Discount Kenwood DNX7140 6.95-Inch Wide Double-DIN In-Dash Nagivation with Built-in Bluetooth USB/iPod Direct Control/DVD Receiver

The Kenwood DNX7140 is the second most satisfying consumer electronics product I have purchased recently. (The first is the LG BD 390 Network Blu-Ray Player). Both are, feature laden products, that--unlike many such complex gadgets--get more things right than wrong.

The Kenwood manages to pack an extraordinary number of features into a relatively compact package, enabling vehicle owners to eliminate a whole host of separate, discreet components. It has GPS, a bluetooth receiver for handling cell phone calls, AM/FM radio, DVD, player, iPod/USB music and video inputs and is HD/satellite radio-ready.

The Kenwood's sound is very good and, for me, the interface was fairly logical and user friendly and did not require a huge learning curve.

There are a few nitpicks:
* The cooling fan in the unit can be heard at low sound levels when the engine is off but was not audible to me while driving.
* The USB input is at the end of a cable that cannot be conveniently mounted on the dash without the use of some sort of custom adaptor. This means most people will hide it in the glove compartment, adding to clutter.
* The radio display is the least intuitive part of the GUI and makes it somewhat difficult to switch from station to station without the remote control or taking your eyes off the road for long periods of time. Kenwood could solve this problem by having a row of soft buttons at the bottom of the display when a particular station is displayed rather than requiring a user to press the "list" button first to list all of the stations. That way the Kenwood could emulate station presets on current push button head units.
* Similarly, the hard buttons on the radio for volume and input selection are way too small. At least for volume control and mute, I'd recommend and addon kit so that you can control those critical functions from the steering wheel with bigger buttons.
* The smallish remote control is really terrible not really useful for navigating the unit.

There is a Youtube video here [...] that demonstrates the Kenwood but really doesn't give a good feel for the interface.
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