In this review, I look at the Cuarko/ByteWave Mini Wireless CarPlay Adapter.
You can buy this wireless CarPlay dongle for:
$35.99 from Amazon US with coupon CARPLAY40OFF – https://amzn.to/3NKAahD
£29.99 from Amazon UK with coupon CARPLAY35 – https://amzn.to/4eXNSd2
€29.48 from Amazon DE with coupon CARPLAYLIFE – https://amzn.to/48j3rtg
Cuarko has been a decent up-and-coming adapter maker for CarPlay and Android Auto car systems. Their last few adapters have been worthy purchases with materials and software surpassing some more well-established brands. Fresh out of the gates is their latest Mini Wireless CarPlay adapter. This palm-sized wireless adapter for wired Apple CarPlay systems features Bluetooth 5.3, USB-A and C port connections in one single product, 800 compatible vehicles, it is 60% smaller than many other adapters, and it comes in three colours.
Inside the box, you get a paper instruction manual, a quick start guide and customer support information card, the adapter itself, and two USB extension cables if you have limited space around your CarPlay port. One is a female to male USB-A, and the second is a female USB-A to USB-C.
The adapter easily fits into the palm of your hand. It is one of the smallest adapters I have tested recently. It’s pretty much the same size and look as the recent MMB Mini Adapter I reviewed, especially when I remove its bottom plastic casing which covers the alternative USB-C connection type for more modern CarPlay ports.
The adapter’s small, compact size helps to ‘hide’ it in car interiors with exposed CarPlay ports as it wouldn’t stick out too much. Plus, if you do have limited space in the car you can just plug it into the supplied extension cables. Its overall length is 51 mm, or 39 mm for just the casing alone and end cap. Its 24 mm in width and 12 mm in depth, so its absolutely small, probably one of the smallest if you were to disregard this little extension, but most modern adapters are all coming down to a size similar to this one.
The adapter comes in three colours: Mocha Brown, Celestial Blue, and Pearl White. The Mocha review sample I receivedis almost a bronze brown. There are plenty of options here to hopefully suit your car’s interior. The casing has some line detail effect and around the sides are cooling holes to help keep the processor chip inside nice and cool. I find it nice to have both USB connection types on the Cuarko, as it will help anyone regularly sharing the hardware between vehicles that have different connection types. This way you don’t have to worry about any incompatible wires or cables that you otherwise would have to bring with you.
Plugging the adapter into my wired CarPlay port powers it up. In 12 seconds, it sits on its main menu interface. This menu screen simply shows three steps toconnect your iPhone to the adapter. Tapping anywhere on this screen simply sends you back to the car infotainment system menu. Sadly, there’s no multi-user support here, but there are so few adapters doing this these days. The screen states the BT profile you need to connect to on your iPhone. On doing so, you’ll see Apple CarPlay connect very swiftly in around 10 seconds. The Cuarko isn’t the fastest out there, but it is still high up there by a few seconds.
Interacting with wireless Apple CarPlay on this adapter isn’t too bad. The framerate is decent and swift, thanks to the ability to reduce its media delay in its config menu. Setting this from 1000ms down to 400ms helps improve this adapter’s overall performance, usually at the sacrifice of some audio stuttering. However, in my tests I didn’t experience any defects setting the media delay to 400ms. Interaction to media is around 1 second, which is pretty good and I found microphone quality to be great without any manipulation to its gain volume. Call delay and quality was also very good, with very little lag in return delay and my car microphone was being used as it is intended.
When I connect my iPhone to CarPlay and enter 192.168.1.11 into Safari, it launches its IP config menu. In this menu, there are a medium level of options. From audio stream mode, startup delay, Wi-Fi channel, background mode, GPS passthrough (I have confirmed as it does support GPS passthrough), audio delay, and force display. From here you can also upgrade the adapter to improve compatibility. Downloading from their servers was quite slow but updating was successful without any issues – you just have to be patient. So overall, I have been very happy with this adapter’s performance.
The Cuarko Mini Wireless CarPlay Adapter currently retails for $35.99 with CARPLAY40OFF coupon on Amazon. Check out the other links and coupon codes above to get this adapter at a bargain price in your region. Cuarko also operates under the brand name ByteWave in the US, so if you’re searching for this adapter, make sure you use the right brand name in your region.
Overall, this is a very nice wireless CarPlay adapter. It is not the fastest adapter out there, but it makes up for it with itsgood casing aesthetics, its discreet plug-in formfactor, and its fairly decent array of configuration options. Its dual USB type connection on one hardware, although not unique, is a handy design and it avoids any issues with the usual separate data cable that come with these adapters. You just have to be aware that you can connect this adapter in the space provided in your vehicle. However, due to its mini size, I don’t see this as ever being an issue. So if you are looking for all this kind of functionality on a budget, this adapter is actually worth checking out.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 – Brief overview
0:32 – Unboxing
0:56 – Features & design
3:29 – Boot-up & Main Menu
3:59 – Bluetooth Pairing
4:29 – Wireless Apple CarPlay
6:27 – My Impressions
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