Chinese Android headunit review + installation. (Pics/Vid)
 

Hey all.

After a year or so of using the factory stereo in my 03 350GT, i was well and truly over it. (CD player failed, limited to 1 radio station because of needing a band expander).

So, after hearing about it for a year, my Mrs went out of her way and told me she was going to buy me the double din kit etc for me (as i put one in her Altezza).

From there, i went to Sonic Electronics, as they provide very cheap shipping to New Zealand. I purchased the following:

- Metra Dash kit (silver) 99-7604
- Metra 70-7550
- Scosche Scosche NDAB

$238.46 NZD

Then i went on the lookout for a nice touch screen double din. Now, i know there are plenty of good units from the likes of Pioneer, JVC, Kenwood etc etc. However, these are all stupidly expensive. Most are limited to number of functions and just were not worth the money (in my eyes).

So after days of reading reviews about different Windows/Android headunits, i bit the bullet an purchased a "Better Electronics BT4505" double din Android2.2 headunit. This unit has everything you need and much more.

Heres a brief list of the specs:

- Unit 2-DIN radio.
- 1Ghz Cortex A8 processor.
- Touchscreen 6.2 "(800x480).
- Android 2.2 operating system.
- Many applications with Android Market.
- SD card slot.
- Built-in navigation system.
- Front USB.
- DVD / VCD / CD / MP3 / WMA / MP4 / DivX / JPEG / DVD-R / DVD-RW / CD-R / MP3 ID.
- Built-in Bluetooth.
- Power 50W x 4.
- Connection for iPod via Bluetooth.
- Video input for reverse camera (rear camera not included).
- Front auxiliary input.
- Light custom colors (Blue and Red).
- And simcard 3G Modem (not included).

The reason why i chose this unit, was the reviews for the windows system were not that great. Plenty of them stated that unit did exactly as it was meant to...until it failed. Then they were stuck with a cheap, crappy unit that was essentially unfixable/impossible to return.

I managed to find out from a local supplier here in NZ that if my unit has ANY problems after installation, then i am entitled to a new unit or my money back.

So, enough of all that. Here are some pictures/video:

Please ignore the stereo surrounding trim. I will be making this fit shortly. Also, ignore the gas consumption stats. I had to rush to work this morning :oops: damn Christchurch (post earthquake) roadworks!

The resolution/quality of the screen is actually very good. Sadly the sun does not help in the photos & the photo quality is pretty low as i blew the images up too big...

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I will be buying a steering wheel from a wrecked 250gt/300gt/350gt that has stereo controls & a reverse camera. As this head-unit has steering wheel functionality & wiring with it for both the wheel controls + reverse cam.



Total price for this setup:

Dash kit/accessories - $238.46
BT4505 headunit - $400.00 (inc shipping)

Total: $638.46

Headunit review:

UI/UX - 9/10 - Easy to use, nice and clean (much, much better than the windows CE units i looked at)
Installation - 8.5/10 - Very easy
Screen res. - 9/10 - No worries here. People complain about glare a lot for touch units. Maybe its because of my tints?
Mic quality - 7/10 - Surprisingly good for a basic chinese built in mic.
GPS quality - 9/10 - Again, surprisingly good. I assumed the offline GPS would have been very poor. Turns out i was wrong. The other GPS apps work flawlessly also.
Sound quality - 10/10 - Nothing to worry about here. Super clear and crisp.
Boot time - 8/10 - Around 30 seconds at worst. Most other units are 45 seconds+. This is about 20 seconds to boot up & another 10 or so to load everything. Including you last running app.

Overall, so far im very happy with the unit and the install as a whole.

Heres a link for anyone who is interested.

http://bettercaraudio.com/producto.php?id=18888634

Cheers!
Andy

Here's a few questions about that unit - can you run Waze for navigation, while Pandora is playing music? Is there a way to skip forward/backward via physical buttons? and if so, do they work to skip music while a navigation app is in the foreground?

I've been considering one of those units too, but it's looking to me that since I have external amps, I may be better served by a ~$150 tablet connected directly to the amplifiers, or through a radio in order to gain FM/AM and steering wheel controls.

Hey Wrathernaut. No worries man.

1. Waze - There should be no issue with running the 2 apps at once. I am currently using my 16gb SD card for music & i can use either Nav apps that came on the unit. They speak over the top of the music & the music fades out when it gives instructions.

2. No physical buttons for playback unfortunately. However, the forward/back buttons are a good size and have a good amount of space around them, so they are easy. If this is an issue, you could always use the steering wheel controls?

I was in the same situation mate. I was dead set on installing a Nexus7 and running that setup. However, the issues with radio support, looms, linking it up to my amp, fabricating a surround etc to suit just seemed like more hassle than it was worth tbh.

Andy.

Which nav apps are built-in? They may be specially programmed to come over the music with the factory music apps too. If you can give it a test run with those apps, I'd appreciate it.

I like your choice of movie for the video. The video quality looks better than my Kenwood. Nice write up!

I have Sygic on it and the 2 that come on it are iGO & Maps (i believe it is Android Maps).

Yeah not a worry man. Ill chuck Waze on it tonight and see how i get on. I can video it for you if needed?

Haha i thought people would get a kick out of that :biggthumpup:

Yeah i was pleasantly surprised at the video quality!

Video would be great, thanks for doing the legwork on this one.

No worries boss. After all you have done for others on the forum, its the least i can do!

Unfortunately, i didn't get a spare minute last night. I will get a video asap for you :)