So I've had my 700BT for a week now and would like to give a review of the product and my impressions to date.

One note I'd like to make is.. I initially planned to purchase the 90BT, but a quick call to pioneer uncovered that the 90BT is technically not supposed to be sold online and only by authorized retailers. This means the Pioneer 2 year warranty is not if you purchasing it online. This information is straight from Pioneer.

You may be asking how did I end up with a 700BT if I originally wanted a 90BT? Simple, I don't want to pay for the MSN direct service for starters. My iphone can tell me the weather and where to get cheaper gas if I'm so inclined. Also, I see the DVD player novelty wearing off fast for me. I download ripped movies and watch netflix online so I'd have to actually burn or rent DVD's to watch them. That being the case the 700BT makes much more sense for me.

So back the the 700bt. I love this head unit.

Bluetooth connectivity with my iphone 3g is the best i've used.

Even better than the OEM setup in the 2009 Camry loaner I had a month ago. It takes about 1 minute from when I put the key in till my phone connects.... this could be a little faster, but it's more than acceptable. Calls do not disconnect when I shut off the car, everything works properly. I like using the contacts feature. I programmed my girlfriend's number into the "call home" option too. This is my solution to the lack of speed dials. Maybe pioneer will add additional speed dials in future updates.. (or maybe someone here can add this)

The ipod control is great. My 3g iphone charges properly, and everything works great. I downloaded a free itunes movie clip and it plays great. This really impresses me. Part of my thought of going with the 700bt vs the 900/90bt is why pay more for a dvd player when I can just watch them from my iphone or sd card.

That brings us to the SD card. The only one I have laying around is 128mb. Obviously that isn't going to do much for me.. I loaded a jimi hendrix album on it and a few custom splash screens. the mp3 browsing and playback seems good. When I get a larger card I'll try a few movies.

The XM interface is really good. You get three "bands" (sets) of preset stations. I wish it moved a little faster between the sets, but it's just a minor annoyance. I like how you can make a "memo" of a song so you can remember who it was later.. I think it's supposed to alert you when that song comes on again, but I haven't really used this feature enough to tell. I like how you can hit list then list again and it will show you all the song titles playing on the stations in the category you're in, I wish I could do this for just my presets too... this isn't really a fault, just an additional feature that would be nice. all in all the XM interface is a ton better than my last single DIN pioneer unit.

Navigation wise this thing seems to work as promised.. The maps are from 2007 which i'm not thrilled about. I recently visited a friend in his new home and was not able to use the navigation system to get me there.. I don't typically use navigation as I normally know where I'm going, but the one time I wanted to use it it didn't work. I'd say I'm more the kind of person who looks at the map more to determine where I'm going and use it for reference so I guess it's not really a big issue. Especially since I didn't really need it to find where I was going anyway.

I like how you can customize button back light colors. You can actually make your own custom color if the supplied preset colors aren't quiet perfect. This is a big feature to me. I've always hated having a head unit that didn't match the rest of my dash lights. I've even bought headunits I didn't like as much just to make everything match. Speaking of making things match, I really like the customizable splash screen. I installed my 700BT in my new FJ cruiser, and I made an awesome FJ splashscreen. It really makes this thing look like it came with the car.

Bootup time isn't bad. I timed the boot up process today before lunch. All times are from when I turned the key.

10 seconds till i heard music (XM)

20 seconds till the splash screen was off so i could change the XM station

58 seconds or so till the head unit connect with bluetooth to my phone. ( I think this is the last thing it does in the boot up process).

Pros:

Price

Bluetooth works great

ipod control is great

works with and charges iphone 3g

XM interface is great

GPS works well

Customizable

Cons

lack of speed dials

can't change the song till about 20 seconds after bootup

could be a little quicker moving between XM "bands" (sets of preset stations)

maps are from 2007

could be a little faster connect to phone via bluetooth

All in all I love this thing. It has a few little quirks, but so far it works as promised for the most part. I've shown it to a few friends and no one can believe what all it does for the $430 I paid. I like this thing so much that I've considered buying a second one for my RX7.

Does your voice recognition work on your iphone? Fixes the lack of speed dial to just say the persons name

I haven't really tried the voice recognition. Voice recognition in general annoys me because it typically doesn't meet my expectations. It annoys me to the point of not even trying it anymore. Maybe I should give it a shot.

One thing I barely touched on is the old nav maps. Is everyone using maps from 2007? Are there maps for 2008? When will 2009 maps be out? I've searched this forum a bit and I'm a little sketch on the map update situation.

A friend of mine called pioneer and says they are about as helpful as a box of rocks when asked about updated maps.

The navigation feature is really just a bonus for me but I'd like the maps to be up to date if possible.

Those are the most current maps. They typically release newer ones you can buy every summer

they skipped the summer of 08?

well

search around you can find new maps.

i have 2008.4 in my f900

with new dem file

new poi and buildings

Thanks for the review.

Did you use the pioneer ipod adapter or the apple composite cable to charge and play music from the iphone?

Excellent review. Thanks.

I wrote Pioneer tech support last week and was told no map updates were available. When I wrote back and asked when they anticipating an update for the 700BT they wrote back and said they were introducing new models this spring and at that time they would have information regarding new maps. Now this seems to me it could be an announcement of new maps or an announcement that you have to buy one of the new models to get new maps.

Who knows?

Charlie

Thanks for the review.

 

Did you use the pioneer ipod adapter or the apple composite cable to charge and play music from the iphone?

I'm using the pioneer adapter.

well

search around you can find new maps.

i have 2008.4 in my f900

with new dem file

new poi and buildings

Thanks for the heads up. I'm searching now.. anyone have additional insight to save time?

I'm the friend that called Pioneer...

The rep that I spoke with said that he didn't even know how they were going to offer updates (SD card, CD, etc). How have those of you who've updated the nav maps done it?

i love this review and it's the real first review that didn't leave me with a feeling of regret for buying mine it will be here tomorrow but won't be able to put it in until this weekend.

I launched an independent investigation last night. I found the 2008.4 maps elsewhere, but didn't have time to download them. Either way, I'll post back later when I have more time figure out the proper installation procedure.

Thanks guys.

I launched an independent investigation last night. I found the 2008.4 maps elsewhere, but didn't have time to download them. Either way, I'll post back later when I have more time figure out the proper installation procedure.

 

Thanks guys.

make sure that the maps are for igo 8.0.0 and no for igo8.3.1 they will not work

and u will need to do this too..here

http://www.avic411.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20836

Nice review.

I received my Avic-f700 a week ago and it is still sitting in my room. It was one of those impluse purchases during the boxing days . I read a lot after I bought the unit (not very wise eh). Here in Canada I paid $599. We usually pay a lot more than the US, but this was the best price I have seen here.

The reason for not installing till now was that I read a lot of -ve reviews till I found this forum and now I think that I will be installing it soon. Your review also helped me in my decision. I guess the other units (faster bootups, like Kenwood DNX-8120 etc..) are way more expensive too.

Pioneer might release another firmware, though I don't think so as they might be coming out with newer models this spring.

I am going to install this baby in a Rav4 08. Tried searching the forum but could not find any with the install guide for this suv. Iwould apprciate if there is someone in this forum who has installed it in this vehicle. Also, the store where I bought the unit says that if I install this myself then the company warranty will void! Is this true? I have seen a lot of guys doing it by thereself, don't think that this would void the warranty! Any advice?

Cheers

i love this review and it's the real first review that didn't leave me with a feeling of regret for buying mine it will be here tomorrow but won't be able to put it in until this weekend.

same ive had mine sitting here since before xmas.... got mine for a great price just over $325... cant wait to get mine put in and start really playing with it....

Yeh, I just got mine fully running - well worth it I must say, absolutely love it!

the whole boot up time is a little over hyped I think, i drove around with my system for about a week before i realized it wasnt actauly the updated version....I did the update, and now its quick. It may not be ready the second my truck starts up, but who cars, this thing is so clean looking i dont mind waiting a few seconds to do stuff.

This review showed the boot times are tollerable too, so good job.

and the voice activated dialing isnt bad at all, I had it call my friend whos name i have as "Wo Man" and it called, and another as "Tinna is cool" (thats how she put it in there, so i left it) and it also called with no problem. So thats prety good i think, if you have stuff like "^ % &" then it wont regester

I agree 100% with the review.. dead on as far as I've seen out of my own F700 in the last 6 months of running it. I was tickled with it from the first time I fired it up. One detail I find funny is that it takes my car about the same amount of time to auto on the headlights at night from a fresh start.. so the boot time really is inconsequential. Its not anywhere as long as some report it to be.

Only issue I have with mine is that it does not dim/bright with headlight on/off.. anybody have any input on that? Car is 07 corolla. op software edition is most recent and as of current time.. still un-hacked .. though not sure how long it will remain virgin lol

^ Did you conect your "illumination" wire on the harnes? Mine works as advertised, and all i did was connect like wires together...that would be the main thing i could think of....unless its somting else (hmm, concept?)

yeah, even verified that the orange wire had +12v when the headlights where manually (as well as automatically) turned on.. dunno.. Only thing I can think of is that I'm using a adapter harness to plug into the factory wiring and I had to re-pin it to match the new unit (had pioneer in previously so only had to move two wires) .. but I'm 90% sure I got that correct.. In all other aspects the unit works flawless. I really need to find a pin out diagram so I can verify the connections are correct.

ahh...well crap, good luck with that, no fun