In this review, I look at the Exploter ApplePie Rocket Q CarPlay AI Box Adapter. You can buy this AI Box for $279.00 directly from the Exploter Store here.
The Exploter ApplePie Rocket Q AI Box might look like a powerful upgrade on paper, but in reality, it’s a mixed bag of promising hardware and underwhelming performance. At $279 direct from Exploter, this Android 14-powered CarPlay AI Box feels like a step sideways—or even backwards—when compared to its predecessor and some rival offerings.
Unboxing and Hardware Design
Inside the box, you’ll find the usual basics: the Rocket Q adapter, a paper manual, USB-A to USB-C cable, 2x USB-A to USB-C adapters, a mini HDMI to HDMI adapter, a data and power Y cable, a 12v USB adapter, and a SIM tray tool.
The device mirrors the exact same design as the original Rocket AI Box, and also its Plus branded variant, with its round clear and coloured plastic puc shaped design, with a customizable top LEDs and a small selection of ports: USB-C for power, mini HDMI out, SD card slot, and SIM tray.
Under the hood, it features Qualcomm’s 4490 chipset paired with 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage, supporting global 5G, WiFi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.2. But while these specs sound impressive, real-world usage paints a different picture.
Performance vs Specs
On synthetic benchmarks, the Rocket Q ranks third in my current test sheet of AI Box adapters—behind the original Rocket (running the 6490 chip) and the Mgears Mstick4 with its MediaTek G99 CPU. The 4490’s single- and multi-core scores outperform the usual Qualcomm 6225 models, but its GPU—the Adreno 613—is its Achilles’ heel. It delivers only marginal improvements over the older Adreno 610, which immediately holds this AI box back from fully unleashing its potential.
Boot-up time to the main menu is a reasonable 29 seconds. And to its credit, the Rocket Q does sport a significantly improved launcher UI. The main screen now consolidates apps, widgets, and settings into a more unified interface. Swipe gestures bring up panels for system tools, widgets, and shortcuts, with clear layout choices for higher-res car screens. You’ll also find useful integrations like Home/Work location shortcuts and easy access to Google’s Gemini AI assistant baked into the interface.
I tried a number of 5G SIM cards (o2, Vodafone, and EE) inside the Rocket Q and none of them unlocked true Global 5G on the AI Box that its brand claimed to be available. Connections all topped out at 4G LTE with speeds up to 100mbps down stream and 20mbps up stream. This was a little dissappointing. Also frustrating was its HDMI output to a second display. A separate user interface was shown on the HDMI display but with no means to interact with it on the second display. There wasn’t a choice of mirorring the contents either, so I had to ask Exploter how this works and I’ve yet to hear a result on this at the time of writing this review.
Software and App Support
This is the first AI Box I’ve tested running Android 14, though honestly, there’s little here that truly improves on the Android 13 experience. The Google Play Store is available, along with preloaded apps like YouTube, Netflix, Spotify, Disney+, TikTok, and more. App launch times are solid, even besting the Mstick4 in certain cases, again, making the Rocket Q take third place in my app launch performance test sheet.
But when it comes to gaming and media playback, the cracks start to show on the Rocket Q. The 613 GPU handles light 3D games slightly better than the 6225 chipset AI Boxes, but with no in-game audio—a bug I couldn’t fix regardless of settings or app reinstalls. YouTube had an higher than average AV sync delay of +280ms, and worse still, audio was output in mono, not stereo. These audio issues persist across the entire system, including music apps like Spotify.
Netflix performed marginally better, while locally stored media via VLC was less problematic with a little better AV Sync delay. However, Rocket Q’s hardware limits capped 4K playback at 30fps, with 60fps footage stuttering and glitching.
CarPlay & Android Auto Integration
Wireless CarPlay connected in about 15 seconds—slightly longer than average—but performance felt sluggish throughout. Audio lacked clarity, input lag was evident, and phone call delays clocked in at a frustrating 0.55 seconds. There’s also no mic gain adjustment in the settings, which would’ve helped dial in better voice recognition or call clarity.
Worse, Android Auto took 11 seconds to connect, and oddly, the stream was boxed with black bars on both sides of my 13-inch display—something I’ve never seen happen in an AI box on my tests. While general Android Auto use remained responsive, phone calls suffered a lengthy 1.08 second audio delay, making conversation practically unusable.
There’s no GPS passthrough or instrument cluster integration, and Bluetooth audio quality in general seemed downgraded compared to other AI boxes I’ve tested. So all in all, wireless CarPlay and Android Auto was not best served on the Rocket Q.
My Impressions
Despite its promising specs and polished UI, the Exploter Rocket Q struggles to deliver where it matters most: reliable audio performance, smooth video playback, and intuitive connectivity. The audio issues—especially mono-only output and unacceptable AV sync delays—make this device feel rushed, its claimed 5G support wasn’t to be seen and silent audio in games just prove this adapter isn’t ready for prime time just yet. And with the Rocket Q selling for $279, those are compromises that simply shouldn’t exist at launch.
While I liked the new ‘one-screen’ style of launcher and the slight performance boost improvements in its app launching and gernal use, these improvements aren’t enough to make up for the Rocket Q’s frustrating bugs and missed potential. It’s not all bad—the hardware is solid, and performance places it above the 6225-tier models—but my experience is let down by poor general optimisation and obvious bugs that should have been caught in its inital testing phase. Exploter needs to address these issues in a firmware update, fast, because in its current form, I just can’t recommend the Rocket Q over cheaper, better-performing options like the Mgears Mstick4 (for Android Auto systems) the original Rocket itself or a better allrounder—the Bruxe R6 AI Box adapter.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 – Brief overview
0:36 – Unboxing
1:20 – Features & design
2:48 – Boot-up & menu interface
6:20 – Split screen mode
7:02 – Settings
7:53 – Google Maps performance
8:44 – YouTube AV sync performance
10:11 – Netflix AV sync performance
11:11 – Spotify performance
12:45 – Gaming performance
13:54 – Benchmarking performance
14:38 – App launch performance
15:01 – 5G support?
15:32 – AI box SIM calling delay
15:47 – TF card 4K media performance
17:20 – BT controller support
19:04 – Wireless Apple CarPlay performance
22:14 – Wireless Android Auto performance
23:55 – My Impressions
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