Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)OK, my wife got a new car with the Honda Nav system, which has consolidated the tuner, CD changer, XM radio, bluetooth, and GPS with a nice size screen (about 7") and I immediately fell in love with it. Only, it's her car. So when I traded in my car for a new one, I started thinking about getting my own setup.
Enter the Kenwood DNX7120. It does not have all the features I wanted, specifically it was lacking satellite radio and bluetooth, but they are available as optional add-on components. With the add-ons, everything appears and functions as one consolidated unit. Great! The price is decent enough, the unit that is closer to being fully consolidated is priced at slightly over $1500 at this time, while this unit is just slightly over $900. The add-on componenents are roughly $200 extra, so the cost savings seemed to justify going this route.
Quality: from my perspective, great. The unit takes maybe 30 seconds to boot into a usable screen, but while it is booting up it automatically starts playing whatever you left it at. So if you were last listing to FM radio, about 5 - 10 seconds after you start you will at least have music. Sound is great, although my car is not an audiophile's high-end, but I enjoy it. The unit has a large number of potential interfaces, to include USB, I-pod, and A/V RCA connectors. Video display is nice and sharp. Favorites seems to be limited to 6 of each area (FM, XM), but that limitation might be because I haven't fully read the manuals yet. (I'd like to have more than 6 XM favorites).
This unit comes with a remote. The remote has a lot of buttons making it more complex than I care for, so I can't see myself using it while I drive. But maybe your passenger will want to use it.
Drawback: lack of data interfaces. The built-in Garmin would have a good source of updates if it had an SD card reader, but it doesn't. The manual says that updates are either through the SD or the DVD player, so I guess I'm stuck with ordering a DVD when it's time to update. I'll try the USB, but I had read another review that said the USB won't update the Garmin's database.
GPS: It's Garmin (love it or not). I love my portable Garmin Nuvi, and this acts very similar to it, so I feel comfortable with the nav programming. One bad thing (maybe should have put under drawbacks), if I'm running the GPS for a route and the phone rings and I take it, the GPS will not be displayed at all during the phone call. So either you're on a stretch of road that you won't miss a turn, or you'd better make the call short.
Last thoughts: This particular model is now, I believe, out of production and superceded by the DNX 81xx series. So obviously prices will be going down. If you can get this unit at $700 or under, it will be an exceptional bargain. It's still a good deal at current prices. Get all your optional components at one time and install everything together. You probably won't want to take it apart later just to add an add-on component.
UPDATE: After using this for a few days, reading the manual, and playing around with it, I have found that you can talk via bluetooth and still watch the GPS map. The unit will not automatically revert back to your screen, but all you have to do is press the NAV button and you will get the map back. So at this point, I wish I had given it 5 stars, but it seems that you cannot edit your initial star rating.
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