Parrot Asteroid Classic

Bad radio reception ... Many features but not user frindly

At the end, the product is a car radio, so it must be perfect for that purpose before adding anymore features ... it is not. Radio reception on FM is not good (actually bad) and when you talk to Parrot about it then you will get every possible answer that points on something else than the product (antenna, adapter, installation ... etc). I tried with and without adapter with no use ... still bad FM signal. I'm re-evaluating to put the original radio back (Peugeot 207)

Additionally, so my car, the display is controlled via the original radio over the CAN bus ... Astroid Classic does not support that. So every six month, I need to disconnect the Astroid classic, connect the original radio, change the clock to winter (or summer) time, and connect the asteroid classic back. Maaan I'm getting tired of this. I know we could argue that this is not parrot problem, but for me as a user, asteroid classic is not solving my needs.

The principle of the wheel to change between the selection is very bad. When driving, it is really creazy to use this wheel and get what you need. On the other hand channel seeking is not that good either.

What I like in the product is that it gives good quality for answering the phone or calling someone. Good sound quality.

Ok but glitchy

Product is a great when it works. Most of the time I don't have a problem with it and am 90% happy with the setup and functionality. There are times however when the system simply crashes, shuts down, or even cannot be restarted. Hopefully updates will fix these issues because other than that its a pretty nice stereo.

Don't Buy

Like all the reviews. Buggy as hell, had to return the first one because the screen went dark after 1 week, support is terrible and they have all sorts of special expensive parts that you have to buy to make it work with your truck or car.

Honest review after 2 months...

Installed the unit. Worked great initially but noticed that the unit was becoming unstable with use. It would randomly crash as if an OS on a computer would crash that the unit becomes irresponsive to power button or any other buttons or dial the unit has. Could not connect Galaxy note. Bluetooth audio with iPhone4 is buggy when you have Bluetooth tethering enabled. It locks up the unit. Turning the key off did not power down the unit. if you don't believe me. Do a google search.

GPS is useless as it requires network connection. Your smartphone has better Navigation software.

Hardware is outdated that it only supports legacy version of android that is no longer supported. No one writes software that runs on the Android version provided with the unit. The Asteroid's CPU cannot be upgraded with recent Android version due to HW limitation. The engineers have not thoroughly worked out all the bugs that you come up with some unusual sequences of selection of programs and pushing buttons, the OS in the unit crashes. Without looking at the code, I am willing to bet it has memory management issue that the engineers decided to become sloppy with or have no expertise in managing.

I was skeptical about getting this unit due to overwhelming number of bad reviews on the net from the actual users. But I bought it anyways. I was wrong.

The asteroid is a unit with a good concept but it is a classic example of a company over promising without realizing its capability and failing to deliver. My unit won't turn on anymore even through hard reset. I am glad that I bought SquareTrade warranty as I feel very confident that the Parrot will NOT be able to address problems with product that should not have been released to begin with. The product has been out for over a year. The firmware update does not help with stability as I have tried.

Help yourself and do independent search online and see the true review of this product. Parrot runs technical support forum. Go see for yourself make an educated choice for yourself.

Has Potential, Needs Work

I was really excited about this product when I first heard about it. However, the reality of it is less than spectacular. The Android OS is prone to crashing, as are the applications. Also, the only hands-free component is related to dialing, answering, and playing songs (but not through bluetooth), and it works great! Unfortunately, you can't use your voice to navigate the menus or launch applications, which completely defeats the purpose of this product in my opinion. Would I buy it again? Probably not.

Great DECK

I bought this after seeing it at CES 2012, I was planing on building a Carputer but this had everything I needed except a web browser. The thing is you can not drive and browse the web anyways! The voice features are top notch on this thing. It takes some time to learn to navigate it. The audio quality it puts out is also AMAZING I drive a BMW Z3, it comes stock with a alpine deck. Does not have nothing on this thing 7 band EQ Bass bost and A loud feature.

Great Design, still needs UI work!

Ok, if you're an audiophile like me and have been doing installations for more than 13 years you're in for a ride. First, this HU's design is in my opinion completely different from all the other cluttered single din boring HU's out there. I love the sleek, sharp and smooth finish on this thing. It's a 9 out of 10.
With that said the UI and navigation of it is a little different from that of most HU's out there. So it takes some getting used too. I was pleasantly surprised to see separate SubWoofer RCA's, but I do think they could have placed them behind the HU instead of made them a part of the power dongle (weak!). The HU gets really HOT from the back, now I can't say that caused any of the issues I've had with this HU but you never know.
HU issues, after I received it shortly there was a "latest" update available on Parrot's web site. This particular unit was behind about 3 releases so it was due! After that release was easily installed the HU worked great for a while and then all of a sudden the UI would reboot every time I tried to power up the SubWoofer from the settings. Went back a release, no change, changed the AMP, no change, changed the cables, still no change. So I emailed Sonic and received an RMA the following business day. So now I'm waiting for my replacement.
The other thing with this is that I feel there are some Bluetooth improvements that can be made. Since I built a custom fabricated iPad2 into my dash I'm streaming my music via bluetooth to it. But I want to be able to use Parrot for my phone call's. This HU is not programmed to pause music when I get a call and take that call, then start streaming once completed. Should not be difficult to program, just needs to be done.
Any how the other complaint I had with this was the 3.5 audio port sound quality was horrific! Very staticky, tried another cable, no change. Tried phone, no change. But via Bluetooth, no static! My last complaint was that the FM radio sound quality was terrible, but it could be my antenna. My previous Sony HU though had better signal strength but it did also lose signal but not nearly as much.
Overall the build and style is superb IMO, but they need to work on those little issue's I mentioned and updates should not take as long. Hope this helps!

Wow.. Greatest Car Radio

This is a great car radio... I have an iPhone and it works great with it... It sounds and looks great.. Love this radio...