00:00 Mazda has installed an all-new 8.8-inch infotainment system across the range of its new cars.
00:05 Today I'm going to have a really close look at it to see whether it is indeed better than
00:08 MZD Connect. So this is where Mazda has taken a massive step forward. So MZD Connect, it wasn't
00:15 the best system and it was getting really dated. So this is now becoming commonplace in a lot of
00:20 Mazda's cars, which is excellent news. There are some similarities with MZD Connect. So it shares
00:24 this rotary dial with shortcut buttons, but the biggest difference up here is that it's no longer
00:29 a touchscreen. So you have to use the dial for everything, which is kind of okay because you're
00:32 getting a voice recognition system that allows you to do most functions outside of it. In terms of
00:37 smartphone connectivity, you can hook up Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. I'm going to take you
00:41 through each of the menus here. So let's start off with information and the fuel efficiency
00:45 monitor. So iSTOP is Mazda's version of a stop-start system. And the clever thing here is
00:50 that it tells you for how many seconds iSTOP has been running in your last drive. That's useful
00:54 because then it also tells you how much extra range you've achieved by iSTOP running. So that
00:59 is a fantastic feature and it does go to show exactly how much accumulation you get in fuel
01:04 savings when that stop-start system is working. And then there's a back button there to take you
01:09 to the previous screen. The vehicle status monitor has all of your notifications about servicing,
01:13 any warning messages as well. That's all going to be contained in there. There's also a shortcut to
01:18 the notifications by pushing that dial to the left. It brings up any notifications you have.
01:22 So the door's open at the moment because we're filming. Let's jump over to entertainment. FM,
01:28 AM, DAB. So you're getting the full suite of connectivity there. And then in addition to that,
01:33 you can stream Bluetooth and you also have two USB ports that it can stream through as well.
01:37 If you then hook up your iPhone or your Android device, you can stream Spotify. So you really do
01:42 have full access to a fantastic selection of audio sources here. The other thing that I like as well,
01:49 there is a favourite button just underneath the volume control. Hit that and it will take you to
01:54 the screen with all of your favourites stored in an easy to find place. Or you can just go
01:58 through the list. That is straightforward. Let's jump into communication. This is your
02:01 phone menu effectively. All the standard functions here. You've got call history,
02:05 contacts. You can manually dial numbers. It even lets you check text messages. So
02:09 if you do the permissions through your phone, your text messages will appear on here as well.
02:13 Very handy so you don't need to take your eyes off the road and onto your phone, which in some
02:18 states in Australia now is like a thousand dollar fine. So do not touch your phone while you're
02:22 driving. Navigation is massively improved. Again, the old MZD Connect system was so slow and so
02:28 painful to use. This is a massive leap forward. So in addition to being able to use your voice
02:33 controls, you can enter things in manually. And again, it is all simply using this rotary dial
02:38 here. Adding a destination allows you to search home, work, or simply entering points of interest
02:43 or addresses manually. Jumping over to the settings menu. This is where you can configure
02:48 everything inside this car. And the Japanese are kind of interesting because unlike most other
02:52 manufacturers that allow you to configure things here and there, the Japanese go to town with
02:57 everything that you can change. So for go-to-wind vehicle displays, this is your heads-up display
03:01 and what appears in there. The center display, you can change virtually everything about the
03:06 positioning of things and what appears there. And then finally, the instrument cluster display
03:11 ahead of the driver. So this is an 8.8-inch screen. This is a 7-inch screen. You can change
03:16 the appearance there and everything that's presented to the driver while you're driving.
03:20 Then we jump down to sound settings. So the sound system in this car is amazing. I'll run you
03:24 through that a little bit later on and some of the unique things they've done in this car. Plus,
03:28 the song that the engineer chooses to tune these systems. It'll be interesting. See if you can
03:34 guess it below before we get to it. Safety settings. This is again where you change all
03:38 of the safety settings unique to this car. Collision avoidance. It even has a pretty
03:42 clever system that prevents you running into things when you're reversing. So instead of just
03:46 a 360 camera, front and rear parking sensors, it has rear AEB. So if you're about to hit something
03:51 and you don't notice, it will stop the car for you, along with a pedal misuse alert. A little
03:55 bit frustrating for me though. I left foot brake, so it's always telling me I'm pressing both pedals
03:59 at the same time. Often happens when you're at low speed. So you can switch that off, which is
04:03 very helpful. And then the rest of your settings, such as connectivity and also system settings.
04:08 This is everything from voice recognition right through to using the GraceNote database to get
04:13 thumbnails for your audio on the screen. So let us know what you think of it in the comments below.
04:17 Have you used it? Do you reckon it's better than the old MZD Connect system? I'm keen to get your
04:21 thoughts.
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