I had the opportunity to study the function of the head unit and the user interface called i-Drive.

i-Drive
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First of all it is very easy to use. Nudge in four directions and twist left and twist right. The twist and the nudge are usually the same movement but they can be alternate functions. EASY. It also goes down to do a mouse click.

DVD stacker
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Gone is the CD stacker .... this is the king of stackers. DVD, DVD-A, MP3 CD, MP3 DVD and on and on. Loading time was very fast. The map is loaded into the head unit hard drive via the stacker so it is super fast.

MP3
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Read CD and DVD MP3 with enormous ease. We went 10 levels down (folders within folders) and the head unit didnt blink. It just opened more and more folders. The REALLY cool thing is that once I scrolled to the top or to the bottom of the song list the dial became stiff and wouldnt turn easily. FORCED FEEDBACK - VERY COOL.

Going out of folders was really simple ....

[]..

click that icon and it goes back out of a folder.


STEERING WHEEL FUNCTIONS
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Very easy to learn and can change songs on the wheel or on the i-Drive. I imagine that voice control is also applicable. The head unit and the cluster shows the song name.

TV
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TV tuner was combination analog and digital tuner with dual screen output.


HEAD UNIT
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Unlike previous models COMAND this unit is part of the DVD stacker. The DVD stacker is in fact integrated into the COMAND. The head unit has SOUND AUX plug and VIDEO AUX plug so you can go direct into the (Euro) COMAND with a DVD player.

SUMMARY
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Once I found the ON button for the i-Drive and the volume on the armrest the rest was very simple. The phone was hidden under the palm rest and the front most set of buttons on the armrest give shrtcut jumps to head unit functions.

All functions are seemingly multi-user in the sense that there is more than one way to arrive at the same menu option and you can expect to have the passenger operate many of the functions just as the driver would with similar comfort and convenience.

The front face of the COMAND simply doesnt exist. The high mounted screen and the armrest is all that can be seen. The rest is hidden discretely and only the DVD stacker is a clue of what is in the dashboard.

 

FYI its not called i-Drive, its the COMAND Controller.

i-Drive = BMW
MMI = Audi
Comand Controller = MBZ

 

I was reading this thinking "god this doesnt sound like my i-drive ( I drive a 745) lol

benzmodz- thanks for the feedback, I must admit that if you approach any of these systems with no pre conceived hate they are much better. I picked up the 7series 3 weeks ago and I pretty much had iDRIVE down pat within hours (for major functions at least)

That being said, I think MMI is regarded as the best / easiest (I have not used it, fyi)

 

So far my experience still has been that MMI is the king, i-Drive is the worst, and Mercedes is somewhere in the middle. They really need to come up with a new name, though. How about i-COMAND? :p

 

the best experience I have had was with the COMAND controller. MMI second and i-Drive last. Though I have gotten quite use to i-Drive on my car and do not undestand what the bashing is all about.

 

i agree completely with MB_Fanatic. i never found i-drive difficult to use (perhaps because i've been using computers for a long time now) - and to me, MMI was about the same. easy to pick up the basics although one or two functions were a little confusing. anyone who can use an iPod or even most handphones will be able to navigate with no trouble. haven't tried the new COMAND yet, though i plan to in the very near future.

my favourite is still hard buttons, though. just because there's a screen doesn't mean it's easy to use :p

 

I haven't had a chance to use the i-Drive on the redesigned 7's, but I heard it was a lot better than it was. I drove one of the first ones out, and it seemed to have a lot of issues. I'm computer literate, but I just didn't like it. I don't mind the 4-way interface on the new 5's at all, but still think MMI is better.

 

How does the name change the fact that i gave my impression. These nerdy details mean nothing.

 

May I suggest that you look into voice control as an upgrade option.

 

Do you mean use the voice prompts on the i-DRIVE? It already has that function but I have really gotten proficient with the controller so I dont need them.

 

I was referring to the activation and control of functions by speaking to the car.

 

MMI = Audi IMO
but i'm kinda stuck with the command