I know Wireless Android Auto is great. I know it’s stable and I know it’s convenient; but my phone heats up and drains it’s own battery in a matter of an hour or so; therefore, I really wanted a device that supported a WIRED connection. This one did. It’s not perfect, and the first unit I received had an issue possibly with its firmware, that didn’t allow it to use a wired connection, but I emailed customer support and they were absolutely wonderful. Aukey/Anker levels of wonderful. Very quick to respond and before I knew it, they were sending me another unit that they tested beforehand would work.
I wasn’t without the set of problems you face when you’re buying a sub-$100 screen instead of spending $400 on a decent head unit with all these goodies built-in. The things you should be aware of:
Most, if not all, of these types of devices, will suffer from a hum/static noise into their line-out as you connect to your car’s AUX-in port. This happens when your audio source shares power with the device it’s outputting audio into (i.e. your car is both the device you’ll be playing music out of and it’s also the one powering this screen). This is a problem that affects every device out there, since there’s no grounding (and instead, grounding is essentially the (-) negative terminal of the provided power in the vehicle). This usually is fixed by getting a simple (often cheap) ground isolation inline filter. Just search for a “car audio in-line ground filter” or something among those lines, any will do since they’re very simple filtering devices and you’ll spend just about $10 for one. However, I did notice, this unit suffers from this malfeasance FAR LESS than units costing just about double. So, good for them. I actually didn’t need the filter in my car. Sound output is low gain, but it actually sounds VERY good in my car. I’ve read a lot of people sticking to the FM transmitter on a lot of these devices based on audio quality out the jack being poor. I’m fairly sure they just didn’t try a ground-loop isolator. But this particular unit, great sound, and quite a decent equalizer as well.
My unit (the second one, that is), did have a problem where it’d freeze and audio would glitch. Stay looped in the same millisecond, like a scratched CD does, until unplugged and replugged whenever used for more than a few minutes. I am hoping this can get solved with customer support and their help providing a firmware upgrade patch. I’m willing to give them that benefit, since they’ve been incredibly responsive and helpful over email. Even suggesting they send a different product for my car, which I refused since I would not use it. Like I said, Aukey/Anker levels of customer service. 5/5
The screen is bright, it’s as sharp as it needs to be (I get caught in spec comparing and ended up ordering 5 different units in different sizes and price categories, ending up keeping just this one since NONE were “perfect”), and color reproduction is fine. I mean, it’s terrible, but not like those old TFT screens in trash sub $50 tablets. It’s acceptable for this use case. Google Maps, Spotify, Pocketcasts, PowerAmp and Whatsapp; my often used apps in android auto, all worked exactly like they do in a new car with Android Auto built-in.
There are larger screens out there, with brighter wide IPS screens, for around $150-$170; but I wanted a smaller, ~7ish” display that would fit neatly in the top storage compartment in my first generation Chevy Volt, and this one fit in there like it was made for it. I’m willing to bet it’d fit nicely in most cars that have a storage bin in the top of the dashboard.
Finally, the biggest drawback you should be aware of, which, given the rest of the positive reviews here, is the fact that during the it’s the type of screen manufacturing process that leaves its polarization filter upside down. This used to be MUCH more common, and used to be present even in phone. This means that it cannot be seen through polarized glasses. If you’ve ever noticed a weird tint in some car windows, or can’t read the LCD display in a gasoline pump screen with your sunglasses on, that’s what this is. Screens have a bunch of different layers that help them operate the way they do, one of them is a polarization filter. High end screens (and most screens at this point, to be honest) have figured this out by now, and use a specific type of polarization filter that doesn’t interfere with the one in sunglasses. The manufacturer of this screen doesn’t do that. So if you have prescription sunglasses with a polarized UV filter, you’ll have to tilt your head to see this screen. It’s really too bad. But it seems people that wear sunglasses to drive in, we are the minority.
All in all, this is a solid device for the price. It has it’s issues, which, if you understand and know beforehand, you’ll find this is a great buy with an outstanding after-sales support team. Given all the circumstances (and the fact I tried and tested FIVE of these devices in different price points), this is easily a 4 – 4.5/5 star product.
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