I thought the antenna actually did something... nevermind

It probably acts as an amplifier or something

@liammartens it isn't even connected, it is just show. The real antenna is on the circuit board

@moars42 lol that's why @liammartens said it 'act'. They put the antenna they could have done a little more effort and connect the two... #MadeInChina

damn. cut a wire and stick it up the external antenna and solder the other end to the chip. better yet do that and run the wire to a dish made of tin foil and steal people's wifi

Probably they used universal plastic case, or case originally used for something else.

That feel when buzzwords evolve into useless aesthetics

That's not an antenna, it's some kind of vestigial defense mechanism to make it appear larger to predators.

They probably thought the antenna would provide more synergy.

That's not a mistake. That's a feature ;)

They just assumed nobody was going to take it apart. Looks like they assumed wrong.

@stisch lol hahaha

It's probably just there for the placebo effect. If the customer thinks it's necessary, they'll probably pick a model with a visible because it "obviously" has a better connection than the no antenna counterparts

Dat cheap toy IC chip!

And this costs twice as much as the more basic version that has no external antenna

Duh, that's a handle, not an antenna 😒

It was sending data to servers in China using wireless USB-radio interface. That's why you don't see any connecting cables.

I bet 5 € that the discussion looked something like this :
PM: "Can we add an antenna"
Dev: "No need to, we've got an antenna on the chip"
PM: "But the user expects an antenna, Cisco devices have them"
Dev:"Okay, you'll get your antenna" *glues antenna onto the finished device*