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The Antop AT-100 Indoor Paper Thin TV Antenna is competing in a very congested market. There are literally dozens of similar flat, plastic, nonamplified antennas that deliver varying degrees of performance.
At $32, the Antop AT-100 falls somewhere in the middle of the pack; it's not a terrible performer, but it isn't exactly cheap, either.
Design: Conventionally flat
The roughly square (12 x 13-inch), flat Antop AT-100 is pretty typical of HDTV antennas available today. It has a two-tone design — black on one side, and white on the other — and can be painted to match your decor.
It still has a white, permanently affixed coaxial cable that you won't be able to hide, but its 10-foot length offers enough flexibility for you to find the right indoor placement and get the best reception.
Key Specs
| Channels received | 14 |
| Rated range | 35 miles |
| 1080p reception | Yes |
| Cable length | 10 feet |
| Amplified | No |
| Size | 11.6 x 10.5 inches |
Setup: Hassle-free
Antop provides the necessary accoutrements for an easy indoor installation. An informational pamphlet notes that you can put the AT-100 on a wall or on a window, or lay it flat on a tabletop; we don't recommend the last suggestion. For better reception, stick it to a wall with the three included stickers or to a window with the supplied clear plastic suction cup.
Antop says the AT-100 can pick up stations within a 40-mile radius. To see what that entails in your area, you can check AntennaWeb.org. For our comparison tests, we use a fixed position for all the antennas, but the AT-100's 10-foot cable allows for some placement options.
MORE: Best TV Antenna - Indoor HDTV Antenna Reviews
Performance: Average reception
The Antop AT-100 did a reasonable job of capturing over-the-air stations in our New York City test location. Connected to a 4K Samsung KS9000 TV, the antenna initially located 26 channels. Subsequent viewing and testing revealed that 14 of the stations were actually watchable. The local ABC affiliate and related substations were clear and glitch-free, for example. Popular Spanish-language stations toward the upper end of the dial, such as UniMás in 1080i, also came in clearly.
Almost half of the initially scanned channels were disappointingly too distorted or pixelated to watch. Most of what we missed were retro stations showing reruns of Mister Ed and Perry Mason in the middle of the dial, although surprisingly, the AT-100 didn't receive the NBC or Fox affiliates in our area.
Bottom Line
Although the Antop AT-100 didn't distinguish itself with exceptional performance, it’s also far from the worst antenna we’ve tested. If that sounds like we're damning it with faint praise, that's because there are so many excellent options in this category. There are cheaper models, such as the tiny Mohu Leaf Metro, which captured fewer channels (only 12 in our tests) but costs only $25. Even better, the very reasonably priced $20 AmazonBasics Ultra Thin Antenna pulled in 31 stations in our benchmarks.
