Halcyon Days
Active Member
If you're upgrading your head unit but struggling to choose the best sat nav system etc, then I suggest you start looking at systems that use your mobile phone instead? Either through mirror link or, like mine, the phone IS the stereo!
Mine is a Sony head unit and an xperia Z2
This is the unit without the phone - It's not obvious, but there is screen that displays station, track etc - so the unit can be used without the phone for CD, MP3 and radio.
Music from the 32Gb USB stick that's plugged into the front of the unit (it will play music stored on the phone too, or spotify etc - if you have 4G, it will even play iPlayer)
I use Copilot as a satellite navigation system, but you have so many different ones available to you: TomTom, even google maps! If you don't like one, change it to another.
Finally - as you're using a phone as your ICE, it acts as a phone too! the unit comes with a mic, it reads your texts out loud and all that.. The unit also charges the phone.
Audio-wise, it sounds a lot better than the OEM system, much more powerful and clearer. The unit has pre-outs and inputs. I've used a converter so that the steering wheel controls work too.
As the phone is doing most of the work, the head-unit is relatively cheap: < £200
Anyway, this might help people when they're looking into new systems to replace their audio-20's or out of date COMAND systems
Mine is a Sony head unit and an xperia Z2
This is the unit without the phone - It's not obvious, but there is screen that displays station, track etc - so the unit can be used without the phone for CD, MP3 and radio.
Music from the 32Gb USB stick that's plugged into the front of the unit (it will play music stored on the phone too, or spotify etc - if you have 4G, it will even play iPlayer)
I use Copilot as a satellite navigation system, but you have so many different ones available to you: TomTom, even google maps! If you don't like one, change it to another.
Finally - as you're using a phone as your ICE, it acts as a phone too! the unit comes with a mic, it reads your texts out loud and all that.. The unit also charges the phone.
Audio-wise, it sounds a lot better than the OEM system, much more powerful and clearer. The unit has pre-outs and inputs. I've used a converter so that the steering wheel controls work too.
As the phone is doing most of the work, the head-unit is relatively cheap: < £200
Anyway, this might help people when they're looking into new systems to replace their audio-20's or out of date COMAND systems
