Android double din head units

dale1uk · 16 Jun 2016 at 09:19

Does anyone have any experience or recommendations for a universal android double din headunit?

I've been looking at the latest Navall, Erisin, Pumpkin, Joying offerings and they all seem pretty much the same spec. I'd run Nova Launcher to get layout how I wanted it so is it just a matter of picking the cleanest looking unit, or are there some that I definitely want to go for/avoid?

Examples of units I've been looking at:

Navall Pumpkin Joying Erisin

Thanks

paradigm · 16 Jun 2016 at 09:28

Hmm, not sure I'd go for a pumpkin. We owned one for an E46, and between the terrible radio reception, the random slowdown, and worst the DRY SOLDER JOINTS on the SD card readers, it rarely worked in a satisfactory manner.

Recently fitted an XTRONS branded unit to the mother-in-law's Peugeot 307cc, and again radio reception isn't great. The unit is physically better quality though.

So far, I'm yet to install or even use a unit that's "right", they all have their quirks, and some are far worse than others.

The only exception to this has been the Parrot Asteroid Smart that replaced the pumpkin in the E46. Whilst this unit has been technically perfect, with it being Android 2.6 based, it's limited to what it can run.

dale1uk · 16 Jun 2016 at 09:49

Thanks, I'll check the Xtrons units out.

Radio reception isn't too much of an issue as I mostly listen to music off my phone/USB/ipod. Is it the FM/AM signals that you find are poor or have you tried out the DAB and found that poor?

For the price of the units I'm not expecting them to be amazing, but at the same time I don't want to waste £200 if it's going to be rubbish.

paradigm · 16 Jun 2016 at 09:55

No DAB on the units I've installed, I've only tested FM. Seemed fine on anything with a very strong signal (local station we know is less than 5 miles away), but anything less than "godly strong" signal and it immediately becomes an unbearable mess of static.

kPATm · 16 Jun 2016 at 20:19

You have probably already looked here but have a look at this page on XDA. I was looking at getting an Android HU a while back and there was a lot of info

http://forum.xda-developers.com/android-auto/android-head-units

Frozennova · 16 Jun 2016 at 21:20

paradigm said:
Hmm, not sure I'd go for a pumpkin. We owned one for an E46, and between the terrible radio reception, the random slowdown, and worst the DRY SOLDER JOINTS on the SD card readers, it rarely worked in a satisfactory manner.

Recently fitted an XTRONS branded unit to the mother-in-law's Peugeot 307cc, and again radio reception isn't great. The unit is physically better quality though.

So far, I'm yet to install or even use a unit that's "right", they all have their quirks, and some are far worse than others.

The only exception to this has been the Parrot Asteroid Smart that replaced the pumpkin in the E46. Whilst this unit has been technically perfect, with it being Android 2.6 based, it's limited to what it can run.

Glad you posted this about the Pumpkin, I'd been looking at one tonight for my MX5 to integrate infotainment with data logging etc

Third Opinion · 17 Jun 2016 at 00:48

I have fitted a Xtrons to my Mitsubishi FTO. The quality is quite surprising for the price.

Just bought a second Android unit for the wife's Merc.

When I bought the first one I really thought it was going to be lousy for the price I paid. Pleasantly surprised. ok it is no Alpine or Kenwood etc. But a big improvement over stock.

Devrij · 17 Jun 2016 at 07:42

I have a pumpkin unit and it's been flawless for me. No issues with the micro sd slot which currently has 64gb of music and tv shows on it. Just to add another side to the story!

mrk · 17 Jun 2016 at 08:53

I have the Erisin RK3188 unit. It's very good and does 95% of everything I need without issue. My only gripe is of my own fault really, in that the ROM storage is 1GB for app installs by default. Rooting it is easy and installing a custom ROM is easy as well which increases ROM storage to 8 to 16GB respectively. Of course this requires a clean wipe... Which I don't want to do as I've already spent ages configuring everything and getting all apps installed.

But thankfully I have all the apps I'd need now anyway so don't need to install anything else.

Other than that, everything else works. I have a 128GB USB stick with my music on, the latest Waze beta, LastFM scrobbler, GoneMad music player, Viper4Android FX (hugely important if you want to unlock the sound quality) and so on.

A note for these kind of units. Out of the box they will only support sticks and cards formatted to FAT32, not NTFS or exFAT I found.

I have a few vids online if interested.

paradigm · 17 Jun 2016 at 09:03

I'd be interested, I'd like to get the most out of the MIL's XTRONS.

dale1uk · 17 Jun 2016 at 09:08

Regarding the question mark over the quality of the Pumpkin units, I was under the impression that most of these units are all made by the same manufacturer and they are just rebranded by the different sellers? If that is the case then if you're unlucky then any of them could be faulty as I'd imagine quality control isn't amazing.

@mrk, Thanks for the info, will check out the videos in your m3 thread.

mrk · 17 Jun 2016 at 09:09

Quick reference for here to those videos:

paradigm · 17 Jun 2016 at 09:22

Is your previous post the total number of apps you have installed?

mrk · 17 Jun 2016 at 09:43

Not sure how many I have installed i total so far, but there's fair few, maybe 20 or so apps? I have 112MB remaining for app installs. That's what I mean about the 1GB ROM, 770odd MB is being used by installed apps. Installing a custom ROM such as Malaysk will increase that up to 16GB for apps.

Maccapacca · 17 Jun 2016 at 09:45

My parrot asteroid is excellent especially running waze

mrk · 17 Jun 2016 at 09:48

The Asteroid is great indeed, but it doesn't support the latest Waze or other apps that require at Android 4.0 API level or above to work. Hence the reason I updated head unit!

mrk · 22 Aug 2019 at 12:17

^ RIP

Meaker · 22 Aug 2019 at 12:28

mrk said:
^ RIP

??

Got my unit working fully now. Belsee one running android 9. Shows my aircon controls too expect for the current temp setting.

mrk · 22 Aug 2019 at 12:58

The permabanned post above, he posted a legit question but got permabanned for something else it seems lol

VeNT · 26 Feb 2020 at 17:30

I was looking at sticking one of these in the van, how's yours holding up MRK?

Android double din head units

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