Afternoon All,
Just thought as I couldn't find much on these cheaper Chinese models I would do a quick review so people would know what they are getting...
Here is the unit I got which is now cheaper than when I got it.. Showing as £99 plus £25 postage
eBay Link
Now the postage took around 2 weeks but was well packaged and had the unlock code written on the top, with came a USB cable which ended in a female connector so you could add any other usb cable into it and an AUX cable both which fitted the back of the RCD510.
This is the standard unit I took out and apart from the extra power cable I needed to cable into the quadlock this was pretty much plug and play...
This is the unit installed after a nice morning of working out how to do simple things like re-wiring a quadlock...
When turning on the unit I still seem to have the VW splash screen but it only shows for about 2-3 seconds so it doesn't bother me at all, once on the device normally starts up with the radio unless you already have an iPod or something music plugged in, the radio functions works fine but the interface is somewhat non helpful and useless as it will not show names of stations etc this is a pic of mine with some stations in... wish I knew what they were haha
The scan function works fine and finds stations ok, even though I hardly ever use the radio this would annoy me quite abit if the better half did and she complained all the time lol
Now if you click thee old Media button you get this fine screen which is currently on AUX this is pretty basic setup again but it works well from what I can see... Aux is pretty standard as I still have use of the console mounted port near my handbrake after a little wire moving in the quad lock
If I then plug my iPhone 3GS (oh yes I'm living the dream) you get a nice please wait pop up like so...
This lasts about 3 seconds and then loads the iphone tab up automatically, this I find quite handy... what isn't handy is that it will start playing the first track on your iPhone in alphabetical order so in my case for some reason I have Abba... now I'm hoping that people are just looking at the pictures and not reading so I shoudl be safe! but a better song looks like this...
Now as this is the function I bought it for I am not disappointed for the price I paid... all steering wheel controls work including skipping a track etc although one flaw I have found is that when you reach the end of a playlist it starts from the first track alphabetically again so I get Abba alot! (Mental note must change first song) so instead of playing the playlist again it goes off and does it's own thing... Please tell me I'm doing it wrong and I will love you forever! Also another point is that I cannot select the playlists from the unit it's just songs from what I can see so if you just use playlists then make sure they are long enough for the journey...
Now the setup etc... Now I will say this unit has no difference in sound quality than my old standard unit and this should be noted before buying if you need extra sound quality... the button in the top left of the unit gives you a menu about sound etc like so...
I will only dive into the equalizer as the other stuff is pretty obvious, so I click Treble - Mid - Bass and boom here is a very boring equalizer lol
Now after playing around with this quite abit I have decided it is alot more efficent to change the sound of the music on the iPhone as this option doesn't really seem to do much apart from making it really tinny or too bassy... but I suppose with people that have the time to sort it out it could work well as it has quite a lot of notches on each line to fine tune...
Now if we click the top left button again it takes us back to the iPhone section, if I then click Setup we get all these lovely options for the world to see, now being a better unit I was expecting more options not sure what but hey lol
I won't be going into each section as I have a rumbling stomach at this comes first... Here is a screen shot of all the options you get anyway most of them are easy peasy to get...
Now two last things left to look at and that is the CD Player and SD Card Slot... I can explain the CD Player in one word... basic lol basic but does the job I suppose yet another thing I don't really use I'm guessing it does what you'd need it to...
6 CD's for all your needs, be it Slayer or that Jerking women Cirus the Virus or something...
Then the SD card is something I want to try but I don't have a SD card to try it with lol and probably won't have for a while which is mildly annoying!
Anyway that's a short review of the Chinese Version of the RCD510 with USB Support...
My summary is that the unit is well made but the interface is lacking and boring to look at... the USB support is good and what I was after! Easy install on my MK2 Pre-FL Leon FR.
I would give it a 6 out of 10 but the 6 is the bits that I wanted so it was well worth it for me! now it's even cheaper be silly not to give it a try I think...
Chow for now!
Simon
Just thought as I couldn't find much on these cheaper Chinese models I would do a quick review so people would know what they are getting...
Here is the unit I got which is now cheaper than when I got it.. Showing as £99 plus £25 postage
eBay Link
Now the postage took around 2 weeks but was well packaged and had the unlock code written on the top, with came a USB cable which ended in a female connector so you could add any other usb cable into it and an AUX cable both which fitted the back of the RCD510.
This is the standard unit I took out and apart from the extra power cable I needed to cable into the quadlock this was pretty much plug and play...
This is the unit installed after a nice morning of working out how to do simple things like re-wiring a quadlock...
When turning on the unit I still seem to have the VW splash screen but it only shows for about 2-3 seconds so it doesn't bother me at all, once on the device normally starts up with the radio unless you already have an iPod or something music plugged in, the radio functions works fine but the interface is somewhat non helpful and useless as it will not show names of stations etc this is a pic of mine with some stations in... wish I knew what they were haha
The scan function works fine and finds stations ok, even though I hardly ever use the radio this would annoy me quite abit if the better half did and she complained all the time lol
Now if you click thee old Media button you get this fine screen which is currently on AUX this is pretty basic setup again but it works well from what I can see... Aux is pretty standard as I still have use of the console mounted port near my handbrake after a little wire moving in the quad lock
If I then plug my iPhone 3GS (oh yes I'm living the dream) you get a nice please wait pop up like so...
This lasts about 3 seconds and then loads the iphone tab up automatically, this I find quite handy... what isn't handy is that it will start playing the first track on your iPhone in alphabetical order so in my case for some reason I have Abba... now I'm hoping that people are just looking at the pictures and not reading so I shoudl be safe! but a better song looks like this...
Now as this is the function I bought it for I am not disappointed for the price I paid... all steering wheel controls work including skipping a track etc although one flaw I have found is that when you reach the end of a playlist it starts from the first track alphabetically again so I get Abba alot! (Mental note must change first song) so instead of playing the playlist again it goes off and does it's own thing... Please tell me I'm doing it wrong and I will love you forever! Also another point is that I cannot select the playlists from the unit it's just songs from what I can see so if you just use playlists then make sure they are long enough for the journey...
Now the setup etc... Now I will say this unit has no difference in sound quality than my old standard unit and this should be noted before buying if you need extra sound quality... the button in the top left of the unit gives you a menu about sound etc like so...
I will only dive into the equalizer as the other stuff is pretty obvious, so I click Treble - Mid - Bass and boom here is a very boring equalizer lol
Now after playing around with this quite abit I have decided it is alot more efficent to change the sound of the music on the iPhone as this option doesn't really seem to do much apart from making it really tinny or too bassy... but I suppose with people that have the time to sort it out it could work well as it has quite a lot of notches on each line to fine tune...
Now if we click the top left button again it takes us back to the iPhone section, if I then click Setup we get all these lovely options for the world to see, now being a better unit I was expecting more options not sure what but hey lol
I won't be going into each section as I have a rumbling stomach at this comes first... Here is a screen shot of all the options you get anyway most of them are easy peasy to get...
Now two last things left to look at and that is the CD Player and SD Card Slot... I can explain the CD Player in one word... basic lol basic but does the job I suppose yet another thing I don't really use I'm guessing it does what you'd need it to...
6 CD's for all your needs, be it Slayer or that Jerking women Cirus the Virus or something...
Then the SD card is something I want to try but I don't have a SD card to try it with lol and probably won't have for a while which is mildly annoying!
Anyway that's a short review of the Chinese Version of the RCD510 with USB Support...
My summary is that the unit is well made but the interface is lacking and boring to look at... the USB support is good and what I was after! Easy install on my MK2 Pre-FL Leon FR.
I would give it a 6 out of 10 but the 6 is the bits that I wanted so it was well worth it for me! now it's even cheaper be silly not to give it a try I think...
Chow for now!
Simon
