AVICF700BT vs. Kenwood 5120

[1subaru4u]

Anyone done a comparison of the Pioneer AVICF-700BT vs the Kenwood 5120? I'm not convinced the Pioneer is right for me... I have the 700bt in my 09 Subaru Impreza, and it seems quite buggy. I'm considering going to the Kenwood instead, I've always been a Kenwood guy and figured I'd try the Pioneer since some friends of mine swear by Pioneer's head units, and the price was right.

 

With my 700bt...

 

- iPod loses connection with head unit, have to shut car off and start car again in order to get iPod seen.

- Nav map locks up occasionally, have to shut car off and restart to regain control.

- Can't play music off SD card, although it says it should be able to.

- Not loving the Sirius integration, can't see artist/song title together

- Voice dialing contacts with my iPhone 3G doesn't work at all.

 

Good things... Bluetooth call quality is excellent, both on my end in the car and people I talk to.

 

How is Kenwood's bluetooth integration... I've heard it's buggy, I've heard it doesn't sound as good, is it a major difference between the 700bt ? I'm using an iPhone 3G.

 

Voice control of my iPod is a perk - not required... if I can choose between that and a better more stable head unit, I will pick the more stable head unit any day.

 

As I'd said, I've always had a preference for Kenwood head units, and think I may switch to the Kenwood unless the issues I'm having can be resolved by either a software update, is there one coming beyond the 2.0?

 

Thanks all

[GQRilla]

I've worked with both so here's the deal. The Kenwood 5120:

 

- Does not drop iPod

- Does not lock up on nav (or have you drive in a circle to get you where you are going)

- Does not have SD input (although my f700 plays music off SD card just fine)

- Shows 3 lines of whatever you want on Sirius

- Works fine w/ iPhone 3g (as long as you have the most recent bluetooth update)

- May or may not voice dial contacts

- Has no voice control for iPod

- IS A MUCH MORE STABLE HEAD UNIT THAN ANY PIONEER F SERIES

 

I don't think anyone here can disagree w/ any of these statements. With that said, the Pioneer has some stuff that beats the Kenwood (especially price since the F series are being whored out at ridiculous prices due to quality issues just to get rid of them).

[terron]

- iPod loses connection with head unit, have to shut car off and start car again in order to get iPod seen.

- Nav map locks up occasionally, have to shut car off and restart to regain control.

- Can't play music off SD card, although it says it should be able to.

- Not loving the Sirius integration, can't see artist/song title together

- Voice dialing contacts with my iPhone 3G doesn't work at all.

 

iPod losing connection has been linked to a problem with an SD card being inserted, check to make sure you don't have one in and see if it stops losing connection

 

My Nav has never locked up, did you mod the data.zip in any way?

 

Music does play off an SD card, I do this almost daily. You've got something setup wrong.

 

Try the XM tuner; I realize thats another purchase, but XM now has an identical music lineup with Sirius.. their sports packages are the only difference

 

Just my two cents

[bitman]

if you want to have a deck what just works when pressing the screen... Kenwood.

 

Bluetooth is much much better. you even have SMS text with the right phone and latest firmware. stay away from some Nokia's.

 

the common talk of people is the simplistic user interface of the Kenwood. sure it looks like and mini computer terminal from the 80's BUT IT JUST WORKS!!!

also the main problem of the Pioneer is the that the screen touch buttons of the user interface are to small for your fingers when driving... this deck is fine on the bench but not really in a moving vehicle on bumpy roads.

 

just my £0.01

 

btw, i have them both...

[theorangeman]

- iPod loses connection with head unit, have to shut car off and start car again in order to get iPod seen.

 

iPod losing connection has been linked to a problem with an SD card being inserted, check to make sure you don't have one in and see if it stops losing connection

 

In my case, the SD card has nothing to do with my iPod losing connection because after I did the 2.0 update, it hasn't been in my unit since. I just had my F90BT installed a couple of days ago and must say that I'm disappointed about the iPod issues. I thought that was supposed to be an issue corrected by the update. It's very frustrating! However, so far everything else seems to be working pretty well and I do like the unit.

[Newman]

having worked with both the Kenwood and Pioneer here are my thoughts:

 

The Kenwood out-does the Pioneer in every aspect except for 2...the pioneer's visuals/graphics are much much better and the voice recognition for the Pioneer bluetooth and iPod is a HUGE plus. also, Pioneer has bluetooth built in whereas Kenwood will cost extra. but as far as reliability and overall performance I would give Kenwood the advantage.

 

The Kenwood does not have an SD slot however it does have a USB input so you can just buy a $12 adapter that turns your SD card into a USB thumb drive and there you go...now you can play music from your SD card on your kenwood.

[bitman]

please bear in mind that here in europe we don't have voice recognition. so that makes the kenwood even better in compare with the pioneer.

[ckelly33]

I searched these two units (actually the 5120 vs. the F90BT) and my head said Kenwood but the looks of the Pioneer won me over. I was very concerned about all of the negative reviews but I already had an AVIC-D2 so some of the issues I knew what to expect.

 

I have to say I'm glad I got the Pioneer. Everything has worked flawlessly out of the box. NOw I've hacked it with the excellent advice given in these forums and it works even better than before. After I had it installed I relooked at the Kenwood and was still glad about my decision.

 

I really would like to have Garmin but by most accounts the Kenwoods interface is clunky - and looks like graphics from Windows 95. The pioneer's GPS has been excellent with one exception - it doesn't give Left or Right for your arrival destination. I thought I'd be bummed about having to use 3D (2D shows true north only) but the 3D's design is so nice, I'd have probably use it anyway.

[norcalmike]

Anyone done a comparison of the Pioneer AVICF-700BT vs the Kenwood 5120? I'm not convinced the Pioneer is right for me... I have the 700bt in my 09 Subaru Impreza, and it seems quite buggy. I'm considering going to the Kenwood instead, I've always been a Kenwood guy and figured I'd try the Pioneer since some friends of mine swear by Pioneer's head units, and the price was right.

 

With my 700bt...

 

- iPod loses connection with head unit, have to shut car off and start car again in order to get iPod seen.

- Nav map locks up occasionally, have to shut car off and restart to regain control.

- Can't play music off SD card, although it says it should be able to.

- Not loving the Sirius integration, can't see artist/song title together

- Voice dialing contacts with my iPhone 3G doesn't work at all.

 

Good things... Bluetooth call quality is excellent, both on my end in the car and people I talk to.

 

How is Kenwood's bluetooth integration... I've heard it's buggy, I've heard it doesn't sound as good, is it a major difference between the 700bt ? I'm using an iPhone 3G.

 

Voice control of my iPod is a perk - not required... if I can choose between that and a better more stable head unit, I will pick the more stable head unit any day.

 

As I'd said, I've always had a preference for Kenwood head units, and think I may switch to the Kenwood unless the issues I'm having can be resolved by either a software update, is there one coming beyond the 2.0?

 

Thanks all

 

I've had both the Kenwood DNX5120 and the F90BT which I have now.

If you are using an iPhone 3G you will have to call Kenwood for the iPhone 3G specific 1.61 Bluetooth update (its not on the website) or the call quality will be horrible. The SMS on the Kenwood doesn't work and sometimes the address book works on the Bluetooth and sometimes it doesn't.

That said it is a nice unit and I never had many problems with it. But I like the Pioneer better, and previously I never had anything but Kenwood since the mid 80s

[theorangeman]

Now that I've had the f90BT in my car for a week now (and am happy with it), I'm still trying to get used to the lack of a 2d track up mode. I'm just wondering for those who like the 3d mode, is it only because the Pioneer unit doesn't have 2d track up or is it something else? I've owned a lot of external garmin units in the past and I've never liked 3d mode. Being that the F90BT unit doesn't have track up, I use it more out of necessity when in route. However, again, I'm just wondering if perhaps I'm missing something; does 3d mode really offer anything over 2d? I don't really like it and don't see any advantage of this mode, but when you only have 2d north, it becomes more of a used feature because of the limitation. If only they would release an update with 2d track up I would be a VERY happy man!

[BorisM]

I've had a number of Navi units, and personally, I;ve never used the 2D mode. I find that 3D (particularly with buildings and terrain turned on) looks more like real roads, so it is easier to navigate... But that's just me...

[theorangeman]

I've had a number of Navi units, and personally, I;ve never used the 2D mode. I find that 3D (particularly with buildings and terrain turned on) looks more like real roads, so it is easier to navigate... But that's just me...

 

One of the reasons I asked was because I've found that this mode has a few downfalls:

 

1. Less detail compared to that of 2D mode

2. Zooming out in 3D mode doesn't provide you with as good of a big picture of where you are going. I commute 40 miles each direction daily and I prefer 2D because it provides a better feel for where you are on a larger scale but it gets confusing once I get off the interstate and want to get a better feel for where I'm going.

3. The 3D mode only zooms out a fraction of what 2D does.

4. The 3D mode (when zooming out to the max. setting) shows terrain at the top of the screen in a very choppy way.

5. What's up with all of the green that I see? It looks like I'm traveling through a national park half the time unlike 2D mode.

 

As stated earlier, I really like my Pioneer unit and wouldn't trade it in for anything else (at least for now) but the lack of a 2D Track up mode is mind boggling. It seems to me that there must have been some reason why they didn't include this mode because it is the most intuitive and widely used mode for most people. It just doesn't make sense to have a unit without this mode... oh well, I'll adjust over time and hope that some day they update the unit to include it!

[BorisM]

True... it's all in how you use it. When I want to see a big picture, I might switch to 2D but when not driving and just looking at the map, and North-Up at least makes it look like a paper map...

 

Still mind-boggling that NavNGo though it would be a good idea to take the feature out.

 

That being said, 3D tilt and maximum zoom can be reconfigured to give a somewhat reassonable approximation of Track-Up mode.

 

Green... I guess that's up to the color scheme you use...

[ckelly33]

I almost didn't buy the unit due to the lack of the familiar 2D. Couple that with the fact that the Kenwood has Garmin and reports of slow responsiveness/general bugginess I was going Kenwood...until I saw them both. Shallow, but the cosmetics got me, I chose the 90BT

 

I have absolutely LOVED the Pioneer. I bought after 2.0 - so no pre-2.0 problems. I've Done both the hardware and software bypasses and put up a factory looking (Ford) splashscreen and customized the button color to match my dash perfectly. Works like a charm. AM/FM/XM are, well AM/FM/XM. They work perfectly.

 

I hooked up my iPod, let the VR catalog do its thing then turned VR catalog off (to make startup a little faster). I can get any artist.album or playlist I want by just asking for it....about 90% accurate or better.

 

I can play video without a hitch. I can make handsfree calls without a dropout. I haven't transferred my address book because I'm getting a new phone (either a BB Storm or a Touch Pro) and I don't want to take a chance on having problems with the contacts when I change over phones.

 

All in all I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars. Less half a star for lack of 2D track up, slow responsiveness and slow bootup (5 secs to radio, 30 to useable screen). As far as unresponsiveness it is a bit, but no more so than the AVIC-D2 I've been using for 2 years.

[cranbers]

Anyone done a comparison of the Pioneer AVICF-700BT vs the Kenwood 5120? I'm not convinced the Pioneer is right for me... I have the 700bt in my 09 Subaru Impreza, and it seems quite buggy. I'm considering going to the Kenwood instead, I've always been a Kenwood guy and figured I'd try the Pioneer since some friends of mine swear by Pioneer's head units, and the price was right.

 

With my 700bt...

 

- iPod loses connection with head unit, have to shut car off and start car again in order to get iPod seen.

- Nav map locks up occasionally, have to shut car off and restart to regain control.

- Can't play music off SD card, although it says it should be able to.

- Not loving the Sirius integration, can't see artist/song title together

- Voice dialing contacts with my iPhone 3G doesn't work at all.

 

Good things... Bluetooth call quality is excellent, both on my end in the car and people I talk to.

 

How is Kenwood's bluetooth integration... I've heard it's buggy, I've heard it doesn't sound as good, is it a major difference between the 700bt ? I'm using an iPhone 3G.

 

Voice control of my iPod is a perk - not required... if I can choose between that and a better more stable head unit, I will pick the more stable head unit any day.

 

As I'd said, I've always had a preference for Kenwood head units, and think I may switch to the Kenwood unless the issues I'm having can be resolved by either a software update, is there one coming beyond the 2.0?

 

Thanks all

 

 

 

I don't have sirius and I don't leave my iphone connected, all other issues I have never experienced myself and I own a f900.

 

This sounds to me like user error and/or defective unit especially if its locking up on the navigation, I have never ever experienced anything like that, and i've had this thing since June with the initial firmware release.

 

So before you give up, why not take a minute to troubleshoot and or exchange it? Restart your phone before connecting it, replace it with an apple composite cable for drops, disconnect and pair your iphone again from scartch and resync the contacts from scratch and try again.

 

I own a f900bt, iphone 3g and since 2.0 update, this unit operates great. There isn't much of a differenc f900 vs f700 so rule out those things before jumping ship.