Quote:
Originally Posted by DevilsCry Amazing review, GTPower. Thanks for writing it.
I've a request. Can you please write a test drive review of older generation Ford Figo? I own one (petrol version) and after reading your review of Polo GT TSI, I wish to read a similar review of my generation of Ford Figo. Thanks in advance. |
Come on, I can not review what I don't own. However I can talk about the HU options for VW cars
Strictly to the point I have only seen and used two OEM like alike HUs for the Polo. One is winCE based and the other being Android based. I am writing it here as this is not a proper ICE install, its just two HUs I got to fit in my car. As to why I got two HUs in the first place that is a long story. Nevertheless I managed to give away one to my friend convincing him that an audiophile like him should really update his ICE
Lets start with the Android one which I have currently fitted in the car.
Link to the product
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-...358067591.html
Its not available now for this particular seller but many of then sell the same thing under various brands.
Cost - 284 USD Inclusive of shipping (I was not charged any customs on this, it was shipped through EMS)
This one has 4 pre outs, a sub out, video out, video in, camera in, CANBUS decoder and pretty much everything under the sun. I don't think anyone will be left wanting for more on connectivity.
The CANBUS decoder on this HU is external and I think is a two way CANBUS but I have no way of confirming this.
The android home screen
The bluetooth system on the HU is very simple and a bit primitive.
Bluetooth music player does not display any of the track's meta data. Not even the song name is displayed.
The bluetooth phone book syncs your phone book and recent calls
Car infomation
A pop up appears when any of the 5 doors are opened. However the pop up goes away after a bit it does not stay there till the door is closed.
The car info app shows various parameters like fuel level, handbrake position, engine rpm, total mileage etc. However I found this app a bit inconvenient as it does not display all parameters at a glance and you will need to scroll to see all the parameters
Radio
The radio app looks beautiful, the reception is a bit weaker than the OEM player however.
Music
The default music app is easy to use. It does not display album art in this view, however when you come back to the home screen the small box on the left displays album art.
Reversing
The HU has an option of enabling static grid lines even if the camera does not have its own. My camera had its own grid lines so I switched off the one's on the HU. The blue line shows where the car is expected to go depending on the current steering angle. It does not show distance between the car and object behind it, but that could be because the car does not have a OPS system sending the required information through CANBUS
Navigation
The HU came built in with a navigation app called Navgear.
Screen Mirroring
The seller was insistent that screen mirroring would work with an iphone but it does not work with the app that came with it. I managed to get it to mirror the iphone screen using a another app though.
The biggest let down for me is that this HU does not have ipod compatibility. As I carry all of my music (when on the go) on Apple Music (DRM protected) I cannot transfer them to a USB stick to play it on the car. So I need to play my music using bluetooth which is the worst way to play music on this HU.
Sound quality is something I cannot assess fully but it is very similar to the other HU I am going to write about. The primary reason is the stock speakers are just not going to work with any after market HU very well as they seem to be very thoroughly optimized to sound best with the OEM HU. Besides this is just the source system, in my experience the quality of the source's circuitry does not make a significant difference when listening to low bit rate digital sources (which is all the music on apple music that I carry) of course your experiences may differ.
So if you were one of those guy who has to root and TWRP everything. Then this probably is your idea of Nirvana! Unlimited connectivity options, quad core processor, wifi and what not. You will never probably need to use any of the apps shown in my pictures. You can change pretty much everything, except the bluetooth maybe.. that is really a lost cause. But if you are someone who needs things to just work and make sense as soon as you plug it in then this HU might not be exactly what you need.