Dell Cast Bridges Android And Tvs For A Desktop Experience
Dell is taking on the Chromecast, but it's giving the concept a more business-minded yet limited twist of its own. While the Dell Cast does plug into TVs and monitors via HDMI, the purpose isn't just to "cast" multimedia to a bigger screen but to turn your Android tablet into a desktop, complete with keyboard and mouse.
How it works is quite simple. You plug the Dell Cast into an HDMI port of a TV or a monitor, run the Dell Cast app on your Dell Android tablet and start wirelessly mirroring your tablet's contents and apps to the larger screen. Add in a keyboard and a mouse and you practically get a full desktop setup with the tablet acting as the heart. Of course, you can still treat it like a media streaming accessory ala Chromecast. The Dell Cast can support videos up to Full HD 1080p in resolution.
The technical details on the Dell Cast are quite sparse. It doesn't exactly mention what wireless technology is utilized, but we'll presume it is Miracast since Dell's tablets are a big fan of that tech. Connecting a keyboard and a mouse isn't also fully explained, but there is one full-size USB port at the bottom which presumes you'll want to use a wireless keyboard and mouse combo, or have a USB hub at the very least. There is also one micro USB port at the side, though that one is only used for powering up the Dell Cast.
Now for the aforementioned limitation. The Dell Cast, enticing as it may seem for the general Android populace, is noted to only work with Dell's own Venue line of tablets. And even then it narrows the list even more to exclude its first gen Venue 7 and 8, models 3730 and 3830, respectively. That leaves a small handful of previous models, as well as a new upcoming one that has just recently been teased at the Intel Developer Forum.
That said, if you have any of those compatible Venue tablets, the Dell Cast offers an interesting take on computing on the go, something that Dell has shown a huge interest in. Early this year it launched the Dell Wyse Cloud Connect for a slightly similar purpose of turning any screen into an ad hoc computer. The difference is that the Wyse Cloud Connect is a computer in itself, running Android 4.1 inside. The Dell Cast is naturally also cheaper, listed at only $79.99.
SOURCE: Dell