vincentw56
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I have had awhile to use this infotainment system so I thought I would write a review on it. I had the Uconnet 4 (UC4) 12-inch screen already. But I had one goal in mind, to not have to use my phone at all. On UC4 I would use Android Auto (AA) using the Motorola MA1 Wireless Car Adapter for Android Auto. That worked well, but as most people know, you only get half the screen for AA.
Installation was fairly easy, but time consuming since you have to match up all the wires. It isn’t difficult and they have a video explaining all the wires. One thing I did was add an adapter to hookup the LTE antenna to the truck’s antenna. I did not use any of there supplied antennas. They do supply one for LTE and satellite GPS. I just hooked into the factory system, and everything works as intended.
Everything functions as it should. You have controls for the various functions as before. One thing to note is that everything is there for every option. So, if your truck didn’t come with parking assist, lane keep assist, ventilated seats, etc., you will still have those buttons or options. The factory cameras work fine. I have the 360-camera system. It basically sends the factory signal to the screen. The downside is that none of the factory buttons work. You cannot switch between front/rear or wide/narrow views. This doesn’t bother me as I never use that. There is a physical camera button. Pressing it while in drive activates the front camera and the rear is activated when in reverse. The picture quality isn’t as good as stock, but it isn’t that bad either. You can easily see everything you need to see.
The settings for the truck are a little weird too. As mentioned above, all the settings are there for the various options even if they don’t work. But there are many other options for other vehicles too. Which means the settings are a little more generic and not specific to just your vehicle. It isn’t difficult to find the settings you need but could be a little annoying to find that particular setting you need.
The audio sounds amazing. I would say it is better than stock. But at first, I couldn’t get it to sound good at all. I almost returned it until I found the radio setting under the car settings screen. Under there are factory settings for bass, mid, high, fading, left/right, surround, etc. There is even a separate “factory” volume control under there. I was messing with the equalizer app trying to get it to sound better to no aval. Once I was able to tune it under the car settings, it was much better, and the equalizer app worked much better too.
The biggest thing is that this is an Android tablet. This means you can install pretty much any Android app you want on there. There are no restrictions while driving either so YouTube, Netflix, etc. work while driving. Of course, it goes without saying that you shouldn’t be using these while driving. Everything is full screen too. A small portion of the screen is taking up at the bottom by the controls for HVAC and such. But it isn’t that much area. You can also do split screens with apps that are supported. And picture in picture on supported apps.
It has two SIM ports for cellular service. You can use either one. It is limited to LTE 4G. But that is normal for most Android tablets. You can also use WiFi. And of course, you have Android Auto (which I no longer use). I have a SIM card for cell service. For the most part, it works well. You will have normal cell phone connection issues. I did have it tethered to my cell phone when I first got it. That worked well too.
There are other options that you won’t get with the factory system. There are two plugs on the back to plug in additional cameras. Each one has its own app. There are also outputs for amps already build-in. There is one just for the subwoofer so if you have an aftermarket sub, you can use that.
You can customize the backlight color of the physical buttons to any color you want. You can also reprogram the steering wheel buttons. They are set to the factory default and work as intended. Each physical button can have a secondary function programmed to it also. You could program the driver’s side heated seat to one of the buttons. This way you would press and hold the button and it would turn it on and cycle between high, med, low, off. All the buttons can be programmed to secondary functions.
Besides the physical buttons for normal things like heat/cool, fan speed, etc., there is a panel displayed on the bottom of the screen with all those functions too. Like I said above, it will show all options even if you don’t have them.
There are a few downsides. One mentioned above about the cameras. The other is that it doesn’t dim very much at night. So, it is brighter than the 12-inch screen even when turned all the way down. The last is that it is running an older version of Android. Android 10 is the OS and I doubt it will ever be upgraded.
All in all, it does exactly what I wanted. I no longer have to use my cell phone for Waze and streaming music. Everything is full screen with no restrictions which is nice. I believe it is a worthy upgrade for our trucks. If you are happy with the 12-inch screen, then this might not be for you, but if you want to go bigger, this is a good alternative.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Installation was fairly easy, but time consuming since you have to match up all the wires. It isn’t difficult and they have a video explaining all the wires. One thing I did was add an adapter to hookup the LTE antenna to the truck’s antenna. I did not use any of there supplied antennas. They do supply one for LTE and satellite GPS. I just hooked into the factory system, and everything works as intended.
Everything functions as it should. You have controls for the various functions as before. One thing to note is that everything is there for every option. So, if your truck didn’t come with parking assist, lane keep assist, ventilated seats, etc., you will still have those buttons or options. The factory cameras work fine. I have the 360-camera system. It basically sends the factory signal to the screen. The downside is that none of the factory buttons work. You cannot switch between front/rear or wide/narrow views. This doesn’t bother me as I never use that. There is a physical camera button. Pressing it while in drive activates the front camera and the rear is activated when in reverse. The picture quality isn’t as good as stock, but it isn’t that bad either. You can easily see everything you need to see.
The settings for the truck are a little weird too. As mentioned above, all the settings are there for the various options even if they don’t work. But there are many other options for other vehicles too. Which means the settings are a little more generic and not specific to just your vehicle. It isn’t difficult to find the settings you need but could be a little annoying to find that particular setting you need.
The audio sounds amazing. I would say it is better than stock. But at first, I couldn’t get it to sound good at all. I almost returned it until I found the radio setting under the car settings screen. Under there are factory settings for bass, mid, high, fading, left/right, surround, etc. There is even a separate “factory” volume control under there. I was messing with the equalizer app trying to get it to sound better to no aval. Once I was able to tune it under the car settings, it was much better, and the equalizer app worked much better too.
The biggest thing is that this is an Android tablet. This means you can install pretty much any Android app you want on there. There are no restrictions while driving either so YouTube, Netflix, etc. work while driving. Of course, it goes without saying that you shouldn’t be using these while driving. Everything is full screen too. A small portion of the screen is taking up at the bottom by the controls for HVAC and such. But it isn’t that much area. You can also do split screens with apps that are supported. And picture in picture on supported apps.
It has two SIM ports for cellular service. You can use either one. It is limited to LTE 4G. But that is normal for most Android tablets. You can also use WiFi. And of course, you have Android Auto (which I no longer use). I have a SIM card for cell service. For the most part, it works well. You will have normal cell phone connection issues. I did have it tethered to my cell phone when I first got it. That worked well too.
There are other options that you won’t get with the factory system. There are two plugs on the back to plug in additional cameras. Each one has its own app. There are also outputs for amps already build-in. There is one just for the subwoofer so if you have an aftermarket sub, you can use that.
You can customize the backlight color of the physical buttons to any color you want. You can also reprogram the steering wheel buttons. They are set to the factory default and work as intended. Each physical button can have a secondary function programmed to it also. You could program the driver’s side heated seat to one of the buttons. This way you would press and hold the button and it would turn it on and cycle between high, med, low, off. All the buttons can be programmed to secondary functions.
Besides the physical buttons for normal things like heat/cool, fan speed, etc., there is a panel displayed on the bottom of the screen with all those functions too. Like I said above, it will show all options even if you don’t have them.
There are a few downsides. One mentioned above about the cameras. The other is that it doesn’t dim very much at night. So, it is brighter than the 12-inch screen even when turned all the way down. The last is that it is running an older version of Android. Android 10 is the OS and I doubt it will ever be upgraded.
All in all, it does exactly what I wanted. I no longer have to use my cell phone for Waze and streaming music. Everything is full screen with no restrictions which is nice. I believe it is a worthy upgrade for our trucks. If you are happy with the 12-inch screen, then this might not be for you, but if you want to go bigger, this is a good alternative.
Let me know if you have any questions.
13.6” Android 13 Vertical Screen Navigation Radio for Dodge Ram 2019-
[PX6 SIX-CORE] 13.6 inch Android 9/10 Improved design. This radio can be installed in Dodge Ram 2019- 2021years. Stunning, feature-rich. Plug and Play. Retain most OEM features. WiFi, Bluetooth, MirrorLink.
phoenixautomotiveinc.com
