A few notes based on my first ~10 days of using the CPLAY2air dongle in my 2017 Subaru Impreza (with the 2020.12.10.1057 firmware downloaded from here):
* Short dropouts are an issue. They're inconsistent: some trips have had few if any dropouts, but most have a smattering though it's short and not a *huge* deal. And some trips have had dropouts frequent enough that it's quite annoying (and would be embarrassing if I had a passenger). The inconsistency makes me wonder if it's poor wifi signal, which could be variable based on any number of variables. The dongle sits in the center arm rest console, and my phone is in my pocket on the other side of my body, so that may be blocking the signal enough to impact it. Perhaps the carlinkit models that have powered wifi antennas (mentioned by some in this forum) would be more reliable? Or if I have the dongle hang out of the center console? (I did a little experimenting, without clear results.)
* Battery usage seems reasonable to me. I've had a couple of trips with 1.5–2 hrs driving, and power draw on the phone was noticeable but entirely usable in my opinion. (I still ended the day with I think 50+% battery left, on a new iPhone 12 Pro [not the big Max model].) If I were taking a long trip I would plug in my phone while driving, but shorter trips and normal commutes wouldn't warrant plugging in IMO.
* "Hey Siri" seems somewhat inconsistent; I suspect it's picking it up from the phone in my pocket rather than constantly listening to the car's microphone. Tapping the phone talk button on the steering wheel and then talking to siri works well.
* The car's audio controls for play/pause/next track/previous track are quite sluggish.
* As noted in my original post, it usually takes around 45 seconds from turning on the car to CarPlay being active on the screen, which is slower than I'd like. Most of the time it doesn't automatically start playing audio when it connects to CarPlay, but sometimes it does. (Personally I wish it never did — I hate autoplay.) At least it doesn't start playing the radio while waiting for the dongle to boot and connect.
* Short dropouts are an issue. They're inconsistent: some trips have had few if any dropouts, but most have a smattering though it's short and not a *huge* deal. And some trips have had dropouts frequent enough that it's quite annoying (and would be embarrassing if I had a passenger). The inconsistency makes me wonder if it's poor wifi signal, which could be variable based on any number of variables. The dongle sits in the center arm rest console, and my phone is in my pocket on the other side of my body, so that may be blocking the signal enough to impact it. Perhaps the carlinkit models that have powered wifi antennas (mentioned by some in this forum) would be more reliable? Or if I have the dongle hang out of the center console? (I did a little experimenting, without clear results.)
* Battery usage seems reasonable to me. I've had a couple of trips with 1.5–2 hrs driving, and power draw on the phone was noticeable but entirely usable in my opinion. (I still ended the day with I think 50+% battery left, on a new iPhone 12 Pro [not the big Max model].) If I were taking a long trip I would plug in my phone while driving, but shorter trips and normal commutes wouldn't warrant plugging in IMO.
* "Hey Siri" seems somewhat inconsistent; I suspect it's picking it up from the phone in my pocket rather than constantly listening to the car's microphone. Tapping the phone talk button on the steering wheel and then talking to siri works well.
* The car's audio controls for play/pause/next track/previous track are quite sluggish.
* As noted in my original post, it usually takes around 45 seconds from turning on the car to CarPlay being active on the screen, which is slower than I'd like. Most of the time it doesn't automatically start playing audio when it connects to CarPlay, but sometimes it does. (Personally I wish it never did — I hate autoplay.) At least it doesn't start playing the radio while waiting for the dongle to boot and connect.
