I have just bought the connected phone cradle which will turn my Android phone into a device that does everything that the BMW navigator does.
Not everything...
With the Connected Cradle, per
https://support.bmw-motorrad.com/s/article-search?topic=Navigation&language=en_GB&searchKey=ConnectedRide%20Cradle&hashtags- Can I touch-operate my smartphone while riding? No. Touch-operation while riding is not possible. (So you can't actively use other apps.)
- Only the BMW Motorrad Connected app can be operated by means of the Multi-Controller.
- You can navigate via the cradle and listen to music playback on your smartphone at the same time, but, if you have a TFT display, you have to use it to control playback and select tracks.
- To do tour planning, you have to dismount your phone and stand it up in portrait mode (in your hand). As soon as a planned tour is started, however, you put it in the cradle and ride the tour in landscape mode.
- The cradle is not suitable for off-road use.
Side issue...
- The Connected Cradle blocks user access to the phone's on/off and volume buttons.
In contrast, with WunderLinq's Blackbox (see
https://blackboxembedded.com/)...
- You can touch-operate your smartphone while riding.
- You can use BMW's multi-controller wheel with any app that has made itself Wunderling Blackbox compatible; at this time, that includes Scenic, Kurviger.de, MapLocus, Maps.me, OsmAnd Maps & Navigation, and Rabbit Rally.
- You can navigate via any app and listen to music playback on your smartphone at the same time without having to work through your TFT display.
- You can do tour planning without dismounting your phone.
- You can use additional anti-vibration devices such as Quad Lock's Vibration Dampener to extend use off road, but I doubt that would include extreme off road; that's better left to the Nav VI or more robust setups.
My personal setup uses a Google Pixel 5 phone mounted on a Quad Lock Vibration Dampener mounted on a WunderLinq Blackbox mounted on a BMW OEW Nav VI mount...plus a Nav VI mounted on a second Nav VI mount on the handlebars below...though the two can be switched from upper to lower and visa versa depending upon which one I'm actively using for navigation...whichever one I have in the upper mount is controllable via the BMW multi-controller wheel...
I don't connect any of this to my XR, it's just not reliable enough and too troublesome to use the TFT. Instead, the phone is connected to (1) my Sena as the "primary phone" and (2) my WunderLinq Blackbox; then the Nav VI is connected to my Sena as "secondary phone".
Is WunderLinq perfect, no, but IMO, it's better than the Connected Cradle.
