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It’s priced second highest out of our finalists, so this makes it harder to recommend this AI Box, unless you’re looking for dual Bluetooth support, more RAM and storage, support for casting and better wireless options thanks to its Zlink5 app. 4. Ottocast Picasou 2 CarPlay AI Box And finally, I looked at their price, including any available sales or coupons. Averaging out their cost I compared each dongle’s cost to how they performed in each previous test to give an idea of how much value they offer. My Top 5 2-in-1 Apple CarPlay Adapters If you have a factory Apple CarPlay system, this is the simplest and cheapest way to run Android Auto on your vehicle. If you also use your car with both iOS and Android devices, or you just want to convert your system from wired to wireless CarPlay or Android Auto, these adapters are great solutions to achieve this too. 6 Wireless 2-in-1 Apple CarPlay Adapters Tested
Just like the other AI Box though, and also the MMB Dongle Plus, switching between CarPlay and Android OS requires a reboot. I also don’t expect being able to switch between CarPlay and Android OS will ever become a seamless or fast experience. They are two different worlds that will always likely require a reboot each time you want to access either platform. So when you also factor in its relatively high price tag, I find it can’t quite compete against the remaining top three finalists when you compare what this adapter offers you for its price. One feature it does offer over the other finalists was a high-resolution CarPlay display. So if your CarPlay system has a high-resolution display, this adapter will take full advantage of that and offer more app icons per screen. 3. Herilary C3 2-in-1 AdapterMost AI Boxes came with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, with the exception of one finalist that came with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, which earned an extra point as more RAM helps with multitasking between running apps. Like all AI boxes, you need to give this AI Box an internet connection, via either a Wi-Fi hotspot, tethering to your mobile phone Wi-Fi hotspot, or by using the internal data SIM card slot to give its own internet connection. I tried calling from this adapter and although there is a phone app, it can’t call from an inserted SIM card, instead, it will call from your connected device over Bluetooth. YouTube & Netflix In fifth place is the Exploter ApplePie Ultra. This AI Box along with many other Ultra brand alternatives offers a fast Qualcomm 665 chipset, SIM card and TF card slots. It performed a solid average score throughout all its tests which meant it earned its place among the top 5 finalists. It’s the only adapter in the top 5 to feature the newer Android 12 operating system, and although its launcher software isn’t the best out of the final 5, it makes up for this with 8GB of RAM for better multitasking and 128GB storage more storing more apps, media and games. This is MMB‘s current flagship AI box for Carplay systems which offers a faster chipset, a re-designed UI, featuring lots of additional functionality and visuals, as well as the usual 4G SIM and SD card support, wireless CarPlay and Android Auto support, and the use of Android Apps such as YouTube and Netflix on your CarPlay display. As the cheapest of the top 5 AI Boxes, this AI Box is a good all-rounder with solid foundations. It’s fast to boot as well as launch wireless CarPlay. It gets the job done without any fuss or frills. So if you’re on a budget, and you’re looking for speed and reliability, you can’t go wrong with this AI Box. 2. Ottocast Picasou 2 Pro CarPlay AI Box
This is yet another, rather familiar looking AI box for Carplay systems that offers a medium-level processor, a modern UI with lots of additional functionality and visuals, and there is the usual 4G SIM and SD card support, wireless CarPlay and Android Auto support, video casting and video streaming from some pre-installed apps including YouTube, Hulu, Disney+ and Netflix on your CarPlay display. The AI Box itself has the exact same dimensions and connection ports. The colour is clearly different, and the status light on the top is also there too. Inside the AI Box has had some minor upgrades. The processor, GPU, RAM and ROM are all the same as the Android 7 box, so sadly there’s no additional performance improvements to expect here, other than what the new Android 9 software brings. There is a new 5GHz Wi-Fi module now inside this box, so with that you get increased bandwidth for wireless CarPlay and also to your smartphone connection when tethering your mobile data to the AI Box. The CarlinKit 4.0 doesn’t require rebooting between platforms, and I found this adapter was the most robust and reliable of all the other finalists at switching between CarPlay and Android Auto devices. It sadly carries mid-level Wi-Fi specs, but that didn’t seem to affect its wireless performance during use. In second place we have the Ottocast Picasou 2 Pro. This is a new entry AI Box that I have yet to bring my full review on this channel, but it made good sense to size it up alongside all the other AI Boxes. Thanks to its overall performance it managed to easily sneak its way into taking second place in my top 5.
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I then ran each dongle on my Pioneer 93DAB car stereo, which is a wired and wireless CarPlay and Android Auto aftermarket receiver. This is to test if the adapter is more versatile and compatible than any other adapter that simply will not work on this receiver. If any didn’t work, they were eliminated too. I then repeated this test for Android Auto. First scoring which adapter needed to manually switch between platforms and which could switch without rebooting. I then paired them to my Google Pixel 5 and tested their launch times into Android Auto as well as their total automated power up, connect to my Google Pixel, and launch Android Auto. Apart from two adapters, they all used the full-screen method of displaying Android Auto, whilst two supported the split-screen display method, and one of those two was able to choose between both display methods. In the box you get the Android AI Box itself, all in its new blue-striped colour scheme. You also get a GPS module, antenna and fuse power cable should your car not come equipped with GPS to support the AI Box. There’s a bundled USB type-A to type-C braided cable to connect to your car’s CarPlay USB port, and if your CarPlay port uses USB-C you can choose to have a USB type-C to type-C cable shipped to you as well.
Like the Ultra, it offers dual Bluetooth support for both wireless remote and game controllers, and again, thanks to its optimisations, it was the fastest to boot into all of the 4 test apps including Spotify, Google Maps, Youtube and Netflix. Like the original AI Box, I still think having the option to move the floating onscreen controls to a fixed area to the side or bottom of the screen would greatly improve the useability of using Android on the CarPlay display. Because between using different apps, they can so easily get in the way and you can sometimes miss hit these controls when trying to select something else nearby. The MMB Android AI Box is a great new dongle for CarPlay that replaces CarPlay with the Android OS system, to allow you to use Google Android apps and games on your CarPlay display, such as YouTube, NetFlix, Prime Video to even games like Candy Crush and many more. The third place goes to the (her-ill-ary) Herilary C3 2-in-1 adapter. Like the MMB in 5th place, this adapter is also built off a closed Android operating system. Although it’s a newly released adapter, its makers have chosen to use Android 8 for its foundation. This decision gives this adapter an advantage over the other finalists by providing a fairly seamless YouTube and Netflix app experience alongside its 2-in-1 functionality. The cost of this dongle is a lot higher than most other dongles, but you are getting a lot of extra functionality with that Android OS layer option. I would have liked to see a spec bump to help improve Android app performance, as I had a few occasions where apps would simply crash from doing too much at once.This adapter simply takes the best elements from both of the two adapters in my top 5 wireless CarPlay adapters round up, and simply adds Android Auto support. As a result, this adapter is fast to boot and pair adapter for wireless CarPlay, and it comes in just 4 seconds slower than the fastest booting adapter for Android Auto. There’s no multi-user support, and it has a very basic amount of configuration options in its IP config menu. If you’re only connecting to just one of the supported platforms, and you’re after a no-frills 2-in-1 adapter that just works, thanks to being one of the lowest priced, this adapter is for the budget conscious that’s also looking for speed. 1. CarlinKit 4.0 CP2A 2-in-1 Adapter In fourth place is the Ottocast U2-X Pro adapter. This adapter performed average in all my tests, which in the end, helped secure its place in my top 5 over its older non-pro brother. It scored average speeds in all my boot and pairing speed tests, and it offers a USB-A port for the option to use Android Auto wired as well as wireless. From this preference pane, you can view the time and date and be able to toggle things like mobile data connection, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, to altering the layout of the home screen between 1 of 3 layouts and return to Android Auto or Carplay as well as the original system menu.
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