This is the question my friend asked
The best device to mirror laptop screen ?
His core need was
Wireless desktop screen mirroring for displaying laptop/desktop power point presentation on a TV screen with an HDMI port
On doing a quick search for "wireless screen mirroring" on Amazon , eBay and Google
I found several generic miracast devices apart from Microsoft Wireless Display adapter and Google's ChromeCast which fitted my friend's requirements perfectly.
In my opinion, you might be able to save $10 or so if you opt for a generic miracast device over chromecast and $20 in case of Microsoft Wireless display adapter. But the quality, versatility and overall cost-effectiveness of chromecast makes it stand out.
Now after chrome 51, the support for screen mirroring is baked into chrome without the need for installing additional extensions. For more details check this article at howtogeeks and this google support page
Also unlike miracast and Microsoft Wireless display adapter with chromecast you get native support for screen casting in latest versions of android.
But there are a couple of limitations as highlighted by google support page. The main drawback is you cannot cast audio on mac and linux if you are casting the entire desktop.
Apart from that limitation there are some basic limitation of wireless screen mirroring applicable to all devices
- Both the screen casting device and laptop/desktop has to be on the same network
- You will require strong WiFi connection with enough free bandwidth.
- Screen casting performance will degrade if suppose the WiFi is being used heavily by multiple devices.
I hope you liked this buying guide and found it helpful. Please leave your valuable comments. If you or your friend are facing problem deciding on which gadget to buy we would love to help you.
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