Also a fairly impressive machine, although a shame it doesn't have a high definition screen like the Kenwood. Given the amazing displays available for phones and tablets I remain disappointed that most of the car audio manufacturers are still using 480p
At least the Alpine has a mute button to make up for no volume knob, although are they actually buttons? "touch-responsive hard-keys" implies they're just sensors, not actual switches.
Floating displays are a reasonable way to get more real estate than a simple double-din, but most of them seem to assume there is nothing else important around the head unit and no one seems interested in a wide-format version, which is the one dimension in which we have plenty of room
BTW I tried last year to make my own head unit based on off the shelf HD touch screens and a Raspberry Pi. The hardware is simple, but alas the software support is rubbish and has nothing like the polish of a mainstream head unit, and because the Pi doesn't have any form of power control getting it to power up and down is messy, complicated and slow.