Double DIN head unit

[Maccapacca]

Having not bought any car audio gear for a while I'm slightly out the loop on what's any good, looking for a double DIN head unit for circa £500.

What it must have

Phone bluetooth
Streaming audio through bluetooth
Nav would be nice but not essential but then again it may as well have it

What it doesn't need to have

Any Apple integration

I've not got a clue from there really. Any suggestions?

 

[paradigm]

Really like the Parrot Asteroid Smart that I installed into the Fiancées E46. It's simple, understated and quite classy in appearance. Yes the OS is old (Android 2.3) but it's stable and the choice of navigation software is still pretty vast!

Yes it does have apple integration, but not in a car-play fashion, just in a "I can understand iPod music library" fashion.

 

[Howard]

http://caraudiosecurity.com/ine-w920r-double-din-dvd-navigation-unit

It's over budget but then most double-din units with nav that aren't an unbranded Chinese POS will be.

If you can't stretch to that, something like this http://caraudiosecurity.com/ive-w585bt-double-din-usb-dvd-screen-with-tuneit-app

I like Alpine stuff very much.


Edit: Didn't consider the Parrot ^ - Probably a good shout if maybe not as 'polished' as something with a proprietary OS/UI.

 

[Martynt74]

Pioneer do a decent range, especially without the requirement for NAV, although there are phone apps which can be displayed on the screen)

I've got an X3500DAB (coincidently which i'll be selling!)

 

[bJN]

Depending on phone OS, could you not just get one of the AppRadio units and use MirrorLink to mirror a phone to it? That would then allow full phone access as well as what you've already mentioned.

 

[Maccapacca]

Someone is giving me a quote for the Parrot, amp and new speakers

Didn't know about the Parrot, looks good.

 

[paradigm]

You won't be disappointed.

 

[Dr Who]

Pioneer's AVH-4100NEX

Android Car OS, full android smartphone integration.

 

[mrk]

Do note that the Android Auto units require everything on the phone as it's pretty much streaming via the phone, so you will have to tether the phone to the unit to get ample charge and the streaming functions to work properly.

I didn't know this until recently so have gone off the idea of an Android Auto unit as I don't want to have to undo the waterproofing flaps and connect it to USB and then place the phone somewhere each time etc.

I have the Asteroid Smart though though and it's faultless out of the box, if a little limited as the Asteroid Market doesn't have all Play Store apps, so I rooted it and threw Play Store on there and now it's great with Google calendar, Youtube, RAM expansion via SD card which improves app load times and app switching etc.

It's also enabled with Google Location Services, so the car can be tracked if it connects to a 3G dongle or WiFi tether.

The sound quality is very good and bluetooth functions all work flawlessly. The dual mic it comes with is of excellent quality too.

The default Waze nav app is better than iGO IMO, sign up with a Waze account and start adding friends etc, it's a great social nav app and I've used it many times and seen it reroute to avoid reported incidents and stuff. plus it pulls in events from your calendar if they have an address set in the event, which is neat.

 

[MatteH Oxford]

Another vote for Pioneer, the sound quality & hands-free phone calling are fantastic.

 

[Evo8]

I always go to Alpine for all my ICE needs. Great quality and look smart.