*by: Bonis
Volvo owned luxury brand Lynk & Co was a joint venture between Geely and Volvo that was born with a sporty, trendy tagline aimed at young people who pursue individuality.
Lynk & Co 05 was officially launched in May 2020, with sales of 32,501 units for the entire year of 2020, averaging around 4,500 units per month. Looking at this year, Lynk & Co 05 still sells over 4,000 units per month, far higher than the Volkswagen The X, which was launched in almost the same period.
It is worth mentioning that, according to the relevant data, 72% of Lynk & Co 05 owners are born in the 1980s or 1990s, which shows that Lynk & Co has accurately grasped their target audience.
We couldn’t help but wonder how the intelligent cockpit experience of this car, which is favored by young users, would be, as intelligent driving life is one of the factors that young people consider.
Superior Hardware Strength
Hardware level determines the lower limit of the car experience.
Lynk & Co 05 is equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 820A chip. Based on stronger computing power, it can support multiple high-resolution displays and quickly respond to data processing needs of the car entertainment system, reducing delay. In actual use, the car’s function response is indeed very fast, and dragging the map position at will will not lag.
In terms of screen technology, Lynk & Co 05 is equipped with a 12.7-inch horizontal LCD screen, adopting In-Cell screen attachment technology and Corning Gorilla Glass, the same as iPhone.
In our actual experience, the visual effect of this screen is indeed good. Regardless of the lighting environment, the screen display color is very full, the contrast is not harsh and it is not blurry, making it easy and comfortable to view.
Innovative & Creative Interaction Logic
Lynk & Co 05 is equipped with a physical fingerprint recognition button below the screen. It can allow users to log into the system via fingerprint recognition, and also serve as the Home button for the entire car entertainment system.
After the user creates an ID and records their fingerprint, the car owner can adjust previous vehicle settings by pressing one button when they drive again. This includes rearview mirror angle, seat position, lighting, air conditioning, instrument display, vehicle safety, and system settings. In addition, users can use fingerprint recognition to open the electronic glove box and privacy lock of the trunk, better protecting their privacy.
Lynk & Co 05’s overall transaction logic is similar to the GKUI19 we have tested before, with no major changes. It can be summarized as a card-style UI + drop-down menu + all function pages.
The fingerprint recognition brings a home button that makes it easier to return to the desktop, but one small drawback is that the force surface of this physical button is relatively small and not easy to operate blindly.
In addition, the overall interactive page is mainly full-screen, and the interaction hierarchy is relatively deep. When driving, it might be cumbersome for the user to leave the map and switch to the music function.
This system provides several official skins, with different main color schemes, such as red, orange, and blue. They also have different names, which can to some extent allow users to change their moods, so that the interior is not too monotonous.
The practicality of the in-car system ecology
Geekcar pays special attention to map, entertainment, and voice functions when evaluating an in-car system.
Lynk & Co 05 comes with high-precision map. It is almost the same as the experience on our mobile phones. It also combines deeper functionality binding for the automotive scene. For example, it can actively select routes based on factors such as road conditions, preferences, and restrictions, and choose the best route for users.
When encountering complicated intersections during navigation, the car can display a floating window to enlarge the map of the intersection. It also increases the display of expansion lane lines in advance to predict the driving lane, avoiding the awkward merging that would happen at the intersection.
When driving in the elevated bridge area, the vehicle not only supports switching between on and under the bridge, but also supports manual position correction to minimize the possibility of wrong route. Furthermore, the car device and instrument are linked together so that users can directly complete navigation instructions on the instrument, and both the instrument and device will display map indications.
In terms of entertainment, the Lynk & Co 05 is integrated with many audio contents including Banten, Kugou Music, QQ Music, and Tencent Ai.
Banten is a car-mounted multimedia product developed by E-Klattong, which integrates content sources such as Himalayas, local music, radio, and Tencent news, and is updated with the copyright by Aiting Zhuole and Baidu Taihe.
Tencent Ai is a Tencent audio content product launched by Tencent Car Connectivity, including QQ Music, Tencent News, Himalaya, and other content sources. We have tested it many times before and it is indeed a good general-purpose music product.
In our experience, if you have a QQ Music membership, the experience with Ai is better than that with Banten, because it has more copyrights and better sound quality. Many songs in Banten are live versions with strong sense of live atmosphere and uncontrollable sound quality.
Importantly, if searching for songs through voice, the system will prioritize Banten instead of QQ Music or Ai. However, if the playlist being played is from Ai and users use voice commands to adjust to the previous or next song, it will operate according to the playlist being played.
Let’s talk about voice now. In our actual experience, the Lynk & Co 05 is capable of completing multi-round conversations, sound source positioning, directional pickup, supporting interruption and visible speaking. However, being able to achieve and experience it at a good level are two different things. Overall, the basic one-time voice instructions such as music and navigation are done well.
Additionally, Lynk & Co 05 supports vehicle-home connectivity, and has partnered with Jingyu to achieve that. After binding a third-party APP account to communicate, users can control their smart home devices in the car through voice commands.
Another interesting feature is the dashcam, which automatically records the user’s recent driving videos, allowing for easy access without the need for a password. However, in terms of privacy, it is advisable to add more security measures to this feature.
Conclusion
Lynk & Co 05’s hardware configuration for the car’s system is superior, with an excellent display effect that blends well with the interior design. In terms of interaction and ecology, the learning curve is relatively low and closely follows the user’s habits of using mobiles, computers and tablets.
Map navigation is customized for driving scenes and gives users many options for audio content. Although there are still some issues with voice commands, the basic functions are implemented very well. Overall, Lynk & Co 05’s experience surpasses the average market products in terms of both visualization and practicality.
Coupled with the Lynk & Co 05’s coupe-like appearance and other product features, its sales have unsurprisingly exceeded those of competitor models, even joint venture models. We look forward to Lynk & Co 05’s next redesign and the next great iteration of GKUI.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.