Alpine iLX-W650 7" Mech-Less Receiver with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto

I bought this for my wife's car, as she needed something with Apple CarPlay. She just started driving recently, and needed to have the navigation built in and easy to use. Installation was easy, as I did the radio install myself (most of it, I didn't hook up the reverse or parking brake wires myself). It only took me about 30 minutes, once I had the wiring harness all done. A little quirky, as the music will stop (Apple Music) when you go in to reverse, and the backup camera turns on. Other than that, the radio works well. Good visibility during the day and night, Touchscreen is very responsive, so there is no need to push hard on it.

This is sad for me because I am a staunch ALPINE fan! This deck was an utter dissappointment. The search engine for usb is horrible. Android autotalk works alright. Deck constantly freezes. Volume level goes up and down randomnly whether using usb or comnected phone. Should have it's own ALPINE media player rather than relying on a 3rd party one on your phone. I had to shut mine of and restart it many times while on the road. Alpine sinply told me if I wanted a better deck to upgrade to the next model which os more than twice the price!!! In all fairness, I know people, 2 to be exact, who havent had these issues and like this deck.

This is a good head unit, but it's not a great head unit. It used to be that Pioneer, Sony and Kenwood chased Alpine in terms of features, functionality and the like. I'm running Pioneer head units in 5 of my rides, and decided to give this a try and see how it stacked up, since the price was appealing and it was going in a weekend car. The interface is easy enough to use, but it's a bit slow. The music search function when using USB is slow as well compared to my Pioneer head units. I'm giving it 3 stars because of it's AA capabilities and the price, but were it in my commuter car or a car I drive more frequently, it'd be a 2.