Android Headunits, Worth the Chance? // Seicane Stereo with Carplay & Android Auto Review

Don't worry - great progress is being made on the GT6, but while we wait on the next episode, I thought my WRX also deserved some love ❤️ Android based stereos are cheaper than the usual route(s), but are they worth it? Let's take a look.

Seicane asked if we'd like to check out one of their direct-fit stereos, and I have to be honest... it was too tempting! (I wanted one anyway)

Among numerous other features, it has wireless Apple Carplay and Android Auto, which at least in my opinion, is the main reason to consider it.

0:00 Sweeeet
0:20 What is Android
2:02 Design
2:59 Install
5:34 Setup
6:39 Carplay
8:21 Drawbacks
9:02 Reliability
9:51 Conclusion
10:45 Adjustability
11:11 Audio Quality
10:54 Annoying Things
12:50 Our Projects

#android #carplay #wrx #seicane #subaru #wrx #hatchback #subiegang #subieflow #jdm #wrxnation #wrxsti #turbo #androidstereo #androidauto #headunitandroid #carstereo #review

We’re just a couple of guys (not trained mechanics) who enjoy problem solving, creating new things, and showing you how we did it. We can’t promise that anything we do will work for your project, or that you, someone else, or your warranty will not be harmed or affected by doing it too. Please work responsibly and do not mess around with machinery that you are not comfortable with, even if we made it look easy!

[alexandertorres]

This is my opinion as a electrical engineer; Bough one unit like this time ago, aesthetically looks fine, you can configure wheel buttons easy (you dont need to spend 50-70 for a wheel control interface) its replaceable. Now the bad things i've experienced like internally radio has no circuit protection, you need third party apps for Android-auto or carplay, audio quality is bad compared to branded units, the most important one... You can monitor your network and see whats going on in your router, eveything I do or things that goes through that radio is going to a strange server prob somewhere in asia in other words they are stealing your data, bank accounts, network id etc. You should be careful

[FanatikBuilds]

UPDATE 2/13/23: Sold the car, radio was working like new still.
UPDATE 12/27/22: Nothing new to report!
UPDATE 9/9/22: Still going strong. It will fail to connect to CarPlay one in ten times or so, but cycling the key brings it back.

[chiranthanmr]

To anyone buying head units, please make sure, it's a minimum of 4 gb ram. Else it'll be slow AF and you'll regret

[aserta]

Word to the wise. If you have an OG player for your car (like in this case the og subaru unit) keep it in a box along with any trim). All cars have the potential to become classics. And rule no1 about classics is the closer to spec, the easier the dough flows.

[Adam-ygxk]

I've been running a Secain Android radio in my 04 Tundra for a few years and it's still working great. You can adjust the volume sensitivity in the settings, mine was the same way. The volume at 2 was too quiet and 3 was super loud.

[FanatikBuilds]

Progress on the GT6 to come, thanks for your patience!! ❤ ... P.S. Who spotted the accidental reveal of something from a future episode?

[tylerbarrett]

Always LOVE to see a new video on this channel... !!! Thanks for the upload.

[shanemcguire]

We got a seicane android for our daughters BK Mazda 3 several years back .It slotted straight in and hasn't missed a beat

[HostileMAV]

I bought a Seicane headunit for my Altima. It was nice having a huge screen and apple carplay. The unit was plug in and play. Steering wheele controls and the Bose amp all worked. I did have noise coming from the speakers though and was pretty disappointed by that. There was a slight hiss but it also was making ticking noises. At first I thought it was maybe a ground loop, but it was the unit itself. I noticed in the factory service manual that the shielding for the RCA cables going to the factory amp were not used in their harness. This is also where i noticeed they cheaped out with the harnesses. They used cheap aluminum wires. I pined the shields and grounded to the chassis of the radio. The sound quality did not change. I ended up replacing it with a Kenwood radio. I was getting a different ground loop noise, but when I pined the shield into the harness the Kenwood was silent. I think this is due to the fact the name brand radio has better separation between the analog and digital circuits. Also, I did experience a weird issue where my TPMS light would turn on for no reason. I think the android unit was interfering with the TPMS signal. When I switched to the Kenwood, issues when away.

On another note, I decided to try another brand android headunit called Joying in my brothers Subaru Outback. It was definitely more expensive but they make a better product. For one, they use copper cables, Sound qulity was excellent compared to the Seicane with no hiss or ticking noises.

[mattr]

I bought one for my 2012 f150 about 3 years ago with no issues i absolutely love it the only problem was it didn’t have wireless CarPlay but I got the dongle to make it wireless and it works awesome

[fairplayer]

Wanted to say, the white noise you hear when the phone is connected and nothing is playing is not the head units fault. Subarus are notorious for alternator wine. Their Factory units, and most higher end aftermarket head units have isolators built into them to filter it. But you can just as easily buy Standalone isolators to run in line to clean up the power wires going to the head unit. Had the same problem on a 2004 Subaru Outback.

[erickfpb]

Finally!, i was looking for a good review of it

[qwe]

I like having my music and navigation easily accessible and visible, without having to deal with any tacky car phone mounts. It also let be add a sub with minimal work. while its not as snappy as a bluetooth radio or fm-transmitter, I feel the convenience of never needing to mess with my phone outweighs that.

[PhillipMwaniki]

This is a very comprehensive review of android radio. Good stuff on this.

[burkead]

Good to see you again. Hope the Triumph build is going well.

[Jmcinally]

One of the cool think with Android head units is you can change the launcher so the display can be tweaked how you like!

[elliot]

Great video. Thank you. I ordered one for my buick that has the same "tablet" and it is reassuring to see that the android auto and car play work.

[barefootgreg]

I bought a Seicane after seeing a similar video on a different channel. Upon opening the box one of the required harness was missing, Seicane did send the needed harness but it took a while. There was almost always 48 hours between email responses and the language barrier caused our communication to regress to pictures and drawings. Once the harness arrived the installation was easy, not as easy as yours though and I was only able to get most of the steering wheel buttons to work, not all. All in all, I was mostly happy with the product, for a about six months. I did love the way it looked, better than factory. Bluetooth and carplay were both sketchy and as time moved on the connection issues seemed to worsen. Finally, the AM/FM module stopped working all together. After a couple of weeks of back and forth emails with Seicane they did send me a new module. I pulled the head unit and started taking it apart and then realized the amount of disassembly and soldering required to replace the module was more than I was will to do. So, I bought the cheapest double din with car play I could find and slapped it in the Explorer and shelved the Seicane.

[sappermemes]

Thank you! exactly the video I needed to see how this worked :D Just bought one myself, from another china brand, so wanted to see how it was put together.
Very good video!

[Drummer]

Excellent info! I have a similar unit I purchased from Junsun. Like your unit, it came with the casing and looks awesome. I struggle with the steering wheel controls. Most of them work perfectly, but 2 of them I just can't get to work. All in all, it's a huge upgrade from the stock radio.