In car entertainment or infotainment system is an assembly of hardware devices that provides better connectivity, navigation services, entertainment and safety. The infotainment systems are one of the most sought after car accessories in India and almost all the manufacturers offer a range of accessories around the world.
HondaLink Infotainment system that is offered with the Accord Hybrid Touring is one of the most popular Honda cars accessories today. It is a cloud-based smartphone integration system that connects to your smartphone and provides in-car access to contacts, music, streaming radio, social media and other services. It is accessed through the intelligent Multi-Informational display (i-MID) interface that directs the app platform and small audio touchscreen display.
The i-MID interface has an 8-inch display screen, integrated at the top of the dashboard, and a rotary controller, on middle down side, which is surrounded by controls for different functions. It gets buttons for smartphone, navigation, audio, information, back and display brightness on one side and menu and settings on the other. There is a 6-inches audio touchscreen that controls several functions, correspond to the accessed feature.
The combination of interface and rotary buttons is relatively little clumsy than the simple touchscreen or the center console configuration of the Mazada Connect infotainment system. It takes time for user to get used to of the interface, however the audio touchscreen expedite certain functions. But, still it could be confusing on certain modes. Honda’s infotainment system has two apps – Pandora Radio and Aha Raio.
Pandora is a simple app that controls the native apps on an associated smartphone. Both i-MID interface and audio touchscreen offer various information and control options. Whereas, the Aha app accesses the content of the connected smartphone such as news, streaming music, social media feeds, podcasts, audio books etc. However, the next generation HondaLink’s Aha Radio app plays the audio source from the smartphone as it switched to iPod and displays on the i-MID and audio touchscreen.
The ‘Song by Voice’ feature enables to access onboard hard drive music or content on the connected iPod through voice commands. Unlike other Honda car accessories, it’s easier to play music tracks by titles, composer, artists and genre with this system. Though we have so many aftermarket stores for different car accessories in India, it’s highly recommended to first check if the accessory you are looking for is available at the brand’s authorized store or centre.
