I’m very happy with my Mercedes C240 from 2001.
The only limitation is the sound system which is pretty limited. No Bluetooth, no auxiliary input, no GPS, and above all, I couldn’t use my Ipod.
I, therefore, started to look for an alternative to the original Becker Audio 10 System. Pretty quickly, most links were converging to Xtrons and its Mercedes designed device; PF7M203A. There were some others, but obviously all coming from the same OEM manufacturer in Guangdong.
Xtrons, having a hub in UK (I live in France, but UK is somehow closer than Hong Kong), became my first choice.
Ordering process and delivery was really good, and I got the device only a few days after my order.
The packaging is neutral, and the brand Xtrons doesn’t show anywhere. Even the tiny little Android Manual was anonymous and actually not suited to the device I ordered.
Device looked great and is supplied with a whole bunch of cables and connection.
I’m not a car radio specialist, but the installation went pretty easily until I powered up. Radio was working but totally unable to catch any station.
That was my first contact with tech support from Xtrons.
I was in contact with a person calling him/herself Diana. The first mail I got as a response was like that
“Due to the complicated nature of the antenna systems used by some European Manufactures for example, Vauxhall, BMW and VW Audi Group (VAG) removing the OEM stereo removes the antenna amplifier or the means by which the amplifier is activated. Reception can be improved if you have the correct adapters however when replacing the OEM stereo radio reception will always suffer regardless of the unit placed in the vehicle.
If you have any other questions please don't hesitate to contact us again.”
Waow ! Very helpful indeed. So I decided to look into this again by myself and found the key to mystery. The antenna needed power which was not connected in the standard connection set designed for Mercedes. One soldering later, everything worked. This might sound obvious to car audio technicians but it could have been much easier if there was even a simple installation manual coming with the device.
Let’s switch to my experience, very much mixed, after two months of operation.
The first one is that the unit still works ! I know, it should be like that but it’s not always so obvious with Chinese products.
Radio:
Well, if you intend to listen to your favorite radio, parked close to the radio station emitter, the product is great. Now, if you intend to actually use your car and still listen to your favorite radio station, it’s another story. The RDS function is simply lousy, in other words, it doesn’t work.
You select your station, drive and very soon, as the RDS trigger is low, your unit will start to look for another station in silence and will eventually stop to any station but the one you want. This is horrible. The only solution is to switch off the ‘TA’ option and manage manually. The fact is that the RDS management of the original Becker Audio 10 is so good that anything below its performance is just annoying. I had this very same feeling and experience with my Volvo S80 12 years ago, and it was the original device!
This being said, it you accept to play the radio-roulette game, radio works fine.
DVD and Movie Player:
The interest of this device is questionable for me as I don’t have rear headset screens and my kids use their own device (Ipad or Phone) to watch what hey want.
It can also be of great use if you’re addict to your favorite movie or TV Series and know that you are going to spend hours stuck in traffic jam… not my case.
Finally, if you’re lucky enough to have your own driver, this feature might be of some interest while he/she is waiting for you. Not my case either…
Anyhow, it works. But don’t expect to watch your latest downloaded mkv in original version with subtitles. Subtitles won’t show.
The solution is to install a player such as the excellent VLC which will gladly handle your subtitles.
Ipod:
This is where the story becomes sad.
Changing my original device was driven by the lack of Bluetooth, Aux input, Ipod management from the original Becker Audio 10.
So, when I saw that the device was managing the Ipod, I was really very, very happy. Alas.
Well, yes it does work, at least partly. Here is my experience.
I started by happily plugging my 160GB Ipod to the device. The unit switched to the Ipod app… Yes !!! Then I waited for a few minutes and the App crashed. Tried a few times more, same story.
Then I tried with a Ipod Nano 8GB, waited for one an a half minute and finally got access to my files on the Nano. Choosing for your desired track is a bit hectic and definitely not user friendly, but it can work.
But don’t switch off the car engine! If you do, let’s say you stop 3 minutes to buy your bread, newspaper or cigarette, then you will go through the entire process again (1:30 minute of initialization).
I finally found a tweak to overcome this. In the options of the device, select the longest delay before the unit switches off after killing the car engine. At least, you’ll be able to buy your bread, newspaper, cigarettes and not lose your Playlists…
This is the reason why I couldn’t use my 160GB Ipod… When you plug an Ipod, the device downloads the ENTIRE list of songs and Playlists for a 160GB Ipod this is, in my case, 19700 songs 55 continous days of music… This is just too much to swallow for the device which crashes the App… Even if it could, 1:30 minute to digest 8GB would lead to a mere 30 minutes to process my Ipod before being able to start listening to the first song. I would also never stop my car when I go buying bread, etc…
This failure is not unique to the Xtrons device. Ipod has never been very easy to handle in Car Audio System. One of my friends has a Peugeot with the standard Audio System and it reacted exactly the same way. Another one has a BMW X5, it took ages for the first time, but at least the complete list was saved even with engine off.
Actually, the only car I know which handles Ipod well is a new Renault Captur.
I tried to connect with Xtrons Tech support on their forum. I’ll be nice, but I think they should really get some real tech guys there… I’ll come back later on my experience with Xtrons Tech forum.
No chance to hope a corrective update on the Ipod App as Apple has stopped producing large Ipods. Streaming my friend, this is the new trend.
As the Tech support told me, ‘Your Ipod might not be compatible with the unit’… Euh, shouldn’t it be role of the unit to be compatible with a highly standardized device such as the Ipod ?
Sigh.
Bluetooth:
Not much to say, does the job.
Car Integration – CAN Bus
The PF7M203A is sold as a two ways CAN Bus compliant device.
What does it mean? It means that, in the case of the Mercedes I have, the steering wheel buttons and a few other things such as headlights will command the device (one way) and that the device will be able to send back info to the car display (two ways).
Well… It’s a partiel one way device. Full Stop.
Why ‘partial’? On the steering wheel, there are eight buttons, volume +/-, phone pick/hang, Page +/-, choice +/-. They all do their job with the original Becker (logical no?)
With PF7M203A, volume +/- work, choice +/- work (next radio station, next song…), phone pick/hang not really. Page +/- jeopardizes the Choice +/-. This last one is a bit complicated to explain (it’s actually a topic I started on the forum with no result from Xtrons).
The funny thing comes with the ‘second’ CAN-Bus way. It simply doesn’t work. Whatever you do, you will get on the car display ‘Audio’ and some nice ‘----‘ on the second line. Nothing else. So, clearly it’s a one way CAN-Bus application, not two ways.
The final answer of the Tech Support was a whole big laugh! “Maybe your car is not compatible with the unit…”.
Hum… reminds me the answer about the Ipod issues…They are the Tech Team, they know ! My Mercedes W203 is not compatible with the PF7M203A which is a specifically designed unit for the Mercedes W203… True, true…
Xtrons Forum Tech Support.
I’ve lived 7 years in China, and I’m a bit used to Chinese behavior. Xtrons behavior illustrates it all.
I guess, someone in Shenzen or Hong Kong realized that it would be very hard for a Chinese company to get a chance of business in Europe without a strong efficient and quick connection mean with customers. There goes THE Forum.
Obviously they have opened an user account in Hong Kong who is in charge of dealing with posts; Sophia.
Is she a real person or a catch-all account? Or a poor girl in charge of this task… who knows? Anyway this Sophia is really nice and smooth, but she doesn’t seem to me to be a tech at all.
Some of the recurring answers were:
“to make it more clear, i would appreciate that you could provide a picture or a video to show this issue.”
This sounds logical, well not always, but how in hell do you upload a picture or a video on the forum???
“after checked with our technician and he said it might be…. (that or that)”
Hum… really? It sounds to me like the IT support ‘My computer was working, it’s not anymore, plus I have smoke coming from the case…. – Yes? Which version of Windows are you using and is your computer plugged correctly?’
Rings a bell?
So it’s polite, but useless, and, no, never their fault. I pushed till the end just to get these final statements, and then I stopped:
Ipod Issue: “after checked with our technician and he said it might be the iPod not compatible with the iPod app. it is hard to find the compatible iPod app to install“
Can-Bus issue: “then i am afraid that there might be CANbus not compatible with your car.”
Conclusions:
Will I say that I regret my purchase? No. Not yet, I’m just afraid of a possible real hardware problem. But that goes with every product you buy, especially online.
Will I say that I’m delighted with my purchase? No. There are too many hick-ups in how the Xtrons PF7M203A works. It’s basically a standard Chinese product. It looks nice (that’s true). It promises a lot, but partially delivers (Can’t say it doesn’t at all, it just does its job partially).
And don’t forget Xtrons is just a brand, not a manufacturer.
All in all, it’s an integrated Android Tablet, so you can play with it as you would on your Android Tablet.
The price is OK, and I would add, you get what you paid for.
Should you buy one? I won’t tell, it’s up to you, now you get all the cards in your hands pros and cons. Should you want more info, don’t hesitate to drop me a mail.
Link to the video and pix used in the forum.