I installed the Joying 8.8" Android head unit with Android 8.0, Oreo, 8-core CPU, 4GB RAM and 32GB of storage and it worked out perfectly. It doesn't block the air vents or the control buttons panel. I just adjusted the monitor mounts one peg down. I bought a sheet of Alfa Romeo stickers on eBay to cover the Joying logo and that actually turned out okay (see the pics).
There was a 10.25" wide monitor also available, but even though I wanted the biggest screen possible, the 8.8" one was more aesthetically pleasing in the 4C. I think if you wanted to later, you could get the larger screen and just pop it on. One more thing, I heard horror stories of buying directly from their site and having to return the unit so I ordered mine for a little more on Amazon to get some buyer protection.
SOUND
The sound quality is excellent and as good as with the Alpine head unit and its 9 band parametric EQ. The problem is the only way to control the volume is by a taskbar that is only sometimes at the top of the screen so it's at least a three tap/click affair. The mono RCA subwoofer has no settings at all and seems to be a preamp out connect to the front RCA output as tested with the fader. The scale on the volume goes to 32 but it's way loud already at 11 so I think the amplifier's gain settings need to be lowered, but I have no way to get to them. I still get clear vocals, crisp highs and full, deep bass (Focal amplified sub under passenger footwell).
FEATURES
It comes with an app called ZLink which provides full Apple Carplay and Android Auto. I can confirm that Carplay works exactly like on my Hyundai with no issues. Phone calls seem to work great as confirmed with friends, but using Carplay, two people said they heard echoes of their own voices with a 1 second delay. Bluetooth calls were fine, but I've yet to test this on the freeway, however, the Alpine worked great there so I think it'll be good.
This is basically an Android tablet so you can install anything on it so I got Poweramp for music, VLC for video, Crunchyroll for anime (Yah I'm a weeb), Waze, etc. but all of these need WiFi which the head unit has. It also comes with the Torque app for vehicle monitoring and fault codes and I bought a $10 OBDII bluetooth thingy. You can also install a DVR using the secondary USB port. I still want to do the reverse camera but I'm lazy so I'll save that for later. The radio app works well and I was able to pull in all the stations I wanted. I shoved the GPS antenna in the passenger side of the dash squeezed between it and the windshield with velcro wrapped around it.
You can have a 3D wallpaper like an aquarium, koi pond, and falling leaves. Here's a showing the looping video I made as the background using the Video Live Wallpaper app. I used a bit from the Grand Tour's Alfa Romeo 4C segment. I love how this turned out and with the right songs it looks even better. Also, you can choose the car manufacturer logo from a list and of course I picked the Alfa Romeo boot logo.
DOWNSIDES:
Since everything is application based, you get weird scratching sounds sometimes and music cutting out briefly. Apps sometimes fight over who owns the sound and sometimes after waking from sleep, the WiFi doesn't work and there might not be sound. One time the rear channel (which on mine is connected to the 6.5" door woofers in a bi-amp setup) just stopped working. All of these issues can be fixed with a soft reboot which takes about 30 seconds from what I recall. You can set the unit to sleep for two days which means it wakes up in 2 seconds. I'm going to pay attention if this causes any extra battery drain, but I drive it often so it should be an problem. The on-screen volume control is kind of an issue, but if it bugs me in the future, I will install an Audison bit Ten D with the digital remote control dial as I feel the volume should always be a dial.
Since the monitor is super wide, you only have two rows of icons as the bottom row is fixed like on an iPhone. For things like Google Maps or Poweramp fiddly to use as you have a very thin window of usable space. Lastly, the USB port doesn't recognize drives formatted in exFAT, but can see NTFS or FAT32.
Sorry for the long post but I'm really excited how well this turned out and love that it almost looks factory. This does almost everything I want as far as in-car-entertainment goes and to have it in my dream car makes it even more awesome. If you guys have any questions or want me to test anything, let me know.
There was a 10.25" wide monitor also available, but even though I wanted the biggest screen possible, the 8.8" one was more aesthetically pleasing in the 4C. I think if you wanted to later, you could get the larger screen and just pop it on. One more thing, I heard horror stories of buying directly from their site and having to return the unit so I ordered mine for a little more on Amazon to get some buyer protection.
SOUND
The sound quality is excellent and as good as with the Alpine head unit and its 9 band parametric EQ. The problem is the only way to control the volume is by a taskbar that is only sometimes at the top of the screen so it's at least a three tap/click affair. The mono RCA subwoofer has no settings at all and seems to be a preamp out connect to the front RCA output as tested with the fader. The scale on the volume goes to 32 but it's way loud already at 11 so I think the amplifier's gain settings need to be lowered, but I have no way to get to them. I still get clear vocals, crisp highs and full, deep bass (Focal amplified sub under passenger footwell).
FEATURES
It comes with an app called ZLink which provides full Apple Carplay and Android Auto. I can confirm that Carplay works exactly like on my Hyundai with no issues. Phone calls seem to work great as confirmed with friends, but using Carplay, two people said they heard echoes of their own voices with a 1 second delay. Bluetooth calls were fine, but I've yet to test this on the freeway, however, the Alpine worked great there so I think it'll be good.
This is basically an Android tablet so you can install anything on it so I got Poweramp for music, VLC for video, Crunchyroll for anime (Yah I'm a weeb), Waze, etc. but all of these need WiFi which the head unit has. It also comes with the Torque app for vehicle monitoring and fault codes and I bought a $10 OBDII bluetooth thingy. You can also install a DVR using the secondary USB port. I still want to do the reverse camera but I'm lazy so I'll save that for later. The radio app works well and I was able to pull in all the stations I wanted. I shoved the GPS antenna in the passenger side of the dash squeezed between it and the windshield with velcro wrapped around it.
You can have a 3D wallpaper like an aquarium, koi pond, and falling leaves. Here's a showing the looping video I made as the background using the Video Live Wallpaper app. I used a bit from the Grand Tour's Alfa Romeo 4C segment. I love how this turned out and with the right songs it looks even better. Also, you can choose the car manufacturer logo from a list and of course I picked the Alfa Romeo boot logo.
DOWNSIDES:
Since everything is application based, you get weird scratching sounds sometimes and music cutting out briefly. Apps sometimes fight over who owns the sound and sometimes after waking from sleep, the WiFi doesn't work and there might not be sound. One time the rear channel (which on mine is connected to the 6.5" door woofers in a bi-amp setup) just stopped working. All of these issues can be fixed with a soft reboot which takes about 30 seconds from what I recall. You can set the unit to sleep for two days which means it wakes up in 2 seconds. I'm going to pay attention if this causes any extra battery drain, but I drive it often so it should be an problem. The on-screen volume control is kind of an issue, but if it bugs me in the future, I will install an Audison bit Ten D with the digital remote control dial as I feel the volume should always be a dial.
Since the monitor is super wide, you only have two rows of icons as the bottom row is fixed like on an iPhone. For things like Google Maps or Poweramp fiddly to use as you have a very thin window of usable space. Lastly, the USB port doesn't recognize drives formatted in exFAT, but can see NTFS or FAT32.
Sorry for the long post but I'm really excited how well this turned out and love that it almost looks factory. This does almost everything I want as far as in-car-entertainment goes and to have it in my dream car makes it even more awesome. If you guys have any questions or want me to test anything, let me know.