Intellidash+ review

Our Verdict

Intellidash+ is a great fashion to access modern auto features without having to buy a brand new car or organise an expensive retrofit. But cars with Android Auto and CarPlay congenital in won't go any benefit from this secondary display.

For

• Minimal installation required
• No unlike from using Android Motorcar or CarPlay on cars with built-in software
• Versatile design and connectivity to suit your needs
• Small enough to not distract you from the road

Against

• Poor speaker quality
• Can struggle with existing in-car Bluetooth

Tom'due south Guide Verdict

Intellidash+ is a groovy manner to access modern car features without having to purchase a make new automobile or organise an expensive retrofit. But cars with Android Auto and CarPlay congenital in won't get any benefit from this secondary brandish.

Pros

• +

  Minimal installation required

• +

  No dissimilar from using Android Auto or CarPlay on cars with congenital-in software

• +

  Versatile design and connectivity to accommodate your needs

• +

  Small enough to not distract yous from the road

Cons

• -

  Poor speaker quality

• -

  Can struggle with existing in-car Bluetooth

Intellidash+ review: Specs

Display: vii-inch touchscreen
Ports: USB A, microSD, 3.5mm Aux
Audio: Wired, FM, Bluetooth, or speakers
Pattern: Suction loving cup

If your car is too one-time to take proper smartphone support, then you're the kind of person the Intellidash+ is aimed at. The 7-inch touch-enabled display gives you lot access to Android Motorcar or Apple tree CarPlay in cars that don't natively support back up them.

As you lot will run into from our full Intellidash+ review, adding one of these screens is a great way to add together some modern automotive features to your older motorcar without having to mess around with your vehicle's existing hardware or software.

Intellidash+ review: Price and availability

The Intellidash+ is available at Amazon and select electronics retailers for $349. A wireless version, the Intellidash Pro, is bachelor for $399.

Intellidash+ review: Blueprint and features

The Intellidash+ is a pretty simple device. It's a minor portable display (6.5 inches x eight.v inches x 4.v inches), complete with a 7-inch touchscreen, that you put in your car and plug your telephone into. This is all so you tin can access either Android Auto or Apple CarPlay in a car that doesn't support it.

(Image credit: Tom'due south Guide)

The brandish itself features a USB-A port to connect your telephone, a 3.5mm auxilary jack, a small set of congenital-in speakers, and a microSD card so you lot can play media when your phone isn't plugged in. Unfortunately, at that place's no congenital-in bombardment, and the Intellidash+ has to be plugged into the 12V cigarette-lighter socket at all times.

Intellidash+ review: Setup

Equally it'south a pretty uncomplicated device, the Intellidash+ is not particularly difficult to set up. The hardest office of the whole process is finding the best way to go along it steady in your automobile. For most people, that will exist to utilize the scope arm included in the box, which can attach to either your windscreen or your dashboard with a suction loving cup.

(Image credit: Tom'southward Guide)

I institute information technology a niggling tricky to find a place to stick the suction cup in my Nissan Leaf. The suction cup could get a pretty solid hold onto glass, simply not my dashboard. That's likely down to a combination of the suction cup not being peculiarly stiff and the texturing on my (and and so many other cars') dash.

Fortunately, there is a solution in the box: a two.75-inch glass disc with 3M adhesive on one side. The adhesive had no problems sticking to my dash and the suction loving cup grabbed on just equally strongly as it did with the windscreen. Because the disc is slightly larger than the suction cup, you don't demand to worry about positioning it perfectly.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Just exist warned that the glue is very strong and you lot demand to position the glass disc right the first time. The glass disc can come off, but it won't be nearly as constructive when you reattach it.

It'due south besides easy to unclip the screen from the mount, letting yous hide information technology in the glove box when y'all park in public. You just take to remember to pull the display upwards to disassemble information technology.

(Prototype credit: Tom's Guide)

That is literally all the setup you lot need to practise. In one case the Intellidash+ is plugged into your cigarette lighter and your phone is plugged in, it'll automatically load up whatever machine system your phone comes preinstalled with.

You could accept the time to set the date and time on the screen itself, though that isn't really necessary. It seems to reset every time I switch my engine off anyway, so there isn't really much bespeak.

Intellidash+ review: Performance

The main matter to say about the Intellidash+ is that information technology does really piece of work. While the brandish has no born battery and will plow on but when your engine is supplying information technology with power, it functioned no differently from the infotainment organisation already built into my car.

(Epitome credit: Tom'south Guide)

I plugged my phone in and Android Auto immediately started loading. Information technology's not quite as fast to load as my Leafage's infotainment system, only we're talking only an extra couple of seconds. That'south non exactly a big bargain in the yard scheme of things.

The Intellidash+ also offers exactly what information technology promises, with the verbal same Android Auto or CarPlay interface you get on whatever other car. Every bit soon as your software loads upwards, you'll be met with however apps and icons you'd come across if you plugged your phone into any uniform car.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

That essentially ways yous become a driving-friendly interface for your phone and all the compatible apps installed on information technology. The Intellidash+ registers whatsoever standard CarPlay or Android Motorcar device from your phone too, preventing you from using any apps that either system deems "distracting" — like Netflix or some other visual-centric software.

The touchscreen was fairly responsive as well. It wasn't quite as firsthand as the one on my smartphone (a OnePlus 7 Pro), but it was actually much more painless than the i congenital into my Leaf's centre console. I have to actually prod the Leafage'south touchscreen to get anything done, often more than once, whereas the Intellidash+'s display responded to the lightest of taps without issue.

Even so, considering the Intellidash+ isn't built straight into your car and is designed for older cars that lack hi-tech features, there are a few quirks to exist aware of. Or, at least there are if you programme on using it in a modern auto.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

One example of this is Bluetooth audio. No affair how hard I tried, I couldn't get audio from my phone to disconnect from the Intellidash+ and circulate directly to my car. My speakers either played nothing, or the audio came out through the Intellidash's own meager speakers.

They are non good speakers, either, coming out very tinny and with admittedly no bass. While audio is non the point of this device, it's disappointing to discover it offers audio quality akin to a dirt-inexpensive Bluetooth speaker

Thankfully the Intellidash+ has other means of connecting to your motorcar's speakers. The simplest way is using a 3.5mm AUX cable and plugging that straight into the car, whether that'south through a dedicated AUX input port  or using one of the former-school three.5mm-to-cassette adapters.

Failing that, or if you'd rather avert yet another cable cluttering the cockpit, the Intellidash+ does have a built-in FM transmitter with a huge range of frequencies to choose from. Non only did it work perfectly, but the quality of the transmission was indistinguishable from a Bluetooth connection.

(Epitome credit: Tom'south Guide)

The Intellidash+ isn't uniform with your auto'south in-built media and voice controls, although since the screen has no actual connection to your car that shouldn't be surprising. Your choices for controlling what happens on the screen are limited to borer at the screen or the more sensible option of talking to Google Assistant or Siri.

If you have a mod auto, such as a Tesla, that doesn't officially support Android Auto or CarPlay, then these compatibility issues are  worth bearing in mind before you drop $350 for the Intellidash+.

Intellidash+ review: Verdict

If you accept a modern auto, the Intellidash+ isn't going to be the kind of device for you, simply because your car likely has all this stuff built in. If you practice have an older model without those kinds of features, and then the Intellidash+ is a great way to add them without having to buy a new auto.

Of course the Intellidash isn't perfect, particularly in terms of audio and the relative weakness of the suction cup on the mountain. That said, at that place are pretty simple workarounds, and the designers have given y'all everything yous need to arrive work in your own vehicle.

The just question you take to enquire yourself is whether y'all want to spend $350 on the Intellidash+or you'd rather save that money by continuing to apply your phone.

Tom is the Tom's Guide'south Automotive Editor, which means he can usually be found knee deep in stats the latest and best electric cars, or checking out some sort of driving gadget. It'due south long style from his days as editor of Gizmodo United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland, when pretty much everything was on the table. He's usually constitute trying to squeeze some other giant Lego set onto the shelf, draining very big cups of coffee, or complaining that Ikea won't permit him buy the stuff he really needs online.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/intellidash-plus

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