I was lucky adequate to have a look at Oxygen Audio's brand new concept, the O-Car, earlier this month at the M.E.N. Expo 2011. This is what I view of maybe 2011's goods of the year.
First Hands On The Oxygen Audio O-Car
To say I was finding forward to getting my hands on an O-Car was an understatement, I had undoubtedly contacted Oxygen directly months ago in the hope of securing a demo model. On first impressions the unit looks quite basic and unappealing unless you know what this goods is all about. Once you dock your iPhone into the surprisingly sturdy docking law the whole things bursts into life.
The dock itself is nothing short of impressive. It comes with a special protective case for your iPhone which also helps you locate it when placing you phone into the dock. The dock comes out from the unit colse to 2 inches and allows you to swivel the iPhone in a 360 x 180 arc meaning that you can eliminate any glare or ensure that you can all the time see where your sat nav is taking you. Should you pick to, the dock will also go flat to the stereo allowing the iPhone to sit horizontally on the front of the unit creating the illusion that the iPhone is undoubtedly part of the stereo itself.
Car StereoThe O-Car's most drive comes from its lack of features and controls. This may sound like I have lost my marbles but let me explain. Unlike approved stereos where an iPhone connects via cable and you can pick songs to play using the stereos controls, the O-Car does not have any controls. The only thing you can do is turn the volume up and down. The O-Cars features and controls are purely down to what apps you have installed onto your iPhone. If you have the TomTom or similar app then you have a fully built in Satnav, if you have a Pandora app then you have Internet Radio built into your car. Changing the features is as simple as visiting the Apple store and picking up the newest apps. Oxygen Audio have even released their own apps to allow you to operate the basic radio and equalizer functions.
Oxygen have meant enterprise with this goods and are set to take on the big boys in car audio such as Sony with there TuneTray Dsx range. All the components are high quality and the built in 52x4w amp sounds nice and crisp. Unfortunately the demo unit I had opportunity to use did not have any sub woofers or tweeters hooked up so it would be unfair of me to rate the true quality of the music from this stereo yet. I will be doing a full test in the next fortnight when we receive our first shipment. In my eyes the £250 price tag that has been settled on these units is highly reasonable. When you think the competition in this price bracket, the Oxygen O-Car is in a league of its own.
My expectations for the Oxygen O-Car were very high with all the hype and media frenzy that has built up over the last 6 months. On the first impression, I can see that it has been worth the wait. Despite only using the stereo for a short space of time it has given me a notice of what is possible and I want more. This will be the biggest car entertainment goods of 2011 and rightly so. I will be testing the unit over the next few months with a full communicate to come soon after.
>First Hands On The Oxygen Audio O-Car
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