Hyundai’s luxury brand Genesis has been gaining increasing attention over the course of its relatively short lifetime, and I recently had a chance to try out a 2023 Electrified GV70 SUV to see how the infotainment experience stacks up for an iPhone owner. My test vehicle was a high-end Prestige trim with a beautiful 14. 5-inch widescreen center screen, complemented by a 12.
3-inch all-digital driver display featuring autostereoscopic 3D technology, plus an additional head-up display for viewing key information without having to take your eyes off the road. In addition to the rotary controller, there are several buttons located directly above it on the console to quickly access specific functions in the infotainment system, including dedicated Home, Menu, and Back buttons. Scroll-style buttons also allow for easy volume and tuning adjustments.
And yes, climate controls have their own dedicated section separate from the main infotainment screen and they include a combination of physical and digital controls that works quite well. The driver and passenger each have a knob for adjusting the temperature for their respective sides of the cabin, and there additional commonly used controls to the outside of these dials. In the driver’s display, Genesis includes the neat Blind-Spot View Monitor system that Hyundai has offered for a number of years, which uses cameras on the side-view mirror to display a live video feed of your blind spot on a given side when you engage your turn signal.
It’s a handy feature that I wish was common in more brands. A camera pointed at the driver tracks their position and gaze, adjusting the 3D effect accordingly. The whole thing is a bit gimmicky, but it’s kind of neat and stands out as something different to help set the high-end Genesis trims apart.
As you’d hope, the Electrified GV70 supports CarPlay, but unfortunately only via a wired connection. Genesis is currently a victim of an odd split in Hyundai’s infotainment systems wherein lower-tier systems support both wired and wireless CarPlay while higher-end systems with built-in navigation only support wired CarPlay. There have been rumors of Hyundai and Genesis adding wireless CarPlay to some of these higher-tier systems on select models via a software update in the relatively near future, but we’ll have to see if that pans out.
The Genesis Electrified GV70 starts at a little over $65,000, with the Prestige package on my test model, a paint upcharge, and destination fees bringing things to a little shy of $75,000. It’s not cheap, and its range clocks in at only 236 miles (and even a bit less than that in real-world review), but overall it’s a fun drive with a boost mode that lets you go 0–60 in around four seconds. It’s also packed with technology from the gorgeous center display to the 3D driver’s display to a fingerprint authentication system.
My main gripes on this front are the lack of wireless connectivity for CarPlay, USB-A ports rather than USB-C, and an inconvenient phone storage/charging setup. Hopefully, those issues will be addressed in upcoming model years (or even via software updates to existing models such as for wireless CarPlay), but even now if the issues aren’t deal-breakers and you’re willing and able to spend that kind of cash, the Electrified GV70 is a pretty compelling package. A gasoline-powered version is also available for a still-premium but significantly lower price tag, but you’ll be missing out on some of the fun EV features like zippy acceleration.
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From: macrumors
URL: https://www.macrumors.com/review/2023-genesis-electrified-gv70-carplay/
