Parrot Asteroid Smart

Great Deal

I Purchased for my fully restored 1994 BMW 325 ic because it was the only Double Din that I could use in my car without cutting into the HAVC system. Of course it does not have DVD or CD capability which is fine since you can load all the music, movies and videos on USB or SD card and play through the system. I am using a 32 Gig SD card. Very happy with sound and picture quality, Yes there are some draw backs straight out of the box, Their Video stinks therefore I did some research and downloaded and installed [ROOT] Framaroot 1.9.3 and Asteroid Tweaker this allowed me to fix some short comings in the system, This allowed me to install MX Player and Pandora. There are a few other things I intend to install but I have all I really need for my car.
My biggest problem with the system is there needs to be 2 SD card capacity or direct load onto the system for Maps. If I need to travel and need maps I have to change SD cards. I haven't been able to keep the volume at a consistent level when switching from device to device example going from Sirius radio to the turner the volume difference from one to the other is substantial.
Overall I had rather have this system over any other Double Din on the market as it has more potential to personalize to your own needs and preferences.

Great Value!

I am satisfied with the speed of delivery and the price of the goods.

Best head unit on the market for tech addicts like me!

I recommend the Parrot Asteroid to anyone who loves Android. It's fully customizable and is basically like having a really nice tablet as a head unit. Parrot may not be as well known as Kenwood or Pioneer but this product could be a game changer for them. Stop reading this and just buy one already!

P.S. You won't find it anywhere else for cheaper~

Very good In-Dash 6.2 "AM / FM / USB Car Stereo Receiver w / GPS Navigation, Web Apps and A2DP Hands-Free Bluetooth

Excellent technology, high quality, quicker shipping to Russia, easy installation.

Parrott Astroid

Received my Astroid from Sonic in a very timely fashion, The delivery time was very fast. The receiver is great and has more functions than you should probably have access too in a car. Unfortunately, the first device I received was not functioning properly. ( Not Sonic's Fault) Dealing with Parrott SUCKS. The customer service is lacking, After about 4 phone calls and 8 hours on the phone A new system was sent to me and it work amazingly.

Overall the system is really cool. There are some considerations. There is no Disc player, so you do have to take that into consideration. If I'm not using the tuner, I have music loaded to a thumb drive that carries about 18 hours of music. The hands-free is great, Internet connectivity is also great however can be a distraction. There are some apps in the market and hopefully more will appear but for now your limited to a very few, Facebook and email are included. You can download your own pictures and run them as wallpaper or a slide show. The sound is customizable and very clear. Over all it is a good product that is recommendable if you can live with a few shortcomings. Hopefully those will be resolved as the system is further developed.

Do your research!

Easy install due to the shallow depth.

The only app that works and you don't have to pay for is tune in.
No pandora no I heart radio

When I got the unit, it didn't have the sd card with the "included gps - I go primo". So, I had to contact parrot to get it.

I would NOT reccommend this product!

Only android car stereo on the market, but it's a solid first entry.
Apps are well developed, and if you have the know how, you can easily customize further.

Needs a faster / more responsive CPU and then it will be near perfect.

Cant imagine driving without the Parrot Smart Asteroid

Great Concept - Average Execution

I really want to love the Parrot Asteroid Smart (PAS). I think this is the first head unit I've ever purchased that is a work in progress. In the past I have purchased Alpine and Kenwood decks. Usually what you get out of the box is it. The PAS however is being updated constantly! I've only had it a couple weeks and it's already had two updates. It's a little rough in some areas.

There are very few apps for this unit as it is Android based but does not have the Google Play store, it uses it's own store front with apps. On top of that the apps are buggy. Waze for example has voice input as a option, but does not use the PAS built in mic. So it sits there waiting for a command without any way of actually doing so. That's one example but the list goes on! Many of the features don't do anything if you check the box, like using GPS for night mode. Before the last update the equalizer wouldn't take effect until you launched the equalizer app, flat eq until then (very annoying).

Pros
-Good sound quality (6v out w/sub)
-Great potential if you root and install play store.
-Price for a unit with built in navigation.
-Bluetooth phone calls are clear (when working)
-Sleek look, not buttons on face
CONS
-Very unpolished old version of android
-Every app I've used has bugs
-Slow boot
-No satellite radio or HD tuner
-Most features work intermittently like mic, equalizer, fade, Bluetooth etc...

A class of its own

Disclaimer: I am a computer scientist and also an unapologetic geek, meaning that I have the necessary computing background and I just love to hack computing systems. Please keep this in mind throughout the review.

Out of the box the Asteroid Smart is a good media player and navigation head unit. The included Music app features a good tuner and a good media player. The audio FX adjustments are intuitive and effective. The sound quality is very good. The included iGO software is nothing to write home about but ultimately does its job. TomTom is available on the Asteroid Market as a paid app and is supposed to be much better (though I have not tried it). Torque is also available on the Asteroid market and works very well. Other than this the Asteroid Market offers a very limited choice of apps. Pairing a mobile phone works as it should and enables the usual goodies such as tethered Internet access and hands free calling.

Most of these features however can be had at a lower cost. The Asteroid Smart should be better than this, as it is after all a full-blown computer (which is what attracted me in the first place), and indeed it is. Here are the steps to make it awesome:

1. Ground the parking brake lead.
2. Root the device.
3. Side load Google Service Framework and Google Play.
4. Use Google Play to install almost any app you desire.

I strongly believe that this is how this head unit is meant to be used. It is pointless to have a computer and use it as a simple head unit! The rest of my review will therefore address the unit after the above steps have been performed.

Most apps on Google Play and other markets install and run just fine. One notable exception is Google Maps (the current Google Play version does not run on Android 2.3), but I side-loaded an older version which works fine. I am by now happy as a pig in a pig stye running various apps including Google Maps and Osmand (navigation), the stock player, Poweramp, Subsonic, and Tunein Radio (music), Torque (real-time and diagnostic vehicle data), Acar (maintenance management and assorted vehicle information), Oi Notepad (jotting down quick notes by keyboard or verbally), as well as assorted tools including Calculator, Unit converter, and my favourite launcher (ssFlicker). I have yet to try alternate launchers and live papers (the latter requires yet another side-load), but both are possible.

In all this is a full blown Android device and is very good at it. Given its location (in a vehicle) it is somehow awkward to connect to it via ADB but an SSH server will serve such a purpose equally well.

The unit is somehow slow but is very robust and perfectly usable. The two biggest downsides are the limited amount of RAM (only 512 MB) and the dated operating system (Android 2.3), though so far most apps are quite happy with both.

I already mentioned that iGO comes bundled with the unit. It is not the greatest navigation app, but it adds some value to the package. Except that said added value disappears as soon as one runs out of space on the included, tiny 8 GB SD card. Indeed, iGO is linked to the supplied SD card, and becomes unusable once this card is replaced. Oh well, is is not that much of a loss for me, as I am happier with 64 GB worth of SD card than the iGO app.

I would love to have a unit with 1 GB of RAM or more and running Android 4.*. Problem is, such a unit does not exist! This is so far the only purely Android head unit. I highly recommend such an awesome device; a class of its own indeed.

Good service

Good product. Sonicelectronix's was the best price. Recommended, but make sure you get the product for your region, or SD card and the navi maps will not work.