So after much deliberation (and getting some advice from people who already had something similar) I took the plunge with one of these Android Head Units.
It's easy enough to remove the old and install the new although be aware that they are not quite correctly sized for a standard double din so there is some messing about to be done to get it to fit properly. You'll need the adaptor plate, a cage (you need to mess abut to get it fixed in the cage centrally due to the size), a surround, converter for the harness, and patch leads if you want the stalk controls to work.
Here's what it looks like (I apologise for the dust but we just got back from driving around Europe for a few weeks).
As you can see I went for the DAB module which works well as does the normal radio. I also bought the OBD2 BT module which works ok but to be honest is a little pointless. Also power seems to be constantly supplied to the module. Now I don;t know how much power it uses and certainly haven't had any battery issues but it's always on, even when no keys are in the ignition.
It came with iGo navigation (not too good as the voice is choppy) & google maps (works well but you need a data connection). I dropped TomTom Mobile Go onto it which does work but in 3D view you only get the route, not other side turnings. 2D is all fine though.
Easy to stream to from my phone so I stream spotify etc and control from the head unit. It pulls in details from my contacts on the phone so all numbers I need are to hand. I can hear and be heard clearly when using the hands free. Voice control works well. Starts up within a couple of seconds when the ignition is on. Radio reception and audio quality is good and I'm an acoustic engineer so know a thing or two about sound. I've had no hangs and apps are fast and responsive.
There are some things that aren't so good though. For example when you start up the DAB it defaults to the list of all available stations rather than the saved ones. That's kind of OK but it plays the first station in the list which happens to be a channel called Centreforce. It really isn't my thing and is starting to be really annoying. I have had to set it to not auto update either the android operating system or any of the apps - see below for why. I can log into the Play Store; gmail, and my google calendar but not all at once (or even two at once). If I'm logged into the Play Store then I have to log out, delete the user account from the head unit, then log into gmail or my calendar recreating the account on the head unit. Again this isn't an issue for me as I don't use my gmail account (I have it only for my calendar access) and don;t need to access my calendar when driving. There are lots of other niggly things (software related) like that though, nothing deal breaking for me but you need to be aware they are there as some apps seem to be hard programmed and even if you could change them for some other similar app it may not work.
Words of caution. I spoke to quite a few people with these android units and I reckon there were as many people that were happy with them as were not.
It seemed to go like this.
People that were happy with them were running them at stock. They had had done nothing to to the head unit other than installed it straight out the box so don't be tempted to meddle too much with it.
Not all apps work on them so in some instances the only option is to keep the app on your phone and use mirror cast to cast to the head unit (their version is called easy connect). This works well as you can control your phone through the touch screen on the head unit but again something to be aware of.
People complained that they were prone to hanging or very slow but this seemed to be people who had:
- a 2 Gb ram version
- had updated the android software
- had allowed apps to auto update
- had a unit with only limited internal memory (16 Gb). They take SD cards but I spoke to many people that found this didn't work so well and often loss data from their SD cards.
- had an old CPU
- had an old version of android (5/6)
- had versions with old chipsets
In otherwords its quite easy to get something that isn't going to make you happy.
The version I got was an Erison unit with PX5 chipsets and an 8 core Cortex A53 CPU running at 1512 MHz (they are both of good repute). It has 32 Gb internal memory which should be enough for my needs as external memory can have issues). The radio is based around TEF6686 chips which are known to be of good quality in terms of radio. It runs Oreo 8.0 which is quite important because basically you want as new a version of android as possible (remember it is not wise to update it) but not so new that the bugs haven't yet been ironed out (bugs with the H/U and OS rather than just the OS). As Oreo was released August 2017 I thought that it was probably old enough to have the bugs sorted and it seems I was correct. Android 9.0 (Pie) I being rolled out but don't be tempted to go for it, it is way too new.
Nodge is correct that the OS is a modded version of standard android made to work specifically on the head unit. You will get no support from the retailer regarding the OS and the only place I could find any kind of support was on XDA Devs but it was regarding 2 or 3 specific makes and models only (not actually the version I got).
All in all I give it a 6.5 out of 10 at the moment (it is far from perfect) and it's only been in a few weeks.
