MattaS

its very important to me not to miss with the original wiring

meanwhile and after a lot of translation i am waiting for a video or pics from the installation process....
if there such a thing!!!!!

UPDATE: NO VIDEO OR PICS... but the engineer assume that its one on one installation and an easy one

it will cost 586 delivered.... is it worth a try??

metaleckz

iTrader: (9)

Oh you didnt buy it yet? Lol seems like a fair price

nosurprise

iTrader: (1)

If they give directions on how it's an easy install it would worth a try. It's possible that it's just a simply plug and play if the top right bunch of wires can simply be unplugged and plug in with Lexus harness. It does look like the factory Lexus plug will fit into it.

MattaS

Pinhau (the taobao product) and also the alibaba unit is both out of stock.......
pinhau have no exact date. they refuse to give me the price ...
alibaba seller promise to get the product ready next week and at a price of 586 dollars shipped...
after little investigation: i assume they get there units from the same manufacture
so meanwhile waiting for the next week... i will inform you about any update..

Htoo

My unit just arrived. I will install and give u guys full review on saturday. First impression: totally amazed by the quality!

LEX6IX

Looks great, and hope there are little to no flaws. I wish they tried matching the dash color though!

MattaS

congrats Htoo.... looks nice...
waiting for your review

metaleckz

iTrader: (9)

yeah i was thinking of the same thing. Wrapping it CF wouldnt be so bad i think

2ISMike

Htoo , That looks amazing, please let us know if there are any screens with Chinese only or partial Chinese. Also, if there is any way to convert the language on those screens to English. Thanks

Htoo

So here is my review


Build quality
I was surprised to receive a build that is cut out of aluminum block instead of plastic. And unlike the pics we see online, this one have two triangle buttons, one for hazard lights and one for eject button, which imho, makes it a lot better symmetric looking. Color is not match at all with the upper vent. However, being the entire device, it doesn't look that bad with lighter colored vents. There is no mount included, we need to use the mounts from my original unit with some modification (some of the pin need to be straightened, no big deal). Though it fit nicely, I had to remove some screws and cables out of the way and cut few plastic pins inside the dashboard to be able to fit it. And it needs 2009+ vents, or otherwise, a gap between vent and unit.



Cables and Connectors
First, I was surprised to notice something (in the first picture). Second surprise, i know. This is what every other chinese units have failed me. From unit to unit, surface mounted microphones as you can see at the front of the unit are so bad that you have to be shouting inside your car to be able to talk via bluetooth included. This is not the case with the included external microphone. There is also a CAN Bus box and a bunch of connectors which seems plug and play. When installing, I can see a lot of not used connectors left in my car too. Only 3-4 connectors are connected to the unit. Hazard light with Passenger seat belt light socket on the unit did not fit the one in my car (mine is JDM, maybe that's the reason), so don't know whether this one have passenger seat belt light issue like the Thonzar Unit. Later, I'll read about pin diagrams and try to connect them one by one.






AirCondition / CAN BUS / Sound quality
Unfortunately, they sent me the unit designed to replace Radio only units. Mine was originally a SatNav unit so, AC controls does not work at all. Steering wheel buttons on the left works, right ones does not work for the same reason. They said they will send me a new CAN Bus box and cable set and it will all work. And that's another two weeks. I had my convenient temperature set before removing original unit, so I'll keep it installed while waiting for new CAN Bus box. My reversing camera don't work too (maybe for the same reason) but I see settings related to it such as car projection line drawings inside the "Car Settings" app, so, I'm hoping it will work after new cable and box. If they don't, my installer said that he can bypass and rewire so that it will work but without projection lines. Unlike Thonzar unit, sound quality is not an issue with this unit. In fact, I believe its equalizer even improved the sound quality over original unit (mine is Pioneer unit, not Mark Levinson). Fade and L/R controls does not work (they are controlled by amp on the rear, CAN bus not working again i guess).



Screen and User Interface
Surprise again. The unit comes default with english language. I don't see any trace of Chinese language except from included three songs in the internal storage. Screen is really, really, really gorgeous (you have to see it yourself to know how good it is). Definitely better resolution than my original unit. I hate the top bar which cannot be removed with anything. Especially hated that white labels and the radio icon which pops out as squarish while the rest of the icons are rounded. It's ALMOST perfect, so close and the Chineses have to screw it like that, makes me grind my teeth. Apps runs below that top bar, status bar is there and can be dragged down for more toggles. I tried installing Go Launcher, it overlaps here and there, doesn't work well at all. Radio app works quite well, so is Videos, DVD and Bluetooth. But Musics App sucks big time. I immediately installed PowerAmp app. Even more sound quality and better UI. But I don't find anywhere to change that Musics button to open Poweramp. Only NAV button is able to change to which app to open. PlayStore is included but a lot of apps are unavailable (This app is not designed for this device bla bla error). I used Aptoide to download apps, and all of them works. Bluetooth have A2DP as well as phone book download and call log functions, all works well. Android is 4.4.2, which is disappointing though, together with 1GB RAM will limit amount of apps it could run without lagging.







Conclusion
I need to thank the lady at Thonzar for being so rude, so that I didn't buy theirs. I would had ended up with a unit that don't have a nice microphone and a bad audio output. And I was very close to buying Taiwanese unit too, didn't because of the language barrier. Even if that one is as good as this unit, I think the big vertical screen outshines, at least for me. Things I don't like in the android, I'll root it later and try to fix it. CAN BUS Box is a mystery to me though, I believe they should be able to provide me just update files instead of replacing the box. We'll see later.

triple7is

Thanks for the review htoo, This really persuade to get something like this instead of the other version that look like oem version. The fact that the screen is big is a huge selling point for me. Keep us updated on how it goes for you. Again thank you for your review.

2ISMike

Great work htoo. It's hard to tell from the pics, but being that the screen is so big, does it seem too bright and distracting at night time?

MattaS

Thanks a lot Htoo.. very intersting review..
I am waiting to the next week to order mine..
hope that all the buttons will work for me cause i have a non nav unit
Its encoureging thats the sound quality is good..

Htoo

Mike,
Screen have low brightness mode when u turn on headlights. But still, it's a bit distracting.

metaleckz

iTrader: (9)

Thanks for sharing this