Chinese android head units

[davepoth]

The radio in my daily drive has packed up and so I'm trying to find something to replace it. I was thinking something along these lines:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Android-5-1-BMW-E46-M3-R...

But I've been vacillating a bit as it's quite a lot of money for something that might well be nothing more than a decent doorstop. Does anyone have any experience with them?

[steveo3002]

i asked a while back and folk said they have a high failiure rate , if you must try one pay a little for a uk seller so you can send it back if it fails

[dudleybloke]

Chinavasion sell some and they deal with returns with no problems.

https://www.chinavasion.com/china/wholesale/Car_DV...

Edited by dudleybloke on Thursday 16th June 19:54

[spookly]

I bought a cheapo Chinese android a couple of years ago. They may be better now, but the interface was awful.

[2172cc]

I've learnt from my mistakes in the past and wouldn't consider any cheap Chinese electronic equipment anymore. Don't be seduced by the spec, it's the user experience that counts.

[DennisCooper]

Hi,

They're all low quality, low reliability, high failure rate, high chances of issues/problems, low to nil levels of support and after sales backup and care. Even buying from a UK seller isn't much of a guarantee as certainly for the BMW market, a number of UK companies have tried to sell them and then gone out of business. There's quite a number of purchasers out there who paid £250-550 for units only to get issues/problems/dead on arrival units and lost all their money due to the company not existing anymore.

On the other hand, there's a handful of people who have purchased one of these types of units and 'luckily' their unit's have been ok.

So it comes down to how lucky you are feeling and if you are ok with losing £200-350 or so in case of issues/failed unit.

Cheers, Dennis!

[OldGermanHeaps]

Mine has been half decent, i had to mod it for an external mic as handsfree was poor. Radio reception is terrible, there is a mod for that but i haven't bothered as i use tunein radio/google music/amazon music apps and youtube for music.
Steering wheel controls work perfect, dash display still works (merc specific unit) reversing camera was more useful than i thought it would be. Unit is snappy and touchscreeen is responsive. Built in amp is better than merc audio 20.