Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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56 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Docking Port Design Flawed and Not a Significant Upgrade Over Starmate Replay, October 15, 2006
Overall, the Starmate 4 is OK, but it has some significant design flaws that some thoughtful engineering could have easily fixed. I wish I had bought the Sportster 4. First, unlike the Sportster 4, this model does NOT incorporate the Auxillary Input feature for plugging in your MP3 player or other audio devices. Many of the online merchants advertise this, but it is not present on the Starmate 4 car dock. The addition of the Starmate 4 dock increases the size of the Starmate, which is thinner than previous models, but is now functionally larger in size because of the addition of the dock. A major design flaw (in my opinion) is that the antenna, power and auxillary output from the car dock are located on the back of the unit, rather than the bottom or sides. So, although the unit is physically thinner than previous models, by the time you install it, it is functionally thicker than previous models. In short, the footprint of the new Starmate is larger than previous models when you factor in the docking cradle and the location of the antenna, power, and audio connections. Since I bought this unit for a smaller footprint than the Sportster 4, I am dissappointed. I had hoped to install it flush with my dashboard by attaching velcro to the back of the unit similar to the way you could with the Starmate Replay.
The positive is that it DOES have a docking cradle which makes it much easier to move from the car to the home. If you don't need to move the unit around, then the Starmate 4 does not have any functionality that doesn't exist in the Starmate Replay. The addition on an auxillary input jack similar to the Sportster 4 would have offered a significant upgrade. If the designers for the next generation of radios are listening, I'd suggest spending time thinking about how people actually have to install these devices. Place the connectors on the bottom or sides of the docking cradle or provide a method of giving the user options. My 2006 Prius does not have any smooth surfaces for using the suction cup except for the windshield which slopes too much to allow convenient installation. Likewise the air conditioning vents don't work well in my vehicle for installation. Frankly, I'm sorry I spent the extra money for this unit. But, if you want a unit that can be moved easily from car to home, this is a good option. For flexibility, the Sportster 4 might be a better option since it does supply additional functionality for the same price.
Update: I've had this for 9-months now and it has worked flawlessly. However, I stand by my human factors design concerns stated in the initial review and think that a dock design could be created to give the user options for where the wires plug into the dock. We all jury-rig these radios into our cars, regardless of our personal preferences. The design of the radio, combined with the configuration of my car (Prius), required that I purchase an aftermarket windshield mount since the one that came with the radio would not work in my car.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good product, bad reception, July 15, 2007
Before I had this one I had the Original Sportster. The reception was great and I rarely lost signal. Because it was bigger it was easier to take off the cradle.
My radio was stolen from the car so I ran out and got the Starmate thinking it would take up less space. Once I hooked it up I realized it took just about the same and if I chose to hang it off the A/C vents the hooks were so long that it would just look too far out. You have to use a little bit of force to remove the unit of the cradle (I don't want it stolen again) which normally ends up moving the mount off place. The suction cup however is very strong.
The Starmate seems to have worse wireless FM as I get almost no signal into my car's factory radio. I went to a local professional to have the FM antenna cable routed outside and next to my car antenna to see if that improved things but no luck. By the way, I had to figure out that cable was an FM antenna because strangely enough it wasn't in any of the diagrams or the list of parts included in the box. I just ordered the FM Direct Adapter from Amazon which is how I ended up here. Hopefully that will improve things.
One final complaint I have is that I miss the classic tuner knob. I thought buttons would be cooler but they are so hard to push that I end up moving the mount off place.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good product. However, you better shell out for the accessories., November 30, 2007
Alright so I decided to finally upgrade to the starmate 4 from the stratus. I'm happy with it. It does have some cool features like the pause, rewind, ffw abilities. As well as the memo feature so you know when your favorite song or band is on. Also, I love having more presets and more display information. The remote is nice but can prove to be more of a hassle since its IR meaning it takes a sec to work and its easy to mess up all your presets on accident. Overall the radio is great. Now the bad. The reason I knocked it a star is because it sold as a kit is a joke. In order to make it work you have to have a direct connection. I got a fm direct connector and it works great. Needed some antenna adapters to make it all work perfect though. Thank goodness I had the car cradle that came with the stratus. I'm not a fan of the suction cup or ac vent options. However the one I had happens to work great with it. Anyways thats my take on it. Overall I love it but sirius needs to rethink what their including with it. It would make the perfect product if they included what you actually need. Especially considering the fm transmitter isn't allowed by the FCC to be powerful enough without the direct connector.
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