[Android Head-Units] dayanandgp:
Hi All,

I received my new unit VL 131N2 (Intel 2GB 9 Inch VW unit) for VW Passat 2012 B7 Kombiwagen and few preliminary thoughts on it if it helps others :

Ordering Process and unpacking :

Placing the order was a breeze and got a 7% discount on the unit totalling to 303 Euro from Germany warehouse. Unit was shipped next day and was at my door step in 2 days.

Unit was shipped with relevant cables as outlined and nothing was damaged or broken. Good packaging !! There were 2 radio cables and i have no idea why. Anyways in short everything went good.

Installation :

To replace the unit with my existing RNS310 unit took hardly 10 minutes after i studied the cables and connected them. However routing the 2 USB cables to Glove box took more than 2 hours as i struggled

to route it via small ducts in my Passat. My hands were swollen trying to reach the cable via those small openings ! In the end i used a kitchen utensil with hook in the end to pull the cable :p

Another difficulty i found was tucking away all those cables behind the head unit ! Due to the additional CAN bus and GPS cable etc, i had to literally push the cables with force since there wasnt much room

behind the head unit holder and the cables were stiff. All in all , i was satisfied with the fit and finish of the unit. It is worth the money !!

Initial Impression :

For 300 euro chinese unit, i have to admit it is built solid and the casing is very sturdy. The cables are strong enough and seems robust. The screen is glossy and seems responsive enough. However not close to

the sensitivity of an actual nexus tablet or anything but good enough for a car head unit. The very first boot was just few seconds and subsequent boots are also fast (since it is in standby mode).

I was shipped the unit with December firmware and home screen looks untidy. I will do the firmware upgrade and replace the home screen with " Car launcher Pro " which seems very nice.

Google Play service crashed couple of times when i was trying to open Google maps, i think i will also update the play services. Now for some Pro's and Con's :

Pros :

Solid build , 9 inch real estate , responsive enough screen , fast installation , perfect fit (mine was VW specific unit) , fast launch of apps , no lag between apps, plenty of memory to have both Navi and music

simultaneously, 128GB USB drive support, Sound quality seems on par with OEM, Steering wheel control support

Cons :

Screen color calibration is awful !! The whites are so white that it looks washed out when i load Google maps or applications with light UI --> Any fix for this ? Searched the forum but couldn't find anything. Can i use " Screen Calibrators " from play store ? Do i need to be rooted ?

Park Assist Sensor support --> The front and rear sensors are supported but the " visualization " of CAN bus data is ****ty. The image only appears if there is actual obstacle else it goes back to home screen even if the reverse gear is engaged. The visualization keeps popping up whenever there is CAN bus data and this is extremely annoying. Will inform Joying about this and hope they fix it by retaining the image as long as reverse gear is engaged :mad:

Delays and design of on screen information --> The color of the Climatronic , Door open information information is bad. It is orange and looks ugly with overlay. Wish there was an option to change it to Black

The information takes some seconds (2-3) to appear on screen which is not good. Anyways hope the new firmware has fixed at least some issues.

Things yet to check :

Bluetooth call quality, Software tweaks viz. replace music app with poweramp, rooting , Home screen change etc etc.

Anyways hope this post helps in case somebody is purchasing this unit for VW Passat and thanks to this forum which gave me lot of information about these Chinese units :)

Here are some pictures for reference..

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