I've had extensive experience with several Android head units. This one has been the best "out of the box" experience so far.InstallationInstallation in my 2022 JT was very straightforward. All necessary harnesses to retain factory USB ports (dash and console) were included. The retention harness for the factory backup camera worked. The most challenging part of the installation was getting the canbus box, camera retention adapter and all wiring crammed behind the dash. There’s very little room back there on the JL/JT. I stuck the 4G and GPS antenna on top of the head unit itself. This works fine and GPS signal is excellent. I opted not to run the external microphone. The internal mic seems to be of decent enough quality. I’ve been told it sounds similar to the factory UConnect mic.
Sound Quality – I have the base non-Alpine system in my JT. Sound quality seems a bit better with the Dasaita head unit, but it’s hard for me to judge here due to the limitations of the factory speakers.
Usability
Boot Time – Cold boot up time is just over 30 seconds (see video). After the initial boot up the unit sleeps and only fully powers off if it detects the car battery is low. This cuts down the boot up time to just a second or two. This behavior is customizable. You can set it to shut off immediately, after 1 hour, etc.
Launcher/interface – The default interface is okay. The home screen has widgets for Navigation, Music and Radio. If you change the default navigation app the Navi widget takes you to the correct app. The other two (Music/Radio) don’t appear to be customizable. I also don’t think you can remove them from the home screen although I haven’t dug into the settings. Swiping left from the home screen takes you through a list of installed Android apps. The unit comes bundled with some common ones – Netflix, Hulu, Google Maps and more. The latest versions of these apps from the Play Store work fine on this device. GaiaGPS also works. I will probably swap over to Dasaita’s Vivid launcher when it’s available for the G12 or possibly an alternative like Agama or Car Launcher Pro.
Vehicle integration – Vehicle settings (at least those that apply to my truck) previously in Uconnect are available in the Car Settings app. There’s a popup with climate information that appears briefly as you use the physical buttons in the stock HVAC controls (see photo). There’s also an “AC” app that will control HVAC, heated steering wheel and heated seats (if equipped). It does have buttons for features your truck may not have. That’s not a big deal to me, but some users may find that annoying. The stock volume and tune knobs in the factory HVAC controls still work. I understand why Dasaita included knobs on the unit. Those replacing the 5” Uconnect radio would not have physical volume/tune knobs available otherwise. The rest of us just end up with two sets of knobs that do the same thing. I do not know if the vehicle integration supports setting options for the factory AUX switches since my truck does not have those. I did not see anything related to them in the options.
Android Auto – This works fine. It seems to connect almost immediately 90% of the time. On occasion I’ve noticed it can take ~30 seconds or so to connect wirelessly.
Apple Carplay – Not tested.
4G LTE Connectivity – Works great with a T-Mobile sim. 4G speeds aren’t great in my area. It works about as well as anything.Bluetooth devices – Phone works, obviously. I have not yet tried any other Bluetooth accessories. I expect the Bluetooth is locked down to only work with a few OBD readers and such. Most of these Android head units don't offer full Bluetooth functionality for accessories. If I'm wrong about this one, I'll provide an update here.Issues- After first installing the unit the backup camera worked, but the image would “glitch” every 10-15 seconds. That issue seems to have fixed itself. Why? I don’t know. I will continue to monitor and update the review if it’s a problem again.- Home screen widget would not display the date when the date format was set to MM/DD/YYYY. Corrected that with a firmware update from Dasaita.
Annoyances- Every other Android head unit I’ve owned has had a reboot/restart option in the pull-down menu. This one does not. In the event it does misbehave there’s no easy way to force a reboot other than accessing the factory settings and clicking “apply” to prompt a reboot. That should be easily corrected with a software update.These are very minor complaints considering the power and flexibility an Android head unit gives you.
Overall, I feel like Dasaita has a winner with the G12.
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