[Android Head-Units] Brady1234:
Whew. Just got thru all 288 pages. Thanks to everyone who participated in this thread.

I ordered an s3 for my 2014 Mazda CX5 w/Bose (USA) from a well known seller on Ali. If you have a CX5, you know how garbage the HU is. My goal was to get CarPlay and FM radio while preserving backup cam and steering wheel controls. Crutchfield wanted about $400 for that.

The good:

Base install was easy. Unit integrates perfect into the dash. CarPlay has no issues (using Zlink). Factory backup cam and steering wheel controls worked out of box. Remember to connect to WiFi and setup the Can device (Define the Can model and car model) before the first Bluetooth connection is setup (I used Simple - Mazda CX5)

The bad:

The corner of the package was smashed during shipping and it cracked the corner of the screen. The seller told me to install the unit to see if it was the glass or the touchscreen that were damaged. Once we saw the damage was only to the glass, the seller tried to send a screen only and require me to take the unit apart. I am a technical person but didn’t feel that was appropriate so we went back and forth and I ended up ordering an S4 separately and will return this one for a refund.

The okay:

The instructions say to connect Amp-Con to Amp-Ctrl to power the Bose amp. This is wrong. Connecting this way results in no sound unless the fan turns on because the power on this wire is not activated until the fan turns on. This drove me nuts for the first couple days because there was no sound on first start but it would come on after 10-15 mins of driving. One way around this is to set the fan to always on, which I have done. I saw some other posts about connecting to the Ant cable to get power instead but I have not tried this.

The output levels are far too high for the Bose amp, resulting in very loud sound at volume 2 and causes a constant hiss. I tried the -15db setting and lowered the equalizer which helped the volume level a bit but the hiss never went away. At the advice of another member, I wired in a Scosche OEA-4 line converter ($10 on Amazon) to the wire harness which lowered the output level and removed the hiss. After adjusting the gain dials to about 2pm on each dial, I am very happy with the sound level and quality. I probably would have sent the unit back had I not done this.

I have read the horror stories of bad firmware upgrades and flaky 4G connections but luckily have no interest in either so I think I will just leave it as is unless have problems.

The stock radio app is just ok. The RDS is either being run thru a translator or has some whacky logic that rarely results in a clean display.

I wish CarPlay took advantage of the resolution and screen size better. The layout is 4 icons and two rows but it seems like it could go to about 6 icons.

I am not interested in the local apps, onboard 4G, etc so those didn’t really play into my review.

Overall I give the unit a B- grade. Most of the negative is really due to the seller and the misleading statement about Bose compatibility. The return process was also more complicated than it had to be. If the unit had a setting to output a preamp level or had preamp wiring, the whole experience would have been much better.

Once I get the S4 I’ll update if anything is noticeably different.

Again, thanks to all the smart people who contributed to this thread.