2020 Subaru Starlink with Apple CarPlay/Android Auto: 8-inch detailed expert infotainment review 4K

CarExpert

Now with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, has Subaru's new infotainment system improved? Paul reviews the Subaru Starlink 8.0-inch infotainment system. It now comes with smartphone mirroring as standard equipment. Does it work well? Watch and find out!  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you! #review #subaru #starlink #infotainment  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  @Subaru @SubaruAustralia

Transcript

00:00 Subaru has an all-new infotainment system in the next generation Forester.

00:04 Today we're going to have a detailed look at the infotainment system to see whether it's any good.

00:08 If you're buying this car for a family, you're going to want to have a very simple to use infotainment system,

00:15 and Subaru's done a good job with this. It's an 8-inch unit and it's a touchscreen as well.

00:19 Everything's controlled here.

00:20 You can see shortcut buttons down the bottom for radio, map, apps, media,

00:23 and then your key controls for tuning and then volume as well.

00:27 This is what the home screen looks like. You have all of your shortcuts there to the main functions.

00:31 You can then add your own shortcuts and there's three layers of screens you can add them to.

00:35 Up the top there, you'll see your Bluetooth status, the battery of your phone, and also how much reception you have.

00:41 We'll quickly dive through these menus here. Phone. This is a very basic phone menu.

00:45 What I love here though is the ability to redial. Often with these systems, if you're on the move,

00:50 you need to go through your recent history, find the person that you want, click on them.

00:54 Whereas here, you can just redial. So that is a handy function.

00:57 And then it's backed up by a voice recognition system. That works really well.

01:00 It is better than the outgoing generation of Forester and it easily recognizes your voice.

01:04 You can also hook up to Apple CarPlay or Android Auto and that displays nicely on the screen there as well.

01:11 When you do use the voice recognition through those systems, it'll use your phone to communicate with the cloud.

01:15 So you're getting better clarity on the voice recognition as well.

01:18 This will also display your messages when allowed through the phone, which is a really good feature too.

01:22 Map menu. This is the map display. You can see here that it's a sort of fairly basic map.

01:27 It is a little bit laggy. So when you're zooming in and out, it's not the fastest system in the world.

01:33 And we'll try and put an address in here. We'll see how quick that is. We'll pop in Melbourne Airport.

01:38 Okay, that's going really nice and fast. Okay.

01:45 It's taking a little while there to search. Still searching.

01:50 Okay, there we go. So that's worked.

01:53 It takes a little bit of time to do that, but it gets there in the end.

01:56 You can also do it through the voice recognition system.

01:58 Back on the home screen there, you've got the media menu. This is Bluetooth audio streaming.

02:02 You've got two USB connections there as well, plus auxiliary.

02:05 And you also have a CD player. This is starting to disappear from a lot of cars.

02:08 So Subaru has retained that, which is a handy feature to have if you have some old school mixers.

02:13 Radio. You've got FM, AM, DAB, digital radio.

02:16 One of my gripes here though is having to go through bands to find the stations you're after.

02:21 This displays everything in one giant list, which is very handy.

02:25 Although it seems to break the alphabetical order. It goes here from M to V to A again.

02:30 So it is strange that it divides it in that way instead of showing you everything in alphabetical order.

02:36 If we then jump over to the apps menu, this is where you pair CarPlay and Android Auto.

02:40 And then finally, you've just got the car settings.

02:42 So this is all very basic information for the car.

02:46 You can connect to Wi-Fi to do software updates.

02:49 If you have Wi-Fi connection in the garage at home, this is a good way to keep the car up to date.

02:54 So outside of that, this is a fuss-free system.

02:57 It's very easy to use. And while you're on the move, you won't be taking your eyes off the road constantly

03:01 because you have the backup of a voice recognition system as well.

03:04 You can see our full review of the Subaru infotainment system at carexpert.com.au.

03:09 (upbeat music)

03:12 (upbeat music)

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