Feature Story:
Alpine Electronics of America is now shipping the new Alpine Halo9, an in-dash radio with a large 9-inch screen that can work in most cars.
The Halo9 iLX-F309 “hovers” over the vehicle’s dashboard as shown in the video below.
Alpine says the radio provides a large screen without the need for custom installation. It achieved this through a flexible mounting system for the radio screen to accommodate the car’s heating and cooling controls.
“The iLX-F309 uses a new design that’s quite different from traditional screen-based systems,” said Mike Anderson, vice president and general manager, Alpine business unit.
The new iLX-309 Halo9 is a mechless (no CD/DVD) deck with AM/FM radio and WVGA touch screen. It is a single DIN unit whose screen can be tilted at four different pre-set angles to accommodate the car’s dashboard.
The Halo9 includes CarPlay, Bluetooth, HD Radio, SiriusXM capability with FLAC playback and HDMI input. It can work with a backup camera or an iDatalink Maestro integration module.
Alpine said the radio’s “screen can also be positioned 20 millimeters (mm) deeper than the default position or lowered 30 mm from the default position to adjust for the distance and height of the dash and to avoid any buttons or other components that may be close by. Once the positions are determined, the screen and mount are fixed to the chassis before installation.”
A second HDMI input can be added to the unit via the KCX-630HD HDMI Selector (sold separately). A separate CD/DVD player can also be added via the DVE-5300 CD/DVD player (sold separately).
The iLX-F309 is available at $1,100 suggested price.
The industry leaders always have “arrows” in their back side from the laggards…MEANINGFUL Innovation is mission critical in a declining category. I heard that they have sold out the first shipments of Halo9….awesome news for our industry!
I think it is a great idea and hope end consumers embrace the idea. Kudos to Alpine for taking a risk!
This is horrible. Makes it look like someone tried to “Back Yard” a tablet into the vehicle, or maybe something Soundstream would come up with.
I disagree. People are becoming accustom to the “floating” display. I hated the newer Mercedes displays when I first saw them, but they’ve grown on me a bit. We’re even seeing that type of display in new Subaru’s as well. Why not have an opportunity to sell a 9″ display to most customers, most vehicles. CarPlay has given us all an opportunity to sell higher priced head units for the past few years, but you can see the race to zero already starting by some manufactures. I’ll be happy to have a higher ticket model to offer with some real benefit.