Skoda infotainment review: Skoda Navigation touchscreen tech tested vs rivals

At a time when most car manufacturers  are doing away with physical buttons and switches for the sake of minimalist cabin design, and in certain cases to cut their costs, Skoda has not only kept these controls, but also added extra functionality to create the Superb’s appropriately named ‘Smart Dials’.

Each rotary dial houses a 32mm display, and is responsible for different functions that you can toggle between by pressing the centre. The outer two rotaries handle the cabin temperature and heated/ventilated seat controls, while the middle dial can manage up to four functions, including fan speed, drive modes and volume.

You might think cramming so many options into these little controllers would create another source of distraction for drivers. However, during testing, we found that using the Smart Dials feels natural very quickly. The most annoying thing in our opinion is that most Skodas don’t have them.

The Skoda Superb also gets physical buttons on the steering wheel, as opposed to the often irritating touch-capacitive panels that sister brand Volkswagen uses on a lot of its models. Better still, you can use these buttons and the scroll wheels to deactivate the speed warning and lane assist without having to delve into menu after menu on the touchscreen like you normally would.

The touchscreen itself is an enormous, sharp and responsive 13-inch free-standing unit which every Superb gets, along with a 10.25-inch Virtual Cockpit driver’s display. The infotainment system is easy to navigate and highly customisable. For instance, it allows owners to choose where the shortcut buttons for their most-used functions go, with space for loads across the top and bottom of the central display.

Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are included as standard, too, along with a cooled wireless charging pad to help prevent your phone from overheating. Finally, along with several other brands at the moment, Skoda has integrated ChatGPT into its voice assistant, Laura. The idea is the artificial intelligence chatbot will be able to answer general knowledge questions, including potentially complex ones. 

Unfortunately, we’ve been living with the Superb for a little while now, and found it sometimes struggles to recognise even simple voice commands. Yet that’s about the only complaint we have with this excellent set-up.

Test team views

• Dean says: “The temperature controls are rotary knobs which are good, but because they go up in half degrees, they’re not necessarily the quickest to operate. And also pressing the same dial to get to the heated seat isn’t as quick as having a separate button, because you have to press it once and then turn it to adjust the seat temperature.”
• Shane says: “I like the Smart Dials a lot. They’re a bit flimsy, but function-wise, I think they’re a really good bit of kit, and very straightforward. Physical switchgear speeds up the operation of the climate control and the heated seats, and you can even zoom in and out of the map, which is quite nifty. Everything on the screen is pretty straightforward, but the layout may be a bit busy.”
• Victoria says: “The screen looks very sleek, and the icons are very well designed. But every time you press something, you change screens; it has a fade in, fade out effect, which I feel is unnecessary. When you want something, it takes half a second too long. When it can be quick, why is Skoda making it slower? I like that the heating is on the dial, because it’s far quicker that way.”

Display and navigation

• Destination: A big display means that while the keyboard looks small, it’s easy to use. Rotary steering wheel controls feel good and boost usability.
• Settings: Skoda’s latest system features lots of sub-menus, but the  set-up is quick and there’s a search function to help find the option you’re looking for.
• Home: The main screen is big enough that you can have a clear map and keep the audio and phone tabs in place. Voice control option takes up a lot of space, though.

What's the app like?

Get past the annoyance of needing two keys to perform the set-up and you’ll find the My Skoda App leans into the brand’s ethos of being Simply Clever. Finding a charger by using filtering by power and sending it to the sat-nav is a breeze, while we like how you can set a specific temperature for the car to preheat to, and even turn on the heated windscreen on an icy morning.

Our favourite feature, when it’s available, is the ability to pay for parking, all through MySkoda. This is handy because is negates the need to download countless other apps. The app ranked as the seventh best out of the ten we tested.

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