I've had this Kenwood for a few days now. For the money (much cheaper than, for example, Parrot 9100) it is a very good deal, because in addition to the car kit, you also get DAB reception. He is with us in a Volvo S80 II, which is a difficult car to build in aftermarket electronics. I had it installed by a car mechanic, so that all cables are neatly hidden. I was a bit concerned beforehand about the size and location of the DAB antenna. This must be vertically visible to the passenger next to the window pillar, at least 4 cm from the pillar, with a black box of approximately 4x6 cm glued to the window above it. Now that it's all there, it's very easy. Box is nicely tucked away in the top corner, with the elongated oval-shaped thin antenna glued close to the window frame. Driver doesn't care, passenger a little. I think the mechanic has built it in just right, because the DAB reception works fine on the road (according to the manual it gets worse if the antenna is too close to the window pillar). A nicer alternative is possibly. replaced the antenna on the roof with an aftermarket one with DAB reception, but that turned out not to be necessary for us.
The cigarette lighter is also still available for other devices. A plug with double USB connection is included as standard, 1 of which is intended for the Kenwood; my mechanic got the power supply from elsewhere. NB that box on the window does not work on batteries, unlike the panel. I don't know how long the batteries last, according to reviews I saw almost a year, but we'll see.
I don't find the menu structure of the panel that intuitive. I was used to a Parrot 3100 and it made more sense to me. For example, to record an incoming call you have to press a flat button at the top left hard, while I would find that more convenient with the large rotary knob in the middle. So there are more illogical things. E.g. Searching the phone book on the panel (hundreds of numbers for me) is more difficult than with the parrot, which jumps from A directly to B, while always showing all intermediate names starting with an A first. This makes it more convenient to use the voice control. Via another button on the panel you can activate the voice assistant of your phone, so that also works to choose a number and actually better than the ABC of the parrot. It just takes some getting used to.
I was not used to a DAB radio, so the huge range of channels and the beautiful sound quality are positive. Sometimes the connection was lost in the driveway, but not yet on the way. Maybe the antenna stuck a bit close to the window style ;-) Sound quality is definitely good (wired via Aux connection to factory radio). So is sound from the phone, and the microphone is also good while driving, with little noise at the receiver. Also very positive is that you can control the volume via the factory radio system, in our case this is possible with steering wheel control. Perhaps this is possible because the sound is switched via the Aux. Ditto for bluetooth audio, e.g. Spotify or other playlists are also fine to listen to.
By the way, if you search youtube for reviews of this kenwood, you won't find very many, but I have a strong suspicion that it is the same device as the Pure highway 600, where several English reviews can be found.
