[johannskaria]

Roidmi 2s - Smart car charger

As my Maruti 800 is getting the laziest overhaul job in the history, I was in search for latest technologies that can be plugged in and used. Fast charging was among top of the list with the number of power hungry devices in my backpack.

Among all the Chinese manufacturers, the wide variety of electronic goods produced by Xiaomi have always intrigued me. Laptops, TVs, water purifier, drones they make them all. A couple of years ago my stingy budget had pushed me to be one of the early adopters of Yi action cam. And I was more than happy to be part of their VFM ecosystem before I moved on to Gopro. Once again last month again their 360 camera caught my eye, with eye watering price tag and specifications. Waiting patiently for its release. So when I saw they made an automotive grade car charger called Roidmi, I badly wanted to test it. Even though I cannot use it to its full potential in my 800 as there is no music system in it.

The premium feel it gave surprised me and left me satisfied. But the fact is all Chinese products leave a bitter taste in my mouth. Since in manufacturing and technology, the Indian companies still lag behind their Chinese counterparts. And the even sadder part is there isn’t even a silver lining on the horizon. Somehow fear that the trend would continue as our government follows the all-electric car mission. Hopefully I’m proved wrong.

The Roidmi smart charger uses a mix of Bluetooth and FM frequency to work it’s magic. And a quality magic at that.
Roidmi works around even when you have to idle certain cars to pair another device via Bluetooth to the music system. Especially when you’re on road trip with your friends and everybody has different music tastes. Voila you’re ready for Justin Bieber fan girl on your road trip with no dangling wires inside your car.

Initially was scared that my unit had a defective mic, but after I reinstalled the application it has worked just fine till date. The smart charger even receives OTA (Over The Air) updates when you connected to the phone.

What I liked

• The premium quality built
• It’s versatility
• Reliable fast charging
• Quality of music playback
• Price

What I disliked

• Transitioning sound when you shake the phone to change the track.
• Not universally compatible, may need a Xiaomi adapter.
• Xiaomi missed out on TPMS at this price

Not universally compatible with all cigarette lighter units and may need an adapter,


The adapter and the Roidmi


In the Chevrolet Spark of bhpian blackwasp

[agambhandari]

That car looks like the Chevy spark(I own one too), so it worked without an adapter?

[blackwasp]

Nice and detailed video. Not only it this useful for older cars, the near and clean fitting with no dangling wires makes it useful for newer cars as well which don't support multiple Bluetooth devices! For example, in my Punto, I can connect my phone to the car's Bluetooth and the passengers if they want can connect to this device for playing music of their choice. If any call comes on my phone, it will go through while the FM station will be paused !

[johannskaria]

Originally Posted by agambhandari

That car looks like the Chevy spark(I own one too), so it worked without an adapter?

Yes it worked without an adapter in Spark.

Originally Posted by blackwasp

Nice and detailed video. Not only it this useful for older cars, the near and clean fitting with no dangling wires makes it useful for newer cars as well which don't support multiple Bluetooth devices! For example, in my Punto, I can connect my phone to the car's Bluetooth and the passengers if they want can connect to this device for playing music of their choice. If any call comes on my phone, it will go through while the FM station will be paused !

Thank you man and thank you for the Chevy test vehicle.

It doesn't support multiple devices at a time. You will have to disconnect the primary device to connect the secondary device. But with no passwords or anything, direct pairing.

Yeah when a call comes in you can put it in loud speaker by just selecting the pre stored Roidmi FM channel and use it. Essentially the bluetooth function will be just like another FM channel in your media system.

[Turbo Head]

Thanks for the nice review, however this device is not available anywhere (including the given link), except Amazon, where it is exorbitantly priced.

Can you suggest any other link to buy the same ?
Thanks

[ayankm]

Originally Posted by Turbo Head

Can you suggest any other link to buy the same ?
Thanks

Check in gearbest.com for Roidmi 2s. Its selling for $18.99. Its a reliable website to buy from. I have used them for buying few stuffs and goods are delivered within a 8-10 days.
Hope this helps!

[greenhorn]

is this a xiaomi product? I could not find any connection other than the sound alike name?

[Turbo Head]

Originally Posted by ayankm

Check in gearbest.com for Roidmi 2s. Its selling for $18.99. Its a reliable website to buy from. I have used them for buying few stuffs and goods are delivered within a 8-10 days.
Hope this helps!

Is it really safe and reliable to order from gearbest ?
Don't take me wrong, but I have zillions of products shortlisted on gearbest, but I am always too skeptical to order from chinese websites due to customs hassles, doubt on quality of the products and extremely long shipping durations (usually they mention 20-45 days).

I have absolutely zero experience in ordering from offshore, hence such apprehensions.

[ayankm]

Originally Posted by Turbo Head

Is it really safe and reliable to order from gearbest ?

Well you can give it a try. Particularly since the Roidmi 2s is not an overtly expensive product. I bought an android TV box (worth 4k) few weeks back and it arrived on time and well packaged. The product is working as expected. They have a good customer service that replies to emails promptly.

The only pitfall that I can see is if you want to send back the product you will have to do that on your own expense.

Having said all that, I probably will think a lot buy anything expensive (>5-6k) from gearbest.

[invidious]

You can even buy it off Aliexpress. Many forum members use Aliexpress quite a bit for their vehicular needs.

[johannskaria]

Originally Posted by Turbo Head

Thanks for the nice review, however this device is not available anywhere (including the given link), except Amazon, where it is exorbitantly priced.

Can you suggest any other link to buy the same ?
Thanks

http://www.ebay.in/itm/Xiaomi-Roidmi...QAAOSwfVpYtpuk

Originally Posted by greenhorn

is this a xiaomi product? I could not find any connection other than the sound alike name?

Yes this is a Xiaomi group company.
http://www.roidmi.com/en/lcindex

Originally Posted by Turbo Head

Is it really safe and reliable to order from gearbest ?

I have absolutely zero experience in ordering from offshore, hence such apprehensions.

I usually get stuffs upto worth 10k from websites like Aliexpress, gearbest etc. So do many fellow tbhp members. If any duties are charged on crossing borders,the postman/courier will collect the amount from you on behalf of the authorities. You can even claim refund in case of loss/damage in transit.

[Memphis]

Anyone know if for the civic would this need the adaptor? Any experiences with music vs call quality? My primary aim is a clean setup with high quality music output and atleast above average call quality (I know, a lot to ask of a budget device)

[stewie]

I bought one of these to use in my Grande Punto (Emotion).
My car had bluetooth calling. I was only interested in streaming bluetooth music due to the lack of aux-in and a2dp streaming in the Punto.

First off, Roidmi does not play nice with the lighter socket in my car.
It kinda rolled around in the socket. This meant frequent disconnections and subsequent power on/off.

Second, i found the sound quality to be tinny when it did work.
Not hard to guess why. Bluetooth a2dp struggles with music quality anyways.
Add on the task of converting that into an FM signal and the result is something i could not live with.

I don't claim to be an audiophile but I couldn't live with the sound quality from the device. Otherwise i would've found a solution for issue#1.

If you're not that picky, it could work for you - it's very convenient and straight forward to use.

[Memphis]

Thank Stewie for sharing your experience. I am quite picky on sound quality & already have a bluetooth jugaad with average output. I suspected that further pass thru on fm may be an issue

[johannskaria]

Originally Posted by Memphis

Anyone know if for the civic would this need the adaptor? Any experiences with music vs call quality? My primary aim is a clean setup with high quality music output and atleast above average call quality (I know, a lot to ask of a budget device)

Yeah it will most likely need an adapter in Civic, as an Amaze, Jazz and City needed an adapter in our testing.
You are in luck , the new version Roidmi 2s has way better music quality and average call quality. The bluetooth 4.0 relly helps in this aspect. There is no fall in the stream quality between this and Aux. Have tested it with various systems and with a Sound engineer for verification purposes. It works perfectly imho and without no connection problems.
The above has also been the experience of fellow bhpian who has bought and fit it in his Fabia.

Originally Posted by stewie

I bought one of these to use in my Grande Punto (Emotion).

I don't claim to be an audiophile but I couldn't live with the sound quality from the device. Otherwise i would've found a solution for issue#1.

If you're not that picky, it could work for you - it's very convenient and straight forward to use.

I have had no issues with the fitment or the sound quality in various cars i've tested.
Only in XUV the fitment was little loose, due to worn out Cigarette lighter.
With the sound quality too never had an issue. As my audiophile sound engineer and musician friends enjoyed it without any complaints.
I also tested it with Western classical, pop, rock, country, Rahman and various other genres reaching at the same conclusion consistently every single time.

Was yours the newer Roidmi 2s?