Has Anyone Installed an AliExpress Head Unit

Cool. If so Amazon has the same radio for $80-120. No sense buying it on aliexpress.

$96 Hikity 10.1" Android Car Stereo Touch Screen Double Din Car Radio WiFi Bluetooth GPS Navigation FM Radio Support Mirror Link for Android/iOS Phone, with 12 Led Lights HD Rear View Camera

Amazon.com: Hikity 10.1 Android Car Stereo Double Din 10.1 Inch Touch Screen Car Radio GPS Navigation Bluetooth FM Radio Support WiFi Mirror Link for Android/iOS Phone + Dual USB Input & 12 LEDs Backup Camera : Electronics

[2G+16G] Android 11 Car Stereo Double Din 10.1" Touch Screen Car Radio GPS Navigation Bluetooth FM Radio Support WiFi Mirror Link for Android/iOS Phone + Dual USB Input & 12 LEDs Backup Camera

Amazon.com: [2G+16G] Android 11 Car Stereo Double Din 10.1 Inch Touch Screen Car Radio GPS Navigation Bluetooth FM Radio Support WiFi Mirror Link for Android/iOS Phone + Dual USB Input & 12 LEDs Backup Camera : Electronics

$78 10.1" 2.5D HD Double Din Car Stereo Radio Receiver, Android Touch Screen MP5 Multimedia, Support GPS Navigation Bluetooth FM Radio+4 Led Lights Rear View Camera&Dual Mirror Link

Amazon.com: 10.1Inch 2.5D HD Double Din Car Stereo Radio Receiver, Android Touch Screen MP5 Multimedia, Support GPS Navigation Bluetooth FM Radio+4 Led Lights Rear View Camera&Dual Mirror Link : Electronics

$80 1+32G Android Double Din Car Stereo Audio HD 1080P 10" Touchscreen in-Dash GPS Navigation Head Unit Support WiFi Bluetooth FM Radio EQ ASP USB Android/iOS Mirror Link + Rear View Camera

Amazon.com: Android 10.1 Double Din 10 Inch Car Stereo Audio HD 1080P Touchscreen in-Dash GPS Navigation Head Unit WiFi/Bluetooth/FM Radio for Car Support Android/iOS Mirror Link with Rear View Camera : Electronics

$191 10.1" Android 11 Double Din Car Stereo with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto Touchscreen Wireless Bluetooth Car Radio with Navigation Backup Camera RDS Microphone (2G+32G)

Amazon.com: 10.1 Inch Android Car Radio Double Din Stereo with Navigation Touch Screen Mantian Car Stereo with Backup Camera, Support WiFi Bluetooth FM Mirror Link Dual USB : Electronics


Can you access your obd setting, such as tire pressure, door lock configuration and what not? Thats what you get with the Joying and other ones setup for a Toyota. Cost a bit more but less monkeying around.

 

the irony here is that if no one realizes it, did they really need the functionality in the first place? i didn't use it, need it, or want it, so i was more than happy to get the aftermarket unit installed

 

I will never understand having a nice quality Toyota truck then cheaping out and putting in garbage Chinese crap in it. Its just my opinion so don't get your panties in a wad.

 

technically, at a rough msrp around $40k, it is a cheap truck in todays market...

 

personally, i like the flexibility of the android interface. sure they can have little problems here and there but once you get those worked out they run fine.
and they offer more functionality and most of the reliability/polish than a "proper" aftermarket HU for around half the price

 

at least use a Japanese head unit!

 

Update: received the right adapter and got it wired up. Looks OEM, but the interface does feel not fully polished. Given I’ll be in CarPlay 99% of the time, I have no regrets!

back up camera looks better, and I wired the included mic as well so phone voice sound is actually better.

All in all, it’s “good enough” and if your goal is CarPlay or Android Auto, it gets the job done.

(It is basically android, but I haven’t tried downloading an OBD2 reader app and connecting it to my transmitter)

 

So alpine?

 

Can you compare it to a Joying head unit?

 

joying has slightly better functionality, and a little more support.

 

I don't understand why even try these sites like AliExpress and Temu for anything. The few things we got the first and only time we tried Temu were cheap Fakes of the real thing so so cheap. I can't imagine buying a stereo form them for a $30,000+ Toyota truck, for an old beater sure. Best to go with Crutchfield. They have 50 years experience, only sell quality stuff, they know what fits and works plus have tech help and customer service. I hear Trail Grid also does a good job too.

 

depends on what one wants out of it.

i've gotten a couple of the really cheap car radio's for project speakers, and they work just fine.
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806696682334.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.49.44422d918ytoXb


crutchfield is like only going to the dealer for service. sure they're certified, but all those certifications cost money. their primary product is service and installation assistance, for a fee. for people that don't require that assistance, paying extra for the same products doesn't make any sense.

they also generally don't know what fits and play stupid with their online fit guide-- my vehicle searches always turn up 1 size smaller speakers than the vehicles always come with.

 

Do you think there is enough justification to look into the uis 7870 units to get the android 13 OS vs the Joying which has a little more track record but runs the android 12 head unit?

I guess my question books down to android 13 versus android 12?

 

i'm probably a terrible person to ask that of... i generally run single-din non-touch radio's. i ran a fully custom car computer for a number of years until car radio's and DSP's caught up to the features i was after. i've tinkered with touch screens, and the 2 months i had a $200 pioneer touch screen remains the only car radio theft i've ever had...

my experience is that any radio is only as good as it's software. the more features, the more software complexity. but someone needs to pay to build that software, and cheap radios tend to have cheap software. main-stream radio's will always tend to have better feature integration than non-mainstream brands like joying because those companies usually create in-house os variants that are more rigorously tested for functionality.

many times, these non-name-brand touch screen radio's intentionally use older variants of android because the software options are more available on the free market. they tend to grab the software pieces like 'lego', 'mega blok', and 'webrick' products--they all look similar, and fit somewhat close, but as soon as one digs past the aesthetic traits, the physical connections holding everything together become obvious that they barely work at all.

given the two options, joying represents a slightly better company, specifically because there's an established support structure, and an inherent value within the brand for that support structure to want a desire to maintain that value, whereas an 'alphabet soup' brand like "uis" will generally not have any support structure, and the brand name has no inherent value. once they sell out or get bad press, they'll re-brand and continue.

any radio can work, as long as your expectations are restrained to the lower cost. that's also how i'm happy with that previously-linked $14 radio. it's nowhere near the quality or functionality that a 'cheap' name brand radio can accomplish, but i also don't require name brand quality for a radio i use casually, that really only exists for a basic bluetooth connection.