2016 Volvo XC90: We Dive Into Its Enormous Touch-Screen

CARS.COM — There’s no way around using the 2016 Volvo XC90’s massive touch-screen. As part of Volvo’s Sensus multimedia system, it’s the main way drivers interact with media, climate, navigation and car settings. You better believe a lot could go horribly wrong if this fundamental feature had glaring usability issues, so it’s a good thing for Volvo it doesn’t.

Related: We Bought a 2016 Volvo XC90

The vertically oriented touch-screen won over many of our editors on the XC90’s way to earning Cars.com’s Best of 2016 award. The touch-screen’s integral nature means the depth of its capabilities can be intimidating, so we dove into the system for a closer look.

Multiple Screen Pages

It’s not exactly clear at first where everything lives within the touch-screen, so being familiar with the fundamental layout of Sensus makes using the screen much easier. At the top are three dots representing the three main pages of features. The middle page is what you see when the car starts up and is home to a stack of the most popular features that cascade in collapsible tiles.

Navigation sits on top, followed by media, phone and a user-defined tile of recently used apps or features. Touching any of the collapsed tiles displays a more detailed menu. Swiping to the first page unveils vehicle functions including the electronic stability system’s Sport setting, driving assists and various camera modes. Swipe the other direction and the third page lists applications like Apple CarPlay, radio and media sources as well as the various applications integrated into the XC90 (more on those later).

Apple CarPlay

Dropping $300 for Apple CarPlay is an easy decision if you’re an XC90 owner with a compatible iPhone (5 and newer) — and also if your salesperson throws it in for no charge, which happened to us. The Volvo’s unique integration doesn’t take over the entire display when CarPlay is in use as in other cars, which is imperative to usability in the XC90 because its climate controls are all digital buttons and displays within the screen. There are a few quirks, though, like CarPlay doesn’t fully open when first plugged in — even when you select the “start Apple CarPlay when connecting USB” prompt.

Instead, you have to select CarPlay from the recently used tile stack or swipe over to the applications page and select the CarPlay button. Also, the vertical layout of the touch-screen looks a little cramped versus what we’re used to in the majority of touch-screens with horizontal layouts.

Applications

Swipe all the way to the third page and you’ll find the application page with a ton of app connectivity. If you don’t have an iPhone with CarPlay — Android Auto is coming sometime in 2016 — Volvo offers a stout app collection with Pandora internet radio, the Glympse app to send estimated time of arrival and real-time location, a parking finder, Yelp reviews and a local search feature. Volvo will continue to release more apps, including the recently announced Spotify, which you’ll be able to download right in the car and access without a phone as long the car has a paid data subscription and you’re a Spotify premium member.

The location of each button is configurable. Tap and hold an icon and then move it around until it locks into one of the screen’s predefined slots; the vehicle function page also has this customizability. Apps aren’t the only items accessible through this menu. Here, you’ll also find sources for AM/FM/Satellite radio, navigation, radio favorites, Bluetooth, iPod and more such as sound settings, car status and remote updates.

Folding Headrest Button

It’s the little things that count, and a touch-screen button that electronically folds the second-row head restraints is pretty dang cool. Folding the large head restraints opens rear visibility when no one is in the backseat. It’s a shame this isn’t available for the third row because those head restraints take up more of the back window. And although the second-row headrests retract electronically, you’ll have to push them up manually.

Parking and Backup Cameras

Volvo’s backup camera makes the most of the large touch-screen with high-quality cameras showing fine detail when backing up or parking. Our car has more than just a simple camera; the optional 360-degree panoramic system uses cameras in the front, rear and sides to stitch together a top-down view of the SUV. Within the Sensus touch-screen, you have a choice to view each individual camera on its own in a large display or the 360-degree, top-down view. Use the vehicle functions page to select the view.

Predictive lines show the SUV’s rearward path as well as the path of the front wheels in the top-down view when the nose reverses out of a parking space. When displayed, the on/off buttons for the various parking assists are available, including front and rear parking alerts, parallel and perpendicular auto parking, and cross-traffic alert. There are few other vehicles that provide as confident of a parking experience as the XC90.