IcemanCS
Member
- First Name
- Chris
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2019
- Threads
- 1
- Messages
- 8
- Reaction score
- 28
- Location
- Alpharetta, GA
- Vehicle(s)
- 2020 JL Rubicon 2-door
- Thread starter
- #1
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 hadnât installed one before. The professional technician spent nearly seven hours on it. Very complicated, donât 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 âcable mess.â 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 âacceptâ before you can use the device. It does go away after a few seconds if you donât press âacceptâ but still is slightly annoying.
-Climate Control screen
Anytime you press a climate control button on the dash the screen shows the same âseat screenâ as the old head unit which is annoying if you donât want to look at it when simply changing temperature. There is an option to disable this from happening, but it didnât 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 canât change the color that comes from the bottom. It is set to orange and thatâs 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 wasnât 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 Iâm not entirely sure this is the case at this point. The included GPS and âoff road modeâ 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. Didnât realize this was an option until after the install and was a nice surprise.
Thatâs all for now...
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 hadnât installed one before. The professional technician spent nearly seven hours on it. Very complicated, donât 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 âcable mess.â 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 âacceptâ before you can use the device. It does go away after a few seconds if you donât press âacceptâ but still is slightly annoying.
-Climate Control screen
Anytime you press a climate control button on the dash the screen shows the same âseat screenâ as the old head unit which is annoying if you donât want to look at it when simply changing temperature. There is an option to disable this from happening, but it didnât 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 canât change the color that comes from the bottom. It is set to orange and thatâs 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 wasnât 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 Iâm not entirely sure this is the case at this point. The included GPS and âoff road modeâ 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. Didnât realize this was an option until after the install and was a nice surprise.
Thatâs all for now...
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