Install was a little harder than other aftermarket head units I've installed, primarily because the unit is just slightly bigger than my old double-DIN unit so it didn't fit correctly in my mounting bracket. I had to file down the edges of the bracket just a little bit to make it fit. Other than that, install was no different than any other aftermarket head unit.
The screen doesn't have great contrast, but it's fine for the price. Text is sharp. The interface is responsive. Animation isn't super smooth but things happen right when you touch the screen, no lag. The display is capacitive, which is awesome since so many cheaper units use resistive screens.
Sound quality is pretty good. I don't have audiophile-grade speakers or anything, but it sounds the same as the JVC unit it replaced. There's a lot of options for tweaking the sound as well, including a 7-band equalizer with five built in presets plus a user-defined preset. It has preamp outputs for amplifiers/subwoofers.
It has inputs for a rear view camera, but I do not have one so I can't speak to how well it works.
There's a small built in microphone that works pretty well for calls, and hey Siri works at lower volume levels. It's not the most sensitive when music is playing loudly though, so if you're trying to activate Siri in such a situation, you have to hold the home button instead, because it won't hear you saying "hey Siri."
Two things I don't like, though. I have steering wheel buttons for volume up and down, track forward and back, and play/pause. All of these functions work with the head unit's own features (radio, media player, bluetooth audio) once wired correctly and programmed in the stereo's settings. However, when in CarPlay, only volume works. Play/pause and track controls aren't passed along to the phone. This is annoying because I either have to switch to the active audio app every time I want to skip a track or pause, then switch back to a navigation app if I was using one. There is a hardware mute button on the unit that does work, but does not pause, so in a quick pinch (someone starts talking, pull up to a drive thru, etc.) you can hit that real quick to silence the audio but it WILL continue to play in the background.
The other issue: FM radio works fine in the US, but the AM radio uses international channel spacing. It's impossible to tune most US AM stations because of this. Luckily for me, I only listen to two AM stations regularly, and both are available in the Radio.com app, which has CarPlay support. So I use the app and stream them instead.
The website that has it so cheap seemed a little shady at first, and it does ship from China, so I was slightly worried. But I had absolutely no problems with them. I paid via PayPal just in case, as an extra level of fraud protection. Item came quicker than estimated (they said 10-15 business days, it arrived in 6 business days to the US east coast).
Link to purchase: Kkmoon K5980
Note that this is NOT an affiliate link or anything. I'm not trying to make any money from this review. Just trying to spread the word about this head unit, as there's not a whole lot of information about it online, especially regarding CarPlay. There's a few threads on the Android Auto sub about it that didn't have much detail either.
Photo: installed
The screen doesn't have great contrast, but it's fine for the price. Text is sharp. The interface is responsive. Animation isn't super smooth but things happen right when you touch the screen, no lag. The display is capacitive, which is awesome since so many cheaper units use resistive screens.
Sound quality is pretty good. I don't have audiophile-grade speakers or anything, but it sounds the same as the JVC unit it replaced. There's a lot of options for tweaking the sound as well, including a 7-band equalizer with five built in presets plus a user-defined preset. It has preamp outputs for amplifiers/subwoofers.
It has inputs for a rear view camera, but I do not have one so I can't speak to how well it works.
There's a small built in microphone that works pretty well for calls, and hey Siri works at lower volume levels. It's not the most sensitive when music is playing loudly though, so if you're trying to activate Siri in such a situation, you have to hold the home button instead, because it won't hear you saying "hey Siri."
Two things I don't like, though. I have steering wheel buttons for volume up and down, track forward and back, and play/pause. All of these functions work with the head unit's own features (radio, media player, bluetooth audio) once wired correctly and programmed in the stereo's settings. However, when in CarPlay, only volume works. Play/pause and track controls aren't passed along to the phone. This is annoying because I either have to switch to the active audio app every time I want to skip a track or pause, then switch back to a navigation app if I was using one. There is a hardware mute button on the unit that does work, but does not pause, so in a quick pinch (someone starts talking, pull up to a drive thru, etc.) you can hit that real quick to silence the audio but it WILL continue to play in the background.
The other issue: FM radio works fine in the US, but the AM radio uses international channel spacing. It's impossible to tune most US AM stations because of this. Luckily for me, I only listen to two AM stations regularly, and both are available in the Radio.com app, which has CarPlay support. So I use the app and stream them instead.
The website that has it so cheap seemed a little shady at first, and it does ship from China, so I was slightly worried. But I had absolutely no problems with them. I paid via PayPal just in case, as an extra level of fraud protection. Item came quicker than estimated (they said 10-15 business days, it arrived in 6 business days to the US east coast).
Link to purchase: Kkmoon K5980
Note that this is NOT an affiliate link or anything. I'm not trying to make any money from this review. Just trying to spread the word about this head unit, as there's not a whole lot of information about it online, especially regarding CarPlay. There's a few threads on the Android Auto sub about it that didn't have much detail either.
Photo: installed
