Fast Android OS Wireless CarPlay & Android Auto Dongle + Internal SIM & GPS | ApplePie Mini Review

Enjoy my Car Smart Box ApplePie Mini Review. I have collaborated with Exploter who sells this dongle for $245. More info and to buy one here → http://bit.ly/applepiemini.

Updates: https://bit.ly/3sKXell

The ApplePie mini has a much slimmer profile than the other AI Boxes I have covered on the channel. It has irregular curved shaped edges, and on the top there is a dotted mesh surface. On the bottom, there is a circular grooved metal base, that’s likely used for heat dissipation, and there's a number of grills that surround it for air circulation and cooling for the chipset that’s inside.

On one edge of the case there are a number of I/O ports. The first is a USB-C output port to connect the bundled USB-C cable to, and alongside it, there is a TF card slot for expanded storage, and the second is a SIM card slot to allow the dongle to carry its own 4G LTE mobile data connection for any Android 9 Apps that require it.

On the inside, there is a 4-year old Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 8-Core processor. It has two Bluetooth antennas supporting 5.0 and 4.2. There’s also a built-in GPS module in the case, so thankfully, there’s no messing around with connecting power cables or fuses, it is all self-contained. Without any USB input ports on this dongle, it supports both wireless CarPlay and wireless Android Auto, with the ability to fast switch between both platforms without any rebooting.

My main take away from it all is that it’s a big step up from the other Android dongles I have covered. The first issue is due to being able to fast swap between the Android OS and CarPlay. It has to display a floating menu button over the CarPlay screen in order to give you the ability to switch back to the Android OS.

It turns out that you can’t have WiFi enabled for both the Android OS and CarPlay, but thankfully, the ApplePie mini does have its own mobile SIM slot and with a data SIM installed you can overcome this issue.

The 4-year old processor is capable at handling basic Android apps that you would want to run on your CarPlay screen. Unlike the other Android 9 dongles I have covered on this channel, I WAS able to install and run apps like SkyGo and Android Auto on this dongle. But with that said, it did say a new update to the Netflix app wasn’t compatible. Right now though, the app works just fine.

One of my main niggles though, is that I found this dongle didn’t automatically launch on my CarPlay display, but this might be my specific system. In other reviews I see it boots up fine on factory based CarPlay systems. Boot up time can take up to a minute to get into CarPlay.

I also found this dongle messed with the stereo’s audio source, where I found it would stop the radio audio from playing to send a notification or app sound from the Android or CarPlay platform, and I had to manually interact with my stereo’s audio sources to get back to what I was listening to.

All of this is because this dongle is always sitting in this android OS platform and it has to boot up its operating system AND then launch the CarPlay app to enable wireless CarPlay. Unlike other dongles that would boot directly into CarPlay, these other dongles require a reboot to get back into Android, whereas here you can switch fast between the two platforms.

There is a lot to like from this dongle, and there is plenty more that could make this video twice as long. It really comes into its own if you put a separate data SIM into the dongle so that both CarPlay and Android apps can function simultaneously. If you can also put up with some of the minor niggles that I’ve encountered on this dongle then this is one Android OS box that’s worth considering for your CarPlay system.

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TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 - Intro
0:28 - Brief overview
0:47 - Unboxing
1:02 - Features
3:06 - Installation
3:27 - Bootup & interface
5:55 - Wireless CarPlay & Android Auto
10:17 - Simultaneous Android OS & CarPlay
11:07 - Hotspot and SIM connection
13:44 - YouTube
14:20 - Netflix
14:55 - Google Maps
15:30 - Spotify
15:57 - Splitscreen mode
17:07 - Android & CarPlay splitscreen!
17:53 - Other apps
18:38 - SD Card Media Playback
19:37 - Gaming
20:23 - Android Auto
21:20 - My issues
23:51 - My Impressions

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EQUIPMENT IN THIS VIDEO:
If you are curious how this video was filmed and what equipment was used or the products you see around or behind me. Checkout My Setup page here → https://www.carplaylife.com/mysetup

#CarPlay #Wireless #Dongle

Видео Fast Android OS Wireless CarPlay & Android Auto Dongle + Internal SIM & GPS | ApplePie Mini Review канала CarPlay Life