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- Hands-free phone book access and conversations
- Instant access to your music. Thanks to all your digital music The Parrot RKi8400 also provides instant access to your music.
- For mobile phone, for PDA, smartphone, for MP3 player, for USB devices, for analogue music players, for SD and SD/HC cards
- 4×50W MOSFET amplifier
- Profiles: HFP, HSP, Bluetooth Stereo, (A2DP), AVRCP, OPP, PBAP,
Product Description
Equipped with a 200 W MOFSET amplifier, the Parrot RKi8400 can offer you a new musical experience. Totally integrated into the vehicle’s audio system, conversations and music are transmitted via the speakers for maximum listening quality. To make the experience even more enjoyable, the RKi8400 has a built-in equaliser and includes sound effects that can be adapted to any style of music. The Parrot RKi8400 also provides instant access to your music. Thanks to its
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I agree with earlier reviews that mention the odd size and cheap buttons. I bit the bullet and had an installer alter my console. I can also add that the interface isn’t terribly intuitive. To shuffle my entire library take 5 or 6 clicks. Bluetooth with my unit has never worked flawlessly – audio keeps cutting out intermittently for a half second at a time. Customer support is terrible, I’ve emailed and called about these problems and no one has ever tried to contact me.
Maybe they can work out the bugs, but if you buy this product now – you’re an alpha tester.
Rating: 2 / 5
I had done all my research on stereos that work with the iPhone. I thought this one would be perfect. Here is what I have found:
1. the buttons feel very cheap
2. my iPhone barely fits in the compartment behind the face.
3. a 4gb SD card takes about a minute to initialize every time I start my car
4. did not come with a face cover to car the face around or store in.
5. the voice that talks to you when someone calls, etc cannot pronounce anything — even the basic features of the device (let alone someone’s name!)
6. the speakerphone does not pickup my voice very well at all in my car (have tried several different locations
7. having my iPhone stored behind the face is annoying and barely used — as you have no access to your phone and you have to shut down the stereo if you need to pull it out.
Rating: 2 / 5
I can’t honestly say I’ve tried this product. The problem is that although I bought one and it’s sitting next to me right now, it will not fit into any of the 3 cars that I own. The face is significantly wider than a standard single-DIN head unit. I’m not sure how that simple fact made it past Parrot’s Quality Control department or the myriad reviewers that I’ve read. It would have been nice to know this before ordering. Parrot’s website makes a vague mention of various adapters you might need. Well, to fit it into any of the cars I own, I either need a new dash panel, or in the case of one of them, an entirely new and wider dash/console.
I called several Parrot-certified installers in the area, and not only did they not have any experience with the RKi8400, they didn’t seem at all interested in helping me solve my problem.
Too bad. This thing claims to have all the features I need and none of the features I don’t. It’s perfect for me. But I’ll be sending it back to Amazon unless Parrot comes up with some answers fast.
Rating: 3 / 5
I received mine through Amazon reseller – arrived as promised, on time and as described.
3 stars are meant for overall experience – i.e radio died 6 days after install and it took more than a week to get a replacement from Parrot. (reseller absolved it’s responsibility for the dead radio with quoting some fine print – so read it before you buy).
install: standard – the faceplate is larger than normal, but fit my van OK. check your dash if you have some extra room around the standard single DIN slot. Microphone went in fine, no accessories connected and car antenna went in with an adapter – I have a short euro sized antenna lead.
function: OK – If you expect a good “hands free” performance – this is the one to get! I used G1, Droid and Nexus One to connect – all telephony worked acceptable, with phone book sync and voice commands. 5 Stars here.
As Bluetooth Audio devices: some glitches, disconnects and even freezes that required the removal of the faceplate to reset the radio. Overall acceptable – 4.5 stars
As a AM/FM radio – very good! Finally was able to hear some quality from my lacking outside antenna! 5 stars
Appearance – dated: The little screen color schemes, fonts and wallpapers scream mid 2k – the buttons stick a bit on the faceplate, feel cheap.
Updates – One major advantage of this is the ability to upgrade the OS – I quickly got the latest software patch directly from Parrot and installed it. I run only Linux, so Mac instructions worked fine, no need to get the bloated Parrot updater, even for windows. The radio appeared to function better, more stable in Bluetooth as well.
Usability – I used this with everything but the IPod/IPhone – all as described. Parrot radio through Bluetooth as well as media playback from the phones. USB stick was fine – never did get to see the album art on the radio. Have not tried playback from the SD card. Updated the available wallpapers through Bluetooth push – all is well.
Have to give usability 1 star – since for the last week or so I did not get to used the radio. It died without any warning, would not power up, checked the fuse in the back, the van fuse for the radio – all OK. The faceplate has a mini USB port that I have plugged into a pc, just for curiosity, the faceplate powered up and appeared to await updates. After radio died – the faceplate did not powered up on plugging into USB – so I assumed it was dead for good. Contacted Parrot for replacement, which is on the way now for over a week.
Buggy radio- but overall possibly the best hands free device that I have seen.
Rating: 3 / 5
The unit looks and sounds good and build quality is pretty decent.
But beware if you want to use a USB device such as a small hard drive with this unit. Each time you start the car, the RKi8400 will scan your complete MP3 collection, even if nothing was changed, which can well take 20 minutes with a 100 GB drive. It will not play music until the initialization process is finished which renders the unit pretty much unusable for me.
Rating: 2 / 5