My old TL had the first bluetooth car on the market. The system was not very good, but it did work. The interface was so bad, I would often just dial from my phone, and then transfer to the car.
I was expecting more from the TLX.
A little about me, and how I use my phone.
I have 300 contacts.
When I need to dial my buddy Jeff, I pick up the phone, press the phone button, and type 5-3-3-3 and the system auto searches for J-E-F-F and finds him. I call Jeff a lot, so he comes to the top of my phone list. I hit Dial.
FIVE "button" presses and Jeff and I are talking.
I can even do most of the dialing without looking at the screen, as I know where the buttons are.
Now, when I'm in my car...
Jeff is a good buddy, but he's not in my top 5. That's pretty much family members. So, I have to dial him manually.
Firstly I have to press the PHONE button on the car.
Then I have to hit the MENU button.
The car at this points keeps playing my Katy Perry radio, and the map disappears, to be replaced by a phone menu. (NOTE, I cannot use the touchscreen at this point, even though the point of the touchscreen is to give the driver a direct input device.)
On the Menu, I must rotate the rotary control nob util I get to "Phonebook" and then select it.
I then press RIGHT three times to take me to the JKL section of the phonebook, and must then rotate the control nob several times until I find Jeff. I don't know which way to rotate the control nob, so I get it wrong half the time. I have to watch the screen a lot, as I have no way to tell when I'm getting close to Jeff, or have passed him.
When I get to Jeff, the fun does not end there.
Take a look at my first photo - you can see that Jeff has three icons next to his name.
The first is a PHONE icon. They all have this. If an entry doesn't have a phone icon, then it doesn't show up. So, the phone interface, that's showing me a list of phone numbers is confirming that this phone entry has a phone. Way to be redundant!
The second icon is a blocky square icon. I'm assuming that this is supposed to be an office building, this probably indicates that Jeff has a WORK phone number, which is good, because he does.
The last icon is a Fax machine. Okay, I have to send Jeff faxes now and then so I've save his fax number. It's old technology, but Jeff's an old bird, so what can you do.
Okay, so I've found Jeff, and I want to call him. I hit the ENTER button.
Now the f'ing interface shows me Jeff's contact asking which number I want to dial.
BOTH OF HIS NUMBERS ARE LISTED AS "OTHER".
WTF!
A moment ago you showed icons for Work and Fax.
Now I have two entries for "Other".
I have no idea which number is his work, or which number is his fax.
I have no idea which one to call.
So, instead of pressing 5 buttons on my phone, I've had to use this 70's era rotary phone device to navigate a menu through hundreds of contacts to find one contact to then be presented by multiple phone numbers labelled OTHER.
This phone interface is frustrating.
Why would anyone use a rotary phone instead of a touch-tone phone?
Acura seem to think its a safety issue, even though the rotary system takes my eyes off the road for MUCH LONGER and takes MORE of my attention span.
Why can't I just dial J-E-F-F on a dialpad, or 5-3-3-3 to find Jeff???
Why can't I tell which number is his when the numbers pull up.
About half of my contacts show "OTHER" when I get to the dial screen. Some work numbers show up as work, some show up as Other. Some Cell numbers show up as cell, some as others.
The interface is difficult to use, and inconsistent.
My phone is an HTC One (M8) running Android Lollipop (v5.02).
I have no idea what software the car is running.
I was expecting more from the TLX.
A little about me, and how I use my phone.
I have 300 contacts.
When I need to dial my buddy Jeff, I pick up the phone, press the phone button, and type 5-3-3-3 and the system auto searches for J-E-F-F and finds him. I call Jeff a lot, so he comes to the top of my phone list. I hit Dial.
FIVE "button" presses and Jeff and I are talking.
I can even do most of the dialing without looking at the screen, as I know where the buttons are.
Now, when I'm in my car...
Jeff is a good buddy, but he's not in my top 5. That's pretty much family members. So, I have to dial him manually.
Firstly I have to press the PHONE button on the car.
Then I have to hit the MENU button.
The car at this points keeps playing my Katy Perry radio, and the map disappears, to be replaced by a phone menu. (NOTE, I cannot use the touchscreen at this point, even though the point of the touchscreen is to give the driver a direct input device.)
On the Menu, I must rotate the rotary control nob util I get to "Phonebook" and then select it.
I then press RIGHT three times to take me to the JKL section of the phonebook, and must then rotate the control nob several times until I find Jeff. I don't know which way to rotate the control nob, so I get it wrong half the time. I have to watch the screen a lot, as I have no way to tell when I'm getting close to Jeff, or have passed him.
When I get to Jeff, the fun does not end there.
Take a look at my first photo - you can see that Jeff has three icons next to his name.
The first is a PHONE icon. They all have this. If an entry doesn't have a phone icon, then it doesn't show up. So, the phone interface, that's showing me a list of phone numbers is confirming that this phone entry has a phone. Way to be redundant!
The second icon is a blocky square icon. I'm assuming that this is supposed to be an office building, this probably indicates that Jeff has a WORK phone number, which is good, because he does.
The last icon is a Fax machine. Okay, I have to send Jeff faxes now and then so I've save his fax number. It's old technology, but Jeff's an old bird, so what can you do.
Okay, so I've found Jeff, and I want to call him. I hit the ENTER button.
Now the f'ing interface shows me Jeff's contact asking which number I want to dial.
BOTH OF HIS NUMBERS ARE LISTED AS "OTHER".
WTF!
A moment ago you showed icons for Work and Fax.
Now I have two entries for "Other".
I have no idea which number is his work, or which number is his fax.
I have no idea which one to call.
So, instead of pressing 5 buttons on my phone, I've had to use this 70's era rotary phone device to navigate a menu through hundreds of contacts to find one contact to then be presented by multiple phone numbers labelled OTHER.
This phone interface is frustrating.
Why would anyone use a rotary phone instead of a touch-tone phone?
Acura seem to think its a safety issue, even though the rotary system takes my eyes off the road for MUCH LONGER and takes MORE of my attention span.
Why can't I just dial J-E-F-F on a dialpad, or 5-3-3-3 to find Jeff???
Why can't I tell which number is his when the numbers pull up.
About half of my contacts show "OTHER" when I get to the dial screen. Some work numbers show up as work, some show up as Other. Some Cell numbers show up as cell, some as others.
The interface is difficult to use, and inconsistent.
My phone is an HTC One (M8) running Android Lollipop (v5.02).
I have no idea what software the car is running.