Sony XAV-AX200 expected to ship soon – in depth review coming soon
My regular readers probably already know this, but I am a huge fan of Sony. So it’s no surprise that I am super excited about the new Sony XAV-AX200. Like the current XAV-AX100, the XAV-AX200 is both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatible.
I already have the XAV-AX100 in my Jeep Wrangler and have been loving it. It’s easy to use, sounds great and has a very clean, minimalistic appearance – yet it still has a volume knob – which I totally love and use all the time even though I have steering wheel controls. Despite that, as soon we receive these at our shop, I will be upgrading to the XAV-AX200.
Sony XAV-AX100 and XAV-AX200 – Clean matte black finish, simple and easy to use
At the showroom in our shop, most of our customers naturally gravitate toward the Sony XAV-AX100. They like the clean look and they really like the volume knob. However, there are a few key features missing that are certainly deal breakers for some of my customers. This inevitably leads me to steer them away from Sony over to a Kenwood, Alpine or a Pioneer. The Sony XAV-AX200 addresses these deal breaker features and I gotta say, they’re being really clever about it from a marketing standpoint.
Sony understands value
When the XAV-AX100 first came out, it sold for $499.95 and we sold quite a few at that price. At the time, that was the entry level price for a head unit that was both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatible. Not too long after it came out, Sony got a bit more aggressive and put it on sale to $449.95 and then $399.95. Finally they just decided to keep it at that new lower price. With an expected retail price of $499.95, the Sony XAV-AX200 has a lot more features for only $100 more. Features that will steal market share away from Kenwood, Alpine and Pioneer. Let’s review.
Sony XAV-AX200 review – Features that were missing from the Sony XAV-AX100 that will be in the Sony XAV-AX200
- Higher Voltage Pre-amp Outputs – Sony’s website says the new XAV-AX200 has a 4 volt pre-amp. I wanted to check the owner’s guide to confirm that, but it’s not on their website yet. Usually Sony has 5 volt on their premium models, I’d be surprised if it was only 4 volt.
- CD/DVD Player – Yes, believe it or not, there are quite a few consumers out there not willing to let go yet and now they don’t have to.
- SiriusXM Compatibility – You all know how I feel about SiriusXM, but I get it, some of you have it have it. Not only is this unit SiriusXM compatible, it even comes with a free SXV300 tuner.
- Mass Storage Device Control for Audio and Video – The XAV-AX100 USB could only read software updates and upload a background photo image from mass storage devices (despite it also being compatible with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto – that always seemed odd to me how they limited this).The Sony XAV-AX200 supports audio codecs like PCM, MP3, WMA, AAC and FLAC from mass storage devices. It also supports video codecs like MPEG4-SP/AVC (H.264 Baseline), WMV, FLV and MKV/XviD.
- 3 Camera Inputs – Although the XAV-AX100 has a reverse camera input, some of us like to have a front camera, blind spot cameras or even rock crawling cameras. Sony makes it easy to add those additional cameras and select which input you want to view directly on screen.
- Tom Tom GPS Navigation Compatible – if you feel more comfortable with a dedicated GPS receiver, rather than relying on your cell phone, you can add the Sony XA-NV200 navigation module with GPS antenna.
It appears that once again, Sony is nailing it when it comes to features, sound quality and value. I expect to sell a lot more Sony once the XAV-AX200 arrives and I expect my Jeep Wrangler to look more like the one below very soon.
