Checking Subaru's new 11.6-inch Starlink tech in the 2020 Legacy sedan
Cars
Now both vehicles come standard with a smaller, more conventional seven inch display with a widescreen orientation at the base models, but if you step up a higher trim level, then you get this massive 11.6 inch infotainment system and a vertical orientation.
Now, vertical orientation has a couple of benefits that we'll talk about later on.
But first, let's dig into the interface.
Now, the main screen is split into three main areas.
There is this top bar that shows you status information about the vehicle, turn by turn directions if you're running those and also your currently playing audio source.
Now at the bottom we've got your climate controls.
There's a digital representation of those, but there are also physical climate controls on other side so that you can adjust the temperature while wearing gloves and without having to jump into the menu.
But if you tap down here, you get more detailed information about your fan speed where your fans are pointing and also controls for your temperature and heated and cooled seats.
Now the main event is this big area in the middle.
That's where you got this home screen that is icon based.
You'll notice it looks a whole lot like a smartphone with the icons arranged in a grid and also a home button down here that allows you to You to get back quickly to the main screen, and you can swipe between screens to gain access to more icons if you want to add more shortcuts to this menu for things like favorite radio stations or context, the test screen isn't the most responsive, but Subaru says that it's designed to work under a broad number of circumstances, including When you're wearing gloves, so that's great.
Now the vertical orientation has a benefit when you pop into the TomTom based maps because it allows you to see further down the road for upcoming turns and less irrelevant information off to the side like you would with a widescreen display.
And when you pop into the menus, you can see more icons on the menu at a time because it's vertical, and that allows you to list more on the screen.
Now if you pop into the other areas of the interface you'll find they also occupy the full screen.
So if you go into To the radio, you've got your currently playing radio station as well as your favorites down here.
Big buttons, easy to hit.
And when you pop into vehicle menus, you don't have to scroll as much because there's actually more room on the screen to display more options.
Now Android Auto and Apple Car Play are standard on the starling system.
But if you're the kind of person that wants to use them exclusively, you'll find that neither technology support the vertical orientation.
So you end up with this small horizontal interface right here that doesn't occupy the entire screen with a large chunk of it going unused.
However, if you're the kind of person that likes to listen to the radio, local stations or via satellite.
You'll find that the split screen does have an advantage and that it allows you to view the currently playing radio station in the bottom part of the screen.
And that means that you don't have to jump back and forth between Android Auto and the OEM software to change the radio station like you would on most vehicles.
So it's a bit of a con.
And it's a bit of a pro depending on how you like to listen to your music in the car.
So there's when you look at the gigantic vertical Starling infotainment system in the 2020 Subaru Outback and Legacy.
For more information about either of these cars you can head on over to the roadshow.com, where you'll check out our full reviews and driving impressions about both.
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