Parrot Asteroid Mini Review
After what seemed like months of hunting around and reading reviews on various makes and models of car kits, including a visit to the Gadget Show in Birmingham.. I finally settled on the Parrot Asteroid Mini.
This is one powerful piece of kit, I have always been a fan of the Parrots, working my way up through the models. However this has been my first with a colour screen, with support for Android market store apps.
One of the biggest selling points of the Asteroid mini for me was the ability to install and use Waze a free community-based GPS navigation system.
The mini can access the net using a compatible Smartphone or a 3G/4G USB dongle, supported operating systems include Android, iOS, RIM, Symbian, Bada.
The ability to be able to search for music via voice is pretty neat, however I find this can be slightly hit and miss if traveling on noisy road surfaces.. The device is capable of accessing music from a whole range of devices including iPod/iPhone, USB, SD card, Bluetooth, line-in. Whats more the Android app store also has a whole raft of music apps to download, such as Shazam and Deezer
The good:
- 3.5″ Full Colour display
- Wireless remote control
- Back lit remote control (if hardwired)
- The Android App store
The bad:
My only main complaint about the Asteroid is that the speed it takes to cold boot can sometimes feel like an eternity.. We are talking 2-3 minutes from power on to a usable state.. This is something which maybe resolved in future android releases.
Also the lack of touch screen, or qwerty keyboard may bother some people.
Rating:
