i suppose it's a question of what you are familiar with. I'm travelling overland to Southern Spain soon (for the winter) & Tomtom has never let me down in over 10 years of use -even finding some of the more obscure places in rural Spain; and it hardly breaks the bank at £14.99 for a year with live traffic & speed camera database & 4 map updates a year.

 

And I fixed the radio problem - the poorly written user manual didn't mention that the supplied FAKRA aerial adaptor had to be connected to +12v -  apparently it has a built in signal booster. Problem solved. I'd even go as far to say that radio reception now is better than the factory fitted Skoda Swing radio

 

Aside from its routing preferring back roads too often (the older Tomtom units were better at this) I do like the Android one for the 3D display of buildings in the city centre and the helpful bit at the side which shows upcoming petrol stations, roadworks and traffic jams all with reasonably accurate roadworks plus showing when you're in an average speed camera zone with the limit and your current average.

 

Thanks for the updates on your unit as I've been spending a while looking at one for my Mazda, there's no branded ones available (got a nice Kenwood for the Octavia) and the standard stereo is hilariously bad.  I've been thinking about an Android unit as there's a Mazda one from iceboxauto which fits in reasonably well with the car but installing it is a bit of a nightmare as it involves removing a lot of trim which I'm a bit wary about doing myself and would be a concern if the unit failed and needed replaced.

 

John

Aside from its routing preferring back roads too often (the older Tomtom units were better at this) I do like the Android one for the 3D display of buildings in the city centre and the helpful bit at the side which shows upcoming petrol stations, roadworks and traffic jams all with reasonably accurate roadworks plus showing when you're in an average speed camera zone with the limit and your current average.

 

Thanks for the updates on your unit as I've been spending a while looking at one for my Mazda, there's no branded ones available (got a nice Kenwood for the Octavia) and the standard stereo is hilariously bad.  I've been thinking about an Android unit as there's a Mazda one from iceboxauto which fits in reasonably well with the car but installing it is a bit of a nightmare as it involves removing a lot of trim which I'm a bit wary about doing myself and would be a concern if the unit failed and needed replaced.

 

John

 

That is the only potential disaster I can foresee - what if it goes wrong? Ostensibly it has a guarantee, but almost certainly that would involve returning the unit to China - even though it was despatched from the UK, but I can imagine it's just some guy using his house as a warehouse?

But as they say "You pays your money & takes your chances"

The Tomtom Go for Android is brilliant although it does require a 'permanently on' data connection to give speed camera warnings & live traffic updates. For now I have tethered my phone to act as a mobile hot spot, just to see how fast it gobbles up the data - if it's fairly frugal I might invest in a 3g or 4g dongle.

 

I suspect that most of the Chinese head units originate from the same few factories, so probably not much to choose between them in terms of quality. I did open up the unit just to check on the build quality & it looks fine. The main PCB & several daughter boards look good & the DVD player bears a Sanyo label. Basically it looks like an 8" tablet to which they've added a radio module & a DVD player.

I would have loved a Kenwood or Pioneer unit, but the money I am spending on this car is running away with me. It's "got to stop" says her who must be obeyed. Now if it had been a weekend away at a health spa - well that's not a waste of money, or so I'm told.

Replacement/repair times are a problem, it took 6 months and some constant badgering to get my Umi Zero replaced; they denied receiving it for 3 months!!