EDIT 13/08/2019: After a year's worth of use and to save trawling through lots of posts - I'm giving this head unit a firm 9/10. It is almost perfect for my needs and is better than the Columbus unit I replaced in almost every possible way.

 

I've had a Columbus in 2 cars now, it is generally 'ok' at doing most things and gives a nice array of features - I also have MDI, Bluetooth and Maxidot in my current Octavia so fairly happy with the overall package though both my Columbus and Bluetooth module are fairly old in the grand scheme of things, being fitted to the car when supplied in 2010 (so no LED screen, DAB, SDD, Wifi etc).

 

I've been watching the progress of all the various Android units with interest over the past few years and thought now was the time to try one out, as hardware and software seem to have matured. I'm also doing a bit more traveling than I used to and find myself using Google navigation a lot for accurate traffic avoiding (the TMC effort in the Columbus is, frankly, pants).

 

So, as title have bought the Xtrons PE98MTVPL unit - 9 inch screen, no DVD, 32 gb internal space and 4 gb RAM - for £230 including delivery. This is around 50% of what 2nd hand Columbus units still seem to fetch, so my expectations were/are literally zero and I fully expect to get annoyed by it to some degree - possibly to the point of selling on and replacing the Columbus.

 

Thought I'd post a topic up about it as there isn't much info around for this particular model.

 

There are a few to choose from which are similar, including from other makes such as Pumpkin/Joying/Eonon/Erisin etc. and each seems to get their fair share of positive and negative reviews. I was originally interesting in the 10.1 inch unit available which is a bit more expensive at £250, but as mine is vehicle specific (to VW/Seat/Skoda etc) it is a direct swap for the Columbus unit fit wise, uses the same surround and includes both a quadlock compatible ISO harness and the necessary canbus box of tricks - this lot would add a big chunk of money to the 10.1 version.

 

So, fitting was straightforward - literally 10 minutes. I noticed that when powering the unit 'off' (manually), if I shone a torch on the screen I could still make out the display (I was fitting at night hence the torch :)) which had me a bit worried for the battery. Sure enough, when I checked in the morning the unit was hot and powered on instantly. A quick Google search revealed there is a 'acc' wire which needs to be disconnected for Canbus cars - now I have done this, on removing the key the unit powers down automatically (it didn't before) and after a few seconds the display disappears. I'm still to figure out the boot cycle process, as when I next got in the car it cold booted - which only took 20 seconds or so, far quicker than the Columbus - but having left the car again for a couple of hours it sprung into life straight away. I'll monitor, and keep an eye on the battery.

 

Very brief initial impressions:

 

• Sounds quality is better than the Columbus
• Steering wheel controls work, doors/parking sensors/climate control/heated seats etc etc show up on the display. The 'door open' display is reversed so if driver door is open, the passenger door displays: other units mention there is a setting, I can't find it.
• MP3 and video files happily playing off Micro SD (slot at the front - also important to me)
• Radio signal perfect - haven't used a twin fakra adapter, thought I would need to
• GPS signal perfect
• WiFi connects both to the house and to my phone as a hotspot without issue (the single review on Amazon reported Wifi problems, seems fine to me)
• The last used media before shutting down plays when booting up - which is annoying
• Can't see a way of tweaking individual volumes (media, nav) how you can on a phone - which is annoying, as Google Navigation is REALLY LOUD compared to music
• You can change the button illumination colour, but for some reason the lights don't come on - haven't tried at night with engine running/lights on yet
• Test trip round the block using my phone hotspot and Google Navigation was a smile moment having it working smoothly on a 9" screen
• Tried the AV out leads to my dodgy second hand headrest monitors - they reported no signal, not hugely bothered but might investigate later

 

Got my first proper commute in a few days so that will be a proper test - on the face of it, I'm very impressed so far.

 

I hadn't really given enough thought to the current bluetooth module in the car - which of course connects fine to my phone but has nowhere to send the audio. I did experiment with connecting the phone to both the car and the Xtrons, which at least makes audio pop out of the speakers but would not make calls unless connected in RSAP mode - which kills my 3G. I know a bluetooth module upgrade would give me Wifi, which the Xtrons could then connect to so I'll give it some thought.

 

More thoughts to follow  and some pics.

Edited 13 August, 20196 yr by Timmyboy

There is a setting for changing the doors over it's in the factory settings, you can also change the boot up screen and the background, mine boots up with the skoda logo and has the VRS background you may need a passcode I'll see if I can dig it out.

 

Also the phone just connects to the units bluetooth to make calls and switches over when you get a call, should be in the menu under the call settings.

Edited 11 August, 20187 yr by T2000

Try 3368 or 12345

Ahhhh, there's a menu option in there called 'Factory Settings' but I haven't gone into there, I assumed it was some kind of reset back to factory standard settings

 

I'll have a look next time I'm in the car, thanks for digging the codes out.

 

Yes agreed on the bluetooth, you just get far more functionality with the Skoda standard bluetooth (phonebook, dialed calls etc) and it is already set up with the microphone, which would save me having to re-route a new microphone which is compatible with the Android unit. I may be tempted, but I've also read reports that the mic on the front of the unit isn't disabled if you do plug in an alternative - do you use the built in mic?

The BT on the headunit does store your contacts phonebook and lists previous calls you just have to pair it up and press the button to download contacts, I have an external mic for the unit but I haven't plugged it in as I use the 2 built in ones, they aren't great but work ok, I will use the external one but just never got around to routing it but yes if you use the external one the front ones are disabled.

Ta, I must have missed the phonebook option.

 

Door open indicators have now been swapped, 'Factory Settings' password was '126' after a spot of googling. Button illumination going off now sorted, it is linked to the headlights so they light up as soon as they come on.

 

I changed the 'power off' setting earlier from 'auto' to 30 mins, and sure enough having left car for a few hours it did a cold boot when getting in to play around with it again. Still amazed at the boot up time though, and this should put my mind at rest regarding battery drain.

 

I've also installed an app onto my phone called 'Macrodroid' which is free and very simple to use - it enables the WiFi hotspot on my phone as soon as it connects the headunit via bluetooth, so at least it is all up and running automatically without me having to do anything each time I get in the car.

 

I may check with Xtrons to see if there has been any software updates.

 

@T2000 what model do you have out of interest?

Mine is the Erisin with android 6 but they are all the same really under the skin.

 

Interesting on the Macrodroid must try that.

I'm looking at buying an xtrons unit in the week but can't decide whether to go for this unit or the PB88MTVP. Which is very similar to yours just with the CD function on an 8" screen. I suppose both have pro's and con's and a price difference. It'll be interesting to see how you get on with it. I do think the quality of these units has increased over the past couple of years. 

I've just fitted an Android 8 Erisin unit to replace a Bolero. Very happy with it generally.

Couple of points:

I'd like the reversing sensor display to be bigger, and it seems slow picking up the outer sensors (at least the couple of times I've tried it so far)

There seems no logic to the album sort order in the music app. I wish it could switch albums using a physical button or voice control, with no need to look at the screen.

 

Good call on the 'Macrodroid' got it working in minutes, fires up when the BT connects and switches off when the BT disconnects, absolutely brilliant, means instant WiFi so I installed Spotify and it fires up straight away, cheers!

@RYAN_101 yes I looked at both, after I'd ruled out the 10.1" unit. I concluded I'd rather have a slightly bigger screen and cheaper price than the DVD drive - I rarely ever use physical media these days and there are several easy options to getting music or video on the unit - usb, sd or even copying over the network if your wireless is good enough.

 

@wonkyewok agreed on the music player. Going to leave it all standard for a week just to trial but will probably swap out for Poweramp. Used that for many years on Android.

 

@T2000 good work some people are using tasker to achieve the same result, but is a paid app and way more difficult to set up. 

@Timmyboythe 10.1 sticks out to far for my liking, looks abit odd. The alpine halo 9 does this way better but cost £7-800 and also doesn't have a CD drive. I do think I'll benefit more from the sleeker look and bigger screen of the 9" version like yours. May I ask where you got it from for that price? It's £290 on xtrons website. 

There do seem to be lots of people moaning about the 10.1" and faulty screens or snapping mounting mechanisms - whic I can believe given the design. 

 

Pricing all over the place for the 9" - got mine from Amazon, came in 2 days! 

 

XTRONS 9 Inch Android 8.0 Octa Core 4G RAM 32G ROM Car Stereo Radio HD Digital Multi-touch Screen OBD2 DVR In Dash Video Player Tire Pressure Monitoring Wifi OBD2 NO-DVD for VW EOS PASSAT GOLF https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07BQS7L57/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_wVkCBbH9357CN

Good morning @Timmyboy, I bit the bullet this morning and ordered a new radio. Decided on the same unit as yours in the end as I much prefer the look and all my media, music etc is wireless. Couple of questions if you don't mind. Did you need an external microphone? Pictures shown it's got one built in but some descriptions say an external one is required. Also have you got abit more info on the acc wire, did you need to cut it or just a case of disconnecting it? Thanks. 

@RYAN_101 Yes it has a microphone built in - I haven't used it to make a call as yet, but it was working fine on my first real commute today and picked up my voice to use the 'OK Google' function for selecting my navigation destination. I have heard that the inbuilt microphones aren't very good for voice calls as callers can just hear themselves speak (which doesn't happen with the OEM mic) but can't confirm just yet - @T2000 might give us both some insight here. Note it does come with an external mic included too.

 

For the 'acc' wire, it just needs disconnecting. When you have a look at the quadlock loom, it will be obvious: one of the wires (it is actually 2 wires together I think from memory) is labelled 'ACC' and has another label giving some badly worded instructions, something like 'if installing with CANBUS' etc. It is joined in the middle by a plastic connector, so all you need to do is simply disconnect this plastic connector and you're done.

 

After my trip today, a 100 mile journey from Bath to Birmingham, I am very impressed so far. Got in the car, the unit booted quickly, my phone connected to bluetooth and enabled the WiFi hotspot which the head unit then connected to, in preference to the house WiFi which it connected to initially.

 

It was a bit sluggish for the first 2 to 3 minutes and I had to set my destination a couple of times before navigation would kick in - this is possibly because we have a terrible mobile signal in my village though. Each time, it responded to my voice prompts. I followed the nav right to my destination in Birmingham, with the radio playing at the same time. Voice prompts cut the radio volume out as expected (this is configurable though) and having big screen Google maps, as with my test journey the other day, was fantastic. I realised I had previously set the nav voice sound option within the app itself to 'louder' which explains why it was so loud compared to music -what a plank. This has now been adjusted down.

 

The unit clearly has an ambient light sensor, as Google maps switched from night to day mode way before my auto headlights turned off - so night mode on the unit isn't linked to headlight function, but button background lights are.

 

2 biggest surprised for me today: the radio is far, far better than the Columbus unit. Being old and boring, I listen to Radio 2 and usually suffer 20 minutes of patchy, scratchy reception before hitting a decent signal area which no amount of fine tuning can overcome. The Android unit was fine from the start and auto tuned itself multiple times throughout my journey - I had this enabled on the Columbus but it never seemed to work.

 

2nd is the sound quality - it is just way better than the Columbus unit giving bassy, punchy sound up to a loud volume with no distortion at all, I really wasn't expecting such a jump without a new pair of speakers at some point. I've got into the habit of using Columbus nav for 80% of my journey and Google maps on my phone for the last 20% to guide through any city traffic - which is a pain and means I have to turn the radio off to hear the phone. Not so today!

 

Only negative of the day is that often notifications/actions appear at the bottom of the screen - and it is easy to accidentally hit one of the hard control buttons at the same time as poking the screen. Pretty minor though.

 

Overall, I'm very impressed so far - almost in too good to be true territory. Possibly the new gadget effect will wear off at some point

Edited 14 August, 20187 yr by Timmyboy
thousands of typos

Can you say what the ACC wire does and why it needs disconnecting? My (not xtrons) unit had 4 dip switches, one for ACC I think, and I'd like to understand it.

Thanks

I don't fully understand myself I'm afraid so I'll probably give an incorrect explanation but here we go.

 

In the good old days you used to have 2 power leads for a car stereo - one which provided power when the engine was running and the other (the ACC wire) which provided power when you just had the keys turned to the accessory position i.e. when lights/blowers etc turn on but the engine isn't running. If memory serves the 2 wires were often wired together for convenience.

 

With the modern canbus system in our cars it's now the ECU which tells the head unit when it should be allowed to turn on and off - which is why for example when you switch off your engine but leave the ignition in the 'on' position, the OEM stereo will continue to play right up until you remove the key - at which point the canbus tells the stereo to turn off.

 

So the 'acc' wire is not needed, as the canbus box of tricks which comes with this head unit does it all for you. If you leave the 'acc' wire connected as it comes from the factory, you are basically providing a permanent live and the stereo won't turn off unless you manually hit the power button. If you disconnect the 'acc' wire, it turns off as soon as the key is removed the same as the OEM stereo does.

 

Hopefully someone like @Rustynuts can come and give a proper explanation rather than just rambling

Edited 14 August, 20187 yr by Timmyboy

thanks. Mine turns off when I turn off the ignition, and won't come on when the ignition is off, so I guess it's ok (?)

Yes sounds right - that's the behaviour I would want anyway.

19 hours ago, Timmyboy said:

@RYAN_101 Yes it has a microphone built in - I haven't used it to make a call as yet, but it was working fine on my first real commute today and picked up my voice to use the 'OK Google' function for selecting my navigation destination. I have heard that the inbuilt microphones aren't very good for voice calls as callers can just hear themselves speak (which doesn't happen with the OEM mic) but can't confirm just yet - @T2000 might give us both some insight here. Note it does come with an external mic included too.

 

For the 'acc' wire, it just needs disconnecting. When you have a look at the quadlock loom, it will be obvious: one of the wires (it is actually 2 wires together I think from memory) is labelled 'ACC' and has another label giving some badly worded instructions, something like 'if installing with CANBUS' etc. It is joined in the middle by a plastic connector, so all you need to do is simply disconnect this plastic connector and you're done.

 

After my trip today, a 100 mile journey from Bath to Birmingham, I am very impressed so far. Got in the car, the unit booted quickly, my phone connected to bluetooth and enabled the WiFi hotspot which the head unit then connected to, in preference to the house WiFi which it connected to initially.

 

It was a bit sluggish for the first 2 to 3 minutes and I had to set my destination a couple of times before navigation would kick in - this is possibly because we have a terrible mobile signal in my village though. Each time, it responded to my voice prompts. I followed the nav right to my destination in Birmingham, with the radio playing at the same time. Voice prompts cut the radio volume out as expected (this is configurable though) and having big screen Google maps, as with my test journey the other day, was fantastic. I realised I had previously set the nav voice sound option within the app itself to 'louder' which explains why it was so loud compared to music -what a plank. This has now been adjusted down.

 

The unit clearly has an ambient light sensor, as Google maps switched from night to day mode way before my auto headlights turned off - so night mode on the unit isn't linked to headlight function, but button background lights are.

 

2 biggest surprised for me today: the radio is far, far better than the Columbus unit. Being old and boring, I listen to Radio 2 and usually suffer 20 minutes of patchy, scratchy reception before hitting a decent signal area which no amount of fine tuning can overcome. The Android unit was fine from the start and auto tuned itself multiple times throughout my journey - I had this enabled on the Columbus but it never seemed to work.

 

2nd is the sound quality - it is just way better than the Columbus unit giving bassy, punchy sound up to a loud volume with no distortion at all, I really wasn't expecting such a jump without a new pair of speakers at some point. I've got into the habit of using Columbus nav for 80% of my journey and Google maps on my phone for the last 20% to guide through any city traffic - which is a pain and means I have to turn the radio off to hear the phone. Not so today!

 

Only negative of the day is that often notifications/actions appear at the bottom of the screen - and it is easy to accidentally hit one of the hard control buttons at the same time as poking the screen. Pretty minor though.

 

Overall, I'm very impressed so far - almost in too good to be true territory. Possibly the new gadget effect will wear off at some point

The inbuilt mics do an OK job, never had anyone say that they can hear themselves or can't hear me.

OK so my new unit came today. I was to impatient so pretty much as soon as it got delivered to work I had the car in the work shop. I think from start to finish was probably 20/30 min as I taken the centre vents out to run a GPS aerial. On the little first hand experience I've had I'm blown away, it's absolutely brilliant.

 

Don't get me wrong there's a few little niggles but most of that is just fiddling about with settings etc as there's a few things I want to change but from what I've seen of other people's experience I'm confident I can change them mostly via settings. 

 

I've used the BT a couple of times now and I can honestly say the in built mic for me has been spot on so far. No distortion or bad sound. I cam here them just as clear as they can hear me, so I'm very impressed with that. 

 

Ive only had the unit in since 5pm this evening and I haven't had the time to sit and really have a play about with it yet but first initial impressions I'm very happy with it so far. And for the price it's an absolute steal. 

What an absolutely brilliant thread. I've been toying with getting an Android unit for a while now but was worried about the standard car functions (aircon, door open, maxidot) working with it. I take it these features all still work fine?

 

What model Octavia do you have? I'm in a mk3 2015 - will this unit for VW Eos linked above fit my motor?

Just to add my 2p - I've had an octo-core Xtrons for about a year now.  Here's a post from shortly after I installed it with pictures:

 

 

I'd still totally recommend it.  It's so much better than the RNS315 in my wife's Rapid.

 

Only down sides so far: very occasionally it does crash (it's needed a factory reset once) and the sticky-back GPS antenna falls off in hot weather.

@PHuxo yes you still get door open, climate, heated seats, parking sensors etc on the display - I'd only miss parking sensors really to be honest. No real interaction with maxidot, it does show 'track number' when playing audio but it's a bit useless - no nav instructions like you get with rns510, but google maps is so good you don't need it.

 

Mine is a mk2 - I can't see a specific model for a mk3 I'm afraid but a google search may turn up something. Overall very pleased with the unit still - typing on my phone currently so will post a proper update next time I'm on a pc. 

Quick update, after a few weeks use which has included my once weekly Birmingham to Bristol round trip.

 

Still very pleased with the unit overall. Sound quality amazes me, even my wife commented completely unprompted how much better than the Columbus unit it sounds.

 

Radio seems to switch between mono and stereo quite often - sometimes when the signal is temporarily lost (which I'm chalking up to auto frequency tuning), when it does come back it is clearly a stereo sound compared to a mono sound, what is odd is that I have never noticed the quality swap in the other direction - more observation needed.

 

Sometimes when travelling along, the climate display overlay appears on the monitor for no reason (i.e. I haven't changed any temperature, or touched any control that would otherwise cause it to show) - only 2 or 3 journeys though.

 

One thing I miss about the Columbus, which I didn't really to with much thought, was just to have the map showing in areas I'm not familiar with - partially to glance at what the road layout is coming up, but also to note the speed limit on the display. I haven't looked into whether there is a speed limit solution for Android (possibly the TomTom app, I've never used it) but simply having Google maps running and tracking car progress helps with road layout.

 

Start up time remains consistently quick - and I like the configurable 'hard power down' option so if you're just nipping out of a shop/dropping the kids off etc. is only partially shuts down. This does for some reason upset the standard music player which then occasionally won't start playing music again.

 

Speaking of music players.... I installed Poweramp (as I bought it many, many years ago on Android) and replaced the standard music player with the Poweramp widget - better looking, but unfortunately the steering wheel controls don't work consistently and the sound muting when navigation directions are read out doesn't work - so it's hard to hear. I've uninstalled Poweramp and gone back to the default player.

 

Many passengers have now seen/heard it, very complimentary especially considering the price.

 

Only major grip is with wireless connection so far - I think possibly for 2 reasons. First, the 'Macrodroid' app I have installed on my phone seems to stop working after being active for a period of days - I usually just charge my phone overnight without switching it off and sometimes the macro just won't fire when connecting to the head unit bluetooth - a restart of either my phone or the app itself cures it. Also bear in mind for my phone at least (Galaxy Note 8) I had to change the app permission settings from standard to allow the app to start itself with every phone reboot.

 

Secondly, and more annoyingly, sometimes the head unit just refuses to connect to my phone's hotspot - it gives a 'authentication error'. Sometimes it clears by disabling/enabling the WifI on the head unit, sometimes not - sometimes it needs the hotspot on my phone disabling/enabling. It always eventually connects, but it just a pain to do - either at the beginning of my journey, or even more annoyingly sometimes half way through.

 

I did mention in my earlier post about an Amazon review mentioning Wifi connection issues, and I seem to have exactly the same issue - I've even tried tweaking the hotspot settings so the network is 'open' (albeit hiddne) but still get the same problem.

 

I'll probably drop Xtrons a message and perform a firmware update as a first step.

 

Still remains 8/10 for me though at present.