Linuxslate.com Review and Discussion Thread for
Single DIN Car Android Head Units sold under the name LeeKooLuu and other similar units with 9.6 inch High Aspect Ratio Screens
 
Part 2:  Bench Test and First Impressions (Continued)
 
Physical Description and Connections (Continued)
 
The last (Right most as shown above) of the beige connectors is for the reversing camera composite video input.  The breakout wire for this connector also contains a wire marked "Brake" and is intended to be connected to the parking brake warning light.  This allows certain functionality when the car is not moving.
 
Next to this is a standard (full size) car radio antenna connector.  A right angle adapter is provided if needed for cars with limited space in this area.
 
Lastly is a standard SMA connector for the GPS antenna.  Again, they thought about cars with limited space, and the SMA connector on the included GPS antenna is right-angle.
 
There are no other connectors on the unit -- no card reader or internal USB connection to expand the storage, and no Micro or USB-C connector for recovery or host functionality.
 
As mentioned, room is needed around the single DIN space for the 190x75mm screen bezel.  Other than that, physical installation should be easy in most cars.  The package includes as standard 1 DIN mounting shell.
 
First Use and Initial Impressions:
 
My unit takes about 30 seconds to boot, and if you happen to have installed the LeeKooLuu Android Multimedia Player in your get-away car, you'll be happy to know that Android does not need to be booted for the backup camera to work.
 
Once Android boots, the custom home screen is displayed.  The launcher looks nice, and is functional for an automotive navigation and entertainment center.  I should also note that the unit includes an app to easily change the custom boot animation, so while it does not contain boot animations for various automobile brands, if the user is ambitious enough, it is easy to create one.  If the user makes this effort, as well as perhaps a custom background for the launcher, the unit could be made to look as if it was a factory installed system.
 

 
The home screen includes an app drawer icon in the lower right.  Fortunately, the unit does not have a bunch of bloatware installed on the firmware.  Unwanted apps can be easily removed.  It also includes Google Play so once you log into a Google account, it's easy to add apps.
 
My unit included a Chinese AI Voice Control app (actually 2 apps) called NEX AI.  I never got this app to actually respond, and it seemed to be significantly slowing the unit.  I couldn't quit it, so removing the 2 apps was the only choice.  Once this was done, I would say the LeeKooLuu Android Multimedia Player is adequately responsive, but I wouldn't call it snappy.
 
The 1280x480 screen is actually very nice, with plenty of brightness.  The AliExpress advertisement mentions a wide viewing angle IPS display, and I have to give them credit (in this case) for Chinese advertising that is actually true when you get the unit out of the box, up, down, left or right, the display does not wash out or excessively lose contrast over reasonable viewing angles.  The touchscreen however, is not as impressive.  Yes, it is capacitive, but a careful reader of Chinese advertising may note that it doesn't say anything about multitouch.  In fact the only thing multitouch about it is that you have to touch each icon multiple times to get it to work.  I am not sure if this is due to limited processing power, or the touchscreen hardware itself.  I can't credit it with being the worst capacitive touchscreen I have ever encountered, but it's close.
 
As mentioned above, the unit does not support USB tethering,  and it supports bluetooth only as a hands-free device.  The bluetooth connection is handled by a specific app, and the Android OS itself believes that the unit doesn't have bluetooth.  This means bluetooth is not available for tethering (internet access) or file transfers.  The unit also has no SIM Slot and no cellular capability.  It's only connection to the outside world is via WiFi, and sadly, the WiFi does not seem to be all that great.  As with some of the other speed or responsiveness issues with this device, it's hard to tell if the WiFi is actually the issue, or just the limited performance of the device overall. Also note that the WiFi antennas are 2 small wires sticking out of the backup camera connector.  Whether you plan on having a backup camera or not, you must have this breakout cable connected, and you must not cut or remove those 2 short, unmarked wires.
 
The only solution for data on the go is to enable the WiFi hotspot functionality on your phone (or a separate dedicated hotspot). If your phone or wireless provider does not support WiFi tethering, the only other choice is to cache the maps while you are in range of a WiFi signal, and to do without realtime traffic information, streaming stations, etc.
 
Continued Below

Linuxslate.com Review and Discussion Thread for
Single DIN Car Android Head Units sold under the name LeeKooLuu and other similar units with 9.6 inch High Aspect Ratio Screens
 
Part 4: Maps and Navigation
 
Lastly I will cover basic use for navigation.  I have not tried the included "HERE WeGo" app, but I can say that Google Maps works adequately.
 
It suffers from running on pretty minimal hardware (by current Android standards).  It's not fast, and with only 480 vertical pixels, don't expect great detail or legibility - especially while driving.  You'll have to rely on the Google Navigation Voice more than you would on a device with a bigger screen.  Multi-touch doesn't seem to work, but tap then tap and drag allows zooming.
 
As mentioned, I removed the included NEX AI voice control app due to lack of functionality and performance issues, but there are 2 basic ways of restoring voice recognition.
 
The first is to install the Google Search app (just called "Google" in the App Store).  This enables voice input system wide, but like the NEX AI app, this seemed to cause some performance issues.
 
What seems to work better is to install GBoard, the Google keyboard.  This keyboard includes it's own voice-to text.  This did not seem to worsen overall  performance, but it requires you to tap the microphone icon in GBoard, not in the search bar.
 
With this done, one can tap the microphone icon, and say, for example, "Navigate to Panera Bread".  This actually makes the LeeKooLuu 6.9" Android Multimedia Player work much better than the Navigation System built into my modern SUV, which is comically bad at voice recognition.  I should also mention that the entire Android Head Unit costs about the same a single map update to the system in my truck.
  
Part 5: Side by Side Apps
 
If one holds on an app in the Task Manager for a second, and then drags left, that app will be restricted to a 640x480 (VGA) area. The next app chosen will launch on the other side of the screen.  A great example of this would be to have a display with some Torque gages on one side and Google Maps on the other, but of course there are other basic functions that lend themselves to this arrangement.  This is shown below, but the screen from Google Maps was not saved in the screen shot.  The actual screen looked correct when this screen shot was taken:
 

 
 
Part6: Conclusion
 
As one should expect from such inexpensive devices, the LeeKooLuu 1 Din Car Android Multimedia Player suffers from significant software bugs. Similarly, if High-Fidelity and/or High-Power car audio is your goal, this device may not be your best option.  If you are willing to try a few different apps, and implement some workarounds, you can end up with a car Navigation System that costs less than a single map update for manufacture systems, and has better live information, and better voice recognition.  
 

 
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