I did a lot of research and talked to a few people with different units from alibaba buys to Phoenix and others. There are definitely subtle differences in Firmware and SW loads. I saw one alibaba that have Phoenix SW and the guy had all kinds of problems - I doubt it was the right HW for that SW.
Most of the units I saw and people I talked to had issues. some were Operator error - you have to configure these right. and some were just bad firmware or Software loads. and some just non US versions - most of the guys either paid someone to set them up or returned them or lived with the issues.
I generally don't like to overpay, but when dealing with a system like this and so much bad press and after my research most unsatisfied people bought from the wrong place, or expected plug and play rather plug, setup and play, I paid a little more for support and the ability to service or return if needed.
The place I got mine from also shipped the unit to me in less than a week and provided tracking and via email a bunch of videos to watch, Physical install took 30 minutes, setup took a couple hours if I am being honest
I have a 2020 1500 Classic and ended up going Android 11 (which seems to be thew newest for these tablets) They seem to be behind in Android releases because the FW is custom and they have to support radio functions and CAN bus adapters and all that seems to be at the root level - so not easily portable. Also the OCTA core stuff seems to be only supported on Android 11 or newer and the older hardware is too slow and Alibaba stuff is generally more expensive once you outfit with the right memory and storage
Since I have Manual AC, I went for the AutoTecPro 12" that retained my Manual AC controls since 50% of the issues I heard about involved the AC controls in some form or fashion and I guess I a lucky I retained my manual controls, and so far after 6 months I have zero issues and it works great.
I am a somewhat computer savvy guy (well Mac savvy anyway) so I knew I had to set it up right before I started using it and went the Modern UI which is very nice.
I customized the home screen, boot screen, and only kept the Icons I would use, and got all the clutter off the screen and it looks factory clean. that was all really easy with the instructional videos from AutoTec
I did email back and forth with AutoTec and I required a SW load 9CAN update) to get Farenheit vs Celcius and they did notify me of a SW update in February and I installed that for some cleaner set up menus.
Like I said so far no issues, I use CarPlay alot and stay away from using it as my web browser ... For me its a Carplay enabled navigation radio with a huge touchscreen, and not an android tablet.
It is very responsive, and as long as follow their initial instructions on setting up wireless carplay its flawless. Both mine and the wife's iPhones instantly connect
Stupid things are flakey - like connecting wifi at home to upgrade and then forgetting to turn it off while leaving BT on my phone connected while the home Wifi is connected it makes Carplay not work and I have you forget the phone and reconnect. So I just leave wifi off on the T-style.
Other than that and Not having US SIM support for the radio in there (I really wanted a data plan, that one sucks).
AutoTec has videos that you only get access to after buying that run you through setup and tell you and they email back in hours with answers which I think is important. Little things that can trip you up they answer in videos like one of the speakers is not going to work after you install here is how you rebalance the speakers to fix it . If I did not watch that video I would have thought the amp was bad - stuff like that . But it sure beats my stock stereo and it sounds better as well. I did use SUB out and installed a powered sub under the Middle front seat
I cannot say others are better or worse, but the people with RAMs and AutoTecs that were willing to put a couiple hours in setting up are like me satisfied. I hear ther Link stuff is good too - its just $$$
FWIW
