UPDATE: Top 8 Wireless CarPlay Dongle in my new 2022 round-up – View this here!
Enjoy my DAYO Wireless CarPlay Dongle Dongle Review.
You can buy this Adaptor for $84.99 from Amazon US → https://amzn.to/3zsckAB or on AliExpress → https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_9hQW9j.
Use code “CARPLAYLIFE” for 10% off your purchase
Overview
In this video I will be looking at a new plug-in wireless CarPlay Adaptor for factory wired CarPlay systems and aftermarket CarPlay stereos from DAYO. It is a self contained plug-in type dongle, that comes with a female USB-A to USB-C cable for CarPlay systems that use a USB-C port.
In the box you only get the dongle, the USB-C cable and an A4 paper manual. It is all rather barebones, but at the end of the day, as long as it works well, we’re golden.
Installation is simple. This dongle uses a different boot up menu and software to the more common brands that I’ve tested that are available, from CarlinKit or Ottocast. This means if one of these dongles didn’t work for you, there is a change this one might work differently, plus if you order from Amazon (via the link above) you can return it nice and easy using Amazon’s amazing returns service.
Fast Boot?
The boot menu is more of a tips screen to instruct you to pair your iPhone to the BT profile emitting from the dongle. Once paired you will be asked to allow contacts pairing and then CarPlay. Once enabled, wireless CarPlay will display on your CarPlay screen between 3-5 seconds, which is pretty good speeds as dongles go.
Bootup time from ignition will vary on the system it is plugged into. For me and my Alpine VW system, it took between 25-31 seconds in total from key turn to seeing CarPlay display on screen. This is a decent speed when compared to other dongles out there, and this is likely due to the limited boot up menu which doesn’t have to wait for profiles to be loaded and paired.
Once in CarPlay, the experience is pretty much the same as wired CarPlay, albeit with the added 2second delay in audio feedback and calling. Calling quality will be the same as wired CarPlay, however there will be a short delay (common on wireless CarPlay) in calls, and your own personal tastes will judge if that is a deal breaker or not. For me, I don’t think it effects my calling that much, that you are talking over each other.
Settings Options
Once connected to wireless CarPlay you can enter into the dongle’s IP-based settings menu (via entering 192.168.2.1 in the connected iPhone browser). From here you can tell things are much different with this dongle, in that the menu and its options are very different. Other than extra data on app and system versions, you have the common options to alter delayed start, media quality and a new one – Wi-Fi channel and frequency – which I am sure many will like who encounter Wi-Fi conflicts with their built-in vehicle Wi-Fi. Finally connection setup options allow you to remove the boot up menu, and also auto boot into CarPlay (which is off by default). Compatibility mode is also here, should you want to play with that to improve stability with your wired CarPlay system.
At the time of recording I had all of this in Chinese. A recent update was available and on applying this everything was now in English. There is no other language menu, so it feels like this might be detected automatically via the app running in the browser.
My Impressions
Overall this dongle is decent. I liked the faster boot up speeds and the easy plug-in USB drive-like dongle, without the extra run of the short cable cluttering up the console compartment space. It did just about fit ok in my VW USB port, but on first tests, small bumps would disconnect the wireless CarPlay feed. But recently I have not seen that occur again – or maybe I’ve not just gone over similar heavy bumps. I would have liked to see an extension cable to use the dongle way from a tight USB port. Just make sure you have more than around 60cm of space in front of the USB port to plug the dongle in easily.
The dongle sits in the normal range in terms of its cost, so for similar price you can get the more well known branded dongles, but as performance goes, this dongle was capable of doing everything more expensive or leading branded dongles are able to do, if not a little faster without that initial clunky boot screen.
It’s disappointing that the status LED is inside the casing, and not clearly visible from the end of the dongle. Personally, the LED is my guide on what’s going on with the dongle, should it crash, monitor update processes, or decide not to work. Through the casing, it isn’t bright enough to see, to a point that I didn’t think it had one!
Being unbranded, as such, I can’t judge how good support will be if you encounter problems. Reaching out to the owner is hard via Amazon, but if purchased from Amazon, and it doesn’t work, you know what to do, just make sure you decide its fait within the return window period.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 – Intro
0:18 – Brief overview
2:30 – In the car
2:45 – Bootup speed
3:22 – CarPlay
4:00 – Microphone quality
4:33 – Navigation, Responsiveness & Quality
4:55 – Initial issues
5:23 – Calling
5:53 – Settings & Updating
8:31 – No boot-up profiles & pairing
10:22 – My Impressions
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