Product Review: New Pioneer App-Radio SPH-DA01
 

I wanted to save some of you that are expecting this radio to be something its not.

Amazon Link

First off: This radio is marketed towards people trying to upgrade their stock stereo to be more modern easy to use aftermarket stereo. It is in no way for someone with multiple amps who likes to play with audio settings.

I personally love the radio. I love the price. I love all the features. I am not a very picky person when it comes to things like this. I'd much rather have a clean looking deck that has all the features I like to use.

Could they have done much better with it? Yes

Pros:
-Easy to use
-Fun interface (most apps)
-Sleek look
-Innovative idea
-Software updatable
-Lots of features for the price
-$0.99 GPS app works amazing turn by turn and everything.
-Pandora has all the features it does on the phone (bookmark, like, dislike etc)
-Watch netflix or youtube

Cons:
-No HPF or LPF (only has subwoofer level, no freq adjustments)
-Only 1 preamp output
-Slow startup (about 30seconds and have to push ok everytime you turn on the car)
-No visual adjustments (gray or dark blue wallpaper)
-Cord is tremendously bulky (very poor design on Pioneers part)
-Sometimes have trouble getting the radio to recognize phone is connected
-Still have to use the phone all the time (to switch from Pandora to GPS etc.)
-Only some apps have finger slide scrolling and pinch and spread zoom, the rest use scroll bar with up and down button or zoom in zoom out button. last update fixed this for Maps app.
-Phone book is just ridicoulus to try to get to the bottom of the list
-Parking brake override relay doesn't work, has 2 be grounded twice before you can watch Youtube (just use a switch)
-Can't control Netflix or Youtube from the radio still have to be done on the phone.

With that being said if you feel any of those cons make it not worth the $379 then don't buy it. But I feel you can't get a Double Din with this amount of features for anywhere near this price.

If you have any questions I will do my best to answer them. I have had the radio for about 3 weeks now so I am quite familiar with it.

Update so after 2 months of using so far my problems I have had are:

1) The time has somehow changed itself 2 seperate occasions to 3 hours later then it is supposed to be. Only way to fix it is to hit the reset button.

2) The overly bulky cord has started to cut out on the passenger side speaker if I move my phone around too much.

I have a feeling I will be using my 2 year bestbuy warranty alot more then I should have to.

Update 2/17

I haven't had any other issues. There was a firmware update that fixed a few bugs. All and all I am very happy with my purchase and look forward to more updates.

Update 4/26

iPhone cord broke again. Best buy let me upgrade to the App-radio 2 SPH-DA100 and just pay the difference. My review can be found Here

pics of it installed?

I haven't been following up with developments in ICE for awhile but that's pretty darn neat stuff. I like how they were able to create it with low cost in mind as well, but it kinda sucks if you aren't an iPhone user.

This dbl din unit was one of the two choices i had and i decided to go with the other option which is the pioneer avh p3300bt because it has an amazing built in equalizer and everything that the app unit has with the fact that it can be connected to any other mp3 player/phone unlike the app unit which is limited to the newer iphone 4s and the later updated version of ipods. car toys actually has the app unit for 300 and you can find the p3300bt online for around 335 free shipping from vminnovations i think. I personally don't like to be limited to using ipods and iphones only as my primary source of data. App unit can only play video if you forget your ipod or iphone home lol.

See my thought for buying it was I only use my iphone and I use it for everything. I don't even own an ipod. I had the AVH4300 and I liked it but it is just so much going on on the screen. I like the app radio because its display is plain and basic.

If I could go back I might of kept the AVH4300 for a few more months until maybe there was an update on the app-radio. But I sold it for the same price I paid so I can't really complain.

As you can see its plain and simple. (it does stick out a little bit because I had the AVH4300 in there before and I had to adjust the bracket so it would open, I have to pull it back out and tweak it a little bit.

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...h_c7f063b2.jpg

Looks good
 

Hey I've been looking at this unit very closely for my Z and wondering if you feel is a good improvement over the stock unit. I will be adding new components up front and rears plus amp too in like a week or 2.

Thanks for the writeup, you did a pretty thorough job.

I think the fact that you have to do everything through the phone is a deal breaker for me but you can't beat the price.

I was very interested in getting this but, looks like I will be waiting till they improve it more or someone else releases something less restrictive. I already have wireless control of my pandora, net radio, mp3s, phone's navi etc. through my current JVC unit which is three years old. Bluetooth audio allows control of many audio based apps. The standard audio controls work through the JVC unit (play,stop, skip, fast forward). Showing the apps visually on the screen is the only benefit I see with appradio. I will wait till I can completely contol my phone and the audio tuning is improved.

added an update.

Where did you get that type of face plate? I just installed that same radio you have and the universal face plates i have don't seem to fit with it. Even though is sticking out like you said, it still looks pretty good.

It's the American international kit. I threw away my original one after I tried the AI one. I think I had metra or something.

New app radio review Here