So, I ordered one of these for Black Friday. It took a couple weeks for shipping since it had to be sent from China. I ordered the 12/256 version.
I have a 23 with OEM 12” screen. While the OEM unit is nice in some ways, it is completely lacking in others. With no ability to truly adjust the sound, it was never quite the way I liked it.
Most of the Android radios do not indicate they work as a replacement for the OEM 12” screen. Phoenix claimed it will work with all OEM screen sizes in their description.
Installation was not too difficult. Swapping the vents did require a little patience as to not damage any clips. Otherwise it went smoothly.
The sound was way off at first. I was not getting any sub output. I also could not change the car image on the built in launcher. I put in a ticket with Phoenix and had a remote session the same day.
The car image issue was known and there was an available update to resolve it. The sound issue was more complex. The Phoenix tech was trying to talk over me and stating I needed to install a cable they provided with the shipment of the radio. I had to remove the radio and harness to prove there was nowhere to connect it. Apparently there was a change in the harness for this radio, and that connector is not needed with the newer Rams that use the blue and green square plugs vs the single large rectangular one. Also, there was what appeared to be a bridge connector that I actually should not have used. It went inline with another connector that plugs into the back of the radio. I have attached an image of the connector that is not used when you are running a factory amped system.
Bypassing this connector allowed the subwoofer to start working. But the sound was still kind of weak. So, I installed the update from Phoenix. After the update I was able to change the car image in the launcher. To my surprise, there was also a massive boost in sound quality and volume. It now sounds significantly better than the stock system. It’s to a point where I am not convinced any further changes to the sound system are needed. I may feel differently after a month or two.
What is the point of this long post, three things. The first thing is to confirm that this radio will work as a 12” Uconnect 5 replacement. The second thing is to say that the improvement in sound is significant. Finally, I just thought it would be good to point out the installation pitfalls for an Alpine or HK Uconnect 5 install.
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