[MTCB Android Head Units Q&A] nexgen10:
You guys are making some awesome headway! Keep up the good work. I am going to have to flash the optimized kernel when its available! I think I can dedicate some web space and file storage to our efforts here. Please PM me and we'll work out a place to store this stuff on my web server.

So I decided to take a week and thoroughly test the unit before posting more on the thread. Here is my assessment of the unit.

Installation:

Installation is a little tricky, but was largely plug and play. On my late model Jetta, I had to switch the default 12v hot and 12v accy pins, as well as wire the illum pin but otherwise it was plug and play with the stock wiring harness. The 2 din standard is the larger of the 2 standards out there, and the metra installation kit had to be modified with a dremmel by a few centimeters to fit onto the mounting hardware.

Operations:

The unit looks great in the dash. The screen is easily visible in direct sun light and is easily readable. A lot of fuss has been made over the screen resolution, but honestly after using the unit for a week, I think a higher screen resolution would be more of a detriment than a benefit. The screen is easily read at a glance and the sizing of the text on the screen is perfect for reading on the go.

The GPS works flawlessly. It picks up a signal nearly instantly and is very accurate. The built in GPS app work well even though the interface is a little strange. Turn by turn directions are accurate and it highlights the proper lanes you need to be in if your on the highway. Side loading Waze was easy and it works on the unit very well. I find myself using both apps, as waze has great traffic avoidance, while igo is better for trip planning.

Bluetooth is a disappointment for me, but not because of the unit. As I have come to find out, my "premium" HTC One (which is the most amazing phone I have ever owned) has crap for bluetooth and has many known issues with interoperability.

Sound quality is really good compared to the stock HU. Loudness brings life to the music and voice, and now I understand why people want the ability to have it on all the time. I have stock sound, so no amps or subs, and as such I have not played around with the amplifier app much.

App support is pretty good. Most apps load through the play store, while others that say they are not supported on the device will side load with no problems. Dropbox is the only app I have found that cuts the screen off in a way that makes it unusable. I attribute this more to poor app design than the units screen resolution. Box and google drive works perfectly fine on the unit.

Wifi is pretty decent even though the antenna is nothing more than a wire inside the chassis. I have no problem grabbing a signal from my house when parked on the street. Anything broadcasting from inside the car (hotspot) gets full signal on the unit.

Canbus integration works well on this unit. A lot of fuss has been made about canbus on VW cars. Ill give you a little insight here if you aren't aware. VW uses canbus to communicate on/off and key sense to the HU in the vehicle. That means that most stereo's wont work with the accessory switch circuit, because there technically isnt an accessory circuit. canbus signals tell the head unit when to wake up and go to sleep (shutdown). Once I got the pins wired right, the canbus integration worked perfectly out of the box. I can turn the car off but leave in the key and the unit stays online until the key is removed from the ignition (key sense).

Boot time is annoying. Overall system performance is great, but the boot time is annoying. 28 - 30 seconds is a long time when you jump in your car and go like I do, but its not a huge deal to me. Room for improvement for sure, but a minor annoyance in the grand scheme of things.

System performance is great. No lag, screen flows nicely, touch is nice and responsive.

USB will charge mobile devices, though seems to introduce interference to the radio when connected to the rear ports for a long period of time. This can be due to an improper ground in the car, or an improper ground on the motherboard for the usb bus or fm antenna. I haven't isolated it yet but its not always a problem.

Overall the unit is amazing. Some room for improvement, but overall its a great experience out of the box.