E46 Fanatics Forum banner

Review: Navall E46-RN502 - New Android Head Unit with MirrorLink Support

153K views 251 replies 60 participants last post by  mr_hyde 
#1 · (Edited)
Dear E46fanatics members,

In this thread I will describe my experience with the Navall E46-RN502 head unit I just bought from www.bmwradios.com. The review will be divided into several sections in which I will try to do my best to cover the installation procedure as well as the head unit functionalities. The review will be divided in several sections as follows:
  • Part 1 – Introduction
  • Part 2 – Unboxing and first impressions
  • Part 3 – Installation of the head unit
  • Part 4 – Installation of accessories (front/reverse camera, etc.)
  • Part 5 – Review of usage
  • Part 6 – Conclusions

In Part 1 I will start with the attempt to present a brief and objective review of the competing head units as I have spent quite a lot of time researching the reviews and technical data on which to base my choice. Parts 2-4 will deal with the Navall E46-RN502 installation. Finally, parts 5-6 will describe my usage experience and overall impression.
Some of the posts might be relatively long for which I would also like to apologize in advance. If you are not interested in some of the sections, please scroll to the next one. However, you might find this information rather useful to make the choice of your own, depending on your budget and key features of interest to you.
 
See less See more
#91 ·
I have been using the Navall E46-RN502 for a few days now. The unit is working great!! Sean continues to provide an excellent service and responds very fast. Thanks Sean!!!
I am very pleased. The LEDs lighting the buttons are also on at night and the LED option seems to match the of light color in the instrument panel. The radio reception is great, the WiFi works fine and it connect to my iPhone hotspot.
 
#93 ·
Looks like an apology is in order. My bad Sean. It looks like my frustrations are just mines.

Maybe it's just me or something in my phone settings but is anyone having their device "take over" the head unit while connected via bluetooth? (I'll upload a video of what I mean tonight) ie You have music playing in the background via bluetooth/pandora. And when you get a notification it'll jump out of it. Instead of just playing the sound it jumps out of the navigation screen and goes to the bluetooth audio screen?

Or better yet. Try this exactly. Go to music select bluetooth as the source. On your phone play Pandora. After this works. Go to your navi. (igo/google nav) Now on the steering wheel hit the next track button.

The unit works great when I started downloading music on to an SD card instead of streaming it via bluetooth/cell data.

And yeah my annoyances have been very minor.
 
#102 ·
In iTunes in "songs" create a heading called "date modified". This will enable you to delete the mp3 version later as it will create duplicate songs. You do this by right clicking on the header and checking date modified. Then select the songs you want to create in mp3. I selected all from "edit". Then right click on your selections and click create mp3 version. Understand this will take awhile if you do a lot of songs. I did 1500 and it took about 2.5 hours.

Also I would recommend creating a new folder and selecting this folder in iTunes for the destination prior to beginning the process. This way your mp3 files are in a separate folder. If you don't want to do this the when you download you can sort by date modified and simply select the ones you just did and transfer those.

Finally after you have done this the go back to iTunes, sort by date modified and delete the ones you just created.

Be very careful not to delete your library in this process!!!!
 
#110 ·
iWeldonJ,

There's a few things you can do. Re-calibrate the touch settings. And if you can't get there.. hold the source button and it'll shut down. Hit it again to reboot. I had to do this a few times. It's weird the display stops working but the sound is still going.
 
#112 ·
I have to agree with morgado. It shouldn't take 4 months or so for an update that fixes some glitches. Something else is goin on like...these units we bought are push to last for software fixes because im assuming its a money thing. Thats what happen with that bsw amp for those you tracked that thing. I really like my unit and still approve it for anybody that wants one. the glitches are small but yet annoying. Sean you have to admit that alot us have been patient and have not complained about. Just giving my honest input on the subject
 
#116 ·
when playing videos i noticed that the videos has a "remember playback position". So if im playing a music video and I switch to another video, in the middle of the video i was just playing, then go back to the video i was just previously playing, it starts back up where i left off on it. I cant find any functions for these. any clues?
 
#118 ·
I agree... annoying. I like to play music videos. Maybe a fix would be in the update. Thats my complaint about the update. If that fix isnt in there then what... I got to wait 6months to a year for another update and hopefully its fix then and if not then so on and so on. Im not gonna have this car forever!
 
#119 ·
Has anyone figured out how to get to the native android settings menu from the main screen? I noticed it came up once when I first ran google play but haven't been able to trigger it since.

Annoyingly when the unit first boots up it loads almost every downloaded app into memory, even if it wasn't running when the unit was shut down. Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't android settings allow you to control default behaviour of apps? Would also be nice to be able to revoke app permissions if need be.

There are definite bugs to be fixed and I'm sure Sean has the factory working on them. Shame that in my coupe the glare makes the screen unusable due to the angle. Car Vehicle Multimedia Luxury vehicle Bmw x5




Sent from BimmerApp mobile app
 
#120 ·
I know what your talking about. When I had to reload Igo I came across the android settings that your talking about. I never could find that either. There isnt a section for it.
The glare or sun washout has always been a problem on every unit. If any one has a fix, please share.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top