Alpine x409 headunit installed. Review and first thoughts

[weeitsmikelee]

Hopefully OP will come back w a video showing functionality or something.

Sponsored

 

[No IFS]

Does it work with the off road pages ?

 

[johnparjr]

Does it work with the off road pages ?

Off road pages is on the OEM 8.4 unit but Alpine does have its own version of it

 

[willcasp]

Off road pages is on the OEM 8.4 unit but Alpine does have its own version of it

The Alpine does not have off road pages, like some installations of the 8.4" unit do.

It DOES have a gauges screen, which allows some gauges to be displayed. The unit ties directly into the OBDII system.

The Navigation screen does have an off road mode, which will allow you to see a few items such as tilt angle.

 

[willcasp]

Having had the i209 on my JK I just had to have the x409 for my new JL. Installed yesterday. First thoughts after one day of use.

Admin edit:
For some specs and video also see: https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/fo...-replacement-pricing-release-date-demo.40980/


Cons:
-The price!
I did get a Black Friday deal of $2,750 which softened the blow... somewhat.

-Complex install
They only charged for the quoted 2 hours of labor but that was because they hadn’t installed one before. The professional technician spent nearly seven hours on it. Very complicated, don’t try at home unless you have training/experience.

-CarPlay port
CarPlay will only work from one usb port in the Alpine box that replaces the factory aux panel as part of the install. In my JK CarPlay would work from the port inside the center console which created less “cable mess.” Make sure you tell your technician you want CarPlay from inside the center console and there are some things they can do with extenders, etc.

-Safety Warning
Unlike the i209 there is a bright green safety warning screen that requires you to “accept” before you can use the device. It does go away after a few seconds if you don’t press “accept” but still is slightly annoying.

-Climate Control screen
Anytime you press a climate control button on the dash the screen shows the same “seat screen” as the old head unit which is annoying if you don’t want to look at it when simply changing temperature. There is an option to disable this from happening, but it didn’t work when the technician attempted to show me how to turn it off. He was going to call Alpine about the issue and get back to me.

Light color:
-You can’t change the color that comes from the bottom. It is set to orange and that’s that. Looks like they wanted to match the hue coming from the gear box and a few other spots on the dash.

Pros:

-Too many too list! It really is incredible if you are able to bite the financial bullet. Not only does it look better in person, it also offers far superior options and experience than UConnect. The unit produces a much better audio signal to the Alpine upgraded sound system (WRA-23) that I also had installed after purchase and consequently the sound quality is much improved with this radio working with these components. The unit offers a lot of options and features that I wasn’t aware of until I read the manual, but it really does allow you to customize the device for personal taste. Also, when making calls through CarPlay the volume of the ring is very soft, but the voice of who you are calling is appropriate which seems different and a purposeful change from the i209. It also seems to fade the voice of the person you are calling to the speaker above the driver seat but I’m not entirely sure this is the case at this point. The included GPS and “off road mode” button seems to offer a lot of pre-loaded trail info that I am looking forward to trying out.

HDMI input
-Just purchased a lightning to HDMI that will go to one of the inputs in the installed aux plug box. This should allow phone mirroring and video playing. Didn’t realize this was an option until after the install and was a nice surprise.


That’s all for now...

I finally got mine installed today

Overall, I love this thing. I wanted the bigger display unit for Carplay. i am happy with it.

Two cons...
1) The USB port, as you mentioned. I will look into wiring it into the center console. For now, I replaced one of the bolts on my grab handle with the CCM "RAM" ball. I use an X bracket to hold my phone next to the radio and use the cable in the front center console. Not perfect, but works well.
2) XM support. minor nitpick, but you have to add a generic XM module to it in order to get satellite radio support.

 

[IcemanCS]

How about the backup camera functionality?

Does it have off road pages ?

It does, all found by pressing the "off-road" mode button on the home screen

 

[IcemanCS]

How about the backup camera functionality?

Backup camera works fine, but I do find the image on the larger screen to be a bit "grainy"... the guide lines still appear.

 

[willcasp]

It does, all found by pressing the "off-road" mode button on the home screen

That is incorrect.

"Off Road Pages" is a page that is on the 8.4" display that reflects some of the data that is on the "Off Road" screen that shows up on the dash. We have something close, with the Guages screen that is on the Alpine.

When you hit the "Off Road" button on the Alpine, you get some additional information in the NAV application. However, this is not 1:1 functionality with what everyone refers to as "Off Road Pages".

I plan to take some pictures and post a clarification on this later today when I get some light to work with.

I would say the functionality is largely there, but it is different enough that it merits being called out.

 

[4xFUN]

Backup camera works fine, but I do find the image on the larger screen to be a bit "grainy"... the guide lines still appear.

The larger screen should not be the cause of camera "graininess" unless the Alpine display is of lower resolution than the OEM 8.4 screen. I have the upgraded OEM 12 inch screen in my Ram and it is crystal clear-love that big screen! However, the rest of the Harman-Kardon 'upgrade' is overhyped marketing BS from the folks at Ram...(Yes, mine came with all the software updates for the HK system and is currently up to date)

I ordered my 2-door JLR with just the standard audio system (hate that they put the 'subwoofer' in the floor right in the middle of the cargo area on 2-doors) and will upgrade the system shortly after delivery. I will take a close look at this Alpine unit, I am also OK with the OEM 8.4 head unit (I like the factory functionality) but with different speakers/amps.

 

[weeitsmikelee]

The larger screen should not be the cause of camera "graininess" unless the Alpine display is of lower resolution than the OEM 8.4 screen. I have the upgraded OEM 12 inch screen in my Ram and it is crystal clear-love that big screen! However, the rest of the Harman-Kardon 'upgrade' is overhyped marketing BS from the folks at Ram...(Yes, mine came with all the software updates for the HK system and is currently up to date)

I ordered my 2-door JLR with just the standard audio system (hate that they put the 'subwoofer' in the floor right in the middle of the cargo area on 2-doors) and will upgrade the system shortly after delivery. I will take a close look at this Alpine unit, I am also OK with the OEM 8.4 head unit (I like the factory functionality) but with different speakers/amps.

If you have the standard radio wouldn’t you still lack some functionality after changing to this unit?

 

[4xFUN]

If you have the standard radio wouldn’t you still lack some functionality after changing to this unit?

The standard 7 inch screen lacks some of the features that are included on the 8.4.

 

[No IFS]

That is incorrect.

"Off Road Pages" is a page that is on the 8.4" display that reflects some of the data that is on the "Off Road" screen that shows up on the dash. We have something close, with the Guages screen that is on the Alpine.

When you hit the "Off Road" button on the Alpine, you get some additional information in the NAV application. However, this is not 1:1 functionality with what everyone refers to as "Off Road Pages".

I plan to take some pictures and post a clarification on this later today when I get some light to work with.

I would say the functionality is largely there, but it is different enough that it merits being called out.

Thank you so much for real info and facts about off road pages. I was getting lots of fake news.

 

[willcasp]

Thank you so much for real info and facts about off road pages. I was getting lots of fake news.

I put some more info and pictures in this thread here: https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/alpine-x409-and-off-road-pages.42990/

 

[IcemanCS]

Thank you so much for real info and facts about off road pages. I was getting lots of fake news.

Sorry If my post was mis informative. Not an expert on off-road pages and assumed incorrectly.

 

[rmtjr1]

Just installed the x409 JL in my 2020 jeep gladiator over the weekend replacing the Uconnect 4 with the 7" display. It is expensive and was not an install for anyone that is not tech minded or comfortable doing these kind of installs. There is an install video on YouTube that was a great help for me the video makes it look easy but for me taking my time to make sure I had things correct it took me all weekend. I'm not at all a pro installer and using the video with back checking myself with the written instructions I was in no hurry and wanted it done correctly . If you are faint of heart for doing this install I would suggest a pro installer . The x409 looks great and there are too many bells and whistles to go into I'm still learning about all it does. Is expensive and the install is for me anyway, time consuming !

Sponsored