I'm very tempted to do this as well. The stock US head unit is simply atrocious and I've been wanting to go with a CarPlay headunit. I've been stuck between this and the Pioneer 4000NEX with a bit of a lean towards the Alpine unit.
Given that you had a shop to do the install I doubt you'll have a lot of the details, but if you could answer a few questions that would awesome!
1. Were you able to maintain the factory USB outlet? Not too concerned with the aux-in jack, but if it's possible to maintain the original USB port that would be a plus!
2. How did your shop set up the microphone?
3. What's the microphone quality like? I can't tell if the horrid voice recognition with the OEM setup in my BRZ is because of the HU or the microphone (maybe both?)
4. You mentioned lack of physical volume buttons, but is there a way to quickly mute or pause audio? That I think would be my biggest concern.
Thanks for posting! Let's hope being early adopters doesn't come back to haunt us
