In this video, I check out the Carpuride W903 Portable Car Stereo Display. Install CarPlay or Android Auto in any car with a stereo for just $219.99 directly from the Carpuride store 👉🏻 bit.ly/carpuridew903 and use my coupon code InstaAuto at checkout for $50 OFF your order!!
The W903 from Carpuride is another positive step forward for the brand and its growing releases of portable car stereo displays. The major selling points for the W903 are a 9.3" IPS display, which has great viewing angles, it offers wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support, video casting from your iPhone or Android device, and up top, there is a dash camera that can be rotated 360 degrees, so you can not only record out of the front windscreen, you can point it towards you for internal recording also.
Installation is a breeze, you just need a working stereo with either FM, AUX input or Bluetooth to cast audio from the display to your car stereo speakers. Failing that, you have a small built-in speaker, but this is only really good for voice and navigation commands.
Using its 12v adapter cable to power the display in 10 seconds from ignition the display fires up to present a number of its capabilities - CarPlay, Android Auto, AirPlay, Android Cast, Dashcam and Wi-Fi connection to browse its recorded footage via an app on your phone.
Both CarPlay and Android Auto worked pretty seamlessly, with Android Auto being the slight exception as it did struggle to reconnect me after the first initial pairing. CarPlay was much more of a smoother, friction-free experience, connecting successfully each time and resuming as expected when powered off for long periods.
Android Auto on the W903 also had some display ratio issues, where round icons were more egg-shaped due to the display squashing the feed it was being given. CarPlay was also ever so slightly affected this way too, but it isn't as obvious with its more square icons. Delay in touch over wireless was the expected 2 seconds. A 2 to 3-second delay in calling may also frustrate people.
Audio casting from FM wasn't acceptable in my setup. Any bass from a song would create large amounts of interference, which made listening to music very frustrating. AUX picked up this disappointment with a much better experience, one I would recommend, at the sacrifice of another wire going to the display. Bluetooth is one setup forward again in audio quality and experience, and if your car's Bluetooth stereo has wheel controls, these will work as your phone is connected to the stereo rather than to the display. The downside of Bluetooth is the microphone is picked up by the phone and not the one built into the display. So having your phone present on the dash or nearby to hear you would be important.
I found video casting to a display like this a little wasted, as phones these days are so big that there's very little advantage casting to the display when your phone will do this so much better and without any audio lag, and when on iOS, you will not encounter copyright restrictions from apps like Netflix etc. So don't let this particular feature become what sells this system to you.
As a dash camera, the W903 isn't going to match some dedicated dash cameras at the same price. Its performance when played back on screen or via the mobile app looks fine unless you require small details, which can get lost within its average quality, even at its maximum 2.5K resolution. At night the quality suffers from heavy amounts of noise and lack of detail in dark areas. With enough light, internal footage can look okay, but without any IR support, it's not going to capture well. Bloom is present due to the distance of the camera away from the windscreen.
If you're looking for a display with camera support, the W903 does it all at an acceptable level, but don't expect stellar performance in all areas it features for your money.