My 2012 Toyota Scion iM is one of the cars that lacks the technology to use CarPlay or Android Auto. I don't have the desire or ability to swap out my head units for something that supports the new standards. I sit in the middle of a venn diagram of consumers that Car and Driver is targeting with its head units.
The 7-inch displays of the Intellidash and Pro are designed to sit on your dashboard. They are both versions of Coral Vision. The vanilla edition requires a wired connection to your phone, while the Pro can operate without a wired connection. I have been using the Intellidash Pro in my car for the majority of the holiday season, and I like it a lot.
It's probably worth starting with the negatives before talking about why I like it. The most obvious thing is that the Intellidash Pro looks like a piece of farm equipment. It resembles the sort of low-cost gps units you would find on sale for three or four times the price in the back of a gas station two decades ago. This thing is better-looking and thinner than the other tablets from the same year.
There is a lot of gear packed inside, like a microphone, speakers, and a radio. It has a lot of jacks for an aftermarket reversing camera, audio out, and a flash drive. You won't need any of this if you connect this to your phone.
You will need to route the power and aux-in leads around your dashboard. I didn't bother, given it was just a short-term loan, but I think fans of cleaner dashboard might find it grating. It's better for cable management if you tune it to your car, but it's not ideal for audio quality.
The manufacturers didn't spend a lot of time polishing the defaultUI. You need to scroll to the next page to see the rest of the home screen icons, as they only run along the bottom quarter of the display. needless busywork is a bad thing since you may need to use this screen when you are driving.
You will feel like it was a Chinese-language original when you jump into the settings menu. The icons are muddy, the fonts are hard to read, and the whole thing needs a good, hard polish to make it feel less agrarian. Setting the night mode means you're diving into the last part of the display settings.
It's easier to focus on the negatives when you know that the only positive is that you can use it in your car after about two minutes of setup. You can now control your audio and navigation from the homescreen, instead of having to place your phone in the window. It's priceless when you're on a long solo drive and you don't have a list of episodes you want to listen to. It's the convenience you're paying for, the ease of having to do very little to get this slice of the future into history.
The non-wireless Intellidash is $350, while the Intellidash Pro is $400. You would spend a lot of money on a unit from Best Buy. If you are not sure how long you will keep your car, or have multiple cars, then having something you can take from vehicle to vehicle isn't the worst.
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