Gadget: Honestech nScreen Deluxe £129.99

Published on 18/06/2012 00:00

THIS type of gadget is often found loitering in the bargain bin at fine establishments such as PC World.

It’s not because there’s necessarily anything wrong with the technology, but being able to wirelessly project your PC or handheld’s screen onto your TV has limited appeal.

The Honestech nScreen Deluxe is therefore facing something of an uphill battle. To recap briefly, its raison d’être is to stream output from a multitude of devices (PCs, Macs, iPhones and Android Smartphones) to a TV, presentation projector, or other output device, wirelessly. It does this by attaching a small white receiving box to the target output device, in my case my TV’s HDMI socket.

This is where things started to get a bit tricky; I had to disconnect from my wi-fi router’s internet connection to use a special wi-fi channel the Honestech was broadcasting on. Although there are a couple of clunky workarounds, this means if you follow this default set-up there’s no easy way to surf the net and beam your screen at the same time.

With the latest software installed there was an initial lag of around six seconds between me moving my mouse on the PC and the action being mirrored on my TV. Luckily this was resolved by rebooting. Forget about watching 1080p internet video in this mode though, it’s rougher than an Eighties rap video. Luckily there is a “streaming” mode which allows a video to be streamed to the nScreen box without having to play it directly on the PC display.

Although the Smartphone streaming is quite cool, I’d say save yourself £70 and search for a product called “Q-Waves” online. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of the nScreen, but it delivers without the fuss and fiddling.

• From.amazon.co.uk; see www.honestech.com for more details