Clarion NX302E Double DIN FM/USB/iPod/Nav Head Unit
Product Details
Manufacturer: Clarion
Website: link
Typical Suggested Selling price: £599.99: ‘˜Net Price £499.99
Link To Purchase: link
In A Nutshell
A large touchy-feely screen on a potent better-than-OEM navigator that’ll play USB movies as well as boss your iPod/iPhone with aplomb even for video if you get the right J-Link wire. It has A/V rear AND front inputs, for which you get the right wire and it can be connected to a reversing camera, just NOT to a Clarion DAB add-on box.
Overall 8.8
Sound Quality 9
Appearance/Display 10
Ease Of Use/HMI 9
Features 8
Value For Money 8
What It Is
A double-DIN head unit, the Clarion NX302E weighs less than many such big items, for there is no DVD/CD disc spinning platter inside. The chassis is the same as for those units that still do have a disc spinner and so has the cut-outs in the steel panel at the back where on the mechanism models, a fan is fitted, whirring away. On this machine, well, it isn’t one. It’s a ‘˜device’ now! So there’s no fan there, just space. NX302E is solid state electronics. It looks like a smooth double-DIN TV screen in the dash, with a single knob and a very few switches. Most everything is done via the touchscreen, which while not being all whizzy and capacitive, like an Apple one, is still fast and responds quickly enough for you not to get confused as to whether it has noticed your tickle or not.
Editor Review : Clarion NX302E Double Din FM/USB/iPod/Nav Head Unit
How Is It Made?
The NX-302E itself has a classy high gloss fascia and the chrome surround to the single main control knob is attractive. With one detail coach line in chrome to the left and pretty blue illumination of their background and the high quality display, it is definitely good looking, sexy even.
You get a GPS antenna on a long wire and you get a red /white/yellow RCA to 3.5mm jack plug cord included with the NX302E, so you can plug say a video camera’s analogue output into it via the Aux socket on the front. But you don’t find a CCA-750 J-link lead included for iPod video. With which you have to connect to the yellow ‘˜Visual Input’ trailing RCA wire on the rear, as well as putting the USB end into the USB cable from the unit too before you will see video from an iPod. If you have readable video files on a simple USB stick, it’ll just play them, though.
How Well Does It Work?
The Clarion website extols the virtues of the NX302E’s no-moving-parts superiority but some operative used a template when making the Clarion website for Europe and has left a feature panel showing all about how if left untouched, the 302’s screen will retract automatically. This is faithfully reproduced on other seller’s websites. But it has no moving parts. The full Bondian whirry-screen thing is another machine and of course is subject to all the wear and tear these things can get.
I played both iPod and my Sandisk 8GB USB ‘˜bean’ in turn via the USB cord and plugged a Genesis SM100 amplifier into the RCA out. I stuck the GPS aerial in the window of the office and it grabbed the sky in seconds flat, showing me maps that are Navteq in origin (It has the same compounded error right on top of my home that I reported four years ago and has been ignored!) and has a monster POI database associated. The GIGO law is at work though, as it proudly tells me of McDonalds I apparently have closer than the chippy at the top of my street! It isn’t at number 43 Acacia Avenue, honest! (Garbage In, Garbage Out!)
But it is fast and runs rings around any unit you will stick to a dash top. The microSD slot in the front has an 8GB slice in it which holds the maps and you can buy into all sorts of extras or simple updates for your nav system by going to link
It has all the luxury real estate feel of the one thousand pound machines but for a slice less and if you were the sort who rarely changed your CDs in the changer back in the old days, then this is just the device. It gives all the power and more of the very best OEM navigation but for around a third the price.
Full Features & Specifications
6.2 inch digital touch panel WVGA monitor
MP3/WMA/MPEG4 playback
Built-in Parrot Bluetooth interface (HFP, HSP, OPP, A2DP, AVRCP, DUN, PBAP)
Built-in Microphone and external microphone ready with optional RCB204
Two Audio/Video inputs (front 3.5mm, rear RCA)
Rear USB Port with iPod direct connect capabilities
iPod Audio/Video control with optional CCA750 iPod interface cable
Rear vision camera composite video input
Built-in SiRFprima® mapping on preloaded microSD card
12 million points of interest
Multi Language display capability (Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Polish, Spanish and Swedish)
4 x 45 W MOSFET power amplifier
2V/2-channel audio pre-out
Subwoofer level control
24-bit D/A converter
Built-in Low pass/High pass filters
Magna Bass EX dynamic bass enhancement
BEAT EQ for sound adjustment
OEM steering wheel remote ready
TUNER SECTION: Frequency Bands
FM: 0.05MHz steps 87.5 to 108MHz
MW: 9kHz steps 531 to 1,602kHz
MONITOR SECTION
Screen Size (W × H) 6.2 inches
Aspect Ratio 16:9
Display Type TN type (Normally White)
Drive Principle TFT active matrix
Number of Pixels 1,152,000 pixels (800 RGB(H) × 480 (V) × 3)
RCA Video Input 1Vp-p@75Ω (NTSC/PAL)
RCA Audio Input ‰¤2V rms
AUDIO SECTION
Power output (DIN45324, +B = 14.4V) 4 × 21W
GENERAL
Dimensions (W × H × D) 178 × 100 × 163mm
Weight 1.45kg
Power consumption: 4A @ 1W
Speaker impedance 4Ω (4Ω to 8Ω allowable)
Navigation Voice Guidance (38 Languages):
Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Cantonese/Mandarin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (UK/US), Estonian, Finnish, Flemish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian
Navigation Menu (31 Languages):
Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, Flemish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian