Prior to CES event starting, JVC Kenwood announced they would be unveiling two new Apple CarPlay receivers, both with wireless compatibility.
Unless you were on the show floor, the press didn’t make much of a song and a dance about these two new receivers, given they both have wireless connectivity for Google’s Android Auto platform. In fact JVC unveiled two wireless receivers, whilst Kenwood had five new wireless receivers to show. But don’t get too excited for wireless CarPlay, not yet anyway.
JVC
The JVC KW-V940BW (RRP $700) and JVC KW-M845BW (above, RRP $600) features are fairly basic, they both use a 6.8″ display with the cheaper resistive touchscreen display technology, and both have four 50W outputs. Both models are near identical, however the M845BW is a mechless receiver, meaning it comes without a CD/DVD drive. Each offer built in Wi-Fi, which allows for Weblink app connectivity and wireless Android Auto, however Apple CarPlay remains wired for both of these systems, for now. This could all change via a software update, because all the technology (Bluetooth and Wi-Fi), that’s needed for wireless Apple CarPlay, is already sitting inside these two models.
Kenwood
Kenwood released five new models, all of which feature wireless Android Auto (so potentially wireless CarPlay too in future) and they come with the more responsive capacitive displays, two of them being high resolution (finally!). They all also feature Weblink, which allows applications such as Waze, YouTube and Yelp to access their content directly on the display. So Waze CarPlay fans can get the best of both worlds, similar to the Ford Sync 3 announcement.
To summarise the announced models, see below:
DNX995S – Capacitive 6.75″ 1280×720, Waze, Wireless Android Auto, Garmin GPS – $1500
DDX9905S – Capacitive 6.75″ 1280×720, Waze, Wireless Android Auto – $1100 (pictured top)
DMX905S – Capacitive 6.95″ 800×480, Mechless, Waze, Wireless Android Auto – $850
DDX9705S – Capacitive 6.95″ 800×480, Waze, Wireless Android Auto (pictured above)
DNX875S – Capacitive 6.95″ 800×480, Waze, Nav features, Garmin GPS, Wireless Android Auto
The 9705S and 875S do not yet have a price announced, but with the additional navigation options in the DNX875S, expect this one to cost around $100 more than the DDX9705S.
Feature-wise, JVC Kendwood’s line-up of 2018 models are pretty competitive. With wireless technology, there is a tiny hope we will see wireless CarPlay support in the future, whilst capacitive high-resolution displays raise the bar for other manufacturers to, hopefully, follow suit.
Well done JVC Kenwood!
