[Android Head-Units] checksum123:
For me I am moving from an android head unit to a Tablet install, I just got the latest Samsung galaxy Tab A 10.1 inch that I already rooted. I am loving it, it runs so much smoother than the head unit, the screen is awsome, AMOLED with plenty of brightness, colors are vivid and text are crisp. I has an octacore cpu running marshmallow, this is plenty that I will ever need in a car environment. I am currently running some bench test with the tablet, and google maps, sygic, waze, igo and they ran flawlessly without any lag. I installed APEX laucher and set it the UI to look easy to navigate and increase the font size.

1- For the brightness, the Samsung tablet has a light sensor built in, you can set the brighness level based on the amount of light. There is also auto brightness that you can check, but I don't like it that much since it tends to dim the screen too much. There are also many script in the play store that use the light sensor to dim the screen depending on the time of the day, the options are endless with what you can do with the sensor.

2- My car has already a backup camera, I am planning to keep it. The video out from the camera has a wire I can tap into the dash and hook it up to the this this ( https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Col...32691148022.html?spm=2114.13010608.0.0.ZSxctm), it has an app in the playstore, whenever it detect the signal, it will automatically show the video, you don't have to press anything, the app runs in the background: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.easycap.viewer. I have not tested this, but suspect it will work.

3- This is my biggest concern. My dash opening is big enough to fit a 10.1 inch screen, I already have the bezel, and I bough this case ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LX4TJY1/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ), now I need to figure out how to fabricate the case into the bezel. I can pull the tablet from the front of the case, which is a big plus in case I want to take it out of the car. I admit I am not very good at fabrication, I wish I could hire someone to do it for me, otherwise I will have to figure it out myself.

4- The tablet has a built in GPS. I already took the table on the road, and I never had any issues with the tablet getting a GPS signal. Even when I am inside my house, I get a pretty good GPS signal. As soon as I lauch google maps, it centers in right away at my location.

5 - No issues her also. When playing music, and GPS needs to speak, it lowers the music volume. When i get a call on the tablet, it pauses the music, when I get a notification, such as email or text, it also dims the screen and lowers the music volume.

6- My car has steering wheel control, CANBUS, it works great with my current android head unit. For the tablet, I plan to use Joycon, and map the steering wheel keys to anything I want the tablet to do.

7- For phone call, I already installed Tablet Talk for voice and text, every call or text I get from my phone is forwarded to my tablet via bluetooth ot wifi (hotspot). You can reply to test right from the tablet or answer the phone. When you answer the phone from your tablet, the sound does not use the tablet, but the phone, so whatever you have the phone hook up to, like bluethooth, is where the sound will be routed. If your phone is connected to a bluethooth receiver for sound and hands free calling, then you can talk through that. It is not a clean solution, but I expect it to work. I plan to hook up my phone to a hand free bluetooth receiver that I will connect to my amp. We will see how it turn out... As I said it is not a clean solution, since tablet were not meant to use as a phone.

8- The tablet has a built in mic, and I tried google voice many times and everytime it recognized my voice.

9- My car has 2 built in USB port, I plan to use one of them for my USB OTG, I can just use a USB extension from the USB hub to the car usb port.

10- In android, you can go to developer mode, and enable <Device never goes to sleep when powered>, this will keep the device from timing out. Whenever I apply power to the tablet, it turns on instantly.

The issue here is that it will dim after the timeout period you set in the setting, the maximum is 30min. But you can prevent it from dimming by using WAKE on app from the app store (root required), a simple toggle button that will keep you tablet from dimming.

For powering off, I installed Automate from the playstore, once it detect that the power is unplugged, it will wait 5s and lock the tablet, at this point, it will also set the tablet in airplane mode and wait for the power to be plugged again. The battery on this tablet is very good, I am guessing in <doze mode = android 6 marshmallow> ( when the tablet sleeps), the battery can last for more than a week. So I don't have to worry about the tablet from ever running out of juice. If it ever runs out of juice, i have a backup plan where I can press the power button.

For OTG, I am not sure yet, since I am still trying to figure it out. I came accross a cable on amazon that advertising you can charge the tablet and use OTG at the same time for the samsung tab A ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MOQFUQM/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=AVM1Z79WGIB6T), I plan to buy it and test it. I already have a 12V to 5V (5A) power supply to power all my USB peripherals hooked up to my USB hub. I plan to conect a USB memory stick, Joycon (steering wheel), and backup camera on my USB hub.

I also bought a WIDI dongle for my headrest monitors. I can use samsung smartview to mirror anything I want to my headrest monitors. I already tested it and it works great: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O14JG2Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This morning I want to do some sound test in the car, I am currently using the 3.5mm jack for sound, going to the clairion equalizer which then goes to my amp and subwoofer. It sounded much better than my head unit, the sound quality was excellent and no distortion at high volume. The only issue here is the equalizer is not available fro the tablet, you cannot adjust it from the tablet.

I was considering a USB DAC, but after hearing the sound from the 3.5mm jack, I am very satisfied, I don't think I need a USB DAC. I am still curious to see how it sounds compared to the 3.5mm sound.

This will take me probably around 1 month to complete, I am bench testing everything before moving to the car.

Here are some pictures I took this morning when I was testing the sound. The tablet is sitting at the bottom and my android head unit is at the top.