Review on 🚗 Car and Driver INTELLIDASH PRO Wireless Apple Carplay + Bluetooth, SiriusXM, Siri Assistant - 7'' IPS Touchscreen, Dash Windshield Mounted by Patrick Keita

LATEST UPDATE: After updating the firmware I am happy with this device and keep it to myself. There are still some bugs in the way calls are handled. For example, if you're on the phone and then get into a car, it's hard to tell where your call was going and how to get the sound through the car. This could be because the machine is fighting with Intellidash to connect, and this is a situation my machine was never good at before Intellidash, but is much clumsy now. But still I think I can live with that as it doesn't happen that often. The whole process of getting in the car at home - the phone connects to the home WiFi, then connects to the Intellidash WiFi and also connects to the car's Bluetooth - it's amazing that this thing works at all. UPDATE #2: I contacted support with a list of bugs and they sent me a new firmware version this weekend. After some USB issues (requires FAT32 format) I was able to upgrade. The device's audio now works perfectly on phone calls, and the device even saved my region and time settings after a brief power outage. I'm going to test it out on a ride today but after a quick check yesterday things seem a lot better and I might end up abandoning this device after all. UPDATE (a week later): I REALLY wanted this to work. But the device does not work properly when making phone calls, as well as losing settings when switched off, proved to be a hindrance in everyday use. Even tried using a cable and turning Bluetooth/Wi-Fi completely off - still not handling calls properly - call audio came out of the iPhone speaker. Planned return but see update above. This unit is a brilliant solution to the CarPlay problem for cars like mine where the head unit cannot be swapped out as the controls are built into the touchscreen (negative comments on other sites say "just update the head unit" . UGH)! When the MFR is observing and taking input, it needs the following things in addition to error correction: - Ambient light detection for automatic screen brightness option - Volume option to adjust speech/navigation separate from music. It's ALMOST amazing. Buggy needs an overhaul: - Doesn't remember settings when not connected to network. If your car cuts out 12V DC when you turn it off (as it should!), the device will lose its configuration/settings, although the iPhone will still be able to connect via CarPlay without reconfiguration. This is a design flaw - it must use non-volatile memory to store settings. It's possible that a future version of this device will fix it, but it probably can't be fixed programmatically. (but see update 2 above - could be fixed!) The clock shows the time, but it probably has a small battery for that. Lost settings include: -Region setting. Will reset to Europe on power off. No obvious impact on US users, just annoying. -FM station settings. If you are using an FM transmitter, the on/off status (and possibly the frequency) will be lost when the device is switched off. The workaround is to use an aux cable if your system supports it. -Screen brightness settings. It's kind of a big problem. With every restart you have to fiddle with the brightness. - I can't say the sunrise/sunset screen settings do anything at all. The same brightness always seems to work - there is also no configuration option to change the brightness settings for day and evening separately. There is a simple brightness icon in the main menu. It also behaves strangely - the device starts up with a brightness level, then you can click the icon to switch to dimming mode. Then when you click again it goes into a much brighter mode, but on the third press it goes back to dimming/dark mode, not inclusion level. I'm not sure what this button is supposed to do, but it's a quick way to change the brightness. - Calls do not work - You can make calls, but there is no sound through the speakers in Carplay mode. That's a pretty basic flaw for something that's supposed to be a phone. When a call is made via CarPlay, the call appears on the car's Bluetooth call screen, not on the device (which appears to first connect to the iPhone via Bluetooth and then switch to WiFi). And then the sound from the speaker is not audible, although at least one of the microphones in the car picks up from my side. (See update #2 - this may now be fixed.) - Wouldn't mind if it came with a USB-C to Lightning cable! It only comes with C-to-C. Also, it must include an angled auxiliary cable in addition to the rectangular power cable. It makes sense, doesn't it? - Inside the box is a QR code that doesn't work and a link to the wrong website. But the support email works and people have been helpful, but so far no solutions have been offered to my problems (besides always plugged into a power source!). No new firmware yet. As this is a Gen 2 device I hope they are actively working on the software!