Roger Fingas
Kenwood on Wednesday began shipping two new dash receivers, the DDX9902S and DDX9702S, expanding aftermarket support for Apple CarPlay beyond Alpine and Pioneer units for the first time.
Both units have 6.95-inch resistive touch displays, and features such as Bluetooth, HD Radio, HDMI input, SiriusXM compatibility, and DVD playback. Users can also hook up a rear-view camera, and natively control Pandora or iHeartRadio when a smartphone is connected.
The units' main feature however is the ability to switch between CarPlay and Android Auto on the fly, without a reset or even the need to change settings. Kenwood claims that its products are the only ones on the market to allow this rapid switching.
The DDX9702S costs $900, while the DDX9902S is $950. The latter is superior only in terms of upgraded audio features — preout voltage is upped from 4 to 5, and the graphic equalizer has 7 bands instead of 5. The 9902S also supports the aptX Bluetooth codec, enabling CD-quality wireless audio.
Kenwood DDX9902SCarPlay support has so far been extremely rare, limited only to a handful of receivers and the Ferrari FF. That situation is beginning to change however, mainly due to General Motors, which is rolling out numerous 2016 models with the platform built in. Apple has said that across all carmakers, 40 vehicles will get CarPlay by the end of 2015.
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54 Comments
CarPlay has been available in aftermarket support, previously by Pioneer and Alpine. I'm glad to see Kenwood join the list.
This is nice for slightly older models to replace dashboard control center and still get Carplay(and also android car play or whatever they call). I hope damm Toyota and Honda stop playing safe and be aggresive to get on board supporting carplay(and android) in their popular cars like Camry, corolla, civic, accord, CR-V,etc for their upcoming 2016 models.. More power to GM as forefront of supporting carplay.
I think it's funny to see the UI of these aftermarket head units. Like they're still designed by some nerd from the mid 90s. What is that background? Some Star Wars warp drive thing? More flashy lights and graphics don't make it better, guys..
$900? 900 U.S. dollars for that? That's - a bit steep.
I think it's funny to see the UI of these aftermarket head units. Like they're still designed by some nerd from the mid 90s. What is that background? Some Star Wars warp drive thing? More flashy lights and graphics don't make it better, guys..
I'm guessing that their primary market is kids in their teens and early twenties, hence the flashy lights, bells and whistles...