[Upgrade] Westods Wireless Apple Carplay & Android Auto with 2.5K Dash Cam, 1080P Backup Camera, Portable 7" HD IPS Screen for Car, GPS Navigation, Bluetooth, AirPlay, MirrorCast, AUX/FM Transmitter

SUMMARY:The Westwods Portable Wireless CarPlay Car Stereo has been a great addition to my Cayenne on my 3,000 mile round trip vacation in Colorado. I was able to install it in my vehicle and perform a first-time connection to my iPhone with very few issues. Support through “CarStereo Support” on Facebook Messenger has been great and relatively quick considering the time zone difference. The screen looks great, is bright enough on sunny days, and dims nicely at night. The CarPlay interface works as well as any other add-on CarPlay device I’ve used. The DVR function is a nice-to-have feature for me, but hopefully I’ll never be in a situation where I need it. I would recommend this CarPlay device to anyone who wants to add a map display to their car and has a dashboard large enough to accommodate a 9.3-inch screen.DETAILS:I have a 2008 Porsche Cayenne GTS with the original PCM 2.1 sound system and an aftermarket MOST Bluetooth adapter. I wanted a screen larger than my iPhone’s for displaying maps while on the road. I have factory 9.x diagonal display that I like in my 2015 BMW, so I searched for CarPlay units in that size range. The Westwods Portable Wireless CarPlay Car Stereo (referred to as “the Unit” in this review) seemed to fit the bill so I took a chance on the 4.1 review rating and bought one.For this installation, I mounted the Unit to the large speaker/vent cover on top of the Cayenne dash with M4 screws and nuts. This location gets a small amount of airflow from the AC so hopefully that will help extend the life of the Unit. I already have a factory backup camera, so I did not use the included rear view camera. Power is routed from one of the ports under the passenger side of the dash. I used the suction cup mount temporarily to check out the Unit, but it didn’t keep the Unit very secure. I would not recommend using the suction cup mount as a long-term mounting solution.The phone setup (CarPlay in my case) and Bluetooth setup were straightforward. Sound is routed from my phone through my MOST Bluetooth adapter to the factory car stereo.I had some minor problems finding and understanding a few of the Unit’s menu settings, but the folks at CarStereo Support were able to help me solve them all. They also sent me a great looking logo file to install in my Unit.There are a couple of areas of improvement that could be incorporated into the next version of this unit:1) Add a separate wire to sense when the car is turned off so that the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are turned off, but the DVR is still powered on. It can be annoying to have your phone switch to the Unit’s Wi-Fi or Bluetooth when you are in the vicinity of the car.2) Use a 90-degree USB-C connector on the power cord. This small change would greatly tidy up the installation on the dash.3) [Sorry, a little technical here] The current IPS screen is adequate for most conditions, but many cars are now using a transflective backlight on the LCD screen for knockout sunlight readability. This type of backlight makes the screen brighter as more sunlight hits it. Plus, it saves power, resulting in a cooler, more reliable unit. I’d pay $20 more for a version of this Unit with a transflective screen.All in all, I would recommend the Westwods Portable Wireless CarPlay Car Stereo to anyone who wants to add a CarPlay or Android Auto map display to their car and has a dashboard large enough to accommodate a 9.3-inch screen.I will update this review in the future if my Unit develops any problems or fails as described in the one-star reviews.

I chose to give this five stars after some careful evaluation and also working with the customer support for the device.Overall, I rate this at 5 stars due to the following:*What they provided*- You get a fairly large screen that is pretty responsive that comes with a built in front facing dash cam- You get a reverse camera that is also pretty good quality as well.- You get both a flat mount and a suction cup mount. (I chose to use the flat mount since it fit nicely in the spot where my 2014 Ford Focus SYNC screen is located. The flat mounts sticky bottom is super grippy, so it won't move the device once docked).- The device has the ability to fold, which when I'm not using it and don't want it seen in my car, I can put it away.- Comes with a 64GB Micro SD card- You get pretty good support from these guys if you have questions/concerns.- The price for what you get is a great deal compared to similar devices.*What I needed*- I needed a backup camera for my car, but figured that a backup camera that could also do Android Auto AND have a front facing dash cam at a good price was even better.- I didn't want to remove any part of the dashboard to install something like this.- I needed the thing to be able to be mounted on my 2014 Ford Focus, specifically where the current SYNC screen is at and could be put away when not in use.So this was my journey into getting this thing and I hope this helps others:*The homework*I did a lot of research and had to return a few other devices that didn't work due to design. This particular one ended up being just right to where it could use the front dash cam despite sitting a few inches below my dashboard, yet still look like it kind of was apart of the stereo system.After more research on YouTube when it came to installing the rear camera and removing the panels from my specific car, it took me about 8 hours to do the job mostly by myself (you do need someone to shift the car into reverse and neutral to do some wire testing). If it wasn't so cold out and if I didn't need to do some emergency shopping, I believe I could have taken care of this within 4-5 hours tops.*The tools*If you want to install the rear camera, you will need your own tools. For my 2014 Ford Focus Hatchback, I had to also have or acquire:- A socket set to remove part of the hatch paneling and my licence plate (more about that later)- A drill and drill bits- Panel removing/prying tools. (Amazon has these for about $6)- A electric probe tester to test the reverse light (Amazon had these for $8)- Splicing connectors (Technically optional, but it's way better to use a connector to splice into the reverse light wire and tap into it than for you to cut into it and try to possibly solder the connection. Amazon had a set of 60 pieces for $9 even though I only needed one.)- Wire cutters/strippers with crimping- Extra 18 gauge red wire. (The wire for the backup camera was not long enough and I was short about 3 more feet. I needed to get more wire to extend what they had to make the connection, so I bought this at my local Home Depot. I told this to their support and said they needed to add more wire.)- Heat shrink tubing (to cover the two wire connections due to adding more length)- A lighter for the heat shrink tubing- Zip ties (it keeps things nice and neat!)- Fish tape or something that can help you fish wires. I ended up using some spare 12 gauge electrical wire that I used to loop the end of the backup camera wire through parts of the hatch that were bendy.- Dish soap to help with pulling the wire through those tight spaces while fishing them out.- Nylon cord protector (not required, but it help keep the backup camera wire that goes to the device and the USB power adapter wire nice and neat)*The effort*As you can tell, this was not an easy effort. The biggest pain points in this install process IMO are:- Removing and putting your panels back without causing serious damage.- Trying to identify where your camera should go, which is very tedious and you have to figure out how to tuck in your camera wire so it goes inside. I chose to drill out the corner of one of the license plate holder squares so the wire could sit in it without adding more holes than necessary. Expect to have your rear camera turned on and you look at the screen of your device as you try to figure out the best position since not everyone can put their camera in the middle of back of their car.- Figuring out the path for your wiring. Anyone who has a hatchback will find this to be a bigger issue than someone with a sedan or a truck. You need to make sure you have found an acceptable spot for your camera and that you've got enough wire to go from the camera to one of your rear lights to get access to the reverse bulb wiring. Otherwise, even if you do try to make the shortest path possible, you still might end up short still and need to buy more wire of your own.- Figuring out which reverse wire is the hot one and then splicing into it.- Finally, trying to hide as much of your wires as possible throughout your car so it looks fairly presentable. This was also a very tedious process since I used that cable cover.*The critique*The device itself works pretty well. My only real complaints are:- It seems to get hot, but I question whether that was just due to extensive use since I had gone on a very long drive of several hours. But this didn't seem to affect the performance.- The AUX connection was unusually hit or miss, but I can't tell whether this was due to the device not detecting the AUX due to the car starting up vs the device starting up. The fact that it boots up when you get in the car rather than when you start the engine could be a factor. I plan on getting a cigarette lighter adapter that has a built-in on/off switch that I'll be plugging this thing into. I'm certain that will resolve the problem and allow me to use the AUX successfully. That said, I did find that the FM radio transmitter doesn't misbehave like the AUX, so I'm currently using that instead.But all in all, I'm pretty satisfied with it and with the support that I've been given, from the warranty to help with changing the boot screen, to addressing the issues I've found, I'm happy to give this 5 stars. I've now got front and back cameras and I've finished calibrating the reverse parking lines, so I'm set!