thammel

I'm an iphone user. And I enjoy apple car play but the last charging/connect cord became defective so I bought a wireless bluetooth gizmo and it works very well! No more need to connect the phone in the car. I leave it in my coat or shirt pocket and the connection is flawless. The unit I purchased was only $60 from Amazon..LOBOAIR is the model. It comes with a USB-A plug and a USBA to USBC adaptor. It's small enough to leave in the armrest cubby.

I'm using this in my 2017 GLE350.

Tom

sub786sub

I never liked the small screen of the GLE and the native carplay is very low quality.
My solution: I have upgraded by whole infotainment system to get widescreen. It came with wired and wireless car play that I use often. I posted the infotainment system pictures somewhere under this forum.

I also thought about GLE 2020 it comes with a great infotainment system but the engine is 2.0 liter which I do not like so I kept my V6 and enjoyed better infotainment by upgrading to wide screen android.

John Ha

I thought that the native Mercedes system allowed playing music from a media player through Bluetooth.

Being a little curious, I just looked in the on-board user manual - if you select "Media" on the center display, then select "Media" again, you'll see a series of menus. Scroll to the Bluetooth audio selection and follow the prompts.

If you don't see your device listed as a source, you can pull the command joystick toward the back of the car and select the Devices menu at the bottom right

amusa

You can connect it through bluetooth or one of those USB ports in the armrest forgot which one. Since I have (2) cables plug in all the time. Got tired of my wife always unplugging my phone to charge her phone. Sometime I listen to music through youtube through the vehicle surround sounds. Just need to figure out how to get the image mirror onto the factory OEM screen.

thammel

The lower usb port is where you can connect your iphone via a cable to bring up apple car play. What I did was buy a bluetooth device that connects to that port and then automatically brings up apple car play without connecting via a wire to my phone. Now, I don't mean to insult anyone's intelligence or knowledge, but apple car play brings up a totally different screen and enables voice texting, use of waze for navigation and a whole host of other apps not available with what's offered natively by the GLE350.

John Ha

When I wrote my response I didn't realize that you also had carplay active through the bluetooth. So, my answer, while technically correct, did not address your specific situation. Sorry about that.

I confess I'm curious about whether carplay would be working with the "native" bluetooth capability. My GLE, unfortunately, is in a small group of those that can't be altered to have carplay without an add-on. So I have no way of testing that premise.

mts301

I did the same thing with my 43 AMG. I love the 12.3 in screen and like you said it has both wired and wireless. You can also add youtube, amazon, movies and anything else that runs on an android system.

shotgun_banjo

can you post a picture of that screen please? How much more it was sticking out compared to the stock screen?

mts301

the kit comes with a new mounting bracket and air conditioning vents.

shotgun_banjo

That is not bad! You just made me go ahead and go for it. I just bought the 12.3 for the pre-facelift W204 and will be installing it this week. I was debating about getting this for the GLE as I am not sure how much it will stick out vs the original screen but looks like it is not bad. Can you post more picture please on how it looks on the side and from the outside of the vehicle?

BTW...these units comes with a external mic. Did you install that or is the audio still using the car's mic?

TY!

thammel

For the heck of it, I checked out the website where you guys above ordered the 12.3" screen kit that looks great.....it's now priced at only $649!!! Wow!!!

mts301

I was surprised how well it looked and it is a very solid mount. My only issue is I was getting no sound but once I unplugged my fiber optic cable from the original power plug and plugged it into the new one I instantly had my sound back.

shotgun_banjo

Are the vent controls lit? On one of your pics I am not sure if it is just a reflection or not. Better take out the white sticker at the back of the unit. The one I bought came with film screen protectors. I am trying to source a glass screen protector for these units as I am sure it will get scratched sooner or later from constant wiping of a micro fiber. On the V167 I bought a full size glass screen protector for the touch screen and I managed to abuse the screen without worrying of scratching it.

AMGROS

Did not work for me. Any advice?

thammel

Be sure to plug the device in the correct usb port. Only one works with apple car play. I think it's the upper one but check this out.

Lawineer

Is that screen touch screen? That's my biggest gripe. Car play is a pain in the *** without touch screen

thammel

If you are talking about my initial post, no, that was just a little gizmo to enable apple car play on the mercedes screen without plugging my phone in each time.

If you are talking about the other posts by mts301, then yes, that is a touch screen. I looked on line and the price dropped substantially, so I now have one also to install. Larger and touch screen which means your passenger can also use it.

Lawineer

Doing a search, there are a bunch of brands/vendors. Any recommendations for highest quality/easiest to install?

thammel

If you are talking about the gizmo I mentioned in my first post, the LOBOAIR I mentioned from Amazon works for me...