CarlinKit Android AI Box Adapter-2025 New with Android 13.0/Netflix/YouTube/Wireless CarPlay&Android Auto/GPS/4G,Magic Streaming Box for Wired CarPlay and Touchsreen Car,8+128GB with SIM/TF Card Port

Great to not have to pull my phone out or hassle with plugging it in. I’ve had several Carlinkit products in several cars (Jeep, Toyota, Hyundai, rental cars) and they all just work. Especially thrilled with this little device since it has cellular capability and I can use that for data. Support is amazing and this device is able to be updated when needed.

Edit: I’m updating this review and removing one star. My original review is below, and is still true. I’m removing one star because a touchscreen is mandatory for full functionality, as I discovered when I recently replaced my car. My old car had wired CarPlay with a touchscreen, my new car has wired CarPlay but WITHOUT a touchscreen, and this caused problems with the onscreen keyboard. Specifically, you can move around with the knob, and push to click, BUT if you want to do anything that requires a keyboard, such as connecting to WiFi, logging into your google account, etc, then when the keyboard comes up there’s no way to move the “cursor” down to the keyboard to click any keys.Additionally, my car, when using wired CarPlay, you can hit the “media” button or “nav” button or “phone” button and it takes you straight to the appropriate CarPlay app - music, maps, or phone, respectively. That no longer works with this AI box. Without a touchscreen, that is super-handy and not worth giving up for day-to-day functionality.The good news is, the Carlinkit Mini (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09CGGRGQ2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1) works perfectly without a touchscreen, and the physical buttons in the car work as expected and take you to the appropriate app - you just can’t do any of the super-cool stuff that this AI box can do (described in my original review below), but it’s better for the day-to-day.Ok, this little box is super slick.It uses wired Apple CarPlay in your head unit as its interface - and then it completely highjacks it.It has three modes - wireless CarPlay, wireless android auto, and then a full-blown android tablet. You can do anything with it an android tablet can do - Netflix, Plex, play store, side-load apps, chrome web browser - anything. It can do split-windows.It has a sim slot so it can be completely stand-alone - or it can tether to your phone.Configuring it to my liking and figuring out how it works took about an hour, but I was all up in it. If you don’t want to tinker it’s pretty much plug-and-play - but if you’re not the tinkering type, then why are you getting this in the first place?Overall, setup difficulty was about a 3 out of 10, if you’re technically inclined and have experience with android. If you’re not either of those things, it might be a little daunting to configure to your liking.The SIM card is not required, unless you want to use the android tablet mode as your head unit. For wireless CarPlay or wireless AA, the sim is not required. For my purposes, when I want to use the tablet mode to watch media (ahem, while parked of course) I just tether it to my cell phone. When I’m done, I just hit the auto-mode app (I forget it’s name) and it reconnects as a wireless CarPlay (since I have an iPhone) interface and I’m on my way.

Unfortunately this does not work with Sync 4, or a Ford F-150 from 2021 or newer. When I plug in the Carlinkit I can only see about 1/2 of the screen. The rest is blocked. This makes it impossible to use, including even adding it to a Wi-Fi network.I contacted the manufacturer and worked with them for a month trying to get it to work. After trying many software updates I returned it. It still doesn't work.Oh, and the manufacturer's update instructions are also wrong. It took me a while to figure out to format the MicroSD card as exFAT, while they insisted it must be Fat32, which did not work at all.

I'm returning this for a few reasons, but mainly the fact that the interface frustrates me to no end. Turning on the car means I have to wait at least 40 seconds to a minute for the Carplay sign to light up on my car meaning the device is connected to the on board computer.From there it will take me to the main interface screen. I have adjusted, moved, etc. the icons for the apps various times. Each time the car turns off and on again they all fall back to where they were originally. In fact, some of the apps that I installed stopped appearing once the car was turned off and on again. This is frustrating when the 2nd home screen is where the icon for the actual Carplay is. See, the Carplay is connected into the android operating system sort of like an app. You have to click the icon to go to the Carplay screen, and also an icon on the carplay home screen to go back to "car"; the android system.I chose not to buy a separate data plan sim card and wanted to use the hotspot feature of my iphone. Well, the only way that is going to work is if you use bluetooth to connect to the unit for wifi. The actual wifi is tied into the carplay feature. Disconnect wifi and you're phone is no longer connected. Anyways, there are 2 bluetooth chips to connect to; the main one that functions for phone calls, etc. the other one is the main android bluetooth that you have to connect to in order for the hotspot function to work. No, they don't connect automatically for either one. This means going into settings every time I turn my car on, connect the bluetooth manually, then hope the hotspot actually kicks on and works.I have loaded a DSP app that really enhanced the sound and audio coming from my stereo. That is the only plus I can say about this. It really made my listening experience 100% better. I use Spotify on the unit and the sound that it pushes out vs the spotify app on my iphone is noticibly different.Unfortunately the GPS navigation on the unit sucks. Setup a route? Welp, somehow google maps will kick into cell phone audio mode and you're basically listening to music the same way it would sound if you were on hold waiting for a representative somewhere. Cancelling a route magically returns audio to normal quality.Netflix, Youtube, my own personal IPTV services, Cinema HD, etc. all load great. Apps like Cinema, VLC, MX Player struggle when playing. MX craps out after about 5 minutes of playing.Overall, I love the theory but the execution is less than to be desired.

Work perfectly well. I like it ability to use it own SIM.

Se adapta perfecto a mi Ford Ranger Wildtrack 2020,, se ve súper bien, tiene excelente velocidad, quedé encantada y lo mejor es que mi carro se me tiene original de fabrica