[Android General] jxh99:
My review of the unit, and its manufacturer:-

Summary: a flawed device with unrealised potential, manufactured (sadly) by a company (ie Sion, run by Jerry Lao) which can’t be trusted and doesn’t care/is unresponsive. Its very strange, they go to all the effort of manufacturing something, but put zero effort into supporting it. They don’t understand that happy customers leads to more customers!

Ordering advice:

If you can buy some other unit from a different manufacturer, do that instead!

Consider carefully just using an ordinary Android tablet - tested by the Android Compatibility Program!

If you really must have Sion’s unit, buy it from a reseller, since they have more leverage with Sion than you.

Get them to agree to pay one leg of the shipping for any warranty return.

Pay via PayPal, and make sure the unit is operational before the refund period expires!

Disclosure: I returned a unit for warranty repair; Linkey Yan said they’d fixed it, and would ship it back, but they never did. They may be bankrupt/broke? As things stand, I’m more than $600 out of pocket! So if I sound overly harsh, that's the context.

This review covers 2 things:

1.	Sion customer service (in a word: terrible, you couldn't make it that bad if you tried)

2.	the unit itself

Sion customer service

I ordered my unit in early Janaury. The ensuing tale of woe:

4 month delay in delivery (order 9 Jan; received mid June)

missing Australian maps

external microphone advertised but not fitted

missing reverse camera; refund promised but never made

incorrect wiring diagram

supposed to fit 2001 Audi A6, but no RNS-D wiring harness or adapter

unit stopped working on day 1

10 day delay between return request and Sion response (Alibaba complaint necessary)

26 Sept: unit reportedly fixed

8 Oct: they promised to ship “this week”

unit never returned to me; no further correspondence at all from SzSion (as at time of writing 19 Nov)

net result: about $600 out of pocket :(

(With all their lies, how confident can one be that the unit is free of malware?)

After more than 10 months since date of order, and out of ideas for how to contact Sion (I don't speak Chinese - can anyone here help?), I don't expect to ever get what I paid for :(

When the unit stopped working, I ordered a second unit, this time, via a reseller (Shenzhen HSXD). This review is of that unit.

Review of 2nd unit

Kernel 3.4.5 (22 Aug); MCU Cp_Lemon_1.13 May 21 2014

[Installation] For my 2001 Audi Allroad, I needed an RNS-D to E adapter, which I sourced from another supplier. You can get a simple one, or one that converts the can bus signals. I used the latter, for all the good it did...

Fitting is extremely tight (with all the wiring which needs to be squeezed in). I don’t ever want to have to remove it to make any changes at the rear!

[Canbus] The car info app doesn’t display anything (speed, air conditioning settings). But the display does dim when the lights are turned on:- I don’t know whether that comes from the canbus or not.

[Bluetooth phone] It pairs with my iPhone, and I can hear the other end of the call, but they can’t hear me (the internal mic on the unit can’t compete with road noise at highway speed). Worse, when the call is terminated, there is no sound from the unit anymore! (have to use the iphone to change the sound settings).

The unit came with a cable for connection C, labelled “mic phone” (different to the cable the first unit had), but the diagram on the unit says C is for can bus TX /RX, so I’m not sure whether it would support an external mic. (Certainly the first unit didn’t, and its C cable was for can bus). Maybe this explains the lack of canbus info?

Anyway, given the tight fit / physical constraints, I’m not taking the unit out to try an external mic. I won’t use the unit for bluetooth. I’ll get a standalone bluetooth mic/speaker. Pity.

[SWC] These don’t work at all.

[display] In full sunlight, you can’t see the display

[touch screen] Works pretty well, but search button in Google Play store doesn’t seem to work

[calendar] Get message “unfortunately the calendar has stopped”. Not that I use it. Click OK and it goes away..

[internet access] No need for 3G USB (haven’t tested), since the unit has wifi built in. But its wifi antenna is weak/non-existent. The car needs to be really close to your wifi router to pick up the signal!

[GPS] The GPS functionality is good, and vehicle speed seems accurate.

[Navigation - iGo] The unit was supplied with a pirated copy of iGo. I was supplied European maps, but need Australian ones. The PC-based iGo tool doesn’t detect iGo maps on the Sion supplied micro SDHC card.

[Navigation – Sygic] The Sygic app I installed works well, except that sometimes after stopping (eg to get fuel), it says "Inaccurate signal for car navigation". This happens even though a GPS info app shows say 9 satellites. This is an app level problem though, rather than the device (there are a few threads you can find in Google with suggested workarounds). It hasn't happened since the trial period ran out, and turn by turn nav functionality was turned off. So I don't know whether it'll start happening again when I buy the premium features. I see there was a Nov update to Sygic, so maybe they've even fixed it!

[Music] The built in music play can’t play FLAC files, so I’m using n7 player. After ignition stop/start, sometimes it resumes playing where you left off, but usually it doesn’t (ie a 45 min track will start playing from the beginning again)

[Play store] As noted above the search button in Google Play store doesn’t seem to work. I tried to install SpeedTest app (internet speed), but got a no space on device message. Weird, since there is space... Various apps are stated to be incompatible with the unit.

[DVB] To my surprise, the device came with an embedded TV tuner, which works in Australia!

[reverse camera] I installed a reverse camera, and used the wiring described in an earlier post (thanks!) to have it show automatically when reverse gear is selected. There is a loud static sound when you select or shift through reverse. Regrettable, but I can live with it.

[general] Sometimes the unit freezes entirely.

There is a high pitched whining sound over my speakers, noticeable at low speeds, tied to the accelerator. A bit annoying, but I can live with it.

Google’s own car efforts focus on a UI which is suitable for use whilst driving. I’d like to customise the unit so it is safer to use while driving. Fundamentally, to make it easier to switch between my nav app and my music app, and I’d like a music app which is more car friendly (any suggestions?)

Conclusion: For my purposes, good GPS; good music. That’s all. Nothing that a standalone andoid tablet can’t do better (eg a Nexus device wouldn’t be stuck on Android 4.2), and without all the hassle of dealing with Sion.