sofakng Posted April 7, 2014 Report Share Posted April 7, 2014 I've recently purchased a number of different car stereo head units and after several years of looking for one that fits my needs, I've finally found it and it's the AVIC-8000NEX. In case anybody is wondering on my background, I'm a 33 year old software developer. I'm not an audio expert and I can't comment on audio quality, but I'm a gadget guy who loves to have the latest and greatest. I've been looking for a car stereo for a couple of years and have always found major flaws and couldn't justify spending $1,000 or more on any of the car stereos that were available. Last year I tested several units including the Kenwood DNX890HD, DNN990HD and the Pioneer AVH-X8500BHS. The Kenwoods had Garmin navigation which was a HUGE advantage but the units were incredibly slow. I'm not typically this harsh, but the UI is absolute garbage except for Garmin but even with that was slow and scrolling the map took several seconds to respond. The Pioneer AVH-X8500BHS had a fantastic interface but was extremely dark in the sunlight and became completely unusable. I ended up purchasing a "cheap" Kenwood DDX770 just to have something better than my factory unit. This year I tested the Pioneer AppRadio3 (SPH-DA110), Kenwood DNX891HD, and the Kenwood DNX8901HD. The DNX891HD is faster than last year and the screen is decent (compared to the competition) but it's still incredibly slow for a $1,200 unit. The DNX8901HD has an actual upgraded interface (and has features even the more expensive DNX891HD doesn't have!) but this screen is the darkest I've ever seen. Finally, the Pioneer AppRadio3 was actually a very nice unit (when used with an Android phone and AR Unchained to allow full mirroring, etc), but it lacked built-in SiriusXM and other features. That brings me to the Pioneer AVIC-8000NEX. I've heard that the other NEX units (AVIC-4000NEX, AVIC-7000NEX) aren't that great. The screens are apparantly the same as last year (AVH-X8500BHS) and extremely dark in sunlight. I was going to give up on purchasing anything this year but decided to give one more unit a try... the 8000NEX. When I first turned it on I was very surprised at the brightness and sharpness of the screen. The resolution is still only 800x480 (why?!) but the text and graphics are incredibly sharp and BRIGHT. The unit is also extremely responsive. It's a tad bit sluggish immediately after turning on but I believe it's because it's still loading part of the software in the background. One nice feature is that it starts playing music after about 8 seconds once the car is turned on. Almost every other unit takes 30 seconds or more. My other concern was the navigation. I've never owned a Pioneer navigation unit but I've tested them in-store and let's be honest... they were garbage. I'm trying to remember the best I can, but I remember scrolling the map being strange (you couldn't touch and drag) and the interface was just terrible. I've always been partial to Google Maps or Garmin (and perhaps Waze) and because of this and my knowledge of last year's Pioneer units I was really nervous. ...but the Navigation is fantastic. I've been told it's software by "iGO" but I haven't found any confirmed information on that. Regardless, after driving for several hours testing everything, I can safely say that I am very, very happy. Not only is the interface bright and crisp, but it looks very modern and has tons of features. The first thing I always check is how fast you can scroll the map. This unit scrolls at the same fluid speed as my brand new Nexus 5 phone usin Google Maps. Next, I check how quickly you can search for locations and this is also extremely fast and responsive. Some of the other little neat features of the navigation is showing the house numbers on the left and right-hand sides of the street as you drive. At first I was confused what the little symbol and number meant but after figuring it out I was really impressed because I've never seen that before and I verified it was correct on every street I've driven. Another really great feature is when you are driving on a highway/freeway, you can see what restaurants and gas stations are coming up at the next exit (or further exits). You don't have to guess which direction a restaurant is in... you can tell it's at the next exit or it's on your route. Yet another useful setting is the verbosity of the guidance. I dislike units that tell you to turn 0.5 seconds before the turn giving you no time in advance to know about it. This unit has three settings so you can customize when and how often it will tell you what to do. The last thing I'd like to comment on is the screen brightness. I'm driving a 2011 Toyota RAV4 and the car stereo is very high on the dashboard and very often has sunlight directly shining on it. Other cars have the head units low on the dashboard and don't have to worry about this, but for me the screen brightness is one of the absolute most important features because if you can't see the screen than you can't use the unit. As I mentioned above, last year's Pioneer AVH-X8500BHS was terrible in both direct and indirect sunlight. I really wanted to like the unit but it was too dark and unusuable for me. However, the Kenwoods were very bright (or so I thought before the 8000NEX) but had other problems. This time I wanted to objectively measure the screen brightness and purchased an i1 Display Pro (for HDTV screen calibration) that could measure the maximum brightness of each screen I was testing. Here is what I found: Kenwood DNX8901 - 269 nits Pioneer AppRadio3 (SPH-DA110) - 359 nits Kenwood DNX891HD - 377 nits Kenwood DDX770 (2013 model) - 388 nits Pioneer AVIC-8000NEX - 483 nits The Pioneer AVIC-8000NEX has a brightness of 483 nits. Let's put that into perspective and compare it against some of the absolute best smartphones: HTC One - 460 nits Galaxy S4 - 475 nits Nexus 5 - 480 nits iPhone 5S - 500 nits The 8000NEX is brighter than every smartphone I've tested except for the iPhone 5S and it's very, very close to that; if you had them side-by-side you couldn't tell the difference. After doing all these tests I had to double-check because I couldn't believe it but sure enough, the 8000NEX is brighter than my daily-use Nexus 5 smartphone. Even after performing the measurements I thought once I got it into the car it would somehow be different and still wash-out, but it doesn't. Does it get a little washed out when sunlight hits it at exactly the "wrong" angle? Yes, but take your smartphone outside on an extremely sunny day and turn up the brightness. How does it look? It will look a little washed out too. Anyways, the purpose of this review was to just say how happy I am with the AVIC-8000NEX unit. It has every feature I wanted, the UI is extremely modern and crisp, the screen is brighter than my smartphone, and the navigation is fantastic. Is the unit perfect? No. I wish it had Bluetooth aptX codec support and I think the fonts are a little too big. For example, the song title only allows around 10 characters which is much too small but that's such a minor nitpick that it doesn't bother me at all. (Also - I know some people weren't happy with the navigation zoom level; I'll have to test it out with my unit, but you can set the zoom level in the menu under "Navigation Maps - Map Display - Viewpoint". It has "three basic zoom and tilt levels" available). I don't think you disable "SmartZoom" though but that only happens when you approach a turn on a navigation route) EDIT: I'm not sure how I forgot to mention this, but AR Unchained works perfectly and I can mirror and control my Android phone on my head unit without any problems. It connects very quickly and works great. Hopefully this information is useful to somebody! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
koush Posted April 7, 2014 Report Share Posted April 7, 2014 Hi, Great write up. Can you post up some screen shots or videos of the unit in action, like sat nav and ipod screens? Thanks Koush Quote Link to post Share on other sites
drenyce311 Posted April 7, 2014 Report Share Posted April 7, 2014 Yea I totally agree with you. I love this unit. Im using the Apple digital adapter with my iphone 5 and I just go to HDMI source and voila I have my iphone mirrored to it. I dont think you need ARUNCHAINED. i could be wrong, Im not familiar with Android products Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Barn560 Posted April 23, 2014 Report Share Posted April 23, 2014 Yea I totally agree with you. I love this unit. Im using the Apple digital adapter with my iphone 5 and I just go to HDMI source and voila I have my iphone mirrored to it. I dont think you need ARUNCHAINED. i could be wrong, Im not familiar with Android products Exactly. I use the HDMI when I wanna watch House of Cards on Netflix.... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
sofakng Posted April 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 AR Unchained is not required, but it allows you to mirror and control your entire phone from the head unit. The video is always mirrored, but touch control is limited to Pioneer approved applications (i.e. Waze, etc) unless you use AR Unchained. It's incredibly useful... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
sshams95 Posted April 24, 2014 Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 AR Unchained is not required, but it allows you to mirror and control your entire phone from the head unit. The video is always mirrored, but touch control is limited to Pioneer approved applications (i.e. Waze, etc) unless you use AR Unchained. It's incredibly useful... Will AR Unchained work on a rooted HTC One? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
sofakng Posted April 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 Yeah, I think so... Here is the link to it: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2451980 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
e30cab Posted June 29, 2014 Report Share Posted June 29, 2014 Great write up thanks! I await my 8000 with childlike impatience! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
e30cab Posted July 8, 2014 Report Share Posted July 8, 2014 I got mt 8000 yesterday & installed it. I like it alot and can via HDMI use my iPhone 5 with ios 7.1.2 but it says incompatible USB and wont let me into apps on teh NEX desktop. I am attached via apple hdmi adapter the same as my APPRADIO3 and apple USB cable. I tried USB 1&2 (currently in 1) Any ideas? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Shackleton Posted July 8, 2014 Report Share Posted July 8, 2014 Great write up but why knock the other pioneers when you didnt even test them or thier brightness. The 4000 is way better choice if your at all questioning the need for nav which can be added and its the only one that comes with a remote and detachable face. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MarketSqHero Posted July 9, 2014 Report Share Posted July 9, 2014 Added at the cost of losing the HDMI input and therefore AppRadio & Mirroring. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MarketSqHero Posted July 9, 2014 Report Share Posted July 9, 2014 I got mt 8000 yesterday & installed it. I like it alot and can via HDMI use my iPhone 5 with ios 7.1.2 but it says incompatible USB and wont let me into apps on teh NEX desktop. I am attached via apple hdmi adapter the same as my APPRADIO3 and apple USB cable. I tried USB 1&2 (currently in 1) Any ideas? Smartphone setting. Digital A/V adaptor not USB for AppMode. USB for iPod mode. Must use USB 1 for this too Quote Link to post Share on other sites
e30cab Posted July 9, 2014 Report Share Posted July 9, 2014 Thanks, I called Pioneer and after the shorter than normal 12 minute hold (how can long hold intervals that are always long be higher than "normal")? They directed me one there. I had tried all three but prior to doing it with them on the phone it did not work. Thanks Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Shackleton Posted July 9, 2014 Report Share Posted July 9, 2014 Added at the cost of losing the HDMI input and therefore AppRadio & Mirroring. Still why knock the others if you havent tried them? The 4k with or with out the nav is better than any thing from the other co's Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MarketSqHero Posted July 9, 2014 Report Share Posted July 9, 2014 He used to have a AVH-X8500BHS and returned it because he found the screen too dark. He then goes on to state "The screens are apparantly the same as last year (AVH-X8500BHS) and extremely dark in sunlight." in relation to the other NEX units with resistive screens and seeing as this thread is specifically about the screen brightness his comments are valid.Whether that is true or not I don't know but he has had previous and didn't like the screen.I tried the EU equivalents of the 4000 and the 8000 side by side and the difference in the brightness was quite noticeable. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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