Ok, here are my initial thoughts after using this for a day.
I absolutely love this device. It’s small, compact and unobtrusive. USB cable could be a bit longer if you needed to tuck it away but I’ll enclose a pic of where mine sits and you’ll see it doesn’t take up much space.
The initial connection to my 2018 Volkswagen Tiguan took several tries before it actually connected because of a few steps that need to happen flawlessly in order to establish a connection. FIRST, it has to connect to Bluetooth, after you establish that connection, SECOND, it has to connect to WiFi on your phone. Once this happens CarPlay2Air adds a 2nd car to your CarPlay settings on your iPhone (in the pic below you’ll see VOLKSW-C236 which is the CarPlay2Air device). This is important to know because the settings from your iPhone’s settings won’t transfer over to this connection. You’ll have to go back into CarPlay settings and select the new vehicle then you can arrange (customize) the icons on your CarPlay screen.
After this initial connection CarPlay2Air connects automatically and flawlessly as long as your iPhone is in the car and then the car is started. I didn’t test what would happen if my car was running and then getting in with my iPhone and how it would connect while initiating a manual connection. I’ll leave that later on down the road.
When you start your car you have to wait for CarPlay2Air to connect t your iPhone. This connection is automatic and takes about 15-20 seconds which isn’t all that bad. I’ll try to include a video that shows how this connection works. **don’t mind the popping sound, I took the video with my iPhone SE which I was using to connect to CarPlay with a wired connection and then connect to my 11 Pro via hotspot so not sure why the video has that popping noise**
The UI is fluid and behaves just like a wired CarPlay connection would. The only issue I’ve encountered is that Apple Maps lagged a bit on some side streets so it delayed when I made a turn and then it would catch up. It only happened once so not that big of a deal. I didn’t use Google Maps so I can’t speak about its behavior compared to Apple Maps.
Here are the apps I use regularly so they’re the only ones I used over the last 24 hours, with the exception of Apple Maps lagging a bit I didn’t encounter any issues with the other apps I used.
- phone
- messages
- Apple Maps
- Pandora
- iHeartRadio
- WhatsApp
So the cons:
- Apple Maps lag (I’ve driven on this street many times with my wired CarPlay connection and never noticed that lag so not sure if it’s attributed to CarPlay2Air or my VZW hit a dead spot)
- price tag of $169.00 with expedited shipping. It’s a big cost to switch to wireless but it’s way cheaper than swapping out your head unit for a wireless CarPlay enabled one.
- CarPlay2Air ships from Hong Kong so if you decide to buy do yourself a favor and pay the $10 for expedited shipping it’ll track your package via DHL which is way easier and less stress than dealing with CarPlay2Air customer service because it takes them a full day to answer emails and they don’t address you like a human, just generic responses
Well that’s all I have to share for now. Feel free to ask any questions and I’ll answer the best I can. Thanks for joining me.
**Guess I can’t add a video but will include screenshots of funky connection screen**
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