In this video, I check out both MSXTTLY Wireless Apple CarPlay & Android Auto Adapters. You can currently buy the U2C-Air Wireless CarPlay Adapter for $61.59 from Amazon US 👉🏻 https://amzn.to/46uOqSO, for £55.99 from Amazon UK 👉🏻 https://amzn.to/40OeQhf, and for €59.49 from Amazon DE 👉🏻 https://amzn.to/47PIjK0.
You can currently buy the U2A-Air Wireless Android Auto Adapter for $63.99 from Amazon US 👉🏻 https://amzn.to/3R8DXYJ, for £47.99 from Amazon UK 👉🏻 https://amzn.to/49NfoI9, and for €59.49 from Amazon DE 👉🏻 https://amzn.to/3RceDRF.
These adapters are both near identical on the outside as well as the accessories that come with them. They are smaller, USB drive-size adapters with the ability to directly plug them in and they also come with various USB cable extensions. They simply offer a wireless connection to either Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.
In the box you get a paper instruction manual, depending on which you buy, the CarPlay adapter or Android Auto adapter, a USB-A female to USB-A male extension cable, a USB-A female to USB-C male extension cable, a 3M adhesive sticker to fix the adapter in a centre console, and there is a small right angle USB-A data adapter too.
Features & Design
Looking over both adapters, it measures 55mm long (excluding the male USB socket), 27mm wide, and 10mm deep. It’s a similar size to a common USB drive, however, some cars might find this fixed size could be too long to fit in some compartments where the CarPlay or Android Auto port lives in the car, so plugging the adapter into one of the bundled extension cables will work around this issue.
There are no buttons or ports on the adapter. There’s just a single white LED status light at the end of the adapter that just lets you know the adapter is powered.
U2C-Air Wireless CarPlay Installation & Test
After plugging the CarPlay adapter into my CarPlay USB port I was presented with a common fullscreen boot menu, which just displays the Bluetooth profile ID to connect my iPhone to and the adapter’s firmware number on the lower right corner.
After pairing to the adapter’s Bluetooth, wireless CarPlay soon displayed within 10 seconds, which has only been beaten by the Ottocast Air Pro. Total boot-up into CarPlay though, this adapter was the fastest I’ve tested, at just 15 seconds, beating the Air Pro by 1 second.
Once in CarPlay, everything ran ok and it was very responsive, which I found surprising, as the Wi-Fi specs aren’t the best out there. Connecting to its IP config menu shows the usual basic set of options with only changeable options for WiFi channel, audio and startup modes. You can also update the adapter over the air from here too, and the adapter was already running the latest version at the time of recording.
Calling and audio lag had the common 2-second delay, with calling being a little more responsive than some other adapters. Its sound quality in calling and music seemed also decent.
U2A-Air Wireless Android Auto Installation & Test
Moving over to the Android Auto adapter. It doesn’t feature a bootup screen like on the CarPlay adapter. Instead, you just have to turn to your Android phone, wait for the Bluetooth profile to appear, and then tap to connect to it.
Pairing to Android Auto was harder to test, but it took 15 seconds to pair into Android Auto, and a total power-up to Android Auto took around 20 seconds.
Once in wireless Android Auto, the display and ratio matched my wired display, and the performance was very good. it was a pleasure to use an Android Auto adapter that looked and sounded good and was also just as responsive. Again, surprising when the Wi-Fi specs weren’t the best out there.
The sound in the music was great and calling was also great, with very little lag to calling feedback.
My Overall Impressions
The U2C-Air retails for $79.99 and the U2A-Air retails for $76.99 on Amazon, and you can check out my links above an support my channel by buying yourself one.
I was pleasantly surprised with how both of these dongles performed. I like their simple plug-in size and form factor, which just fits in my VW Golf CarPlay USB port, and there are plenty of extension cables that come bundled if you encounter problems fitting the adapter directly into the car’s USB port.
Performance was fast, if not the fastest to boot into CarPlay, I’ve not had many Android Auto-only wireless adapters, so I don’t have many to compare here. It wasn’t as fast as the TNVTEC A06 Android Auto adapter I’ve reviewed on this channel, but it was 1 second faster than the CarlinKit 5.0 in Android Auto mode.
So if speed is important, this is the adapter to beat right now. Sadly it doesn’t do both platforms in one adapter, so you would have to buy two and plug them in each time you switch platforms. But if you’re only using one platform in the car, then with its price point, performance and stability all factored in, this little adapter from MSXTTLY comes well recommended, and for now, will be my go-to wireless adapter in my car.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 – Brief overview
0:31 – Unboxing
0:52 – Features & Design
1:26 – U2C-Air Wireless CarPlay Adapter Test
2:31 – U2A-Air Wireless Android Auto Adapter Test
3:20 – My Impressions
