bateyejoe

If I try to enter any x Series forum, I get:

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Kenwoods are nice, just can be dfficult to operate at first. There is definetly a learning curve.

I would go so far as to say Kenwood has the worst user interface I've used on a consumer electronics product (at least of this complexity). The Pioneer F series (or any Pioneer Nav unit) simply blows it away. The Kenwood is extremely klunky and incredibly ugly. I own the DNX 8120 (and the DNX 9140 doesn't look much different as far as user-interface goes) and I grow to despise the user interface more and more every day.

Dialing a bluetooth contact is a good example. First, you need to locale the TEL button which may be in a number of different places depending on which source you're listening to. Once you find that, hit it and then hit the address book button. You're shown a screen of buttons, one for each letter in the alphabet. Tap 'S' and you go to the address list starting with the S's. Now, to dial John Smith, you need to tap that line to hi-light it, and then tap the DISP button to display that contact. Now you will see each number for the contact. Press it and, again it simply hi-lights it and you have to press another button to finally dial. By this time, you've taken your eyes of the road so many times you've probably wrecked. I finally gave up and I simply dial from my iPhone.

It's incredible that Kenwood has this touch-screen display and they treat it as if it's a typical car-stereo with hard-buttons. It's horribly organized and all the buttons are short abbreviations such as (ARDM, SCN, TEL etc) that keep you guessing as to what they do.

I previously owned AVIC-N1 through N3 and for a short time the F900BT. I gave up on the F900BT because of the following deal-killers:

1. Can't operate the unit (i.e. program a Nav destination) while on a bluetooth call.

2. Can't set the map to always up (rather than north-up).

3. Laughable start-up time.

I really hope Pioneer comes out with something new along the lines of the F series but with fixes for the above. I would love to dump this Kenwood.

Try this:

1. Break the current link between the phone and the unit (go into Bluetooth on the i580 and tell it to disconnect from the Pioneer).

2. Go into contacts, select a contact, pop up the menu and choose to send the contact. It should show the Pioneer as a possible destination. Select it.

I had the same problem and this method worked for me on my DNX8120. I never got a chance to try it on my AVIC before returning it.

I'll join the pile-on. I just finished a quick install (haven't hidden any wires yet) of the 8120 to replace my F900BT. The Pioneer's bugs were killer, but if it were only the bugs, I might have stuck it out and waited for a fix. Here are the reasons I switched (which I don't think will be addressed by Pioneer until a new model comes out, based on their past behavior):

I should note that the F900BT was my third Pioneer Nav unit in a row and my sixth Pioneer head unit in a row.

1. Talking on a bluetooth call locks out the rest of the system. If someone is giving me an address over the phone, I have to find somewhere to write it down and enter it after the call.

2. You can't manually edit the bluetooth phonebook. My phone (Nextel i580) seems to be incapable of transferring contacts, so I'm forced to manually dial everything. There seems to be absolutely no other way of getting contacts into the unit.

3. Like all other Pioneer Nav units I've had in the past, the unit bitches about an incorrectly wired parking break control when it is definitely wired correctly and works exactly as it should.

4. Screen was difficult to impossible to use if it catches any direct sunlight from an angle. And since you have no tilt control, you just have to wait until the road curves.

5. Can't just search the POI database by entering a name (unless you set it up as a pre-defined search).

6. Interruptions to the audio mute rather than paused my iPod. I didn't actually investigate this too deeply, there may be a configuration to make it pause the iPod instead.

7. No RDS on the FM tuner. I don't understand why Pioneer used to have this on all their higher end head units in the U.S., and now none of them have it. They dropped it right about the time most U.S. stations finally started broadcasting it. Doh!

8. No ability to name AM/FM stations/presets.

9. No ability to take a detour off the route without being constantly bitched at. This has been a problem on all my past Pioneer Nav units.

10. 2D map is always north-up. This is very unintuitive while following a route.

11. Doesn't tell you which side of the street for your destination.

12. After I look up gas prices, I can't figure out how to get the gas stations icons off of the map.

13. Long startup to reach full iPod control.

14. Idiotic pop-up messages that stay on the screen and block the underlying user interface.

15. It wouldn't recognize my CB-RD10 (P-bus aux in) to allow me to add another audio input.

16. Touch-screen response is very inconsistent. This has almost caused accident for me.

Having said all that, there are a few things I will miss from the F900BT:

1. The high-res display was much nicer than the Kenwood (as long as the sun didn't hit it).

2. The built-in and cheap MSN Direct.

3. The volume control knob (although the F900BT's is way too stiff).

4. Voice control of the iPod.

I wouldn't hold your breath on it being addressed by Pioneer. This is a usability issue/feature, and I haven't known Pioneer to address anything but outright bugs in their free updates. They, of course, have sold updates with new features and usability improvements, but even then, I get the feeling that if it wasn't for the development of the next model, they wouldn't have bothered offering anything new to existing customers.

So maybe, if there's an F901BT next year, Pioneer might sell us a new set of maps along with a few new features (like user-up orientation).

Not that this is surprising. It's standard for consumer electronics and most CE companies function this way. Maybe that's one of the reasons why when a company like Apple enters these markets, they blow the old farts away.

I have the F900BT and when the map is in 2D mode, it's always north up. Has anyone figured out a way to change this?