Earlier this year at CES, Seth and I had the opportunity to test drive the new Chevy Volt hybrid (okay, I actually just held the camera in the back seat) which has one of the best CarPlay screen we’ve seen yet. Check out our hands-on experience with the Volt’s very nice display from our test drive below …
You can read more about the second-gen Chevy Volt at Electrek, but the takeaway for the purpose of this piece is that the quality of the display in the car can really make or break the CarPlay experience.
The Volt uses an 8-inch capacitive touch display, which is only slightly larger than an iPad mini and bigger than either of my aftermarket CarPlay displays. The bottom line is that bigger is better, and avoid resistive touch screens at all cost if possible when looking into CarPlay for yourself.
Check out our hands-on video with CarPlay in the new Chevy Volt below:
If you’re not in the market for a new Chevy Volt but want the best aftermarket CarPlay screen money can buy, I personally use and enjoy Pioneer’s AVIC-8100NEX ($1,199, reg. $1400) which features a 7-inch capacitive touch screen that also works with Android Auto if you pick up a hitchhiker.
Pioneer’s AppRadio 4 SPH-DA120 ($424, reg. $600) has a 6-inch capacitive touch screen, still features Bluetooth for non-CarPlay use, and is a better bargain if CarPlay is all you want. Alpine’s ILX-007 (new from $550) goes even further by dropping Bluetooth support to focus only on CarPlay, but personally I recommend opting for Bluetooth too as I use it when more convenient.
The CarPlay experience is mostly the same from display to display as it relies on projecting apps from the connected iPhone, but the way it looks and feels to use really does depend on the quality of in-dash display.
CarPlay itself is set to receive a welcomed upgrade when iOS 9.3 for iPhone comes out of beta. The new version brings the full Apple Music experience to the car with For You and New playlist and album recommendations as well as a more robust Maps app thanks to the added Nearby feature. See both in action in our hands-on video with that below:
You can read my initial review of CarPlay, what changed with CarPlay in iOS 9, and our running list of CarPlay apps here. And head over to Electrek to read more about the new Chevy Volt and see our test drive in action.
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Does the Volt have it’s own on board Sat-Nav ? probably not. I have read elsewhere that some carplay does not play that well with the inbuilt system ie you either use one or the other. eg if a call comes in it does not switch to car play or if you start some music/podcast in carplay and then switch back to the car satnav it stops. And before someone says apple maps it and siri and messages heavily rely on a 3G connection and it just a brick that plays music from our phone without one. There is a vid of a guy driving a Ferrari with it in in California and it’s not a great user experience with poor 3g coverage
Nav is an option on the Volt, but it’s really not worth it when you have better nav on phones these days. A steady data connection is not required for navigation via your phone GPS signal. I recently drove with it from Southern California to Northern California, over 400 miles with no issues or interruptions in navigation, even in service dead spots. And to answer your other concerns, I have not had any of the issues you’ve mentioned on the ins gen Volt. I can listen to FM or satellite radio from the inbuilt system while using Carplay for Nav of other functionality.
Great to hear you are enjoying your Volt. Thanks for feedback. Yes gps is used for location but 3G is needed for the map data and siri. Its good to here it must cache the map data ahead of when you need it ….assuming you go the tight way ! Siri obviously needs a live connection
Good lord, it looks SO SLOW. Hopefully that changes when this comes to the newer Audi’s.
Its in the A4 now