Volvo Sensus infotainment review: 9.0-inch portrait infotainment screen is like reading a book!

CarExpert

The Volvo Sensus infotainment system is a 9.0-inch portrait screen that's used across the Volvo range (including the XC40, XC60 and XC90 SUVs). It comes with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and is controlled entirely as a touch screen. Is it good, and is it confusing needing to take your eyes off the road to use it? Paul Maric finds 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!  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  #review #volvo #infotainment #sensus @VolvoCarsAus @VolvoCars

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. Volvo is known for its safe cars and cool styling, but what are their

00:05 infotainment systems like? Well, today I'm going to take you through a detailed review

00:08 of the 9-inch portrait screen infotainment system used throughout the Volvo range.

00:13 So, let's get stuck into it.

00:14 Volvo has gone down the path of the portrait screen to afford them a little bit more space

00:19 when it comes to stacking applications, and then you can control it just as a touchscreen,

00:24 or beneath it you have the ability to go up and down with volume and then play and pause,

00:28 and then you also have a shortcut button at the bottom that takes you back to this home screen.

00:31 The home screen's stacked in a way where you have navigation at the top,

00:35 radio and then your phone pairing. You can then maximise each of these,

00:39 so if I click on the maximise button for navigation, it makes that take up most of

00:43 the screen. It's a fairly quick system, moves around easily. You can switch between 2D and

00:48 3D modes. There's a compass at the top there as well. Then you have additional functions,

00:52 such as the ability to set destinations using a number of different fields.

00:56 You can select points of interest, or what you can do is search for them by name using

01:02 the keyboard. Alternatively, you can write things in, like that, or you can go down the path of

01:09 putting a full address in in the traditional way. On the home screen, you also have the ability to

01:14 swipe down from the top to get access to the car's settings, the navigation settings or the

01:18 radio settings, depending on which context menu you're in, plus the owner's manual. I'll show

01:22 you what that looks like quickly. So it's an interactive manual. Once it loads, you're able to

01:26 jump through to different sections. So for example, if we want to have a look at the exterior,

01:32 we want to have a look at the headlights, this will tell you how to replace the bulbs.

01:36 So it's a good way to remove the need for a physical manual. Everything is built into the

01:41 screen. We'll jump over to radio. The car comes standard with AM/FM/DAB+ digital radio,

01:47 plus the ability to store data and then stream from your phone as well. In terms of phone

01:52 connectivity, you have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are both

01:57 paired using a cable. There's no wireless linking system. I'll show you what that looks like.

02:02 The integration isn't that special. So the downside to the portrait screen means that

02:06 Apple CarPlay, which is natively a widescreen function, looks a little bit compact and

02:12 squeezed in there. And you can see it kind of looks a little bit awkward. There's no real easy

02:16 way around that while you do have a portrait screen. You can swipe to the left. This brings

02:20 up the rest of your settings for the radio and then allows you to go to the apps that are built

02:25 into the car. You can then add apps as well. These all need data functionality, so you need

02:29 to pair the car to a data device such as your phone for them to work. But it is handy having

02:34 stuff like Spotify if you don't have a phone capable of smartphone mirroring. Inside here,

02:38 you will find the ability to look at the car's status. So these are any error messages the car's

02:43 producing, whether the car's oil levels and things are right. They all appear when the car is on.

02:47 Same with tyre pressure monitoring. And then there's another feature here, which is your

02:51 driver performance. What kind of fuel economy you've been achieving. And then you can customise

02:57 what that graph looks like as well. There's another section here if you swipe all the way

03:00 across to the right. This is where you can set all your safety aids. So switching stability control

03:04 on and off and then features like your lane keeping assistant, how far the distance alert

03:09 will come on the stop start system. And then you're able to activate the camera. Drop the

03:13 headrests from here, which is pretty cool. There's also a reduced guard here. So if you are parking

03:18 the car somewhere with the windows down, the alarm will go off if it detects movement inside the car.

03:23 By hitting that button, the alarm won't do anything. So it means you can leave your pet

03:26 in the car if you have to, although I think you're meant to leave your pet in the car. But

03:30 whatever scenario it is where stuff's going to be moving inside the car when it's locked. And

03:34 then you can also change the cornering lights and a couple of other sort of bits and pieces

03:38 there as well. So it is a really good infotainment system. The only thing I don't like, and I've had

03:42 to start the car here to show you this, is that adjusting temperatures while you're driving is a

03:46 little tricky. So pretend you're driving here, you've got to move that up and down. And if you

03:50 want to try and sort of nail your temperature, you're taking your eyes off the road, there isn't

03:53 just a swivel, which I'm not really a big fan of because it means that you do need to get your

03:58 attention away from the task of driving to do something as simple as changing the temperature.

04:02 While the car's still on, I'll show you here the settings menu that allows us to adjust what's

04:06 displayed ahead of the driver. So if we jump into the My Car menu, you can change the themes on the

04:12 display ahead of the driver. So you can go Minimalistic, Performance, Chrome Rings. You can

04:17 also change the display theme over here. That automatically switches between day and night as

04:21 required. And then you can also change the contents of the display. So if we go into here,

04:26 you can change it to show the map in the centre, which is what we have now. You can change it to

04:30 show the current media or to show nothing at all, just so you get the speedometer there.

04:34 And then finally here in the settings menu, you can adjust the rest of the car's features. One

04:39 that I like though is if you come down to Communication, the ability to set the car up

04:43 as a Wi-Fi hotspot so your other passengers in the car can connect to the car's Wi-Fi system and

04:48 share one connection instead of all having to have data. Pretty useful if you've got kids that have

04:52 iPads and other connected devices. If you found this video useful, I'd love it if you could hit

04:55 the Like button and follow it up with the Subscribe and also press the bell icon so you can get

05:00 notified every single time we publish a new review. Also check out some of the other videos

05:04 that we've published. We have a stack of really cool content there and let us know in the comments

05:08 below whether you're driving a Volvo and whether you like this infotainment system.

05:11 But until next time, take it easy.

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