What They Say
BMW has unveiled its 2023 i7 top-of-the-range electric vehicle and revealed a drop down 30.9″ ‘8k’ touch-enabled OLED display. You can buy the car for only €135,900 ($147,384) and it will be delivered in November (although the display is an optional extra). The BMW Theater Screen has resolution of 7680 x 2160. Video can be streamed to the screen using the features of an integrated Amazon Fire TV controller and using mobile data via an eSim. In the UK, the Theater Screen adds £4,000 to the cost ($4,350 + tax).
The car also has 5.5″ touch displays in the rear doors that can be used to adjust the rear lighting, temperature controls, and the aforementioned Theater Screen.
In the front, there is a 12.3″ instrument cluster and a 14.9″ infotainment display with touch. The “Sky Lounge Panoramic Glass Sunroof” has integrated LEDs for ‘dynamic light effects’ at night.
What We Think
This looks like a great application for a roll-down display. A 32:9 aspect ratio clearly works best with the low ceiling height of a car, but it does mean that to watch video you really need to be watching in UltraHD which leaves half of the display unused. No doubt other things will be showable either side of the video, but I’m not a fan of that. On the other hand, you ought to be able to show two UltraHD video images side by side. Never mind, when you can afford this kind of car, you probably don’t mind wasting a bit of the cost!(BR)
