Pioneer AppRadio 4 SPH-DA120 6.2-Inch Capacitive Touchscreen Smartphone Receiver Display

A lot has been said about the SPH-DA120 so I will keep this brief. This is a good Apple CarPlay unit for the price. It's not perfect, but it's really good. I don't like having to plug my phone into it every time I want to use it, but fortunately the bluetooth audio works great and displays the song and other info on the screen. So for short trips I just use bluetooth on my phone. For longer trips, the GPS map feature works great.The messages feature works fine for me, although I prefer not to send messages when I'm driving. It's nice to hear "Siri" read the messages to you and then give a quick response without ever touching your phone.The touch screen is fine. I do miss having "real" buttons. At first you will be looking at the unit to do things like adjust the volume up and down. I absolutely hate not having a dedicated mute button. (There's a goofy workaround where you can push volume down and then a soft "mute" from Pioneer's interface appears at the bottom left of the screen for a few seconds, super distracting while driving and easier to just hold your finger on volume down until it's quiet) I think that was a huge oversight. There are features you will never use, and Pioneer is always trying to get you to use their terrible interface, but for the price you can't really complain. New CarPlay units come out every month, and I still don't see one that's better at this price point. The 6" screen is fine. The brightness is fine for me. The backup camera works great and was easy to install (Camera sold separately but it's like $20).This unit has no CD/DVD player and that's just fine with me. I think it's crazy that so many units include that dated technology in 2016 and beyond. There are 2 USB ports. CarPlay only works on the first one. You can hook an old iPod or plain USB drive to the second port for more music. It's pretty cool. The radio works well, I like the Equalizer and crossover, very visual and easy to understand. I am using the built in amps for my main speakers, and I use the RCA subwoofer out for a simple 10" sub and it sounds great. You can get a cheap Boss amp on Amazon for under $100 if you want cheap bass. Use the crossovers to take all the bass below 100hz or so away from the primary speakers and put 120hz and below to the sub and even your stock speakers will work ok unless your car has absolutely terrible speakers. I am using this in an old 2002 Subaru WRX with stock speakers and it sounds decent.Overall, it's a good radio for the price. Could it and should it be better? Yes. I think Pioneer is a big enough company that they can do a better job with their interfaces but for some reason I still think they make a great car stereo. I can't really recommend a better stereo for CarPlay which is this unit's main selling point, but keep an eye on JVC, Alpine and Kenwood because they are all trying to get into the affordable CarPlay game. Not sure what's taking so long.

I purchased this unit so that I could be productive on the road without constantly holding a phone up to my face like an idiot. It does this task perfectly and sounds fantastic.Pros:+ CarPlay integration is great. I can easily put on some music, set a destination on my map and reply to texts without touching my phone. Usually with my voice. Little features make it the best integration out there. For example: when I open maps and touch "Destinations", the first few are the locations that are in my calendar for that day. This is great because I have appointments all over the place and a little leg work in iCal means zero in the car.+ The bluetooth/CarPlay mic sounds really, really good. If you place it correctly (Near the front dome light or visor and facing you) it sounds like you are holding the phone to your ear, according to at least 4 different people I have called.+ The audio options are superb: Digital crossover with rolloff control up to -18 dB/octave, seat-specific and automatically measured time-alignment (with Pioneer CD-MC20 Auto-EQ Microphone), individual speaker level output (in addition to fade and balance), listening position... There is too much to list here.+ Auto EQ: This deserves it's own mention: I set the EQ how I thought it should sound and it was good. However, when I bought the aforementioned CD-MC20 mic and took an audio measurement at the two front head-rests, the Auto EQ made it sound GREAT. Time alignment is the key here and if you don't know how to set it yourself, get this mic and let the head-unit do the work. You won't regret it.+ Bluetooth functionality is flawless: It connects all the time and if my phone isn't near the car (like when you remote start) a message pops up on the screen asking if you want to connect again. Aftermarket radios get this wrong all the time but Pioneer did it just right. The only radio I have used that connects faster or more reliably is in the new 2015 Fords.+ Built-in GPS antenna assists your phone: This is really nice because the positioning of the GPS antenna on your roof is probably way better than that tiny one in your phone, which is probably in the glove compartment or center console. I was able to buy an adaptor and use the one already in my 'shark fin' antenna.+ The SCREEN! Although the edge lighting is visible at higher settings, the screen is simply gorgeous and has capacitive touch to boot. Using it feels like using an iPad Mini in your dash. Really nice job, here, Pioneer.+ The overall look: This radio looks stock (seriously) in any premium vehicle. You can change the button color to match your dash lighting EXACTLY so that it doesn't look out-of-place. The chrome trim especially doesn't look overdone and is just classy. Really sleek.CONS- CarPlay: CarPlay still lacks features in IOS 8. I hear this will be fixed with firmware but not having WAZE availability in an app radio is borderline inexcusable. Also, the resolution is scaled when using CarPlay so the screen isn't as sharp. (Touching the MODE button switches between the Pioneer view and the CarPlay view though.)- No wireless CarPlay yet: I think this will change with Firmware, but you have to plug-in your iPhone to use CarPlay. At least it keeps my phone charged. When I'm not using maps or texting via voice, I just use the bluetooth for audio and phone.Overall I am very pleased with this radio and get all kinds of compliments about it. (See photos)Here is the setup:Amp: Alpine PDX-5Speakers: Alpine Type-R SPR-60C in front and rearSubwoofer: 10" JL W7 in sealed box

Très très bon autoradioA la base j’etait partant pour le Sony mais au vues des commentairesJ’ai choisi PioneerAu final j’adoreInstallé dans une Mercedes classe ACar play fonctionne très bien, adieux la radio avec des débilités à longueurs de temps, bonjour deezer et mes playlist :)L’autoradio dispose de 2 sorties usb et 1 HDMIL’écran en verre et le tactile réagis très bienSystème très fluideLa personnalisation des couleurs d’illumination ainsi que du fond d’ecran Donne un plusN’ouvliez Pas d’acheter un adaptateur en fonction des véhiculesIl n’est pas fournis

Great unit! Apple CarPlay works excellent. It is very sleek and smooth looking in the car and the user interface is very easy to use. Would definitely recommend.

Me lo han instalado en el concesionario y he quedado muy contento , trae todo lo necesario para instalar. Se empareja súper rápido con el iPhone y puedes usar car play y Siri eres free. Lo volvería a comprar . Excelente calidad de sonido también por Bluetooth, para el iPhone no necesita cable para escuchar la música por Bluetooth, si para car play. También le instale una cámara trasera y va perfecto , muy contento

This is such an amazing unit, and having had it for 2 months I can't fault it one bit. It went into a Golf like it was from factory.One thing I wanted to know when I was researching on what unit to buy is if I could use Waze on the phone, while playing music (I didn't want to be stuck using Apple Maps when using iTunes) I can confirm you can and it all works well (Waze is not on the unit yet and as its Google owned probably never will).Last thing it also made the speakers sound so much better.10/10

Ich hab mir das Pioneer SPH-DA120 gekauft um damit endlich ein CarPlay kompatibles Gerät in mein Auto nachzurüsten.Die Installation in meinen Golf 6 war halbwegs einfach (sofern man Canbus Adapter und passenden Einbaurahmen hat, nur das USB, Mikrofon und GPS Kabel verlegen war etwas zeitaufwändig) und das Radio hat gleich gut funktioniert.+ CarPlay funktioniert gut und mit dem Mikrofon an der Sonnenblende versteht mich Siri auch auf der Autobahn+ Radio Empfang soweit ganz gut (habe Antennenverstärker eingebaut, da bei VW die Antennen Strom brauchen)+ Radio zeigt nicht nur Sender sondern auch aktuellen Titel an sofern der Sender das unterstützt.+ Bluetooth Verbindung zum Telefon funktioniert perfekt für Telefonieren und Musikhören (ohne CarPlay).Es gibt allerdings 2-3 Kleinigkeiten die mich am Gerät stören, auch wenn eine davon wahrscheinlich von Apple ausgeht.Da ich das Telefon nur auf "Langstecken" über 10 Minuten via USB an das Radio anschließe, hab ich es zusätzlich via Bluetooth gekoppelt um zumindest auf Anrufe reagieren zu können, das führt jedoch zu Problemen:CarPlay funktioniert nur dann korrekt, wenn das Telefon nicht zusätzlich mit Bluetooth mit dem Radio verbunden ist.Ich hatte am Anfang das Problem, dass zwar Musik und Navigation brav über das Radio abgespielt wurde, jedoch Siri nur am Telefon selbst zu hören war, Hey Siri nicht funktioniert hat und damit das ganze CarPlay sehr umständlich war. Wenn man am Telefon Bluetooth deaktiviert, dann funktioniert es aber perfekt. Ich nehme an das das ein Apple Problem ist, stört aber trotzdem.Wenn man kein Telefon via CarPlay verbindet, ein Telefon irgendwann mal via Bluetooth gekoppelt hatte, jedoch nicht im Auto mitführt oder BT (siehe oben) deaktiviert hat, kommt immer die Meldung das die Kopplung via Bluetooth fehlgeschlagen ist. Man muss diese Meldung am Display wegklicken. Das ist allerdings etwas störend. Ich sehe eh am Bluetooth Symbol rechts unten im Display, ob ein Gerät gekoppelt ist oder nicht. Das könnte mit einem Softwareupdate gefixt werden.Das Gerät wurde mit Firmware 1.08 ausgeliefert. Es gibt für den US Markt schon 1.11 das vor allem die Performance steigern soll. Leider ist dieses Update scheinbar für den EU Raum nicht geplant. Ich hoffe jedoch das das noch nachgeliefert wird.Nichtsdestotrotz. Tolles Nachrüstset für Apple CarPlay kompatible Geräte.