I received my
Maxca C5 Pro. As far as I can tell, the hardware is identical to
the Amazon device I purchased. It has all the same accessories packaged in exactly the same bags, with the exact same instruction sheet. As I mentioned, the Amazon one came in a box that looked like it was for some sort of car in-dash CarPlay adapter module. The Maxca version has an appropriate box (shown in pics on the product page) that actually shows it as a motorcycle CarPlay device, and better matches the size of the device. There's now also an option to get a small handlebar remote with it, if your headset doesn't handle the forward/back/answer functions well.
The Maxca has their logo added (otherwise all the image options are the same) and their simplified gray and blue UI. The generic UI (used on my Amazon unit and most of the random ones I've seen) looks like something old that's trying to be futuristic - it's got shiny round "gauge" bubbles with shadows and reflections and the icons are "sitting on" a 3D shelf. It just comes off as trying to use fancy graphics effects to show you how good it is. The Maxca is more like a modern touch UI - it's got big, functional square buttons that take up the whole screen. At least with CarPlay, once you pair your phone with it, it just auto-connects and jumps into the CarPlay screen, so the only time you'd even see this UI is when you're trying to change a setting (volume, brightness, etc.), in which case the Maxca UI is probably going to work much better on a bike. I noticed some tiny menu differences buried deep down, but it's 99.5% the same, other than the main screen UI.
I put the Maxca in the mount that I already had on the bike and, as expected, it powered up just fine. I plugged it into USB on my computer to dig around in the settings and get everything paired up. I haven't actually ridden with it yet, but I expect it to perform exactly the same as the original Amazon model.
On to everyone's favorite part of AliExpress, shipping from China... Just for reference, Hong Kong is 12 hours ahead of Eastern time. I placed the order around noon Eastern on Thursday 4/14. About 12 hours later (noon Friday 4/15 in HK), the tracking number started getting shipping updates. It spent a couple days moving through China and then left the country. It arrived in the US early in the morning on Monday 4/24. That's 9.5 days from the time I placed the order until it was in the US.
And that's where the tracking stops. Their tracking number status hasn't changed since then. The USPS-style numbers on that page don't give anything useful. The tracking number on the package I received is completely different. Usually
USPS Informed Delivery catches any shipments to my address and I get tracking alerts for them. I didn't know this was even nearby until I opened my mailbox and it was stuffed in there. Looking up its tracking number after the fact, the label was created when the order originally shipped in China and the package made its way across the US beginning on 4/24, finally being delivered to me on 4/29.
I'm a little annoyed at the bad tracking, but it was delivered to me in 15 days, with a third of that being USPS sending it across the country. For cheap stuff coming from China, I can't complain about those results.
Final Thoughts
From what I've seen, all of these use the same hardware.
Maxca seems to actually customize the firmware a bit and do updates, whereas you're lucky to even find the company behind the others (much less get regular updates). Between the UI and updates, I would say that Maxca is the best brand of these that I've seen online. All else being equal, they're my first choice. The downside is that the only official way to buy one (and therefore get support from them) is from their AliExpress store, so you get to deal with buying it from China.
Every other version appears to be identical, possibly with newer/older versions of firmware. If you don't mind buying from AliExpress and cost is your biggest concern, you can get them as cheap as $120. As with a lot of these Chinese electronics, you'll find a bunch of different sellers on Amazon Prime with different pricing. Some are close to $300, the one I bought is currently $190.
If you want it quick and easy, it might be worth paying $190 to get it via Prime. If you're willing to deal with AliExpress, just spend the extra ~$10 to get Maxca's support rather than the absolute cheapest one. You're still saving $50+ compared to Prime. I don't see the point in going with a random unsupported Chinese one on AliExpress just to save a few bucks, or in paying $300 for a US "retail" one (which is probably still the same unsupported random Chinese brand anyway, just being resold by someone in the US).