My Review of the Phoenix Android Head 9" Octacore Head Unit

SCOPESYS

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What a load of crap. I have never seen this unit update. I have yet to have virtually 90% of the apps actually be stable. I’ve tried several music players including those that you mentioned. Each has its own issues. But stability seems to be a theme Not to mention that, As far as I can tell, you can’t even map your apps on the steering wheel. So when I press “source” I get to scroll through radio, video, TV, etc. the only one I would use is radio (and even that app sucks as its “presets” don’t lock on the stations call letters or frequency so half the time when I look down I have no idea what station the preset is set to ) I can’t map the source button to switch over to apps i’m actually using like a music player.
My phone hotspot is very hit or miss and requires me to spend several minutes before I go anywhere to make sure the unit is doing what I needed it to do
Now it sounds like you are a android aficionado who likes to play. Thats cool but That accounts for 1 %of the population. Most of us don’t know or care about rooting or playing with a 100 apps. As I noted in my initial review I wanted it to do some basic stuff and do them well. I really don’t give a crap that the unit has a TV or I can watch Jurassic Park. I think that’s the problem in general with aftermarket units. They fill them full of stuff that most of us don’t need or care about

The functionality of this unit is downright shameful. It’s a shit show and I would tell anyone other than android programmers to stay far away from it.I’ve had it for a month now and it is nothing but a hassle. One of these days I’ll try to do a full video review to just show how functionally ridiculous this thing is


Since I’m in for a penny I might as will be in for a pound and I got the Apple CarPlay dongle. I’m hoping to somehow make this unit worthwhile
100% agree.

On paper (website) it looks Great .. until you actually get it and try to use it.
Then all the problems present themselves.

Not exactly bait-and-switch, but pretty close.

I have not seen one CREDIBLE person report that this unit functions as advertised, or, at the end of the day, it is a better radio solution to the original OEM Honda Radio.

Now if only we could get, and fit the Honda OEM Head Units that the Japan market Honda owners have fitted to their cars from factory.
OMG -- apples and oranges ...
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Moopy62

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Get a USB 3 drive .. when I changed from USB2 to USB3, (with 2000+ song titles), the load time on the USB3 drive dropped to 1-2 seconds, (provided you do not put all your music in the root directory.)

NOTE for those using the HONDA head Unit

The Honda USB player is a FOLDER player, not a MP3 Tag player.

If you pre-sort your music into a number of sub-folders off the root, maybe selected by Artist, or Music type, then the menu loads a lot faster.

Being a FOLDER player, it cannot sort by Mp3 tags, and say, select by Artist.
You can however select to play ALL in a given Sub-Folder.
So, according to how you sort your Music into folders, you can then go on to make a selection by folder.
If you then select the ROOT folder, you will end up playing ALL the sub-folder's music.

To make Play-Lists, you will need to put your select music into their own "Play_List" Folders(s).
Not as limiting as you might 1st imagine, because it is very fast to just MOVE Music around with you USB drive connected to your PC.
Sorry bro if this came across as flaming you. I appreciate the post just very frustrated with the g d unit
 

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100% agree.

On paper (website) it looks Great .. until you actually get it and try to use it.
Then all the problems present themselves.

Not exactly bait-and-switch, but pretty close.

I have not seen one CREDIBLE person report that this unit functions as advertised, or, at the end of the day, it is a better radio solution to the original OEM Honda Radio.

Now if only we could get, and fit the Honda OEM Head Units that the Japan market Honda owners have fitted to their cars from factory.
OMG -- apples and oranges ...
Hmmm. a couple more replies to my original reply...
  • The radio DOES suck. I even bought a power antennae and still can't get but a handful of stations and I am 10 miles outside of Houston city limits.
  • PowerAmp, YouTube Music, Google Play, Android Assistant, Google maps, Tunerview... These ALL work flawlessly and are so much faster and clearer than with the original head unit.
  • The Phoenix radio gives you options, plain and simple. Maybe it isn't as simple to set up as the original radio, but it can do so much more and you can make it the way YOU want. This is why I originally turned to Android from Apple, to be able to customize how I use my device.
  • The volume up, down, next song, last song, back button, mute, the all work from the steering wheel.
I am not trying to persuade you to like the system, as obviously you don't. I am just giving my thoughts and suggestions about my view of it. My wife was in my car for the first time since I got everything to my liking and she was impressed on how everything was working. We used google to check on some items we were looking for, then mapped out the store to Google maps and listened to YouTube music on the way.
 

SCOPESYS

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Sorry bro if this came across as flaming you. I appreciate the post just very frustrated with the g d unit
DITTO ... The whole Honda Head Unit subject is so frustrating.

And try talking to your Dealer, and asking for advise and help :rofl:

(a) Honda issue very little data about their head Units -- Only what they want you to know for sales purposes.

(b) The Honda unit is old, slow, and locked down, and highly customized for the car, but once again, no real documentation-- only DUMBED down info

(c) The China aftermarket units are just as bad - they claim Compatibility, but it end up, they are only partly compatible, with many of the Honda customized feature missing.

(d) The same model cars sold in Japan, are different with many more addon accessories, including, what looks like, a far better Head Unit, (not made by Mitsubishi), but there is no info (I have found), that would indicate, if those Honda Japan units could replace the head Unit in a European/American/Canadian built car.
Looks like it might be possible to purchase one of the Honda Japan head units -- I get the impression that doing so is quite common in the Japan Market.

(e) Its so difficult to tell exactly how compatible the various China units are, as "-
some say they do not work at all,
some say the are "just OK",
and some rant and rave how great they are, and that everything works fine with the swap.​
I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle, the middle being a step backwards from the OEM Honda Unit.

Also, one of the problem with Forums, -- you really never know who is posting, and how competent they are to give reliable advice -- like THIS guy SCOPESYS - posts a lot of BS that makes no sense, and is an idiot :bs: :beer::beer::beer: :sleep::sleep:
How do I know --- "Because Brawndo's got electrolytes."
 
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SCOPESYS

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Hmmm. a couple more replies to my original reply...
  • PowerAmp, YouTube Music, Google Play, Android Assistant, Google maps, Tunerview... These ALL work flawlessly and are so much faster and clearer than with the original head unit.
With the Honda head Unit, those apps are actually running on your phone . they are only being mirrored/displayed on the Honda head unit.
If they appear to run Slowly, that may well be that they are running slowly on your phone, if you have an older, slow phone.

However, good to hear it is working well for you . That's good to hear.

Out of interest, how does the Screen Brightness and Visibility compare with the original Honda Unit. , especially on a bright sunny day.?
 


SCOPESYS

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I am not trying to persuade you to like the system, as obviously you don't. I am just giving my thoughts and suggestions about my view of it. .
Actually, I LOVE my China aftermarket Head Unit.
It does so many cool things, and I can spend hours customizing it, changing my mind, changing everything again and again, getting it better and better.
Is so fast !! I can have so may apps all running at the same time, and it does not slow down at all, I can watch Movies on it, install just about any app I want from the Google Play store, put an enormous 256GB USB flash drive on it with 30,000 + songs.

I LOVE IT .. as an upgrade to the old AM/FM Tape player Radio that was in my 31 year old Maxima.
As a swap out for our 2018 Honda Si, I would still have to say "NO WAY".

What I am hoping for is that the 2020/2021 Civics get newer, updated, radios - and then in a year or so, upgrade to one of those. (or mabe the Japan Civics Radio, if any info can be got about them that is not in Japanese).
 

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With the Honda head Unit, those apps are actually running on your phone . they are only being mirrored/displayed on the Honda head unit.
If they appear to run Slowly, that may well be that they are running slowly on your phone, if you have an older, slow phone.

However, good to hear it is working well for you . That's good to hear.

Out of interest, how does the Screen Brightness and Visibility compare with the original Honda Unit. , especially on a bright sunny day.?
No, the head unit has its own apps and I don't use the mirroring app.

The brightness hasn't been a problem during the day. Google Assistant at night is a different story. That bright white background lights up the car.
 

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No, the head unit has its own apps and I don't use the mirroring app.

The brightness hasn't been a problem during the day. Google Assistant at night is a different story. That bright white background lights up the car.
So the screen on the Aftermarket Head Unit does not dim at night, like the Honda OEM unit does.
 

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So the screen on the Aftermarket Head Unit does not dim at night, like the Honda OEM unit does.
It does dim. There are options in the settings to adjust the dimming. I do not recall having brightness issues on the Honda unit, but I never started up google assistant on that one. I am just saying that googles choice of an all white background really does light things up at night. Google maps is more setup for the car as it changes to night mode automatically.
 

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It does dim. There are options in the settings to adjust the dimming. I do not recall having brightness issues on the Honda unit, but I never started up google assistant on that one. I am just saying that googles choice of an all white background really does light things up at night. Google maps is more setup for the car as it changes to night mode automatically.
Yes, Google Assistant has more than one issue, and a development team that does not seem to pay any attention to user feedback.:(
 


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With the Honda head Unit, those apps are actually running on your phone . they are only being mirrored/displayed on the Honda head unit.
If they appear to run Slowly, that may well be that they are running slowly on your phone, if you have an older, slow phone.

However, good to hear it is working well for you . That's good to hear.

Out of interest, how does the Screen Brightness and Visibility compare with the original Honda Unit. , especially on a bright sunny day.?
You're assuming said person is using CarPlay or AndroidAuto when they gave no indication that that is the case. All of those apps are capable of being installed directly onto the headunit. That being said, the OEM headunit is running on roughly 8 year old hardware with a 6 year old OS. So, apps run like crap and MOST navigation apps are almost unusable directly on the headunit.
 

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You're assuming said person is using CarPlay or AndroidAuto when they gave no indication that that is the case. All of those apps are capable of being installed directly onto the headunit.
I believe I said:

With the Honda head Unit, those apps are actually running on your phone . they are only being mirrored/displayed on the Honda head unit.
If they appear to run Slowly, that may well be that they are running slowly on your phone, if you have an older, slow phone.
But yes, I "assumed" they had not HONDA HACKED their Honda head unit -- because they did not say that they had done so. :dunno:

That being said, the OEM headunit is running on roughly 8 year old hardware with a 6 year old OS. So, apps run like crap and MOST navigation apps are almost unusable directly on the headunit.
EXACTLY !!!
 
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For anyone who synced their contacts, how did you do so (to where it shows the name instead of just the number when someone calls)?
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