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View Full Version : Chinese pure android head unit - quick review.



daveaus
16-09-2013, 04:34 PM
Hi all,

I was waiting for the DNS to come out but pulled out and decided to go with this unit after receiving good feedback on xda-developers.

Capacitive CAR DVD Player Android GPS Wifi Stereo BT FM F VW Passat Golf Tiguan | eBay (http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=181138480785)

I offered $450 initially but after some counter offering ended up paying $500 (US). This seller is really helpful, I screwed my unit up but applying an update from xda-developers, he got onto the factory and got another update which fixed it.

I originally posted this on the other vw forum but thought people here might be interested.. These are my general thoughts after about a month of use. I have tried to point out issues above anything else but don't get me wrong, I'm really happy with it and with the people at xda-developers working on it some of these flaws could be sorted in the future.

Boot up time is a bit of an issue, about 45 seconds so if you make lots of short trips this unit isn't for you unless you fitted some sort of battery to the power supply.

The built in music app is OK but could do better with music management, its folder based. You can use another music app but it won't use the steering controls, Im sure theres a way to make other apps use steering when controls I just haven't looked into it enough. I have no complaints about the built in radio app & haven't tested playing DVD's as it doesn't really interest me.

For the MFD it doesn't display anything useful really, the FM station if you are on radio, the track number and track time if you on playing music and just AD2P if you are streaming bluetooth. An annoyance with the MFD is whenever the unit boots the cars computer doesn't see it until it actually boots so it changes to the trip computer mode, so you need to change to the music page on the MFD each time if you want to use steering wheel controls.

Apart from that its like having a decent android tablet as your head unit, I put an old android phone in the back and set tasker to turn on wifi tethering when it gets power so I always have internet on it. Being able to use apps like trapster when Im driving in unfamiliar areas is useful. In Perth we have android apps that give fuel prices and mobile speed camera locations so this is handy as well.

For navigation I am using google maps which works fine, I find that the unit freezes when I use tomtom.. sygic works fine but I need to spend some time to get spoken instructions to work.

In summary if you can put up with a slowish boot up time, average bluetooth (AD2P is fine however) and sorting your music on your SD card the old fashioned way or finding a way to use another app with steering controls its one hell of a powerful unit.

Let me know if there are any questions or if a video would be useful, there are a few videos out there already.

This is the very long thread about these units on xda-developers: forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2110546

BrashDaniels
17-09-2013, 10:58 AM
Is this the same or similar unit??

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=171055414810http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=171055414810

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using Tapatalk 4

DkN
17-09-2013, 11:22 PM
Interesting that you mention there are developers on xda forums for this product, but otherwise it is running Android 2.3 and the hardware these days is average. I'm not saying this for any vested interest reasons, Android units are offering a different kind of experience compared to the ANS / DNS units IMO. It's just that for that price I believe you can get dual core units running Android 4.0 ICS or even some with 4.1 Jelly Bean. There's one that was posted somewhere on the Golfmkv forums if you take a look... Not sure if many have hit eBay yet though.

MountainBikeMike
18-09-2013, 08:26 AM
One eBay reviewer was shocked at how crap the brightness was on one of these. They can be as little as $300 if you look but if you can't see the screen in daylight its not good, ill end ip having an accident! I'd pay a bit more to know that its running a bit faster hardware for longevity...

Very keen still

daveaus
18-09-2013, 09:54 AM
There are a heaps of different android head units on ebay. I can only speak for this particular unit, there are only a few different sellers selling the unit I purchased. A few people on xda-dev have asked about the newer android versions and the feedback isn't that great.

If you want this unit compare to specs here: OUKU - Unbranded 6.2" 2 DIN Android Car Stereo Radio Head Unit - xda-developers (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2110546) and the pictures of the radio app from the ebay seller I linked. There is no generic radio protocol for Android so each manufacturer has to make there own app.

The only thing I miss from the newer versions of Android is the google now widget. If someone jumps off the deep end and purchases one of the ICS versions from ebay please report back what its like but have a scan through the xda-dev thread first.

Brightness is fine on this unit, the only issue is it doesn't adjust the brightness automatically at night. But you can use an app to do this for you, put a shortcut on the desktop or people on xda-dev talk about assigning one of the hardware buttons to do it.

gerhard
18-09-2013, 10:30 AM
Meh - 512mb RAM.

not high enough spec IMO.

Have had an android device with 512Mb and V2.3 and it was laggy, unresponsive, and generally not nice to use.

Maybe better than an Unobtanium device, though :)