O’Car brings to life a great idea: iPhone as the car headunit.
With iPhone as your car headunit, you can control and listen to your music, play YouTube videos, use GPS navigation, make hands-free phone calls or Skype calls, and more—all of this while the iPhone is nicely docked and its battery is charging.
I purchased and received my O’Car head unit a month or so ago from Amazon. Installation was easy in my Honda Civic. The unit is a standard size that would fit in most cars. I have been generally impressed with O’Car, but I have some comments and feedback.
If you’ve read the user manual or watched the introductory video of O’Car then you saw that it comes with a case that you’re advised to use on your iPhone before you place it in O’Car. I didn’t like the idea of having to use a specific case, so I emailed Oxygen Audio to ask why this is necessary. They said that the case gives the iPhone a better fit to prevent vibration which could eventually damage the connector. I ignored their advice and I have traveled 100s of kilometers while using O’Car without a case, and my iPhone 4S connector is fine.
Maybe my iPhone connector will eventually get damaged, in which case I’ll pay for repair, or Oxygen Audio is perhaps being overly cautious here, or maybe they just want to spread their brand through Oxygen Audio branded cases (unlikely)…
Oxygen Audio shouldn’t worry about word-of-mouth marketing, though. This product has a lot wow factor going for it. Literally, everyone who’s gotten in the car with me offered unsolicited positive comments. People have also complimented the music audio quality, even though I still have the factory speakers in my Civic.
Little annoyances
As I said, the unit generally works as advertised, but there are little problems with the device that make life a bit harder.
Radio and audio controls
For starters, the radio will always play when you turn on your car even if you switch the radio off before you leave. This is a problem because maybe last time you had the volume turned up on a phone call or an audiobook with soft narration and now when you turn on the car, the radio will be blasting through your speakers! The quickest way to mute it is to press the one-and-only hardware control on the O’Car, which is the volume knob.
O’Car could use more hardware controls for the radio, pause, play, and moving through audio tracks. After all, the iPhone interface isn’t really suited for quick interactions while driving. These hardware controls could quite literally be life savers! Also, a watch on the unit itself would be nice.
O’Car apps
To control O’Car, the stereo settings, and the radio from your iPhone, you’ll have to download two O’Car specific apps from the Apple app store. These apps are very basic. I don’t fiddle around with audio settings much and I don’t listen to radio, so I don’t have much experience with these apps. But whatever brief experience I had with them wasn’t very pleasant.
Bluetooth deal breaker
When O’Car powers up, its Bluetooth automatically looks for your iPhone to pair with it. If you have your iPhone’s Bluetooth turned on before you get in your car, then you won’t have to manually pair the devices. This is a nice touch by Oxygen Audio. And this is obviously not a complaint.
My problem with O’Car’s Bluetooth is with incoming calls—and this could be a deal breaker for some people. When you press “Answer” on an incoming call while your phone is paired with O’Car, iPhone assumes that you want to conduct the call through the iPhone itself and not through the car kit so you have to switch audio sources quickly after you press “Answer”, otherwise the Bluetooth mic and car speakers won’t be activated and you won’t be able to talk hands-free!
Other concerns…
Warranty and trust
Oxygen Audio is an established French company that has been in the market since 1995. O’Car is a solid product that’s sold through Amazon.com. However, warranty is best offered through an authorized distributor, so I’m not sure you get the full benefit of the warranty if you order through Amazon.
Future proofing
Some people are concerned that if Apple changes the design of the iPhone, it will no longer be compatible with O’Car. O’Car has been compatible with iPhone since the iPhone 3G, so I’m not sure this is a valid concern. Of course, this specific O’Car model will become obsolete at some point in the future, but what isn’t?
Steering wheel controls
O’Car will not work with steering wheel controls at all.
Having said all of that, I highly recommend O’Car. It’s just an amazing and very practical accessory for your car and the iPhone.
I bought mine from Amazon.com. Let me know your thoughts or if you have any questions.