Review on 🎶 Enhance Your In-Car Entertainment with the Pioneer DMH-W4660NEX Mechless Digital Media Receiver by Kristen Carter

I was drawn to Android Auto's improved wireless support and its compact size. With such a shallow block depth, I was able to install it in my Jeep Renegade using the best install kit to get a stock car look without having to cut through a bunch of plastic in the dash. The device supports iDatalink Maestro which I already had and it was very easy to install. While Android Auto launches quickly and completely by itself (hell Kenwood, can't you already improve that on your devices?), it gets a little buggy from here. First, all the colors in Android Auto are washed out and the brightness is increased for some reason. I don't see this behavior in my Kenwood DDX9905S, only in this Pioneer head unit, so it's not an Android Auto issue or anything specific to the phone, it's the head unit. Second, when wireless Android Auto is the first audio source launched on the device, it doesn't play any audio at all. Running a source like Aux, HD Radio, local media, or even USB-based Android Auto first, it plays as you'd expect with no issues. On the other hand, the "Wifi Audio" source cannot be the first source played on the device. Even menu button tones won't play on the device until another source is activated. When I first contacted Pioneer support regarding this, the online technician suggested deleting the device and trying again. When that didn't work I was told the unit was still within the return period and it was probably defective so just send it back and get another one. I followed their instructions, got another device, prepared another harness. Same results. It may well be a bug, but it looks like it's a design flaw. Hopefully in the future they will release a firmware update to fix this issue as it is a real issue right now. Update (02/17/2020) - A new firmware for the head unit (1.31) was recently released stating that it fixes some issues with the wireless Android Auto connectivity. The update went through the app with no issues, but didn't solve the issues I'm having that are listed in my review. This device is still unstable and Android Auto (also Bluetooth) cannot reliably connect on its own.