10 out of 10 people found this review helpful.
Great Idea ~ Poor Execution
Date of Review: Jul 1, 2007
The Bottom Line: For the price, I think it needs work. It's not easy to use. My young driver will have an accident trying to get simple thinks to happen. Wouldn't buy again.
I've had this unit for a month and it's a mixed bag.
Ipod - If you plan on using an Ipod, you WILL go crazy! It will ALWAY start on the same song. Going to any play list takes a LONG time, and if you're in an out of your car, you have to go through the whole process again -- so forget listening to your favorite playlist if you're running errands! Good news is that it does charge your Ipod and has a great hookup for best sound.
Display is small and very glary during the day. Forget the background graphics -- they make it even harder to read anything. The light reflecting off the curved surface made it very hard to see most of the time in daylight ~ especially if a sun roof is open.
Detachable face is nice -- but REALLY hard to re-install compared to my previous Sony. Definately a two handed, full concentration, grit your teeth (is this on right?) operation. My old one I could do one handed without looking. This one requires exact lining up of two pins...I'm almost sure I'm going to break this one soon.
Bluetooth is really seamless. Easy set up and recognized all 4 phones each time. A little tough taking it off bluetooth if you wanted a private conversation. While you can hear beautifully (can select front left speaker, or right or both), person on other end can't hear all that well. Would have preferred to have the option of having a remote installed mike (and would have used it!)
FM reception okay. Doesn't pull especially well, but not horrible either. All buttons are really small and some are dual purpose -- but hard to read. Best not done while driving!
CD - With this set up, it will play a single CD in the head unit, and with optional hookup, also work with my old Sony 10 disk changer in the trunk ~ a nice benefit. I am still able to add satillite later, if desired.
They give you a remote, and you'll probably need it as radio face can be daunting to see what you want during daylight.
