Product review: Blaupunkt Costa Mesa 900 Head Unit - Introduction

Introduction

Car audio is moving away from the ‘purely audio’ bit and towards the ‘in-car entertainment’ phase. This means that the pressure is on for your car’s audio system to at least attempt to match the experience you get on other electronic devices, like, say, your smartphone. Blaupunkt knows this, and introduced the Costa Mesa 900 head unit in the Indian market in 2017. This is from the ‘Symphony’ middle-of-the-range head units, but it sits near the top end of the Symphony series from the manufacturer. What sets it apart from the rest of the Symphony series is that it is an Android OS-based head unit. We’ve already talked a little bit about the Costa Mesa 900 in our article about the entire setup that we’re going to install and review, but in this article we’re going to delve a little deeper into the features and specifications of this head unit. 

Let’s start with the basics: it is a 6.8” capacitive touch screen with a resolution of 800x480 pixels. It offers radio reception – the regular FM/AM bands, and it also can take inputs via USB, aux cable and Bluetooth streaming. It also has built-in wifi, 1GB DDR3 memory and 16GB of flash storage. It also accepts Bluetooth calling and rear camera input. It has pre-outs for front speakers, rear speakers and a subwoofer. It can also put out 4x50W, should you want to drive the speakers directly. 

What is over and above average is its ability to read FLAC and AAC files, so if you like your music to be lossless and high quality, the Costa Mesa has you covered. Oh, and you can plug in up to 3 USB devices to it via the 3 inputs provided, two of which are at the rear. The front USB port allows you to quick charge your phone, as it supplies up to 2A of current. It also has an AV out, a ten-band equaliser, and it mirrors your Android or iOS phone via ‘PhoneLink’. It can also display maps and supply navigation, but that needs to be purchased separately on a memory card. The Costa Mesa 900 also offers a remote control that is quite large, so it is obviously meant for the rear seat occupant. 

In our next update about the Costa Mesa, we’ll talk about the installation and how easily it can be done.

Price: ₹ 30,990

Photos: Kaustubh Gandhi