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Android Headunits, Worth the Chance? // Seicane Stereo with Carplay & Android Auto Review

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Don’t worry – great progress is being made on the GT6, but while we wait on the next episode, I thought my WRX also deserved some love ❤️ Android based stereos are cheaper than the usual route(s), but are they worth it? Let’s take a look.

WRX Stereo:

Seicane asked if we’d like to check out one of their direct-fit stereos, and I have to be honest… it was too tempting! (I wanted one anyway)

Among numerous other features, it has wireless Apple Carplay and Android Auto, which at least in my opinion, is the main reason to consider it.

This is by no means a Subaru-only solution though, these direct-fit models are available for a variety of vehicles, and there are multiple companies who make similar products. Check out https://www.seicane.com/ or Amazon, Ebay, or Aliexpress to find a compatible model for your car.

For a walk-through on how to install a double din stereo, check out my other video: https://youtu.be/9QqElvELUB4

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Music by: https://audionautix.com/

0:00 Sweeeet
0:20 What is Android
2:02 Design
2:59 Install
5:34 Setup
6:39 Carplay
8:21 Drawbacks
9:02 Reliability
9:51 Conclusion
10:45 Adjustability
11:11 Audio Quality
10:54 Annoying Things
12:50 Our Projects

#android #carplay #wrx #seicane #subaru #wrx #hatchback #subiegang #subieflow #jdm #wrxnation #wrxsti #turbo #androidstereo #androidauto #headunitandroid #carstereo #review

We’re just a couple of guys (not trained mechanics) who enjoy problem solving, creating new things, and showing you how we did it. We can’t promise that anything we do will work for your project, or that you, someone else, or your warranty will not be harmed or affected by doing it too. Please work responsibly and do not mess around with machinery that you are not comfortable with, even if we made it look easy!

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33 Comments

  1. This is my opinion as a electrical engineer; Bough one unit like this time ago, aesthetically looks fine, you can configure wheel buttons easy (you dont need to spend 50-70 for a wheel control interface) its replaceable. Now the bad things i've experienced like internally radio has no circuit protection, you need third party apps for Android-auto or carplay, audio quality is bad compared to branded units, the most important one… You can monitor your network and see whats going on in your router, eveything I do or things that goes through that radio is going to a strange server prob somewhere in asia in other words they are stealing your data, bank accounts, network id etc. You should be careful

  3. Before the tablet phase I upgraded to touch on my RAV4 it was a big improvement from dials.
    The unit was bought as a mixture of features and low price. I used the no-name product for 5 years no problems it still works 8 years later but is quirky it was roughly the same price as the original. Perfect fit and plug and play.
    Replacing features would be a fail for most but adding is a great benefit.
    Now I have up the distraction, all music is overrated.
    Don’t need the map cuz I live in Alaskaso it is basically a cool show when you start the car.

  8. How is the stock music player ? Does it read music files in proper alphabetical order and list by music category? Artist/Song/Album ? Does it display original car info from the Canbus system ?

  10. I have a different brand and can't kind the Chinese name for my Kia Soul 2014. In car setting protocol, I find some kia models in the hyundai list but can't find kia soul. It has codes such as k5 Kxl. Anyone know how kia soul coded in China?

  11. see im consued, i have brought they hikity ( the same device) and it says i need an iphone 12 and IOS 14 or below to work the carplay, and also states i cant use a samsung or huawei/ andriod 11 … the only was in bluetooth but i dont get to use the full use of the screen.. any ideas?

  12. .We have 2.7 biturbo Peugeot 407sw, installed head unit 3 years ago, it is great, never had any problems, fits where old unit used to be, looks like it was from the factory, no ugly stick out pieces. All plugs fitted into cars original wiring,works with All the buttons on steering wheel,400 euros well spent😊

  13. Seicane, RUN AWAY! This is a dishonest thriving company that may short ship. I bought the better model with more storage/ram thh hey shipped the lessor model, and laughed about it. Less than two months the capacitive touch buttons quit. Warranty was not honored.
    Two years old unit died, frozen screen.

  14. Is the noise coming from the fact that you attached the GPS Ariel to the top of the unit? Surely it would be better placed on top of the dash, far away from any electrical noise, or if you are not using it, just detached?

  20. Seicane was a go to head unit company for a while but I've heard some tough stories within the last year or so in reference to Seicane customer service or lack of customer service. Seicane had a go reputation for fair pricing, good tech and good customer service at one point. We went with Teyes headunit for our Volvo XC90 because of their tech support, customer and good reputation on their Android head units.

  21. Excellent info! I have a similar unit I purchased from Junsun. Like your unit, it came with the casing and looks awesome. I struggle with the steering wheel controls. Most of them work perfectly, but 2 of them I just can't get to work. All in all, it's a huge upgrade from the stock radio.

  22. I just use my android tablet, RAM-mounted to the windshield. I connect it to my stock audio system via blue tooth. If I want to use an app that requires an internet connection (maps, youtube, etc), I just turn on the wifi hotspot on my phone to tether it and my tablet has GPS built in. The biggest beef I have against car audio head units is NONE OF THEM support playlists! Un-fuking believeable. It's seems to be an industry-wide conspiracy. Probably to sell XM radio subscriptions. I just rip my music CDs to lossless .FLAC files and copy them to my tablet's memory card and play them using the best music-playing app I have ever found: POWERAMP! It does playlists, has great EQ settings and anything else I need. If I want to play DVD's or other video I just use VLC Media Player. The only thing that kinda sucks is getting blue tooth to connect. It's very finicky. But once it's connected, everything works like a dream. In the future, for more file storage space, I might set up a solid state hard drive and just have my tablet connect to it via wifi. To hell with the GREEDY, asswhole car head unit industry. Hell, I might eventually just use a home computer mounted behind or under a seat with a remote, touchscreen monitor. Oh, AND the steering wheel buttons control the tablet and radio seamlessly: volume, song skip forward and backward, etc. Vehicle: 2011 Ford F350, Radio: SYNC (basic unit with just a text display). Even the stock radio will play playlists! It just won't create or edit them. It sounds good, though. I might add an amp and better speakers to make it really punch. It already has a factory amplified sub. Tablet: Samsung Tab3.

  23. I have installed one of these Seican units in my wife's Toyota Camry. After a three years, the screen is dim and the version of Android was not what they claimed it was.
    No updates and limited access to Google play.
    Fitting was a nightmare. The brackets were all wrong.
    If you can't get it right for something as common as a Camry, that's pretty bad.
    The overall experience has been pretty average.
    I am looking at other brands this time round.

  24. There's an app on the Play store which will actually let you use Android auto using an OTG cable or USBC hub on literally any Android device. It's called head unit reloaded

  28. Any update on how the unit has been doing ever since? Any lags or "boot up" or freezing or connecting problems ? As i believe you mentioned in your video, the aftermarket radio units don't do as well as big name audio units so im interested to see how long this has lasted.

  31. Issues i've had over 3 Android stereos, all above the $400 price point all correctly installed with soldered wires that were heat shrinked, 2 of them had thicker speaker wire run to the amps/speakers, One stereo out of the box kept blowing the rear right speaker, ( not user error), poor cheaply made electronics would over volt the speaker as a spike randomly i went through 3 sets of speakers before i realized it was faulty by taking a multimeter and sitting there and watching the amperage as a song plays….while the second stereo would randomly crash a program i was using(ussually waze, youtube or pandora) after about an hour

    common on all 3: usb 2.0 ports. slow charging capability but good for hooking up a flash drive filled with music, ended up having to run my own usb 3.0 charging ports by tapping into the fuse box. tin or aluminum based low quality speaker/power wires coming out of the unit on main dongle, probably the cheapest wire you can find was always worried it would overheat or melt
    …………. no support for updating the OS firmware to a current version. would have to manually connect them to my hotspot everytime i started the car(i never used android auto or carplay).

    1 head unit got a line of dead pixels after 6 months. out of 2 xtrons 10 inch units and a 10 inch daisata unit, only the Diasata lasted the duration i had the car with zero technical issues.

  33. Great video. Thank you. I ordered one for my buick that has the same "tablet" and it is reassuring to see that the android auto and car play work.