Hopefully what I post here is of some help to those in need for any type of information for these aftermarket idrive systems from ebay. I know I tried to find some info on these but couldn't.
The system I installed is the "8.3 HD TFT Car DVD Player GPS Navigation 2 Din Bluetooth video for BMW X1". This system claims that it fits the 2012-2013 models but I don't see why a older or newer models will not fit. Mine is a 2013 X1.
The total cost of the system is ~300 USD shipped from China on Ebay. This is a stock image of the system.
The installation was very straight forward. The entire unit was plug and play. Of course you cannot trust all the description from the Chinese advertisers so here are some of the things I have noticed.
1. Bluetooth connects with no problem via Andriod and Apple. It downloads all your contacts into the system as well. The bluetooth call quality is the same as the original OEM stereo. The microphone works really well(perhaps using the original BMW mic here. I still have yet to get bluetooth streaming of music to work on Andriod, ymmv with an Apple product. Pandora just says "headphones disconnected" and then the next time you press play, the phone speakers kick in. My phone under bluetooth connected to the car claims that bluetooth phone calls and media is enabled.
2. Backup camera function works. The min you put the lever to reverse, the backup camera function kicks in. I have to return my camera because it's either faulty or it's incomparable. I believe the system uses PAL and mine is stuck on NTSC. I will see a clear image for 5 seconds and then the image goes crazy as if it's a NTSC-PAL incompatibility. I will update this once I find the answer.
3. GPS is very accurate, using IGO. GPS antenna was installed under the upper dash. Antenna must face the right direction or else GPS will not work.
4. Can't get USB audio streaming to work with the included USB/Aux unit(replaces old unit). Maybe be a setting in andriod I can't figure it out. The USB will however charges the phone.
5. The idrive controller is kind of cheap so the round turn knob sticks a little every time you press it down.
6. The idrive controller and the radio unit all have appropriate ambient lighting. The idrive controller is a nice red color but the radio unit has a lighter red almost orange color.
7. Touch screen works pretty well, but it's a resistive touch screen.
8. You will lose HD radio and satellite radio, if these two things are impt to you then skip this unit.
9. Everything sits flush and looks completely OEM. But the bottom of the screen unit is kind of cheap and causes a small rattle going through very bumpy roads.
10. The radio unit gets pretty toasty, but I here ticking sound inside (hopefully a fan). We'll see how long this entire unit lasts under the Floridian sun. This was with the unit out of the dash, you will not here a ticking sound when it's in the dash.
11. The screen's brightness is pretty decent, also it has an ambient light sensor.
12. The unit forces my a/c and all dash read outs to show imperial units. We set it to metric but with every restart all the units change back. We are still trying to figure this out.
13. The sound quality coming out of the unit is pretty good (or similar to the stock unit). I noticed a small dip in bass but I haven't messed with the equalizer on the unit.
14. The unit has its own PC speaker that gives out a high pitch Dee Dee Dee noise when you don't have your seat belt on. It is extremely annoying and the noise also lose pitch at times as if it's breaking.
15. So far I haven't figured out where the SD card for the navigation is stored because I don't see one in the media compartment. I inserted my own SD card with an updated IGO map but the system can't seem to find my own SD card.
16. The screen is a little bit too big for the plastic surroundings. You will notice the letters on top of the screen a little cut off when running the GPS.
17. The idrive interface is pretty speedy. Once the GPS app loads up, switching between radio and gps is really snappy. The GPS must load from scratch every time the car is booted up. It takes about 15 seconds for the GPS software to boot up. Once it is booted, it will stay in the cache.
18. The system boots up pretty fast, and goes into reverse camera mode pretty quickly.
That is all I can think of, but feel free to ask any questions if you are thinking about retrofitting your bmw x1. I highly recommend it!(currently ..who knows if it'll one day break on me).