Home > Consumer Reviews > Pioneer Premier AVIC-F90BT

Purchased this item last week. After going back and forth between the lower end pioneer, kenwood and alpine, this receiver does everything. Installed in myself, took about four hours and everything went smooth. Bluetooth is integrated and works without any problems. Other receivers had poor bluetooth reception quality and loss of signal; reception is superb. Had no problems transferring phone book to unit. Mute feature works great. IPOD connector (included) works flawlessly and also charges while in use. If you have the IPOD video also plays videos on the unit. Have been using now for a week with no problems with navigation or lock-up in unit.

If you purchase this unit make sure it has the latest firmware update (blue dot on box)which fixes many issues which occurred in previous units. Does take about 45 seconds to startup if the IPOD library update is enabled. However if you disable library update takes about 20 seconds. No need to have it on unless you recently added songs.

THIS UNIT IS WORTH THE PRICE COMPARED TO OTHER PIONEER UNITS.

I've been really on the fence with this system. I love all the selling points of a GPS, MP3, Bluetooth and DVD, but it has some really disappointing downsides.

I go back and forth on whether or not I should take the system back and just have my factory stereo put back in (but who can go back when you've had something like this?). Sometimes I'm so incredibly frustrated and other times, I just simply love this system. I wish I could have researched it more, but I got it when it was brand new so no one had any reviews up. So here's the long of it (and YES I have the most recent firmware update):

-GPS works great expect for the orientation of the screen (if you are going south, the arrow points down... going north, arrow points out - can be very disorienting). I love being able to type in an address and have your system not only direct you, but having several options being directed (knowing the speed limit of where you are, approximate time to destination and/or next step, etc).

-DVD function works well too. Technically you have to have the parking brake on to have it work, but its a simple connector issue you can easily bypass. I take a lot of roadtrips with friends and my boyfriend, so I had it bypassed. It is incredibly dangerous to have it bypassed and a lot of places won't even bypass it for you, so use your best judgment.

-MP3, for some reason the place I got this thing installed told me I had to buy a connector to get it to work with an ipod. I thought it would work with the usb/ipod connector I bought at apple, but apparently not. Or they were just trying to rip me off ($75 they said, I said sell it to me for $20 or I was just going to return the whole damn thing completely). I love the MP3 player. It could be more accessible having the controls on the LEFT side of the screen rather than the RIGHT side. Plus, it operates with the standard ipod controls and menus, which are limiting at times. But it shows album cover art and if you have an ipod video, it plays your vids.

-Bluetooth has been touch and go for me lately. At first it totally worked with my LG enV. Tonight it wouldn't connect at all. Not sure if its a phone issue or a unit issue. But the sound is clear, people can hear you well and it saves your contacts. The bad thing is, because its touch screen, your finger might wrongfully choose a contact and before you know it, you are calling the wrong person. Sometimes the hangup glitches and I've experienced a few times where it wouldn't even call even when it was connected. Really annoying. I hope a fireware update fixes these bugs.

Other things...
Since I have a Mazda 3, they had to remove my clock because the double dec got in the way. Well, the lack of clear and readable clocks drives me nuts. I absolutely can't stand how small and unreadable the clock is either when its in audio mode or map mode. HATE IT.

Start up is slow, I have yet to try turning off the VC but I will. Still, 20 seconds even after you fix the default setting? Lame! You have no idea how much you miss your music when getting your journey started. Its a long time!

The touch screen is sometimes really finicky. If there is a bug or a glitch, the system can lag when you touch a button. Or sometimes you have to be really careful with how precise your aim is for a button.

The radio preset is really annoying. Again, why have the buttons on the RIGHT side of the console? So weird and awkward.

I feel like this system would really benefit from a remote controller. My arm is so tired from pressing so many things.

I wish the unit focused more on the audio and even the presentation. Its so bland and boring when its rife with cool possibilities like a screen saver with a clock on it (please... next firmware update have a BIGGER CLOCK accessible!! I'm dying here!). I'm really looking forward to the next update, but I'm worried it won't satisfy its deficiencies. When you spend this much on a fully loaded system, I know it won't be perfect, but some things are just really difficult to deal with. If I can really get the start up time down to 5 seconds, I'll be a really happy camper and just glue a clock to my dash.

In order for fast boot up, make sure to turn VR CATALOG MODE off in audio options. You don't need this, an its on by default.

Overall great product: You wont get this much bang for your buck with any other similar head unit. If your willing to wait 30seconds for everything to load then you wont have any regrets.

Bluetooth:
The hands free bluetooth is one of my favorite features. My contact list from my cell phone synced without any problems. You can even have your music play while your talking to someone on the phone and they cannot hear it! You can even make calls without looking at your headunit by issuing voice commands such as "call [persons name here]".

Navigation:
The navigation is pretty decent. It lets you save favorite locations and choose from your GPS history. There is even a feature that can tract where your car has been. The GPS can warn you if your speed. You can download additional information for your maps from sites like POIfriend.com such as speed traps and red light camera locations.

Music interfaces:
You can do everything from AM/FM to HDradio to IPods to Sat. radio. This headunit comes with the ability to control it functions using your voice. You can say things like "play the artist aerosmith" or "play the song poker face" or "play the album the blueprint". You can play movies and music from an SD card. You can even buy an external hard drive and use it via USB to store music and movies.

MSN Direct service:
It works pretty well with the GPS as far as avoiding traffic goes. Sometimes Movie data isn't available but everything else (weather, traffic, gas prices) is always there. I got 3 months free to test out the service. I'm pretty confident I am going to order the subscription.

GUI and Touch screen:
Honestly, the GUI isn't all that great however its one of the best out-of-the-box GUIs for a product in this category (Kenwood's last GUI was ugly....). For example, the time displayed on the GPS map is very hard to read because it is almost the same color as the background. Sometimes when the head unit is multitasking the touch screen response is very slow. Most of these issues can be taken car of via software modifications. I used the site avic411.com.


Regarding slow boot times:
For all those complaining about slow boot times: Always research the product before you buy. I don't mind waiting 30seconds for my navigation and GUI to load. Most people don't realize that this headunit runs Windows CE and has the equivalent computing power as some small laptops and hand-held devices. My reverse camera is visible during the boot process. In addition whatever music I was playing before shutdown starts playing during the boot process. Some of you people are lazy and impatient. Last and most important: turn off the voice recognition catalog feature after you update your ipod. It takes about 2-4 minutes off the boot time (time dependent on size of your IPod library).

I installed the AVIC-F90BT about 2 months ago and continue to be impressed by its features - it has everything I was looking for in an A/V/Nav/Bluetooth, etc. unit.

Direct iPod and USB connectivity (cables included) along with a front-loading SD card slot to serve as yet another music/video source and also readily handle firmware and nav updates (which Pioneer will send to you on an SD besides making them available for download) are plusses. Bluetooth pairing with my Blackberry Curve and use with my iTouch (and my daughter's iPod nano) has been flawless. The unit is readily bypassed (at your own risk) to avoid a parking break warning when trying to watch DVD's, etc. And springing for the "Premier" F90BT vs one of the other F-series Pioneer units gets you another year (for 2 years total) on the factory warranty and beefed-up 4.0 volt pre-outs (for those interested in speaker/amp upgrades as well). And just as it is, the internal amp actually improved sound quality (depth and separation) over the stock head unit (it actually sounds like I upgraded the speakers).

I've also got the unit accessorized with XM and HD radio tuners, and a PAC SWI-PS adapter that allows me to use my steering wheel controls. I'm going to intall a backup camera soon, just because I can. If there's a bell or whistle missing, I haven't realized it yet :-)

And maybe even cooler is how customizable it is. Pioneer provides an AVICFeeds download which allows you to easily manipulate things lke your splash screen or POI's (Points of Interest). And if you're willing to go into its WinCE environment - you can change looks and functionality (yes, even a bigger clock!) to your heart's content. There's a very active hacker community already devoted to this and similar Pioneer units (check out www.avic411.com).

Now, with all this said, this unit may not be for everyone. With all of the features involved, coupled with glitches due to its Windows software environment, it can be sometimes frustrating to users. Bad initial impressions are sometimes left with "slow" bootup times (although not really slow considering all of the features being dealt with - my bootup time is on the order of 30 seconds), finicky touchscreen (actually much improved if one just goes through the screen calibration procedure), etc. Spending quality time with the unit and the manual (bring your laptop to the car because the huge manual is provided on a CD) does yield dividends.

If you're looking for absolutely state-of-the-art features and customizability, this unit has no peer.