[Android Head-Units] jackohound:
This review documents my experience upgrading the head-end of my 2011 Subaru WRX with a new ATOTO Android head-End. I still love the Subaru WRX and it was time to upgrade the car stereo. I installed the ATOTO A6 Pro. There are a few areas that ATOTO can improve their products, but overall I’m happy with the company and I am happy to have ATOTO in my car.

Motivations

The 2011 WRX had the factory-installed double-din Kenwood Navigation unit. My main goals in the car stereo upgrade are listed below:

Must-have features:

- Support for Android Auto

- Retain use of the car’s steering wheel controls

- Bluetooth phone integration

- Clean install. Good dash fit

- Support a backup camera

- Built-in navigation

- Decent audio quality, using the factory speakers

Important features:

- Excellent display -- wide field of view, good in sunlight (e.g., IPS)

- Capacitive touch screen

Nice-to-have features:

- Good documentation and support

- Able to display car gauges (e.g. using Torque)

- Good UI layout on the launcher and built-in applications

- Recent version of Android OS

- Able to mirror my phone display

The Decision

I spent weeks studying the different available double-din head-end units. They all fit into one of two major categories:

Double-din car Stereos are sold by well-known company names like Sony, JVC, Kenwood, Pioneer, etc. Many of these car stereos support Android Auto. They have pleasing UI layout, good documentation, and hopefully good technical support. These seemed pretty good with prices starting at $200+US but only a few of them support built-in navigation and those units were upwards of $600US. That price was more than I wanted to spend.

Android-based double-din units are sold by several chinese companies like JOYING, XTRONS, ATOTO, etc. Since they run Android, they are upgradable in the future by installing new applications. Many of these units are based on low-cost SoCs such as Rockchip “PX5” or some other lesser-known SoC companies. In researching the products, it was frequently hard to determine the type or resolution of the display panel, the specifications for the audio amplifier, etc. Many of the products did not disclose how fast the unit is able to boot up.

I found one exception is ATOTO -- I found that the ATOTO company provides more information upfront about the internal components used in their products. They disclosed details of the IPS display used and the brightness specifications. They build their units using a higher-cost MediaTek processor, a 4x45W Toshiba audio amplifier, and a 7” 1024x600 IPS display. Overall, I found that ATOTO is more transparent about the engineering behind their products as compared with the other Android head-unit manufacturers. Because ATOTO disclosed more technical detail to their customers, I felt this demonstrated a commitment to good engineering and higher quality components in their products. I found their pricing is also quite competitive if not lower than the others and happy to find ATOTO sells their units on Amazon.

Technical details of the ATOTO A6 Pro

The model I purchased (ATOTO A6 Pro A6Y2721PRB) costs $279US on Amazon. I found a 20% discount code (now expired), so it's possible you might find a discount or coupon if you search. Lots of detailed specifications and photos for the ATOTO Products are available on the ATOTO Amazon Store or on the ATOTO Web Site, or the ATOTO Facebook page. I wont copy all those specs/photos here.

Installation

The USA Subaru factory stereos use a front panel benzel with an opening that is about 3cm wider than standard double-din. When installing an after-market double-din stereo, you need to somehow fill this empty space, about 1.5cm on both sides of the unit. Scosche sells an inexpensive bracket to fill the empty spaces, but I purchased a nicer looking interior JDM Trim Panel from IA Tuning to solve this. The JDM Trim panel matches the factory dash perfectly.

The connections from ATOTO to the car's factory harness will vary somewhat based on each vehicle and on the original factory-installed stereo option. My 2011 Subaru WRX came from the factory with Kenwood navigation which connected to the car’s wiring harness through two connectors: a 20-pin and a 24-pin. I purchased both 20-pin and 24-pin harnesses at autoharnesshouse.com. The 24-pin harness is not listed on their web site, but I contacted them through email and they were able to offer me the harness. I found lots of good pin out information on Subaru stereos at www.ae64.com. In my case, the only signals I needed from the 24-pin harness were the “reverse gear” and the two “steering wheel control wires”. The other signals on the 24-pin connector such as "parking brake" were not needed for ATOTO. Note that Subaru WRXs without factory navigation use a different 20-pin connector and can be connected to ATOTO using harness AHH-70-7552.

The Subaru illumination circuits (at least in 2011) use two signals: Illumination+ and Illumination-. I determined that only the Illumination+ needs to be connected to the ATOTO. I did not use the Subaru Illumination- signal.

The Subaru WRX uses resistive steering wheel controls, which are compatible with the ATOTO, without the need for any special conversion module.

In 2011, Subaru WRX didn't offer a factory backup camera, and I wanted to add one. I ordered this Liislee backup camera for Subaru WRX, which integrates discreetly into the license plate light.

It took a bit of work to install the backup camera, and route the wires back to the instrument panel, but overall it went smoothly. The picture quality from the camera is fine. The only downside is that the camera points more “downward” than would like -- reworking it for an optimal angle will a project for another day.

The ATOTO comes with an external microphone, with a nice long wire. I routed the wire under the trim up to the dome light area -- where my factory Bluetooth microphone resided. . The long wire made this installation easy; I just gently pushed the wire under the trim all the way up to the dome light area.

All the ordered parts fit properly, but there were a few challenges. I needed to reuse the brackets that held my factory radio in the dash, and this required drilling new holes in the factory brackets to match up with the ATOTO screw locations. I built my own wiring harness, but I initially mis-wired the connections to the 24-pin factory harness, which meant the backup camera didn't work nor the steering wheel controls. I quickly figured out the miswiring, and re-built the harness with corrected wiring, but the steering wheel controls were still not working. I doubled checked everything, and measured the resistance values going from my vehicle steering system into the AOTO. Everything seemed fine, but the steering wheel controls still didn't work. Doh! I submitted a support request on ATOTO support site (http://support.myatoto.com ). After a few days, someone from ATOTO responded. The english language in their response was not totally clear, but they seemed to indicate that the steering wheel controls should be connected to ATOTO in a way that differs from the ATOTO A6 User Manual. ‘’’Aghhh!‘’’ I pulled out the ATOTO and re-worked the wiring harness again. I confirmed the steering controls were now working, and then I re-installed the ATOTO into the dash for a final time. While I wish the ATOTO documentation was better, I’m happy that ATOTO Support Team responds to customer support requests promptly and with helpful information.

The Result

Overall, I am happy with the ATOTO A6 PRO. The display is quite bright and high resolution -- much brighter and sharper resolution than the factory unit it replaces. Being an IPS display, it has an extremely wide field of view and brilliant color. The capacitive touch is much much better than the resistive touch of my old factory navigation unit. The startup of Android when I start my car seems almost instantaneous, much faster than the factory unit it replaces. Although I’m no audiophile, the audio quality sounds excellent to me, with ample volume and good fidelity, even through the factory speakers. The equalizer provides 12-band tuning to customize the sound. The ATOTO applications for playing music, listening to radio, and phone dialing have an ugly GUI layout in my opinion. This is not a major problem for me. For daily driving, I always prefer to use Android Auto in place of the ATOTO applications -- almost everything I need while driving is in Android Auto and the GUI is nice and simple. Android Auto also enables Google Assistant with the ability to send and receive text messages which is something the ATOTO applications dont support. Although I am a big fan of Android Auto, I do like the flexibility of being able to directly run other applications not supported by Android Auto, with my favorite being Torque.

Connecting the ATOTO A6 Pro Steering Wheel Controls

ATOTO directly supports vehicles with resistance-based Steering Wheel Controls (SWC) without any separate conversion module, but getting this working was a challenge. First, make sure you have the right manual. The manual that came inside my A6Y2721PRB box was the wrong manual and had the wrong pin numbers for the connector. I spent a lot of time puzzling over why the manual kept referring to the wrong pin numbers. I dont know if all the ATOTO A6 boxes have included the incorrect manual. Eventually, the ATOTO support department sent me this link to the corrected A6 Pro Manual .

If your vehicle has two SWC wires, proceed with caution. The ATOTO manaul (even the latest one linked above) states that if your vehicle has two Steering Wheel Control (SWC) wires, which my 2011 WRX did, then you should connect those two wires to ATOTO Pins 5 (SteeringWheel Key) and 6 (SteeringWheel Key +). That is incorrect. Instead you should connect one of the vehicle wires (either one) to chassis ground and connect the other vehicle wire to either ATOTO pin 5 or 6.

If your vehicle has three SWC wires, then identify the "common" wire and connect it to chassis ground, and connect the other two SWC wires to ATOTO Pin 5 (SteeringWheel Key) and 6 (SteeringWheel Key +).

ATOTO A6 Pro Power Consumption while in off state.

There was a report in XDA forums that the ATOTO consumed 70ma while in "sleep" mode and this had caused car battery problems. After reading this I was concerned about this might cause a problem if I left my car parked for several days. I contacted ATOTO about this and they stated that the A6 Pro should consume about 7 ma (not 70 ma) when in sleeping mode. They also said that after 7 days of continuous sleeping, the unit will automatically power-down and from that point forward will consume 0 ma. This was reassuring feedback from ATOTO support team, but I wanted to double check this myself.

I removed the ATOTO from the car and setup the ATOTO on my workbench with a multi-meter measuring the current draw on the battery (memory) wire. Although my multi-meter didn't have enough resolution for a precise measurement, it measured the sleeping ATOTO A6 Pro consumption at 0.01 Amps, or 10 ma. So I think the ATOTO estimate of 7 ma is believable. At that rate, even after 1 week, a sleeping ATOTO should only consume ~2% of a typical 45 Ah car battery.

UPDATE: I recently went on a trip and left the car parked for over 4.5 days. When I returned to the car, the engine started up without any hesitation and the ATOTO instantly awakened from sleep mode. So I have confirmed that the ATOTO can remain in sleep mode for at least 4.5 days without any significant impact on my car battery.

UPDATE: I've since going on several longer trips, leaving the car parked for longer than 1 week. When I start up the car, the ATOTO does a full boot cycle. So I'm confident that the ATOTO current drain is 0 ma when the car is left parked for an extended period.

ATOTO Areas for Improvement

While I am happy with my ATOTO A6 Pro (A6Y2721PRB) purchase, no product or company is perfect. The biggest problems I found with ATOTO product are below:

ATOTO products only support older Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) which indicates to me that ATOTO is not investing sufficiently in product improvement. It’s really time for ATOTO to upgrade the Android version used in their product line.

ATOTO seems unwilling to provide unlocked boot-loader and/or root access for their devices, which is off-putting to an Android enthusiast. ATOTO should better support and encourage their fan base of “power users” who want this level of access.

ATOTO sales material (e.g. on Amazon) explicitly states that the product does not support Android Auto. I was able to get Android Auto working on ATOTO using “Head Unit Reloaded”. It wasn't that difficult and might be described in a separate future post. Bottom line is that Android Auto over USB works great on ATOTO A6 Pro without any dongle and ATOTO should provide instructions to their users.

ATOTO should sell the A6 Pro WiFi antenna as a separate item on Amazon. I already have purchased the ATOTO power adapter which allows me to conveniently power the ATOTO on the workbench when it is removed from the car. I just need an extra WiFi antenna for my workbench setup. I sent ATOTO a number of emails on this and they eventually sent me an extra WiFi antenna for free -- which again shows they are doing a good job with customer support.

The GUI layout of the ATOTO Radio application is terrible and not customizable. Even the radio widget that lives on the Android home screen is poor. The other ATOTO applications for Bluetooth Music playback and Phone Calls are not any better. I can live with all this since I mostly use Android Auto and only infrequently use the ATOTO applications. Still, it’s a shame ATOTO doesn't publish the source code for their radio app so Open Source Android developers like myself could improve their radio application. In my opinion, this could be an opportunity for ATOTO to engage with their customer base.

ATOTO A6 Pro Owner’s Manual needs an overhaul by someone who is fluent in English. I wasted a significant amount of time in installation because the wiring instructions are incorrect. I’m sure if they asked their Beta Users Program for help, they’d get help for free, while also increasing engagement with their most loyal customers.

Great Customer Support

I had multiple interactions with ATOTO customer support. I've mentioned all of these in the above post, but I think it's worthwhile to summarize my experience here.

I had installation problems connecting the Steering Wheel Controls (SWC). ATOTO responded within 2 days with helpful information that allowed me to get the SWC working.

I had concerns about Power consumption. ATOTO responded within 1 day with reassuring information, which I independently confirmed to be accurate.

I requested help ordering a replacement part (an extra WiFi Antenna) which was not available on the ATOTO Amazon Store . They sent me the part for free.

I have no complaints whatsoever with ATOTO Customer Support. They are doing a great job in my opinion.