It might sound like a small pain, but it’s enough to not bother – getting the phone out my pocket, docking it in a phone holder and plugging the USB-C cable in is enough, but then there’s the 20-30 seconds it takes to detect and start actually working. I had high hopes for using Android Auto, particularly for mapping as I’d be confident it’s better than any car’s build in GPS and map solution but jumping in the car and having to plug the phone in every time is a pain. My new car had Android Auto support, but only via USB plugged in via the middle console of the car. I’ve been using the MA1 for about two months. If you answered ‘yes’ to all of those questions, then this is the product for you. Just be careful you don’t accidentally let your phone’s battery die.Does it only support wired connections and not wireless? If you want a wireless Android Auto connection, you can’t go wrong here. I still feel like the MA1 could be a little bit cheaper, but considering the performance I’ve experienced I wouldn’t regret paying $90. While the included sticky pad doesn’t offer the greatest adhesion, that's inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. On top of that, the dongle design offers a bit of flexibility on where the adapter sits in your car, without losing any performance in the process. And it does that job incredibly well, to the point where you’ll struggle to tell that it’s a wireless connection during use. The Motorola MA1 does exactly what it promises to do, offering wireless Android Auto support in cars that don’t have that capability. Sure, you can always plug your phone into a different power source, but that kind of defeats the purpose of a wireless connection. Especially when you remember that wireless connections don’t offer the same recharging capabilities as hardwiring. That obviously isn’t the worst battery drain in the world, but it’s worth bearing in mind on longer trips. In my testing I found that the simple act of leaving my Pixel 6 Pro connected and playing music with the screen off caused me to lose 7% of battery in the space of an hour. Wireless Android Auto has something of a reputation for battery drain, which I could sort of see with the Motorola MA1. It took Android Auto 18 seconds to launch when I physically plugged my phone in with a USB cable the wireless connection with the MA1 took around 23 seconds. The most obvious one is that the MA1 took slightly longer to initialize than wired Android Auto. Of course there are a couple of limitations to consider, both of which stem from the fact that wireless connections are not as fast or efficient as wired ones. Then it’s a case of pairing the adapter to your phone, as you would any other Bluetooth device, and waiting for the wireless connection to initialize.Īll the problems I experienced were problems I’d had with a wired connection - Audible skipping like a cheap portable CD player, the Nissan infotainment system crashing and rebooting mid-drive, or the fact my touchscreen is about as responsive as a dog when it’s time to take a bath. Once everything is ready to go, and Android Auto is running, you unplug and swap the USB cable for the Motorola MA1. The first step is to make sure your phone and Android Auto are all set up, which involves little more than plugging your phone into the car’s USB port. Setting up the Motorola MA1 is a fairly straightforward process. Not that you’ll have any trouble finding phones that have both. This means your phone registers the connection the same way, so you’ll need a compatible device - one that supports 5GHz Wi-Fi and runs Android 11 or newer. The MA1 uses a mix of Bluetooth and 5GHz Wi-Fi to connect to your phone, the same protocols as any other built-in wireless Android Auto setup. You only need to concern yourself with this the very first time you connect, though it’s worth mentioning that it can only pair with one phone at a time. Finally there’s a single button on the side, which can toggle Bluetooth pairing mode or reset the adapter to factory settings.
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