In this video, I check out the Picasou 3 CarPlay AI Box Adapter. You can buy this AI Box for $339.99 / £284 / €309.99 direct from Ottocast 👉🏻 .
This is the latest update to the Picasou series from Ottocast, which features a few upgrades to one of my favourite CarPlay AI Boxes that improves on its menu interface, Bluetooth connection, and this will also be my first AI box review that features 8GB of RAM, so I shall see if this makes a significant improvement to the overall experience.
Features & Design
In the box you get an installation card, there is the P3 adapter itself, a USB A to C power cable, a USB C to C cable for modern Carplay ports, and there’s also a pass-through power cable for vehicles that can’t supply the necessary power to the adapter.
Looking at the adapter, it has a similar form factor to the Picasso 2 adapter, however, it is a little bit slimmer, which makes it run much hotter, even with cooling vents and a metal heat sink underneath. Up top, there is a ring of LED lights that can be customised to any colour you choose from its new menu screen and you can also select from a few colour-changing animations too.
Installation & OttoDrive 2.0 UI
Once inserted into the Carplay USB port in the car, the Picasso 3 powers up to reveal a short intro sequence, then lands on its new Ottodrive 2.0 main menu interface in around 38 seconds.
Built off an Android 12 OS, the Ottodrive 2.0 user interface consists of three large panels for Bluetooth media playback, a speedometer, and local weather. Above these panels are the time and date and there are some shortcuts to some pre-installed apps on the adapter here too.
All of this can be customised to your liking by holding down on them to move them around a pre-set grid on the screen to get the desired layout that you prefer. You can also remove and install various app widgets here too. Sadly though, doing this is a little bit clunky and unfortunately, most of the widgets can look quite basic or most can’t be resized or dynamic.
Swiping to the left will scroll through any additional layout menu screens you add. By default there is one additional screen of some pre-installed applications, these again can be moved around, removed or you can just delete the whole screen altogether. Swiping upwards will display a grid of all the apps that come preinstalled on the adapter as well as those that you later download and install yourself.
There is a persistent side dock, which can be removed and replaced with a floating menu button. The quality of the dock icons was low and blurry, so this reduced the overall visual quality of the main menu instantly. From this side dock, you can access the full app list screen, toggle the Control Center to access frequently used functions, go back within a currently running app, and exit back to the main home screen.
The control centre screen gives you quick access to WiFi, Bluetooth, clearing memory, and casting HDMI, and you can also view the adapter’s memory, GPS and CPU stats, and exit back to your system from here too. Holding down on some of these options will open up their settings screens, making it quick and easy to switch devices or toggle between WiFi hotspots.
Android OS Apps
The Picasou 3 comes with all the preinstalled apps that you come to expect on these Carplay AI boxes. From apps such as YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Spotify and YouTube Music. If you have trouble updating a pre-installed app or you’re unable to download certain applications from the Google Play Store, there is also the ability to use the APK installer app to install them onto the adapter.
Most of the adapter’s info panels, as well as most Android apps, require some form of Internet connection, and you can give this to the adapter by either connecting to a WiFi source in the car, tethering from a personal hotspot on your phone, or inserting a mobile data SIM card into the adapter for a more dedicated Internet connection.
Performance
Firing up my usual suite of test apps on the Picasso 3 was swift as expected, thanks to the same Qualcomm 665 chipset as the P2 and P2 Pro, and its faster 8GB of RAM. Even with more RAM, the P3’s Geekbench score didn’t do as well as the Picasou 2 and 2 Pro though, which could be due to its newer Android 12 OS and any additional services hogging some extra resources.
The YouTube app runs in mobile mode and without any DPI override settings, I was stuck with the layout, which makes it harder to browse content. Audio sync was just a little behind too, which is okay for casual watching, but generally, I have seen YouTube perform better on other adapters.
Netflix Woes
Over on the Netflix app, I countered a major issue where videos only played its audio over a black video screen. I tried installing a newer APK but I continued to overcome this problem.
There is a split-screen app that creates shortcuts to two apps you wish to regularly launch. You can have this launch at startup or at the press of a shortcut. Split views can be dynamically adjusted and it seems overall more robust than some others I’ve tried.
Overall though, apps launched sometimes faster and sometimes slower than other AI Boxes, but I found the P2 and P2 Pro were more consistent with their launch speeds than the P3.
Gaming on the P3 is improved, mostly with faster launch times due to the boost in extra RAM. I was able to pair both the remote and Xbox controller to the adapter, so navigating from afar or having better control in games that support them is a nice addition over the P2 and P2 Pro, which only supported a Bluetooth remote.
Wireless CarPlay & Android Auto
When using a second source of WiFi or SIM card you can run both internet-based Android apps and wireless CarPlay or Android Auto simultaneously But if you tether from the same phone you use CarPlay or Android Auto on, then you’ll need to remember to toggle WiFi on and off in its menu screen or it’s quicker to do this in the control centre screen.
In the Multiplay app, Wireless CarPlay has basic settings and it was very hit and miss on connecting to the adapter. When it is successful it took between 26 and 43 seconds from pairing into Apple CarPlay, and touch input was ok, but it did show some lag in swipes and touch input, this was confirmed after checking its Wi-Fi specs were a lot worse than what’s in the P2 and P2 Pro adapters.
Android Auto continues to struggle with this series of adapters. After a few attempts connecting, Android Auto can launch as fast as 7 seconds to up to 26 seconds from the initial Bluetooth pairing. Once connected, I encountered the same lower resolution on my Google Pixel 3, even when trying higher resolutions in the Android Auto developer settings area – a problem I encounter a lot on these AI Boxes. Otherwise, Android auto ran ok, similar to the P2 and P2 pro adapters, with the usual slight increase in delay and performance over Wireless CarPlay.
HDMI Output
You can connect the P3 to an HDMI display in the car, an HDMI desktop monitor or a TV screen, and mirror the adapter’s content to a second screen. Its video delay wasn’t too far behind and it’s a nice way to cast content onto other displays in the car or use it as a media streamer on a bigger TV screen, whilst using a connected Bluetooth remote or game controller.
Sound Issues
I did encounter a major bug on the P3, where the adapter would output all of its audio on the voice and narration audio channel after I first connected the adapter to an external HDMI monitor. Since then I have been unable to get out of this audio mode, and no restarts or factory resets would fix it. Hopefully, Ottocast will bring an update that will fix this issue.
Inserting a microSD card into the adapter allows you to play back local video and music onto the CarPlay display. This is a great way to avoid relying on an internet connection and media plays back just fine on its built-in media player, or any app of choice from the Google Play store.
My Impressions
The Picasou 3 CarPlay AI Box currently retails for and likely soon on Amazon.
Compared to the P2 and P2 Pro, I was left a little disappointed with the P3. On one side there have been improvements, such as its user interface, better Bluetooth support, and upgraded RAM for faster launch times in Android apps and games. But during my tests, it really dropped the ball on a number of key areas, from non-functioning apps like Netflix to some noticeable audio delay in YouTube.
Although its Android Auto connection is more reliable (as long as you remember to turn Wi-Fi off), its visual quality is lower than on the P2 and P2 Pro. The boot times of CarPlay and Android Auto were also much longer, and they didn’t benchmark as well as the P2 and P2 Pro.
So overall, Ottocast hasn’t really made as much of an update to the Picasou series in the same way the P2 did over the original P1. It’s more evolutionary than revolutionary. And when you factor in its rather high price tag, if these upgrades bring some value to you, then maybe check the P3 out, but I would give it some time to iron out the bugs and issues I encountered, otherwise, you can get by well enough with their now cheaper Picasou 2.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 – Brief overview
0:32 – Unboxing
0:50 – Features & Design
1:28 – Boot up & Menu interface
3.28 – Internet & Apps
4:20 – RAM & Performance
4:54 – Netflix Woes
5:07 – Splitscreen mode
5:35 – Gaming & controller support
5:52 – Wireless CarPlay
6:40 – Wireless Android Auto
7:12 – HDMI output
7:34 – Audio issues
8:17 – SD Card media playback
8:34 – My Impressions
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