Request for opinions: Z120BT vs. X920BT

[jonnyboy7]

I am attempting to decide between a Z120BT and an X920BT. I am aware that the Z120BT has a larger and motorized screen and 4 volt preouts, but the software for the two models is identical. I prefer the hard buttons of the 920BT and don't mind the smaller screen. Do I lose out on any features / functionality by getting a 920BT? Is the processor slower? Are boot-up times longer? Other differences?

 

Thanks.

[VBLUE42]

With the 920 you wont get 3D landmarks or buildings and a couple other small things I cant remember right now. Get the 120.

[jwq]

With the 920 you wont get 3D landmarks or buildings and a couple other small things I cant remember right now. Get the 120.

 

Such as dual zone

[VBLUE42]

Yea yea, theres another one.

[CaptainInsaneO]

With the 920 you wont get 3D landmarks or buildings and a couple other small things I cant remember right now. Get the 120.

 

Such as dual zone

 

And chicks.

[VBLUE42]

And chicks.

 

And thats all that matters.

[Ixian]

You can get the 920BT a lot cheaper, I got mine for under $750 shipped from an authorized Pioneer dealer (Al-eds) and you can get it even cheaper than that now from dealers that are actually reputable. For the 120BT, even with discounts you are going to pay several hundred dollars more for what is really a small set of additional features, screen aside.

 

The obvious one is the screen, and 7 inches really isn't that much more than 6.1. Personal choice really but I doubt you would look at the 6.1 screen and say "that's too small".

 

Other differences:

 

4v preouts vs. 2.2 on the 920. Even 4v is kind of low for a serious audio system, and to be honest if you are looking at doing a serious audio system where preout voltage really matters you probably wouldn't buy either of these units anyway. Pioneers are not revered for their high-end sound quality.

 

Motorized screen - the tilt may be useful to you if the unit is mounted low in your vehicles dash, it really depends on what you are driving.

 

Extra A/V output. I don't know why anyone would care about this but it's there. If you're gonna run two or more video displays in the back, such as for headrest screens, you're better off getting ones with their own little DVD players in them since I've yet to see a pair of kids in the back seat who can agree on the same video

 

3D landmarks. Yawn. If you live around a city that has them mapped out maybe they'd be handy but honestly, what I've seen of this feature makes it a gimmick at best.

 

Split-screen nav. Now this one annoys me, because I own a 920bt and there is absolutely no reason they should have disabled this feature. It makes an already marginal Nav experience worse. Then again, if you are buying either one of these for the Nav you are buying it for the wrong reasons, get one of the newer Kenwoods instead. Or a dedicated unit.

 

Both of these units are good for one thing: Optimum experience playing music off an iPod or an iPhone, preferably an iPhone since you can use Pandora with it, and Pandora is one of the better features of this unit. If you don't own a music player made by Apple I don't know why you would buy either one of these, there are better options available. If you primarily listen to music and watch movies off your iPhone and you are in an area with decent coverage so Pandora works well than both of these are among the best I've seen, though they definitely have their quirks.

 

Looking at them in that light, they are both exactly the same in which case you should just buy the cheaper one.

[VBLUE42]

Well put sir.

[jonnyboy7]

Both of these units are good for one thing: Optimum experience playing music off an iPod or an iPhone, preferably an iPhone since you can use Pandora with it, and Pandora is one of the better features of this unit. If you don't own a music player made by Apple I don't know why you would buy either one of these, there are better options available. If you primarily listen to music and watch movies off your iPhone and you are in an area with decent coverage so Pandora works well than both of these are among the best I've seen, though they definitely have their quirks.

 

Looking at them in that light, they are both exactly the same in which case you should just buy the cheaper one.

 

 

Terrific post, thank you.

 

What are the better options that are available in the $750-$1200 price range?

[dakotah]

Thanks for the wrap-up on the z120bt vs x920bt. I'm having a hard time justifying the purchases anyway but the 920 might be an easier pill to swallow esp. considering the $100 rebate I just saw started yesterday. My questions are about the dual zone and 2.2 vs 4v pre outputs.

 

I will be running into a PAC TATO which allows a direct connection to the stock JBL Amplifier in some Toyota vehicles.

My question is whether I will need the 4v output to make this work correctly. Are there any Toyota users with the JBL amplifier who successfully used the x920bt with the PAC TATO?

 

My last thought is about dual zone. My goal would be to have nav on in the front, and using the 920bt to play video on a rear monitor at the same time. Is that dual zone, or would that be possible with the 920bt? I cannot anticipate watching movies on the front screen, this would be nav only.

 

Thanks so much in advance.

[jwq]

....

My last thought is about dual zone. My goal would be to have nav on in the front, and using the 920bt to play video on a rear monitor at the same time. Is that dual zone, or would that be possible with the 920bt? I cannot anticipate watching movies on the front screen, this would be nav only.

 

Thanks so much in advance.

 

That would require dual zone, which the 920 does not have. So you'd need the Z110/120 , or use a separate DVD player

[matwithonet]

Both of these units are good for one thing: Optimum experience playing music off an iPod or an iPhone, preferably an iPhone since you can use Pandora with it, and Pandora is one of the better features of this unit. If you don't own a music player made by Apple I don't know why you would buy either one of these, there are better options available. If you primarily listen to music and watch movies off your iPhone and you are in an area with decent coverage so Pandora works well than both of these are among the best I've seen, though they definitely have their quirks.

 

Looking at them in that light, they are both exactly the same in which case you should just buy the cheaper one.

 

What are the better options for non-apple devices? I realize that these units are optimized for apple stuff, but it seems like they have the best user interface for non-apple stuff too. That's the main reason I got it. UI on other devices looks like it's from about 10 years ago. These also seem to have the highest quality screens. All the other screens I saw looked much more pixelated...very blocky fonts...stuff like that.

[VBLUE42]

There are no better alternatives to Apple devices when it comes to the amount of limitations you run into with other devices. There are no such limitations with Apple devices with these units. Regardless if you do want to use something else your choices are USB flash drives and SD cards.

[CaptainInsaneO]

Vblue I think he was asking what the better alternative aside from Apple devices is. While I agree there probably isn't a better ideal other than Apple devices (and I, for the most part, don't even like Steve Jobs or Apple in particular), I don't think that's what the question was entailing.

 

matwithonet, I seem to remember a chap on here got a USB hard drive working for music and movies. I can't find the thread but I remember seeing it about two weeks ago, search around for it. There IS a file number and file size limitation but as Vblue already covered, you are going to run into some annoying issues if you don't use an Apple product, so that's something you have to be ready to accept.

[VBLUE42]

Yea, what you said.