Xiaomi Roidmi 3S Review - New life to your car stereo
Often we talk about technological gadgets, useful and almost indispensable in our lives, which however require the investment of a certain amount of money, albeit the quality / price ratio of Xiaomi is unparalleled and really good. But today we want to bring to your attention a small tool that will allow you to make even the old car radios smart and give new life to your cars, for example, like mine with almost 20 years on your shoulders. We are talking about Roidmi 3S that will only require the use of the cigarette lighter socket of your car and that you can find as usual on the store Gearbest.com a € 11.5 with discount code: BNKCEY.
As always, we face the contents of the packaging as the first topic, which in this case does not provide anything except our Roidmi 3S and a small user manual in Chinese with the QR Code reported to download the application, however, present in the Google Play Store (but also on that of Apple) a this address, and that simply carries the name of Roidmi.
Roidmi 3S is a small accessory made by Xiaomi, the last of the series, built in plastic which blends perfectly with some metal inserts which to say the truth is so well realized that It looks like ceramics. Metal inserts dedicated to a small ring that surrounds the upper part of the accessory, as well as the two contact plates and to dome with retractable button that will serve to take the power from the cigarette lighter.
Solid and robust construction accompanying the company logo and product indications, both printed on the profiles of the Roidmi 3S. At the top we find 2 USB inputs to charge two devices simultaneously, capable of delivering up to A 3.4 of energy if we use both ports otherwise 2.4 A on a single input. There are some inside the USB inputs LEDs that can change color, choosing from those proposed by the application, to better fit with the interior lights of your interior.
But the smart part comes from the fact that Roidmi 3S is able to transmit any audio from the smartphone, to your car radio, exploiting the FM broadcast. In practice, the small gadget will tune to the frequency chosen on the FM band and will begin to transmit the audio deriving from the chosen application (usually music). And before you ask me, I already tell you that unfortunately it will not be possible to use the Roidmi 3S as a Bluetooth handsfree as there is no microphone and in fact the software, well optimized, when receiving / making a call will automatically switch the audio signal on your device interrupting the FM transmission.
Roidmi 3S uses the integrated 4.2 Bluetooth module to communicate with your smartphone and the use is really simple, in fact just plug it into the car cigarette lighter and everything will be operational, turning your old car radio into a small multimedia station from which find music from the native application or from sources like Spotify, Youtube etc ..
Naturally Bluetooth must be activated on your smartphone, and the coupling between the two devices is really lightning-fast. At the first start it is necessary choose a transmission frequency on the car radio, which can be changed at any time, naturally preferring free or weak signals. The application is in English, but the functions offered are really intuitive, and so from the control center we could:
choose which device to broadcast the audio (in case you have more Roidmi 3S in your car);choose the radio frequency on which to transmit the audio;
activate a warning in case of anomalous voltage;
select which application to start automatically when connecting (by pressing the + button you can add other applications);
start audio playback automatically at each connection with the smartphone;
activate a sort of filter to reduce interference and increase audio quality;
activate a gesture, called shake, which will allow us to shake the smartphone to change the music track (you can also choose the intensity of the gesture);
choose the color of the LEDs: available red, green, blue and cyan or keep them off;
check and download the Roidmi 3S firmware updates;
I was pleasantly surprised by the Roidmi 3S, not only because compared to other FM transmitters tried in the past, can transmit audio without distortion, rustling and interruptions but also for the fact that the audio seems to improve, especially in the low frequencies. I do not deny that sometimes the radio signal gets louder, returning a more troublesome listening experience due to rustling and distortions but in 90% of cases Roidmi 3S does its job in an excellent way. It all depends also on the area in which it is used and on the frequencies you choose to use.
In addition to this Roidmi 3S however, it also remains a car charger, which proves to be equally valid. I did not see any particular overheating during the charging operation, even with two devices at the same time.
So Roidmi 3S could be the solution that you will save a few euros in buying a new car radio, but above all it does what it promises. Great for charging devices and that will avoid the classic quarrels with your son / a to grab the charging cable, even if necessary will create a relaxing atmosphere by sending the audio of your favorite music to the speakers of your car. Al ridiculous price which is proposed by GearBest, € 11.5 with BNKCEY discount code, and we thank for the sample sent, it is definitely recommended, already only as a charger.
[...] RoidMi 3S [with video] [...]
But the fact that bluetooth sucks the whole battery is not a disadvantage? This gadget seems perfect, but this makes it almost unusable.
The new standards (this supports 4.2) guarantee a very low consumption, as long as the phone supports it too. In any case we are talking about a car charger and you can recharge the phone while you transmit!