Android head units

BraveDonut

My wife has a 161 Qashqai with a standard head-unit.
She would love a Sat Nav and touch-screen for Spotify, etc.

OEM units seem pretty expensive.

Are non-OEM android units any good?
I presume that they are plug-and-play to install cables wise, but are there code issues to match to the car.

Anything recommended?

thanks

dr.fuzzenstein

BraveDonut wrote: »

My wife has a 161 Qashqai with a standard head-unit.
She would love a Sat Nav and touch-screen for Spotify, etc.

OEM units seem pretty expensive.

Are non-OEM android units any good?
I presume that they are plug-and-play to install cables wise, but are there code issues to match to the car.

Anything recommended?

thanks

I have a Pumpkin unit and I'm fairly happy with it.
Having said that, they are quite a way away from OEM units in usage experience.
It will be like running a phone or tablet in your car, on the plus side, you can install APKs or download from the Play Store, but Android can be a little sluggish or have to odd crash.
Installation is absolutely not straightforward, you will have half the dash apart, I'm afraid.
I needed a few adaptors, run a lot of cables, install WiFi and GPS antenna, external microphone, for the steering wheel remote I had to splice a few cables and there's a lot of set-up.
This thread is a good example:

https://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057836366/1

BraveDonut

Thanks for the info. doc!

Sounds like it might be a bit beyond my powers to be honest.
I never thought of the steering wheel controls.

Think I'll take a look at the OEM again.
Dave.

dr.fuzzenstein

BraveDonut wrote: »

Thanks for the info. doc!

Sounds like it might be a bit beyond my powers to be honest.
I never thought of the steering wheel controls.

Think I'll take a look at the OEM again.
Dave.

It's all fairly standard, but not completely.
Took me a while to hook everything up and had a lot of the interior ripped apart.
In that thread I talk about installing the reverse camera, I still haven't done that.

One of the advantages of an Android unit, you can install anything that will run on a phone/tablet, so your possibilities are endless.

cletus

I've been toying with the idea of an android head unit for a while, and considering it would be going into '08 Avensis, I'm not really pushed about spending much money.

Recently I've seen lots of ads on eBay similar to the one in the link. They don't look like full head units, but rather tablets with the required connectors at the back. Has anybody got any experience of or thoughts about them?

[85,51€]9 Inch 2 DIN Car Stereo Radio Quad Core Android 8.0 Touch Screen bluetooth WIFI GPS Nav Video MP5 Player Car Audio & Monitor from Automobiles & Motorcycles on banggood.com
https://banggood.app.link/bwCBGCfhRY

Cee-Jay-Cee

I’ve an Ownice C500 Android unit in my 2010 Mazda 6 for the last 2 years. It’s running Android 6.0 very smoothly and perfectly. It’s got an Octo-core processor with 4GB RAM and 64GB memory which is enough to store all my music in.

It came with iGo navigation ore-installed and I found it really good so I bought the full version of it on play store and deleted the cracked version on it even though it worked perfectly and never failed me in the many times I used it.

The radio chip is also very good and I’ve much better reception than I had with the factory headunit. RDS also works which is something that a lot of Android headunit owners complain about.

I also have a reverse camera which works flawlessly even before the unit hasnt booted up. I can’t fault it. It’s an OEM specific fit for Mazda 6 so looks like factory fitted.

I fitted it myself, it took approx 3 hrs all in and that included fitting the rear camera (which replaced one of the rear number plate lights) and running the wiring for it up through the OE factory loom. I also installed additional USB ports in the armrest cubby hole too. I love it and it’s much smoother and faster than OE units family members have in their 1 and 2 year old cars.