Get a phone cradle if you need things outside that best sound system on a freelander (waze,obd,etc)
Cheaper and better, trust me.
Those androids are garbage especially the screens.
That is as broadly sweeping and as inaccurate as saying "laptops are rubbish, especially the screens"... Not all [objects] are created equal. Granted, there are some howlers out there, but there are some gems, the problem is that it requires a bit more buyer research than say grabbing a double din unit, you know that a Kenwood / Alpine will be good, but nearly all the android head units are made by "off brands", so the buyer needs to be a bit more diligent and tech savvy. For example, I'm currently looking for an android unit for one of my vehicles, and even as a computer geek, I'm having to tread lightly as I'm up against dodgy chinese marketing practices, and hype laten use of buzzwords obfuscating the meat and potatoes of the spec.
Take this unit I was looking at:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295107038707
Looks presentable, doesn't it? Let's look at another picture of the same unit from the same eBay listing...
Oh, hold on a minute, where did that extra acre of black bezel come in from? Could it be that the first picture has had an android screenshot stretched over the front of it in a graphics program to make it look better? Not at all, no chinese company would ever pull snidey tricks like that. But checks out this one that I just "upgraded the screen on" - in a photo editing program:
There's also the cloudy issue of Android Head unit vs Android Auto... The former is a fully functioning computer in your car, think BMW I-Drive or similar, whereas the latter uses some trick technology to turn your headunit into what is essentially an additional touchscreen for controlling your phone. And even that gets a bit cloudy as to what phones and what head units can talk to each other and whethere or not they need a cable plugging in or whether they can do this remote control dance wirelessly over bluetooth or such like.
Even if you get past that second hurdle, and get to a position where you've not been hoodwinked by photoshopped products from a snidey manufacturer, but found a better quality manufacturer, whose photographs really do represent what you are buying, you need to get one that has some computing schutzpah, and some decent software running on it. If you get a schnidey unit, it'll basically be a basic smartphone shoved in to a dashboard, which can make for a rubish user experience. However, some of the other brands do put a whole new software interface in their head units, which makes for a much better user experience.
AFIK, the the current best headunit on the market is a Teyes CC3 which totally outclasses even Alpine's flagship.
timestamp 04:47 / 287seconds to skip the unboxing / fluff and see the unit in action.
Teyes do make a CC3 install package for the FL2, sadly it's for the pre-facelift upto 2012 models.
So while I've not been able to help Zavation with their hunt for a head unit, I hope I've been able to dispel a few myths and provide some useful buyer advice for anyone else reading this who is considering an Android head unit.
