T**H
The Joying 10.1" Android 5.1 Lollipop head unit is full of irritating bugs
05/09/2016 UPDATE:Having the opportunity to take a few overnight trips in my truck with the Joying 10.1" Android 5.1 unit, sadly I have to downgrade my initial rating to 2 stars. I've reviewed many items on Amazon, and can only think of one other purchase that has irritated me to the point of giving less than 4 stars. This unit is full of bugs that really diminish the android car stereo experience. The radio tuner still insists on searching and saving the radio presets at random times. This is truly an irritating bug. The backup camera display continues to work intermittently, and the initial "workaround" I thought I had found (read below) doesn't always work, so again, another persistent bug that is truly annoying. Plugging in a usb dash camera works so-so, but if you use an app, like Pandora or YouTube when the dashcam is recording, you cannot hear sound from the app. As soon as you unplug the usb dashcam, sound is restored. Using AVIN to display external video also works intermittently. I have triple checked my connections, and even plugged in an external monitor to quadruple check, and have verified that its the Joying unit that causes the problem. Sometimes using AVIN (and backup camera) the screen will turn black, and sometimes black with an exclamation point in a yellow triangle in the center of the screen. Lastly, the Joying unit freezes at times or becomes sluggish to respond to screen taps. I have had to manually reset the unit 4 times in about 20 hours of use over the last 2 weeks. This unit truly is full of bugs and I can no longer recommend this product to anyone.****** Original 4 Star Review Below ******After taking the time to hookup my OEM rearview camera, headrest dvd monitors and dashcam, I loaded up the kids and took some short road trips to test everything out. I upgraded from a Pumpkin 4.4.4 KitKat 6.2" head unit. The performance of the old unit and this unit is truly about the same. The real difference is the awesome 10.1" screen, which is clear and bright. I am very glad I upgraded to the larger screen. Below I will list some of the features I was most interested in, and how they have worked out so far.Android 5.1.1 - The unit does indeed claim to be Android 5.1.1. Some folks on other boards claim this is 4.4 that has been skinned to look like 5.1.1. I cannot say with any certainty that this is or is not the case. All the apps I use work with both versions, so I don't really know how to test otherwise.Rearview Camera - I hooked into the feed from my OEM rearview cam that displays on my rearview mirror. The video displays very well, and is so much easier to use while trying to line up with the hitch on my trailer. I am very pleased with this feature except that it doesn't always work. I correctly wired the feed into the back of the Joying unit, and I also ran a line from the reverse light to the unit's backup input (to tell the unit when to switch on). Usually, if I have just started the truck (and the Joying head unit) and it is from a cold boot, meaning the unit has been off for more than 2 hours, the backup camera display works as soon as I put the truck in reverse. If the unit has been on for a while, as in I've been driving around for a while and then put the truck in reverse, sometimes the camera display will switch on, sometimes it wont. If I power down the unit and put the truck in reverse, the backup camera feed comes right on without delay. I am guessing this is a memory issue on with the Joying unit. So, now that I have a work around if the rearview display doesn't come on, I am satisfied with its operation. (This is partly the reason for the 4 star rating).Dash Camera - The Joying unit has an app preloaded called DVR. This allows you to record your usb dashcam footage like a standalone dashcam. There are multiple problems with this. The app will get killed by Android at random times. This is presumably because there's too many apps running that are competing for the Joying unit's sparse 1GB of memory. Ugh! This unit should have 2GB at minimum. I tried some other apps on Google Play Store which had more options (DVR has very few options- no way to set the length of video clips, etc), but they all were killed by android after driving for a while just like the preloaded DVR app. Suffice it to say, this unit will not replace a standalone dash cam. Again, this is partially the reason for my rating of 4 stars.Tasker - Most Android power users at least know what Tasker is, and many use Tasker to automate many facets of their Android device. In a car stereo, Tasker is probably the most important app to me. Unfortuantely, Tasker gets killed by android on this device rather quickly. I have found no way to keep Tasker running in the background. Also, Tasker doesn't start on its own at boot, even though I have the proper settings selected within Tasker, and have allowed Tasker as a system administrator in android settings. You have to manually start Tasker, and even though it is set to run as a service, the Joying unit kills it, usually between 8 and 15 minutes after starting. This, again I believe is due to not enough memory in the Joying unit. On all of my other devices (multiple Samsung Galaxy Tab 2s, Samsung Note 4, ZTE Optik, etc) Tasker starts at boot and stays on always. I have never had an issue with Tasker except on this unit. This really is depressing to me, as I use tasker for many things, such as to report my GPS location every minute to my server, extend the voice commands in Google (ok google), dim screen, mute, etc.Wifi - This unit is AWESOME! The dual external wifi antennae really connect to wifi hotspots well. In my truck I use a Zubie OBD2 key, which provides wifi through Verizon 4G and sends OBD2 data to Zubie's servers, which allowse to access the info from the Zubie app. Zubie is an awesome platform which can integrate this data into other apps, and I highly recommend the service for those with Verizon. ith the Verizon 4g wifi I can watch Netflix, SlingTV, YouTube, etc while traveling down the road, and it works extremely well. I also use it to stream SiriusXM, Pandora, etc. I am highly pleased with this part of my setup.Headrest Monitors - I bought a pair to match my truck from headrestvideo.com. These are outstanding, and I hooked them up to the Joying unit. Unfortunately, only video from the video-in port on the Joying unit can be displayed via the video out port. So, if you have an external dvd player or something of that nature, you can show that video on the headrest monitors. You cannot show video from apps, or the android homescreen itself. I had specifically asked about this on the Joying website help chat before I purchased the unit, and the response I received was a link to a youtube video. In the link, it shows video from an external source coming into the Joying unit, then being displayed from the unit on two different external monitors. This works precisely as shown in the video, however, it wasn't made clear to me by the Joying support rep that video out functionality was limited to this specific setup. I have not found a reliable way show the Joying head unit screen onto external monitors. The Joying unit does not support Miracast, nor does it have MHL hardware to display HDMI through the usb otg cables. I really had hoped for this functionality, so the kids could watch live tv from the SlingTV app through the headrest monitors. My work around was to add a ROKU 1 which has RCA outputs and connect that to the junction box for the headrest monitors. I then hooked up the rca video out on the junction box to the rca video in on the Joying unit. This allows us to watch YouTube, SlingTV, Hulu, Vudu etc on the headrest monitors and the Joying unit at the same time, with the sound coming through the truck's speakers. This also adds DVD functionality to the Joying unit since each headrest has its own DVD unit. The ROKU 1 gets wifi from the Zubie unit, and this setup works great! The only downside for me is that the ROKU 1 remote uses IR instead of BT, Wifi or RF, so you have to have a clear line of sight from the remote to the Roku 1 unit, which means the ROKU 1 cant be behind the dash.AM/FM radio - The AM and FM reception is pretty good, much better than my older Pumpkin 4.4.4 unit. The radio tuner (Radio) app doesn't always save my station presets. Also, sometimes it initiates the search feature on its own, even while listening to a radio station which is annoying. This means that not only do I sometimes have to reselect all of my presets when I start up the truck, but sometimes I have to do it again while listening to the radio, as the station I'm listening to will change once the autosearch begins. Whatever this bug is, I certainly hope they fix it... truly annoying.Navigation - I use Google Maps exclusively, and this works very well. Having the dedicated NAV button on the front of the unit is great, and it works like a charm. Interestingly, I have not had the Joying unit kill google maps while in use, rather on the screen or in the background. I haven't taken any long road trips yet, so I will update this review if I find that the unit kills Maps like it does the other apps.All in all, the Joying 5.1.1 system is great. The kids love it and so do I. There are a handful of bugs that need to be addressed, but for $400, its awesome to have the 10.1" screen running on android. Having google maps for navigation is excellent, and everybody that sees the unit is impressed. I contacted Joying support several times, and they were always friendly and responsive. Unfortuately they didn't really have any fixes or ideas how to overcome the handful of issues I have encountered. On a few bugs I mentioned to them, the rep said "we fixing next time" so this unit is what it is, and probably will never be exactly what I had hoped for. I truly hope Joying fixes the bugs and puts at least 2gb memory and an octacore in the Android 6.0 version! I would gladly pay a couple hundred bucks more for a beefy, completely stable system that I could run all of my apps on simultaneously, and not have to upgrade to a newer unit again in a year or two.
J**N
I love Joying radios
Update 6/26/16: I had to downgrade 1 star from my review. Joying has released 3 firmware updates so far. I'm not really sure what they fixed because the problems I noticed and reported to them are still present. The biggest problem is Bluetooth will connect and randomly disconnect and reconnect. This always happens about 1 minute after cold boot. Then usually 20 minutes later and so on. I also have a Joying 4.4.4 and I have a rock solid bluetooth connection with my phone so it's definitely a radio problem with the 5.1.1 software. I use Tasker to automate my Wifi tether option from my phone when it connects to bluetooth and then turns off wifi tether when bluetooth disconnects. That's where my main problem is. As flaky as the bluetooth connection is, my phone keeps disabling wifi tether. I know to most this is not a problem and I could just turn on wifi tether manually and not automate it but that's besides the point. Bluetooth should not keep disconnecting. I'm considering replacing the radio with the 10.1" 4.4.4 unit until all the bugs are sorted out.Update: I have both this 5.1.1 and a Joying 4.4.4 radio and the 4.4.4 is definitely faster. Once thing to remember is the 5.1.1 is still very new and bugs are constantly being corrected. There was already an update on April 30th that fixed a few of the software bugs. I never listen to the radio so I can't comment on it's functionality...I hate commercials. I'm still keeping my 5 star rating. With a product like this you have to be patient or hold off on purchasing for a little while. The same goes for almost any product now-a-days that has any type of software (My dads brand new dodge ram 1500 was already in the dealer 5 times for software updates for bugs). I have faith Joying will get the 5.1.1 up to par with the 4.4.4 radios. Members on XDA are already working on a custom ROM for it so if they crack it, the RAM will probably be re partitioned to 2GB.I love Joying radios! I now own 3 of them....two 10.1" radios and one 7" radio. This review is for the one I installed in my 1999 Pontiac Trans Am. I made a custom trim piece to complete the look and put a "Pontiac Trans Am" logo on the front of the screen to make it appear factory. Keep in mind this car is not my daily driver. I only drive about 1000 miles a year and never in the rain or snow so 95% of the time my windows are done so I don't need good access to my HVAC controls which are partially covered in my install.The Lollipop upgrade is a welcome addition. Android car stereos have been running KitKat for years. There is now a brightness control on the top toolbar and in the factory settings, you are able to set a screen dimmer when you turn the headlights on. I've had many Android radios that are just too bright at night. I'm glad this has been addressed in the Lollipop upgrade.The quad core processor is very fast. Apps load quickly and I have not seen any lag. The new stock music player upgrade is also very good. They added album artwork that spins like a CD on the screen.Sound quality is fantastic. I've owned 20 car stereos in my 1999 Trans Am alone in the past 16 years. I have a thing for car stereos and have had all the flagship models you can think of...Clarion NX604, Pioneer AVIC-8100NEX, Kenwood DNN-992HD and many more. The Joying radios blow them out of the water. In the past the android stereo sound quality was not the best but the new ones sound just as good as the name brands for a fraction of the price. I have all aftermarket speakers in my car and an amp driving two small 6.5" dual voice coil mid range subs. I get great base although a low pass filter would've been nice to have. I've used Android Auto on my Pioneer and I don't like it at all. Full android is the way to go and until the big dogs get on board, more people will turn away to overseas radios.Joying customer service is the best I have seen in a long time from any company. They respond to questions very fast. I was even contacted by them asking how I liked the radios since they saw I bought 3 of them. You just don't get follow up like that from companies anymore. Way to go Joying!
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