Honda CR-V 2020 Infotainment Review

There is no real need to don a plumed helm and yell the name of your ancient Greek city-state when you jump in to experience the CR-V’s infotainment options.

At first glance it does indeed seem very Spartan – somewhat devoid of any pizzazz or excitement – and there is a reason for that. Honda really want you to use Apple Carplay or Android Auto to give the illusion of a fully featured technology suite.

Visually the 7.0-inch touchscreen and digital instrument panel is a workman-like presentation in a world where so many manufacturers are raising the fidelity and colour dynamics of both the entertainment and information displays.

Though it is a clear and impressive display for the reversing camera, by today’s standards the entertainment screen is compact.

It is responsive to touch and quite well laid-out with relatively large icons to be selected from. The homescreen allows quick access to FM, AM and DAB radio options as well as Bluetooth (which is fast to setup), USB, HDMI or iPod connectivity.

Quick simple and easy, which sounds like a negative, but in reality is exactly what you want in your in-car infotainment. Feeding information and entertainment into your brain in the most efficient manner leaves the required cerebral processing power to drive the car; which is safe and sensible, but not real exciting.

The Honda Display Audio system includes some limited application integration, largely unchanged now for a number of years, and not feature rich in this part of the globe.

Honda is keeping it all to the bare minimum, and why not? Everybody is plodding around the sidewalks, hunched over, enamoured by their respective smart devices; might as well keep the addiction happening in car. Honda want you to plug in your device and utilise either Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.

The cavernous centre console of the CR-V provides ample room to store the phone whilst it is connected to one of the two USB ports.

You could equally drop a tablet device into the centre console space and hook that up. Heck! You could drop a laptop into the same area and plug that into the convenient HDMI port in the same location.

The CR-V’s digital instrument panel has a nice green glow, and is reasonably customisable for the information displayed centrally. In general, like the rest of the CR-V offering, it is quite staid in its presentation, but for the purpose of delivering information to the driver, everything that is required, is here.

Everything in the Honda tech offering is straightforward, like a sturdy spear, the steering wheel controls are sparse and efficient, no clutter here.

The touchscreen is reminiscent of a Corinthian helmet, with functionality only mildly given a plumage by some minor thought to given to integrated applications or nice Bluetooth connectivity.

And who needs anything else? Surely you will not need any gleaming armour in the form of sat-nav or other frivolous trappings such as streaming services or fancy connected systems when you can be protected by the sturdy shield of Apple Car Play and Android Auto?

For the CR-V purchaser with a smart phone and a good cable, the answer is you don’t. This Spartan Display Audio system will suffice.