Home » Autopian Asks: What’s The Ideal Size And Configuration For An Infotainment Screen?

Autopian Asks: What’s The Ideal Size And Configuration For An Infotainment Screen?

Autopian Asks Screens Ts2
ADVERTISEMENT

OK gang, let’s talk infotainment screens. What do you think is the ideal size? How big is too big? How small is too small? Should screens be horizontal (landscape) or vertical (portrait) orientation? Or square? Or round?

Should the infotainment screen be integrated into the dash, or just hung onto that center stack like a picture on a wall–or stood on edge atop the dash? Which brands do the best job of incorporating infotainment screens into the interior design?

Vidframe Min Top
Vidframe Min Bottom

You’re welcome to discuss features and functions that belong on the screen versus physical controls, though let’s focus on screen size/integration. To the comments!

2022 Ford F 150 Lightning LariatHere’s Ford’s 15-inch vertical display, as included with the F-150 Lightning in Lariat and Platinum trim levels (notice the volume scroll knob, which I think is just fastened to that screen, with the knob actually actuating the screen to change the volume).

 

ADVERTISEMENT

Bmw 3s Edge Curve Glow 2This is the 2023 BMW 3-series interior. A single, unhooded, curved panoramic screen incorporates all the gauges and infotainment functions.

 

Tesla Screens 2Tesla’s Model S debuted with a vertical screen (top) before going horizontal in later iterations (a Plaid is pictured here). The 17″ screen has left-right power-tilt functionality so you can adjust the viewing angle.

 

Doug Demuro Byd Han
Screenshot: Doug DeMuro/YouTube

Imb Gejujn

ADVERTISEMENT

How about a rotating screen? That’s the BYD Han executing the maneuver, as captured by Doug DeMuro. Go ahead, we know you want to. “Thisssss …”

Buick Reatta 3

OK, real talk: do you really need any more than what the Buick Reatta had for us in 1985?

Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on whatsapp
WhatsApp
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
LinkedIn
Share on reddit
Reddit
Subscribe
Notify of
115 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
MikeInTheWoods
MikeInTheWoods
11 months ago

No screen. 2 of our cars have screens and I avoid using them as much as possible. Thankfully there are knobs and buttons as well for climate stuff so my wife and I can fight over temperature. I generally avoid using the screens since I don’t bother the laggy and outdated mapping, and for music my phone will link up and suffice. I want to velcro a cloth cover to stop the useless glare. You have to press 3 screen buttons to get to the screen off setting and it resets after ANY adjustment to anything.

Jakob K's Garage
Jakob K's Garage
11 months ago

All the infotainment I have ever needed was included in the matchbox sized monochrome screen on my Twingo mk1. There was time and speed and distance and how many blocks of range you had left.
https://twingo.guide/assets/images/image32.jpg

I also kind of liked the big widescreen one above the small one, with real time 3D rendering in millions of colours of what was going on outside the car. Especially the representation of where the other cars on the road were and the signage and traffic lights were very good. Sometimes it showed really interesting and beautiful scenery too. Great infotainment! It even had a built in lens cleaning device you could activate without taking your hands off the steering wheel.
I just didn’t understand the naming of that screen, “windscreen”, as the wind seemed to come from some plastic vents under it.

Last edited 11 months ago by Jakob K's Garage
Harvey Park
Harvey Park
11 months ago

No screen is best.

Dsa Lkjh
Dsa Lkjh
11 months ago

Anything I have to look at inside the car while driving is a bad idea. I want a heads up display of speed, warning lamps and navigation.

I want to be able to use and adjust everything without taking my eyes off the road.

I’ve got a screen in my GT86 that I have turned off. Sometimes I stick my phone to it for navigation.

MrLM002
MrLM002
11 months ago

The minimum size legally required for the legally required backup camera.

My smartphone is a better infotainment system than any in car infotainment system, all I need is a quality smart phone mount with wireless charging that fits said smartphone.

Lightning
Lightning
11 months ago
Reply to  MrLM002

I’ve seen “legally required backup camera” written many times now but am confused about whether this is actually true for all cars, or just cars with poor rear visibility.

There was an article recently about the Polestar without the back window had links to regulations. I think it said that you need to be able to see targets in certain positions behind the car, and it didn’t matter how that was achieved. So that suggests that backup cameras are not required for all cars, just those that follow recent design trends with large D-pillars, mail-slot rear windows, etc. If cars were designed like my old Subaru wagons with great rear visibility, backup cameras could still be left off (?). Would like clarification from Autopian staff.

I’m for no dedicated infotainment screen, like the Gordon Murry Automotive T.33. I can add a phone mount.

Last edited 11 months ago by Lightning
Dsa Lkjh
Dsa Lkjh
11 months ago
Reply to  Lightning

Back up cameras are not legally required for all cars, just all American cars. So it’s one of those rest-of-the-world-doesn’t-get-it problems like needing cup holders, automated seatbelts and special lights on the side of cars because you can’t tell what a car-shaped silhouette with headlights and tail lights is without some orange dots. And red indicators.

The point in that Polestar article was that you must have an interior view of things behind the car, but that doesn’t have to be a mirror, it can be a screen and a camera if you really hate everyone who needs reading glasses.

Lightning
Lightning
11 months ago
Reply to  Dsa Lkjh

OK, I looked it up, and you are right – it has been a requirement since 2018. It’s too late to change, but I think it should have been performance related, like if you can see a cone x feet behind without a camera (say you are driving a small or microcar with large rear windows), it should be legal to go without. I’ve only had one car with a built-in rear camera, and it was better to just turn around and look back through the rear windows.

05LGT
05LGT
11 months ago

How is it the previous story that has a comment about dick measuring?
“What do you think is the ideal size? How big is too big? How small is too small?”
This HAS TO be intentional.
Only got 8″ myself, but it seems to get the job done.

Harvey Park
Harvey Park
11 months ago
Reply to  05LGT

Must be a metric ruler.

05LGT
05LGT
11 months ago
Reply to  Harvey Park

and this is why we can’t post pictures, isn’t it

Usernametaken
Usernametaken
11 months ago

Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star
In my mind
And in my car
We can’t rewind
We’ve gone too far

Phantom Pedal Syndrome
Phantom Pedal Syndrome
11 months ago

A woman invents a mug.
It’s a smashing success.
A man invents a lid for that mug.
It’s a hit.
A few people team up and come up with the straw.
Some people like it. It’s hard to clean though.
Some person invents a straw cleaner.
It’s OK. People use them.
A corporation invents something that cleans the straw cleaner.
So it goes..
Sometimes I like to sip.
Sometimes I like to gulp.
It all depends on the drink.

Last edited 11 months ago by Phantom Pedal Syndrome
Paul B
Paul B
11 months ago

8-10″, but make it close enough so I don’t need to lean forward to use it!

Phantom Pedal Syndrome
Phantom Pedal Syndrome
11 months ago
Reply to  Paul B

I want it to lean towards me.
When I forget my glasses.

Dogisbadob
Dogisbadob
11 months ago

Double DIN, and preferably built in or looks like it’s actually part of the car and supposed to be there and not some stupid pop-up shit that looks like an afterthought

Nlpnt
Nlpnt
11 months ago

Big enough to effectively display Google Maps, with as few vehicle functions integrated into it as possible and no touchscreen. Ideally I’d like to see “look what we can do!” quickly give way to standardization and easy parts replaceability, something like what we had with DIN and double-DIN head units.

Strangek
Strangek
11 months ago

Integrated and not that big, I think 6-8″ is good. I’ve driven my dad’s Mach E a few times and it has that huge screen like the F150 above. It’s a nice screen but I feel like I’m right on top of it when I’m driving. It’s distracting.

Old Busted Hotness
Old Busted Hotness
11 months ago

No screen at all for me. If there must be a screen, make it as small as possible and not a touch screen.

If I’m gonna pay north of $30,000 for something, it had damn well better come with no frustrations. And I have yet to see a screen that I didn’t want to yell at.

Last edited 11 months ago by Old Busted Hotness
Hugh Crawford
Hugh Crawford
11 months ago

Speaking of display screens, can somebody please mail some polarized sunglasses to all of the auto makers? For some reason the angle of the liquid crystal display in many cars is exactly the angle that makes it unviewable with polarized glasses, which is a drag if you happen to wear prescription polarized glasses.

Joe The Drummer
Joe The Drummer
11 months ago
Reply to  Hugh Crawford

Ugh. I am a Luddite when it comes to in car technology, our newest vehicle being a 2008 model, but I know this feeling. If I have my sunglasses on, I can’t use Google Maps in landscape on my phone, because the screen simply disappears from my view. For some reason, it works in portrait orientation, but my polarized lenses black out the screen if I turn it 90°.

Hugh Crawford
Hugh Crawford
11 months ago

About 8 mm² that is either on or off depending on whether you have the radio turned on or not. Anything else is superfluous.

The Dude
The Dude
11 months ago

It’s less about size but rather not having that “we forgot about infotainment so we haphazardly tacked it on” look popularized by the Germans.

That aside, a fallback so that you can operate it without having to use a touch screen (let’s be honest, touch screens are just terrible from a UX perspective) also is ideal.

Parsko
Parsko
11 months ago

First, get rid of the stupid infotainment screens, they are all mostly horrible. Replace all windows with tv screens powered by cameras that have a 1/2 second delay, and give me the same 1/2 second delay with the throttle response I get from my BMW, and I’d be the happiest human temporarily alive.

Joe The Drummer
Joe The Drummer
11 months ago

About three inches by six inches. Detachable and usable away from the car on a reliable preexisting worldwide network.

Oh, hey, look at that, I’ve already got it in my back pocket.

Last edited 11 months ago by Joe The Drummer
Phantom Pedal Syndrome
Phantom Pedal Syndrome
11 months ago

Thanks.
Now I’ve got a stupid King Missile song stuck in my head and I haven’t even finished reading your comment.

Oh.. nevermind.

Last edited 11 months ago by Phantom Pedal Syndrome
05LGT
05LGT
11 months ago

Detachable 9341$! Da da da da DA da da da

Joe The Drummer
Joe The Drummer
11 months ago

Did you see your infotainment screen lying on a blanket at a flea market?

Iwannadrive637
Iwannadrive637
11 months ago

I have an 8.4 inch screen that has more functions than I need. It’s silly that I have to use a screen to use heated/cooled seats. At least it’s integrated into the dash and not hanging off of it like a picture frame. Giant screens are the chrome spinners of the 21’st century.

Joe The Drummer
Joe The Drummer
11 months ago
Reply to  Iwannadrive637

It is silly for any function that can be controlled by a mechanical switch to be shoved onto a touch screen. That’s why I say that so much car technology these days amounts to solutions in search of a problem.

Flatisflat
Flatisflat
11 months ago

My only real experience with infotainment is a Lincoln Corsair. And the thing that pisses me off the most is the software. If it were smaller, no care; larger, no care. The fact that the software is horrid and I HAVE to use it for certain functions I used to have physical, logical buttons for? Effing unforgiveable.

Michael Beranek
Michael Beranek
11 months ago
Reply to  Flatisflat

There is a lot of sense in this. The end-user should be king, but software engineers are myopic trolls who inhabit shitty apartments and cubicles and don’t have a clue what people actually DO with their code. Very rarely is any tech-related problem the hardware’s fault.

Gary Lynch
Gary Lynch
11 months ago

I’m good with LEDs. And completely ditch anything “touch screen”

Mr Sarcastic
Mr Sarcastic
11 months ago

They should be 55 inch. They should be mounted on an entertainment table in your living room and/or bedroom. As for your car nothing but a google map screen.

Cam.man67
Cam.man67
11 months ago

The optimal size? About 2”x2”, and it displays the time.

Phantom Pedal Syndrome
Phantom Pedal Syndrome
11 months ago
Reply to  Cam.man67

Sure, that’s good enough for info, but how will the tainment fit in there?

Last edited 11 months ago by Phantom Pedal Syndrome
3WiperB
3WiperB
11 months ago

I care much more about physical buttons than screen size, but when I have a screen, I prefer some design integration to it, rather than just slapping it on the dash like it’s an afterthought.

The one in my 2021 3-series is about perfect for me at 8.8″ in a widescreen format. Then they changed to the one that you pictured in the examples above. The bigger issue is that they got rid of all the physical buttons for radio presets, hvac, and heated seats and put it all in the touchscreen. I prefer the design of the 2021 dash to the 2022-23. I will say that the voice assistant is very good and I can just tell the car to turn on the heated seats or that I’m cold, so I probably could get by without the buttons in this car. https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/bmw/3-series/2021/photos-interior

I did get the 12.1″ screen in my RAM, but it’s nicely integrated in the dash and it’s very tall, but not very wide. The dash space is also much larger in a truck, so there’s room for a larger screen. The function is nice because it stacks the Android Auto or Carplay at the top, and the bottom half can display music or other functions. There’s physical buttons for almost everything I want, except the heated seat controls.

I do think an 8-9″ screen is where I currently like them to be, but I want those physical buttons so I’m not hunting and pecking through menus to change the temperature in the car.

Mr. Frick
Mr. Frick
11 months ago

My Kenwood double din has a 6.75 in display. I use it for nav, audio and bluetooth. It is the perfect screen size. Also, all the other functions in the vehicle are real knobs and switches. My friend has a 21 Prius and that damn screen is huge and distracting. He is continually getting honked at red lights while screwing around with the settings and it’s too bright.

115
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x