[Android Head-Units] Jleeblanch:
It's disappointing to see everyone having such a hard time with this head unit. I just picked one up second hand from a friend of mine and initially it was somewhat frustrating. Now that I've since factory reset it, rooted it, removed some bloat and have the apps I use most (at least in the car, I have my phone for everything else) I'm starting to like this head unit.

I haven't tried loading any of the updated ROMs as of yet, I was hoping maybe someone was gonna cook up something decent, but being that everyone is giving up...clearly that's not gonna happen. I have been endlessly searching for the kernel source, or even device source, or anything really that I could work with in hopes to find a good solution to creating a custom ROM for this head unit.

Anyway, my initial impression of the head unit wasn't good. When I first installed it into my car, it was constantly running out of memory if I tried to use more than one or two apps at a time. Knowing a thing or two about Android (as I currently maintain two custom ROMs for my Moto G4/G4 Plus device) I looked to the forums here in hopes to find something relevant about this head unit.

After factory resetting the unit, minimally setting it up, rooting it initially proved somewhat a pain in the a$$. My first attempt with Kingoroot seemed to fail/hang at 90%. After another factory reset and trying again, it seemed to work but I wasn't able to control the superuser access from any apps because Kingoroot hadn't installed it's management app. Installing SuperSU v2.79-SR3 and trying to update the su binary was initially unsuccessful as I would get the su binary occupied message. Doing yet another factory reset (which seems to keep root) and installing SuperSU v2.79-SR3 worked like a charm, I was able to update the su binary and finally control root access. Afterwards I installed Titanium Backup Pro, Root Explorer and some other apps for music and such. I removed everything which wasn't needed, which a factory reset seemed to wipe out a lot of anyway and since this head unit has been running great. I haven't had any out of memory errors, I'm able to run multiple apps simultaneously (granted it seems that if apps are run in the background for too long they're killed off). After all that GPS initially was very spotty, if it would work at all. When I got this head unit, there was a mini (removable) antenna on the back attached to the WiFi port, I switched it over to the GPS Port and GPS reception has definitely improved and seems to work more reliably now. Granted WiFi reception has decreased slightly but it doesn't seem to be affected when using my phone as a hotspot as WiFi reception is always 100%. Google Maps works fairly well, Driving mode also works very well now.

There was a lot of people who seemed to be having issues connecting their head units to a Bluetooth OBD2 module. As I work in the automotive industry, being able to connect to my car is important to me. It was initially a little tricky getting the head unit to connect to the OBD2 Connecter, but Torque Pro works very well and I can connect to the OBD2 as well as my phone simultaneously without issue.

So that being said, now that I have the head unit setup (mostly) to my liking, I am much happier with the outcome. It seems to be running much better than it initially was when I first hooked it up in my car and hasn't given me any problems thus far. Not gonna lie, the original Launcher that came pre-installed with the unit was somewhat boring and looked dated. Browsing through this thread and browsing some of the links provided in this thread lead me to Car Launcher Pro v1.5.2 which I've since purchased and updated to v1.5.4. Granted things can always be better, for what this unit has to offer and compared to what it was like when I first installed it compared to what it's like now, I'm happy with it.

As I mentioned originally, I purchased this head unit second hand from a friend who had only owned it for a short time before removing it from his car. Long story short, I got it for a good price, which included the backup camera (that I have yet to install). It's a nice addition to my current setup/system. I had to purchase an RCA splitter to be able to connect my Alpine Amp as the head unit only had one Subwoofer output (along with a ton of other RCA outputs/inputs).

As far as Xposed goes, I haven't tried it out yet. I see that a lot of you have so I'm curious as to what benefits that may or may not bring. I'll have to look into the various add-ons for Xposed to see what potential some of them may bring.