In this review, I look at the Focuway ODVOX Car Stereo Display. You can buy this CarPlay display for $129.99 from Amazon US – https://amzn.to/3NNIi0U only at the moment. I’ll update you with more links as soon as it is more widely available.
TLDR: The ODVOX car stereo display stands out with its powerful internal speaker that provides much better audio quality than typical car display speakers. While the display has a thicker, “boombox” design compared to slim competitors, the sound quality is a major advantage. The ODVOX also offers a nice software interface, wireless connectivity options like CarPlay and Android Auto, and customisation features like an equaliser. Its price is more expensive than basic displays or displays with dash cams within them, but the improved audio performance makes it a good choice for those wanting better sound from their car’s infotainment system.
Most car stereo displays come with very disappointing internal speakers. This may be okay for those wishing to output audio via FM, AUX or Bluetooth to their car stereo. But if the internal speaker is your only option for audio in the car, these displays barely fill the room when listening back to their audio performance. The ODVOX from Focuway is here to change all that with its ‘boomy’ two-speaker car stereo display.
In the box, you get some paper quick start cards and an instruction manual, the ODVOX display, an AUX audio cable, a USB-C to 12V power cable with USB-A passthrough power socket, a cable prying tool, a SIM card removal tool and five cable management clips.
The display is certainly a different form factor from all the many other car stereo displays I have reviewed. Many have a thickness of no more than a finger width, but the ODVOX is as thick as a fist in-depth, mostly due to its dual speakers inside.
On the other side, there is a nice aesthetic to its casing. At the front is its 7-inch display with a screen ratio that’s a lot less in height than your more common 16:9 display. Sadly, two side thick bezels ruin the overall look of this display which would have been so much bigger and pro-looking if it were more an edge-to-edge display. Pressing on the top and bottom of the display screen allows you to tilt the display forward and backward to help with positioning.
At the bottom is a removable pivot stand. This allows you to rotate the display from side to side for better positioning in the car interior. Underneath is an adhesive pad to stick the display onto a dashboard surface and it also has some softer material to allow it to stick better onto curved dashboards.
The display has some faux speaker detail on the sides, but there are no holes or speakers to be found here, although this would have been a better position for them. All the business end is at the back of the display, where you’ll find the AUX port, an SD card slot, an AV in port for a review camera connection and the USB-C port to power the display.
On the back of the display are also two mesh grills for cooling and to allow the internal speakers to bellow out from the rear of the display. Covering one of the two mesh grills only really dampened the sound on one of the speakers, so they aren’t evenly distributed in the casing as I had hoped. However, with the extra speaker and deeper casing, the ODVOX pumps out its internal audio, even at just 50% volume.
The display fires up in record time after being connected to power. Less than 3 seconds. After which it sits on its rather nice-looking main menu interface. Most displays use a common, off-the-shelf, software interface, but the ODVOX shows it’s had some design and thought put into it. A side dock allows options to return home, change volume and brightness and enter the display’s settings area. The remaining screen space displays time and date, shortcuts to CarPlay and Android Auto, a tile to interact with playing media, a tile to access audio output options and a tile to access its connection types including AirPlay and Android casting.
Swiping left reveals a few more option tiles, including access and playback content on an inserted SD card, access to the rear camera feed, and access settings. The settings area is pretty lightweight with some basic customisations, language, time, display brightness and colour, through to a 10-bar graphic equaliser for its internal, FM and AUX audio output methods.
Tapping CarPlay and connecting my iPhone up to its Bluetooth profile soon saw a wireless CarPlay display in 8 seconds and 7 seconds for Android Auto. From here both platforms ran very well with a good enough touch response, albeit doing so on such a narrow screen was a little more challenging at arm’s reach. A small movable dot floats over the interface and allows you quick access to alter volume, return back to the main interface, and sleep the screen. I would have preferred to continue to pull down from the top of the screen to access these options, as I can do whilst in the main interface areas of the display.
Playing back audio over the internal speaker sounded surprisingly good for a car stereo display of this kind. Don’t expect Bose levels of clarity, but it’s miles better than all the other displays out there, at the compromise of its overall case thickness. Switching to FM improved audio by playing over my car speakers. There was some slight background radio interference which was reduced if I held the power cable that’s used for its antenna. AUX cable connection improved audio even more and is a better option if your car supports it, but you’ll have to run a second unsightly wire to the display.
Finally, there’s Bluetooth audio, which connects the phone audio to your Bluetooth car stereo whilst simultaneously casting to CarPlay or Android Auto to the ODVOX display. This worked just as well and is wire-free. Microphone input also came from my car‘s microphone, which is rare for me as many displays defaulted to the phone microphone instead. A big plus for the ODVOX here and all four audio options performing generally great.
Calling over wireless CarPlay and Android Auto was surprisingly good quality and its return delay was very minimal, resulting in a pleasant experience overall. Its decent internal microphone picked me up well, even though I have no idea where the microphone was located in its casing.
Using this display for AirPlay and Android Cast felt a little disappointing. The sync was behind in its video, and the size of the screen is far smaller than most modern phones today. It’s best to play the video off a mounted phone instead. The same goes for its SD playback. Although fine for music playback from a memory card, audio (although in sync) is so small it’s not going to be as enjoyable as watching it off a larger phone screen. These are nice added-value features, but I can’t see myself using these features on a display screen of this size.
The ODVOX retails for $129.99 and overall it’s been a great display and experience. You can get a display for a lot cheaper than this, but you’ll get average build quality, a poor software interface and an internal speaker that can only be described as garbage. The ODVOX excels in these areas along with a great suite of sound methods and a built-in equaliser to improve audio on a stereo that may not offer such options. Its size is small but it can be perfectly suited to sitting on top of a car dashboard without obstructing your overall view out of the front windscreen. If you are forced to lean on this display’s internal speaker for your audio, this is one of the best car stereo displays out there, just as long as you can cope with its rather narrow display screen and boombox form factor.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 – Brief overview
0:34 – Unboxing
1:02 – Features & Design
3:58 – Power Up & Main Menu
6:52 – Internal Speaker Test
8:03 – Wireless Apple CarPlay
9:04 – Microphone Test
10:05 – In-Car Demo
11:20 – Internal Speaker Test
11:57 – FM Transmission Test
13:35 – AUX Audio Cable Test
14:55 – Bluetooth Audio Test
16:18 – Bluetooth Mic Test
16:48 – Calling Quality & Delay Test
17:53 – Wireless Android Auto
19:58 – Calling Quality & Delay Test
20:21 – SD Media Playback
21:41 – AirPlay Video Casting
22:40 – Android Casting
24:19 – My Impressions
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