ATOTO F7 WE 7inch Full Touchscreen Double DIN Car Stereo

 

I bought this Atoto F7 (full model F7G2A7XED) to modernise the interior of our Nissan Skyline 350GT and bring it into the digital age! We now enjoy Android Auto, Analogue FM/AM and DAB+ with the included antenna and Bluetooth hands free phone operation.

Everything needed for installation was in the box – brackets, screws, wiring harnesses (x3), WiFi antenna, DAB+ antenna, microphone, bezels (x2) and screen protectors. Being double din, the complexity of installation will depend on your vehicle – the Atoto unit itself can be easier than others as the rear of the unit is slim leaving lots of space to contain the wiring behind it. The 3 harnesses give options with 2 ISO variants and a standard termination free variant. My 20 year old Nissan did not have ISO connectors so I opted for the latter. Wiring was simple as each was colour coded and clearly labelled. The rear of the unit was clearly labelled for all other connections such as Antennas, video inputs and pre-amp outputs.

The sound quality is on par with the Pioneer unit it replaced – which is to say very good! Control over the sound comes from the extensive and effective EQ. Menu navigation is easy, image quality of the screen is superb. The unit can even be customised to display your own wallpaper – hence the attractive car image on mine 🙂

We also opted for the reverse camera which was an easy install and provides a clear, sharp image. The attached picture may not be to everyone’s expectation of a reverse camera but we had to mount super low due to the shape of our vehicle. Point to note, the camera image can be displayed during motion if you were to install in a van or motorhome for example with limited rear visibility 😉

We did not install the external microphone as the pinhole microphone in the front of the unit is more than up to the task of making clear phone calls. I imagine this will depend on the location of the unit in your vehicle. It’s worth trying without as it’s one less wire to run around…. but you have the option if the location in your vehicle proves unsuitable for the in built mic.

DAB radio reception is okay – the installation instructions do not state bonding to an unpainted area of the A pillar so I did not remove any paint. I now intend to improve this bonding with a short wire under the bonding sticker which I will run to a stud in the car. This will improve the signal without the need to remove any paint – I write this as a tip to future purchasers and is not a criticism – the DAB is crystal clear and sounds great!

Overall, very impressed with the Atoto F7 unit – great value, great feature set, everything in the box you need to get going.

 

Bought this after trying a cheaper Camecho (which was appalling and lasted 2 weeks before being returned)

This unit it sturdy, the screen is very nice, works faultlessly with CarPlay and is generally a great piece of kit

Functionally this is comparable with an equivalent Pioneer head unit in our other car, for a lot less money

Very happy with this.

 

It took ages to install because I had to buy a facia. Then gave up on that. But the next stage was running the cables from the Head Unit to the rear of the car! Very hard to get the cables to where I wanted them on a Ford Focus 01.
And finally after connecting the reverse camera to the reverse light, everything worked!
Well except that now, sometimes the whole unit fails to come on. Or only the reverse camera and reverse light come on but not the unit. Apart from those things it looks good, sounds good, and has some good features.

There is no option to adjust the lines on the reverse camera screen. So when installing the camera, make sure it is exactly where you want it!

 

I’ve left this a good few months before I’ve left a review. I use my car a lot, so it’s really been through it’s paces. This headunit has throughly impressed me. I only wanted a cheap unit, and this ticks all the boxes. CarPlay works well, Bluetooth works perfect. Steering controls with a CANBUS decoding unit installed work perfect. I can’t fault this really at all. Two small gripes I have experienced is occasionally (and I mean very occasionally-this has probably only happened about 4 times since I installed the unit), the title of my song will freeze on screen, so will still tell me I’m listening to a song I was listening to earlier. But this isn’t a big deal, it still functions normally (play, pause skip etc) and I think it may even be my phones fault. It works perfectly when I cycle power again. The only other issue I’ve experienced is with CarPlay sometimes not having audio when I first plug in, and I have to disconnect and reconnect to get it to work. Again, I think this may be the fault of Apple and not the actual unit. A different brand of reverse camera was simply plug and play and activates perfectly, as well as subwoofer integration and controls being very useful. The only other thing I would say to bare in mind is that being a Chinese unit, the size is marginally bigger than the standard ‘name brand’ units, meaning that I couldn’t use a standard double din kit and had to get creative with my vehicle’s stock radio bracket, as well as make the fascia fit (this can be seen in my images where you can see I reduced the height of the black fascia piece to fit in my vehicle specific fascia adapter). Overall though, this is the perfect budget head unit. My car isn’t worth much so didn’t want to shell out mega bucks to install a more modern head unit, and this is absolutely perfect. I highly recommend!

 

I spent a long time looking at all the options and this one seemed too cheap to be any good, but i read good things online and give it a shot – glad i did! Very quick and easy to install, good documentation, the unit feels good quality and the display is responsive – it even boots in a matter of seconds as well. The Apple CarPlay feature works flawlessly, radio works and customisable boot logos is a nice touch. Easily as good as as some of the more expensive units.