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Has anyone installed this Chinese radio for the 997. It says it is for the 997.1 , Cayman and Boxter but seems to have the connections for a PCM 3.0 harness in the 997.2
Would be nice to have a 8 inch screen with modern electronics. They are on Ali Express but can be bought many places.
In my experience, at least on .2... the electronics/connections/fitment for the infotainment/head unit for the 987.2 and 997.2 are identical. So it being a Boxster would be irrelevant for something involving the infotainment.
Not much info on the unit. Am I missing something? What all does it do?
Personally I’d get something from a more reputable company but that’s just me. I’m not an Android guy, so I had a Alpine ILX-107 (wireless CarPlay) reviver installed along with the proper adapter to integrate with the stock Bose system. Wasn’t cheap but it works flawlessly.
If you choose this HU, then you are at their mercy for features and updates for maps or file formats etc.
The OS being Android, maybe you will need to side-load apps yourself => which might be harder than you think.
On top of all this, we don't know the audio quality (or even the touchscreen quality), ease-of-use etc.
For $350 and a chunk of your time, you can easily integrate any popular HU packed with nice features.
Wouldn't you rather have the convenience of AndroidAuto or Apple CarPlay in a HU than just a black-box just like the PCM?
Your Samsung or Apple phone is bound to have more updates and better features than the HU (that stands true even for frontline HUs like Alpine).
I think these Android OS head units are neat, and I'm very tempted by them. XTRONS are supposed to be ok. However I've stopped myself from going for one in the past since I don't want to have to do any small software tinkering or tweaks to get it right. My impression from looking at the forums for these Chinese made Android units that the quality can be fairly good for the money, just that you should be prepared to potentially need to make small tweaks or at very least upgrade to the latest firmware revision manually at least once.
I've ended up paying 3x more to get a top shelf unit from Pioneer that I was completely satisfied with. Gonna go down that same road again now for my other Porsche. Still tempted by an XTRONS, perhaps when I get a different daily driver over here I will try one. I have a buddy in Romania who got one of these Chinese units (dont know the model or manufacturer) and it was running nicely in his car, nice display too.
The Chinese Android HUs are good (not perfect), but keep getting better with each version - - there's usually a newer/faster model every year . I dont use one in the 997, because I'd like to keep the interior stock, but I have an Android HU in my 2006 Cayenne TT - - they have a big following with the older Cayenne owners.
If you use Android for your phone or tablet, they're pretty intuitive/familiar. But like any new device, there's several hours of fiddling with settings to get them to work like you want. If you're not tech savvy, this can be maddening, as instructions/support from the manf is usually non-existent.
The electronics of Chinese HUs are usually the same for many different cars (VW, Audi, Mercedes, etc.) and only the screen/dimensions change to fit the various vehicles. As such, there is a surprisingly large support group online for optimizing firmware, but the forums often have a more Eastern European user base.
An often cited limitation for Porsche is that the MOST box which converts analog speaker outputs to digital/fiber interface with the factory Bose amp/speakers is only 2 channels - - thus you lose the ability to fade f/r. There is a 4 channel MOST box a Russian company sells, and others have done other work arounds to add/keep the ability to fade f/r.
If you use Waze a lot, like to stream music, and dont want to separately use your phone for such, the Android HUs are pretty good. They can also cheaply add nice features like rear view camera. Dont expect them to run a dozen apps simultaneously - - at the price point they sell these, they tend to have the equivalent speed/power of a smartphone that's 3 or 4 years old.
If you just want to add Bluetooth phone / music streaming to your 997 and are OK using your phone occasionally for Waze, then you are probably better off with the LAPower Bluetooth unit. I use that in my 997 and it's great.
An Android HUs would also make sense if your PCM has died as they are much cheaper than a factory replacement and look/work quite well for the money. Or you could go with a name brand double DIN HU from a well known radio manf. The latter have their fans, but IMO look less factory, cost more, and seem to have a similar level of frustration in setup/configuration as the Chinese units.
07-11-2019, 10:46 PM
Chinese Radio for 997
