He bought it from Stu from Octavia.rs It is definitely a 729E as 729B are no longer manufactured.
gmc has suggested that his mfd is half height. if it is then he wouldn't notice any difference in functionality.. can you confirm if he has full height or half height?
True, but they're still out there and available for sale. I believe carsystems.pl on eBay is still selling them, for instance.
+2 on the "star" functionality either being muting the radio OR activating voice dialing. Is that your friend's problem though, or is the button not working for either?