no the kenwood doesnt have an sd slot however the front usb input is not just for ipod, also reads from thumb drives or portable hard drives, the other advantages the kenwood has is that if you use the internal amp kenwood runs 22 watts rms, vs. pioneer 17 rms, im preferable to kenwoods mainly because i sell them and have not every had an unhappy customer with just about any kenwood product ive sold, im going to be putting the DNX9980hd in my car, along with either a rockford or JL audio system, im still debating on going all out with a full custom install or a simple install with a 5 channel amp my only reason for thinking small and simple is to save weight and space to go faster
