My In-Car Audio Setup

While waiting for Windows Phone 8.1 to arrive, I thought about documenting my current in-car setup and how I arrived there with relatively low expenses.

I drive a 2004 Renault Megane II Break and this is what my center console looks like right now:

When I bought the car little over 2 years ago, it came with a player that handled CDs and the radio, but nothing more. Being an avid podcast listener and not quite intrigued by the idea of burning episodes to CDs, I quickly started finding different ways to integrate audio from my smartphone or other suitable devices to my car.

At first I used an FM transmitter typically connected to an iPod nano and occasionally to my iPhone. It worked quite OK, but there was all the hassle with FM frequencies and interference from proper stations at times. While the quality was OK for podcasts, music didn't sound too good in that setup and toying around with the frequencies was something I wanted to get rid of.

In my previous car -- a 1996 Renault Clio -- I simply switched the player for a more capable model. However, that approach wasn't too enticing with the Megane due to the added integration. I quickly got fond of the playback controls behind the steering wheel and having some player information in the clock display was nice too, so ditching all those for an aftermarket player was relegated to plan B or C. After browsing through Renault forums, I learned that the Tuner List radio in my Megane did in fact have a CD jukebox connector, and since my car didn't have one, the connector was still free. I found an AUX adapter that connected straight to the CD jukebox port on Amazon.de and ordered it. The adapter itself cost 38€, but postage to Finland was somewhat outrageous 15€. But still, 53€ for not having to deal with an FM transmitter was peanuts. Life was good again, or was it?

I quickly came to realise that the process of taking my phone out, connecting the AUX cable to the phone, and navigating to an audio app to start playback involved way too many cumbersome steps. I needed Bluetooth.

First I bought an Avantree Cara (44€ with shipping from Amazon.co.uk), which is the black orb near the climate controls at the bottom of the picture above and which connected to my phone via Bluetooth and to my car via the AUX cable. When I used mostly my iPhone for my in-car stuff it worked wonders. Startup was fast, playback was reliable and phone responded quickly to the multifunction button. In my typical commute I had no need to take out my phone. I just stepped into my car, switched Cara on and pressed the multifunction button to resume playback. When I needed to stop or pause the playback, the multifunction button was there. However, when I tried to use my Lumia with it, things weren't all that rosy. After initial pairing everything pretty much worked, but trying to resume playback typically failed. I first thought that Bluetooth in Lumia just plain sucked, but after having flawless resume with a Bluetooth speaker I have, I realised that Cara might actually the culprit here despite working fine with iOS and Android devices.

So I started looking for Bluetooth adapters that would be more likely to play nice with Windows Phones. Hello Nokia BH-121. I actually had to spend quite a while looking for a place where I could get it for a decent price and shipped to Finland. For after all, turns out that the device was available e.g. in Germany and the UK well before this remote and obscure country that Nokia has apparently never heard of and has no following whatsoever there. Oh, wait...

My initial attempts of bying one from Amazon.de and Amazon.co.uk were foiled by outrageous shipping fees. It looks like there's something wrong with Amazon's systems when many items especially from 3rd party resellers offer quite inflated shipping fees to Finland. My reaction to this was venting about it on Facebook, which turned out to be quite beneficial as one of my friends there tipped me about http://www.luurinettikauppa.com having them in stock right here in Finland. I ended up ordering one for 55,80€ including shipping. It arrived fast and the store's support actually sent me a comprehensive response when I complained about a missing SmartPost delivery option in the additional info field. These guys seem to care about customer service, which is always nice to see.

In actual use BH-121 is somewhat slower to start and respond to the first playback command compared to the Cara. It takes a small forever of holding the power button down to actually power up the device while with the Cara you'll just flip a slider to another position and be done with it. It's also evident that the BH-121 is not designed for in-car use like the Cara is with its integrated magnet. However, I had a spare Brodit ProClip base for my car, and while I don't use the iPhone 5 mount I had attached to it anymore, the base itself provided a workable place where to attach the BH-121 with its built-in clip. That ProClip base had cost me 18,90€ The base with BH-121 attached to it can be seen on the left in the picture above. While the Cara won some parts of the comparison, the BH-121 is not without its benefits. The most obvious is naturally that it works flawlessly with a Windows Phone device and with it I've been able to continue the "no need to touch the phone" usage I had with the iPhone and the Cara. However, the BH-121 also has some Windows Phone goodies like the battery status in a live tile. With the Cara I had to guess or wait for the low battery signal, but if I have any doubt about the BH-121's battery, I just need to take out my phone while it's connected to the BH-121 and check the battery percentage from the live tile. BH-121 and Cara both allow two devices to be simultaneously paired with them and with the BH-121 this worked almost perfectly during the recent trip I had with the family. I had my 925 in the front seat while my wife controlled Spotify from my 620 from the back seat where she was keeping company to our 2-year-old. Switching between playing podcasts from the 925 and music from the 620 was seamless and logical while with the Cara I had problems when having two devices present. However, it needs to be made clear that in those scenarios the Cara was used with an iPhone and a Lumia, and Lumias have proven to be a difficult companion for the Cara, so I can't say for sure how it works with two devices it actually supports.

With audio out of the way, there's still one more component in the picture that I haven't talked about. It's the car mount that's also a wireless charger. As my Lumia 925 is equipped with a wireless charging cover, it's rather convenient that I just need to place it into the car mount to have it start charging. That charger cost me 43,95€ from Amazon.co.uk with shipping included.

So while in the beginning I had a Megane that was totally oblivious about my smartphones, I now have integration that's sufficiently reliable and hassle-free especially when the cost is considered. Let's recap the costs of the currently active system:

-AUX adapter: 53€
-Avantree Cara: 44€
-Nokia BH-121: 55,80€
-Brodit ProClip Base: 18,90€
-Wireless Charger & Car Mount: 43,95€
Total: 215,65€

However, that total can be broken down into smaller parts when the dual receivers are not needed (I still have the Cara there just in case I need to play some audio from my iPhone). For an iPhone-only setup the total would be 97€ without the car mount and 140,95€ with it. Similarly the Cara is not needed for the Windows Phone setup and the audio only setup there would be 127,70€ without the charger mount and 171,65€ with the mount included. The hours of in-car entertainment I've got with that system have more than justified the price of any of the combinations above. All this without losing any of the integration I had in the original setup, unless you count the fact that my Megane thinks I'm constantly listening to CD 1 Track 1 that just happens to be insanely long.

Could I Switch? - Halfway There, Actually

While I haven't made any actual switch, I've just noticed that I've been using my Windows Phone devices more and my iPhone less as of late. A couple of essential services are still running on my iPhone, but both of those are available also on Windows Phone and all it would take is a little time spent setting up the apps on my Lumia. So it looks like the app gap is narrowing down at quite a pace at least for my use. 

Granted, there's still the fact that e.g. Google+ is a much better experience on the iPhone and that's unlikely to change anytime soon given Google's attitude towards Windows Phone, but the interesting part is that for Skype (on which 99% of my use consists of the IM part) I'm also relying on my iPhone. As anyone who's been paying attention to the industry knows, Skype has been owned by Microsoft for quite a while now, so you'd think it would be Windows Phone where you could get the premium Skype experience, but unfortunately that's not the case. At least not yet. Maybe some day (pretty please, Microsoft)?

Rumors about Windows Phone 8.1 features have been really intriguing as they would bridge also most of the functionality gap that still exists. If the rumored features do in fact make it to Windows Phone 8.1, I might be making a full switch. However, Apple can always pull a trick or two out of their sleeve with iPhone 6 and/or iOS 8, but both of those are still months away while Windows Phone 8.1 is just around the corner. Interesting times.

T100 Battery Drain - It's Gone!

Now I can safely enough claim that the T100 battery drain issue was indeed solved with the latest BIOS. The device is much more usable when I don't have to worry about disconnecting the keyboard dock whenever I'm going to leave it unused for a couple of hours. So kudos to ASUS for fixing this issue. Too bad there's no software fix for the loud touchpad, but given the device's price I'm rather happy with that one being the only issue that's worth noting.