Wireless CarPlay is quite expensive and that’s the fact. Not only because very limited number of car models comes with this beautiful Apple CarPlay option, it can also add to the beauty of any car and boost it’s infotainment system to the max.
With the availability of some third-party solutions, the pricing usually starts from somewhere around $400 to as high as $1000 but still, you get this low-level user experience of a mini 7-inch tablet display which isn’t totally interesting….I LOVE EM BIG personally.
But really, what is the need when you can basically spend much lesser and get that same CarPlay experience in your old/new car using so many affordable options.
Just as you red in the title, there are really some cheaper and easy-to-install plugin-in-play alternatives available which will give you that same Apple CarPlay experience while spending as little as $150 even lower in some cases depending on what gadget you already have in your possession.
What this is…the Android tablet with a Wireless CarPlay adapter or should I just call it a Dongle (the most common name we all call it on EarthRealm) which when combined together can give you the full Wireless CarPlay experience.
In as much as your tablet runs the Android 4.4 KitKat and above, this hack would work fine. You can even get the overtly cheap Amazon Fire Tablet which is sold for as little as $39. (FireOS is a forked Android OS…so nothing is really different here. All you have to do next after you have your Android enabled tablet in place is to install an Application (APK File) for the adapter on the tablet and then you load the CarPlay UI.
Still sounds like a miracle? Let’s go even further…
There are lot more expensive Android tablets like the Huawei MediaPad T5 or the new Galaxy Tab S5 and so on. But the cheaper $39 Fire tablet would still work very fine. Just imagine if you have this giant 10.1-inch tablet on your dash just like the massive tablet on the Tesla vehicles…it would be really beautiful if you may.
You can then even go with an 18-inch tablet like Samsung Galaxy View for that amazing experience in your car. They all will work just fine with the aforementioned Wireless CarPlay dongle, which by the way also has wired-only CarPlay compatibility if you so wish to use that instead. Sure, those later options are expensive and will cost as much as third-party headunits with built-in CarPlay but none of those third-party headunits will give you such big high-res screens and flexibility for Wireless CarPlay in car.
And one sweet thing is that despite being used for CarPlay, that doesn’t mean it won’t run Android based applications which makes it all interesting. And if your Android tablet is running Android 6.0 or later, you can even make use of native Android side-by-side multitasking to run an Android app on one side and Wireless Apple CarPlay on the other.
Best of all, all versions of iOS are supported, even the latest iOS 13. Siri commands via microphone, iOS 13 dashboard view, steering wheel control option support are all supported as well.
WOW!!!
Anyway for the case of experimentation, you can still start up with a cheap 7-Inch tablet to see how this works out and then you can opt for a better, bigger option later on.
If you ask for my recommendation, I’ll suggest starting with a cheap Android tablet like Fire 7 for trying this setup out in your car. If you think it works well for you, go for a better and large screen Android tablet for even better experience.
If you are interested, links to how you can get this for your car can be found below.
CarPlay Adapter
- Wireless+Wired CarPlay Adapter (don’t forget to use discount code SPNGSALE10WCP at check out)
- Wired-only CarPlay Adapter (don’t forget to use discount code SPNGSALE10CP at check out)
Android Tablets options
- Fire 7 (Refurb): $39
- Fire 7 (New): $49
- Fire HD 8: $79
- Fire HD 10: $119
- Samsung Galaxy Tab A: 229
- Samsung Galaxy S5e: $397
- Samsung Galaxy View: $549
OTG Adapter
- USB-A to USB-C (Required for Galaxy S5e, Galaxy Tab A)
- USB-A to microUSB (Required for Fire tablets, Galaxy View)
So I wonder why anyone would intentionally waste their cash on some expensive gadget that is not worth it. With this DIY, you can enjoy the max CarPlay with ease without having to spend too much instead experience the Android UI as well as the CarPlay UI and beauty in your car.
