older model works on cars made between 2018 and 2019. And this variant works for cars made between 2019 and 2020.
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Loadkey 2021 Wireless CarPlay Adapter
Another wireless adapter you can try is the one by Loadkey. It has a similar construction, but a more premium design — all thanks to the carbon fiber material at the top. The key highlight of the Loadkey adapter is its minimum loading and boot time.
Again, the load time may differ from car to car. Plus, Siri voice commands work as expected. It utilizes Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for connection and shares a similar setup process with the one above. One clear advantage is that it offers a clear set of instructions.
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Drimfly Wired to Wireless Carplay Adapter
The Drimfly wireless adapter brings the best of both worlds. It’s not expensive, and at the same time, brings decent performance compared to the ones above. The boot-up time is around 10 seconds, which is decent considering the price and the competition.
Though most CarPlay adapters work on most cars, Drimfly has a list of compatible cars that you should check before buying this product. The best part is that it also supports Siri voice commands and an additional USB port lets you charge your phone.
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Carliet Wireless CarPlay Adapter
Carliet’s implementation of a CarPlay adapter is slightly boxier and more plastic-y than others. However, it’s also inexpensive so the design and build quality doesn’t matter. It functions well and is compatible with many cars.
If your car has wired CarPlay by default — regardless of the make — the Carliet adapter will convert it into the wireless version. Under the hood, a capable processor works smoothly while running apps and switching between them. Another thing to note is that Carliet uses the 5GHz Wi-Fi network to connect to your phone, so you’re getting a faster connection.
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Riousv Wireless CarPlay Dongle
The highlight of the Riousv CarPlay dongle is its small size. You can tuck it into a small compartment in your car and forget about it. What’s more, you also get a USB-A to USB-C adapter in the box – handy for a newer car.
On the front of the dongle is an LED that indicates the connection status of your phone. As per the brand, the Riousv adapter works well with all cars from 2015, and onwards. Your iPhone needs to run iOS 10 and above as well. Just like the Carliet product, this one also uses the 5GHz Wi-Fi band to communicate with your phone. Unless you want that small form factor, the CarlinKit wireless adapter offers better value.
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Last updated on 09 August, 2024
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