Review of CarlinKit 5.0 Wireless CarPlay&Android Auto Adapter
This review is for the Wireless CarPlay Android Auto Adapter CarlinKit 5.0. I got the CarlinKit CarPlay Adapter ($62.99 on https://carlinkitlife.com/ Use the discount code "USD30OFF" to get $30 of ) As the product name implies, this CarlinKit 5.0 supports either Apple CarPlay or Android Auto Wireless. However, my review only covers the Apple CarPlay function since I do not have access to an Android phone. The car used in the review is a Toyota Rav4 2022 and the phone is an older iPhone 12.
The Good:
Initial connection was fast and drama-free. The user manual lists 4 simple steps:
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Connect the USB cable
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On the phone’s Bluetooth, connect to the CarlinKit’s Bluetooth ID
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Click on the prompt on the car to accept/use CarPlay connection
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Click on the prompt on the phone to accept Use CarPlay
In my case, however, the connection was successfully established after Step 2. I think that was because I have previously used my phone with the older CarlinKit 3.0 so the prompts mentioned in Steps 3 and 4 were not needed. In any event, this was almost a plug-and-play operation. I did not time the process but it could not be much more than 20 seconds from start to finish.
Once the initial connection was established, all subsequent connections took approximately 20 seconds to complete automatically. In real life, that means by the time I started the car, put on the seat belt, and completely backed the car out of the garage/driveway then my wireless CarPlay would be operational already. The connections also stayed stable. I used CarlinKit 5.0 every time I used the car and put it through a mix of navigation, music, phone, and messaging. So far I have not run into any dropped connections, delays, hangs, etc. All car buttons, touch screens, touch pad, voice commands, etc. worked as expected, without any noticeable lags. In fact, I consider this (essentially) no-lag response the biggest improvement comparing to the older CarlinKit 3.0.
The Bad: None that I could think of.
The Ugly: Absolutely none.
Summary: I am very pleased with this product. I like my Toyota Rav4 2022 a lot, except for the finicky wired CarPlay. This CarlinKit 5.0 unit allows me to easily bypass that weakness. Well done!
I'm just adding a comment to the review regarding multiple phones - I bought the carlinkit5.0 since it "appeared" to support multiple phones. It does support multiple phones, but not in the most useful way.
What I think you want is that when the device starts up, it already can show a selection screen of which phone to connect to if it's paired to multiple ones - but this doesn't work. It always just reconnects to the last connected phone, and if that one is not available, it the next phone it is configured with.
But, for example, when both my wife and I get in the car - I'd like to be able to select whose phone it connects to. It's soooooo nearly there, but just doesn't quite do this...
Feel like I’ve gotten this to work. Will need to test for a bit to confirm. Was annoyed with the auto connect to last phone behavior as well.
I set Background to off and Auto Connect to off. But then a select screen for device wasn’t appearing. So I set Auto Display from Automatic to Force - assumed this meant to force show Carlinkit UI.
Has worked the 2 or 3 times since I have set this. Car starts up and o get the UI showing the devices and I click the one I want to connect to.
If you see a profile that is 'one word_some other random word_and then a number' they are likely a bot. Reddit has been over run.
That being said do not trust these fake ass reviews. This company is a total scam, will take your money, claim shipping or customs issues and never deliver the item.
Order something else
have you had trouble with audio lag? whenever i play a video the audio is always 2 seconds behind
It’s common with wireless CarPlay. It’s lagging behind because it’s wireless
I am looking at buying one of these. If I am understanding correctly, once it is connected once it will connect on subsequent engine starts? Also is there a list of cars this will work on?
Significant delay in phone conversations and calls. The same applies to skipping tracks on Spotify or Apple Music. This is especially noticeable when compared to switching to wired CarPlay. I no longer use it, primarily due to the delay in conversations and the slow skipping of music. Translation:
Skipping tracks is instant when wired, but takes about 0.5 second via this device.
Set media delay to 300. It worked for me. i have no delays in calls or when viewing videos on my phone
device cons in which i think that carlinkit can easily solve it with a smart update is the battery consumption for the wireless apple carplay/ android auto apple can easily add a settings in which music can be transmitted through BT only without using the WiFi 5Ghz which consumes alot of the phone resources and doesn't do much in terms of lag specially while skipping a track ok the otherhand you can easily solve the videos lag issue by settings and use the 5Ghz mode only if its needed for the navigation(apple maps/google Maps) Or at least an updated version of carlinkit that supports WiFi 6 as far as i know it supposedly have a much battery consumption . i use apple car-play as i have a Subaru Crosstrek 2022 which have an old hardware multimedia BT device as and their is a huge difference in the music quality between apple car-play wired/wireless
Hi all.
Could anyone confirm whether using this:
https://www.carlinkit.com/2air
with an Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 (or any semi recent moden android tablet) would enable carplay on it? I know its a random question here but I cant seem to find an answer anywhere :/