Review on KOODEA Wireless with Apple Carplay & Android Auto: 7 Inch IPS Touchscreen Multimedia Player with Bluetooth, Mirror Link Siri/Google Assistant - 2022 Upgraded by Peter Green

My wife and I have cars that don't have CarPlay and have been damaged from rentals. Thanks to CarPlay, we realize how cool it is. I requested this for my wife's old 2010 Kia Soul, which doesn't even let you stream music wirelessly via Bluetooth (phone calls only; it's so old). We plan to trade this car in for a newer car at some point and don't want to buy an expensive new radio. This product seems like a good compromise if it does what it says on the tin. And it really is! I really need to talk about the setup process as there are a few things I found a bit frustrating and counterintuitive. Make sure Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (BT) are turned on to set up and use this touchscreen. The initial connection was stupid because the device hides its BT name by default. Instead of connecting an iPhone to a touchscreen, connect a touchscreen to an iPhone (find your phone in the list of devices touchscreen sees). This seems to work better (you can also hide the BT name in the touchscreen settings). Once connected via BT, your iPhone should establish a touchscreen WiFi connection and you're done. Next time you start your car, ignore the touchscreen and it will automatically connect and wireless CarPlay connection within a minute. This is the most reliable and high quality. I haven't even tried the FM streaming option because it's always the worst quality and usually has low noise levels, which annoyed me. Supported CarPlay apps run pretty smoothly. Animations on maps etc etc work quite smoothly. The screen isn't as responsive as the iPhone, but it's responsive to touch and works well enough for what you need to do while driving. Calls are loud and the built in mic sounds decent/loud enough according to my wife who I called. That. There are some things that didn't work so well that aren't all device bugs. Something I noticed on both my iPhone (iOS 15.1) and my wife's iPhone (iOS 14.8) is the navigation volume. unstable / super low. If we are listening to music or a podcast and a turn-by-turn announcement is played, the volume of the music drops as expected, but the announcement is quiet. It cannot be used. The solution with integrated CarPlay systems is usually to turn up the volume during a call or next turn announcement etc. to set/reset the volume of that announcement. But there's no physical button on the touchscreen (and the iPhone's volume buttons are disabled during CarPlay), so. I dived into the settings. Try this: Start at Car Home - (scroll right) Settings - (scroll down) - Factory (default password 123456) - Settings - Volume - Stream Volume - (scroll down) CarPlay Media - 50. Leave others CarPlay levels to 102. Done. Map and announcement volume should now be at an acceptable level, or you can adjust it to your liking. Hope this helps someone, it took me a while to figure it out! its ports (even managed to manage it halfway through cables), but as others have pointed out, the screen looks odd when viewed through polarized lenses/sunglasses. I have some pretty good driving sunglasses that do NOT seem to be polarized so I haven't noticed this issue. However, after looking at some polarized sunglasses and testing them with this screen, it looks VERY washed out and difficult to read. It's a shame because the screen usually looks bright and is very legible. Not a problem for me, but maybe for some. The accessories are not outstanding either. The 12V socket adapter is too thick and I felt my car's 12V socket might break when plugged in. It fits in and works, but feels cheap and too wide. The suction cup that holds the touchscreen is securely attached to the glass, and I even partially lean on the dash (nice and close to the driver), but. The point where the mount attaches to the suction cup is loose and pivots, so it can still move around a bit even when it's all fully tightened. Again. feels cheap. Means wise. it's close to what I expected, but maybe closer to the $200 mark it would sweeten the deal (or upgrade the 12V charging adapter and mount). Overall, I'm really impressed with how well it works, and now I'm jealous that my wife can enjoy CarPlay in her car while I, the big nerd, settle for boring Bluetooth streaming in my 2017 Camry. 4 stars because it's not perfect, but after tweaking the settings it works fine.