Customer Reviews

Parrot RKi8400 Bluetooth Car Stereo for Digital Music and Hands-Free Driving

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I had done all my research on stereos that work with the iPhone. I thought this one would be perfect. Here is what I have found:

1. the buttons feel very cheap

2. my iPhone barely fits in the compartment behind the face.

3. a 4gb SD card takes about a minute to initialize every time I start my car

4. did not come with a face cover to car the face around or store in.

5. the voice that talks to you when someone calls, etc cannot pronounce anything -- even the basic features of the device (let alone someone's name!)

6. the speakerphone does not pickup my voice very well at all in my car (have tried several different locations

7. having my iPhone stored behind the face is annoying and barely used -- as you have no access to your phone and you have to shut down the stereo if you need to pull it out.

I agree with earlier reviews that mention the odd size and cheap buttons. I bit the bullet and had an installer alter my console. I can also add that the interface isn't terribly intuitive. To shuffle my entire library take 5 or 6 clicks. Bluetooth with my unit has never worked flawlessly - audio keeps cutting out intermittently for a half second at a time. Customer support is terrible, I've emailed and called about these problems and no one has ever tried to contact me.

Maybe they can work out the bugs, but if you buy this product now - you're an alpha tester.

I just installed my new RKi8400 and I am impressed so far. I was concerned about the installation because I have read reviews talking about the oversize face (?) and other installation problems. The actual installation could not have been easier. I had my old one out and the new RKi8400 in my VW Eurovan in about 15 minutes. It does stick out from the face of the dash a little more than the previous unit but I don't that as a problem.

UPDATE: I just sent my RKi8400 in to the warrant center for replacement. I still like the concept and functionality of the unit but I have had multiple issues. The unit will not reliably sync with my iPhone, it will not boot up if it is too warm or too cold outside (below 40F or above 80F), I can't control the iPod, and sometimes it does what I can only describe as "freaks out". I understand that I have a new unit on the way so I hope I have better luck.

The unit looks and sounds good and build quality is pretty decent.

But beware if you want to use a USB device such as a small hard drive with this unit. Each time you start the car, the RKi8400 will scan your complete MP3 collection, even if nothing was changed, which can well take 20 minutes with a 100 GB drive. It will not play music until the initialization process is finished which renders the unit pretty much unusable for me.

I received mine through Amazon reseller - arrived as promised, on time and as described.

3 stars are meant for overall experience - i.e radio died 6 days after install and it took more than a week to get a replacement from Parrot. (reseller absolved it's responsibility for the dead radio with quoting some fine print - so read it before you buy).

install: standard - the faceplate is larger than normal, but fit my van OK. check your dash if you have some extra room around the standard single DIN slot. Microphone went in fine, no accessories connected and car antenna went in with an adapter - I have a short euro sized antenna lead.

function: OK - If you expect a good "hands free" performance - this is the one to get! I used G1, Droid and Nexus One to connect - all telephony worked acceptable, with phone book sync and voice commands. 5 Stars here.

As Bluetooth Audio devices: some glitches, disconnects and even freezes that required the removal of the faceplate to reset the radio. Overall acceptable - 4.5 stars

As a AM/FM radio - very good! Finally was able to hear some quality from my lacking outside antenna! 5 stars

Appearance - dated: The little screen color schemes, fonts and wallpapers scream mid 2k - the buttons stick a bit on the faceplate, feel cheap.

Updates - One major advantage of this is the ability to upgrade the OS - I quickly got the latest software patch directly from Parrot and installed it. I run only Linux, so Mac instructions worked fine, no need to get the bloated Parrot updater, even for windows. The radio appeared to function better, more stable in Bluetooth as well.

Usability - I used this with everything but the IPod/IPhone - all as described. Parrot radio through Bluetooth as well as media playback from the phones. USB stick was fine - never did get to see the album art on the radio. Have not tried playback from the SD card. Updated the available wallpapers through Bluetooth push - all is well.

Have to give usability 1 star - since for the last week or so I did not get to used the radio. It died without any warning, would not power up, checked the fuse in the back, the van fuse for the radio - all OK. The faceplate has a mini USB port that I have plugged into a pc, just for curiosity, the faceplate powered up and appeared to await updates. After radio died - the faceplate did not powered up on plugging into USB - so I assumed it was dead for good. Contacted Parrot for replacement, which is on the way now for over a week.

Buggy radio- but overall possibly the best hands free device that I have seen.

Many reviewers on Amazon reported instability issues with their RKi8400 - having purchased this (October 2011) a number of months after many of these reviews were written I can only assume that the current firmware version - v2.33 - has resolved most if not all of these problems, as I have not experienced a single glitch. Sound quality is great, the hands free system works perfectly - I am able to stream pandora through the unit without any problems. All in all I couldn't be happier with this product.

I have had this unit installed in my car for a couple of weeks now. The authorized Parrot rep that did the install (and who apparently knew what he was doing) had no trouble at all, and the unit looks clean installed. If your Parrot installer says he doesn't think it will fit in your car, go to Parrot's website, and find another installer.

Having used the unit for a couple of weeks, I am very happy with most of the features. The bluetooth works seamlessly, and it should, considering other manufacturers like Alpine and Pioneer use Parrot for bluetooth technology. I have had no complaints from the people on the other end of the line, in fact, most of them can't believe I'm in a car. My wife owns the Minikit by Parrot, and she says the bluetooth works great for her as well. I use the radio with a 3G iPhone, which works fantastic because the music streams through the bluetooth connection. For some reason I have had trouble getting Pandora radio to stream through the bluetooth, not sure why, but I guess I could use the aux in if I wanted to listen to Pandora.

The radio stations (particularly the AM ones) start out snowy when I first turn on the car, but once I change the station and then change back it clears up. Not sure why it does that, and since that's an easy fix I wouldn't consider that a deterrent to buy the unit. The unit did freeze once on me when streaming music through the bluetooth and trying to use the aux jack on the phone simultaneously (just experimentin'), but resumed working with a reboot.

One more pro with this unit is the fact that you can update the software whenever Parrot releases a new version, so hopefully any bugs will be worked out with later releases.

All in all, this is a clean looking unit, that does what it says it will do, and is reasonably priced. I wouldn't recommend it to my grandpa, but you might like it, especially if you have a later generation iPhone (3G or 3GS). I'm giving it four stars because of few hiccups I've experienced so far, but if Parrot releases a software update that fixes those I would give it five.

I can't honestly say I've tried this product. The problem is that although I bought one and it's sitting next to me right now, it will not fit into any of the 3 cars that I own. The face is significantly wider than a standard single-DIN head unit. I'm not sure how that simple fact made it past Parrot's Quality Control department or the myriad reviewers that I've read. It would have been nice to know this before ordering. Parrot's website makes a vague mention of various adapters you might need. Well, to fit it into any of the cars I own, I either need a new dash panel, or in the case of one of them, an entirely new and wider dash/console.

I called several Parrot-certified installers in the area, and not only did they not have any experience with the RKi8400, they didn't seem at all interested in helping me solve my problem.

Too bad. This thing claims to have all the features I need and none of the features I don't. It's perfect for me. But I'll be sending it back to Amazon unless Parrot comes up with some answers fast.

As the title of this post suggests the unit has died and has been replaced 3 times. I would not recommend purchasing it.

I found out by googling "Parrot RKi8400 died" that many have had a similar experience.

Here is a snippet from parrots' own support page[...]

I bought this for my Mini Cooper and mainly for iPhone use.

Could not use steering wheel controls.

Could not quickly access music quickly or specific songs, there was a long delay and often the unit rebooted on it's own.

Could not be heard decently by people I called, sounded like I was in a tunnel.

Went out repeatedly when going over bumps, last time it happened unit never turned back on...had the installation checked and it was determined there was an internal short inside the device.

I returned it and purchased a Sony.