12" Uconnect - Why?

[troutspinner]

I did the same with the surround cam.

Someone with inadequate "equipment"?

A couple months ago I seen a guy offloading his Skeeter / Vmax 250 being towed by a nicely lifted Rebel into an electric only lake. My buddy looked at me and said, “You think he’s making up for something”.

 

[Gman]

I have a similar joke about lifted trucks and compensation for inadequacy, but it might hurt some feels.

 

[cmdr bobert]

I am having the same issue too.

Everyone talks about how great it is having navigation on the 12" screen, but I would never preferentially use RAM navigation over Apple or Google Maps.

A big thing for me is being able to see my audio track name while also running CarPlay navigation. My F-150 can't do that. In the RAM, I can put the audio track name in the instrument cluster, and navigation on the screen, so while the tech geek in me really wants the 12", the 8 inch is probably much more usable on a day to day basis.

If there was a way to run 2 separate CarPlay apps on both top AND bottom at the same time (Spotify + Apple Maps), the 12" would be a no-brainer, but you can't.

This. I am generally an early adopter, but I didn't see the benefit of the 12" screen.

Just my opinion - as great as it is today, FCA is not a software company and my fear is over the lifespan of my ownership, what's cool and awesome will not be as cool and awesome 3-5 years from now.

Augmented reality navigation is one such feature - Google/Waze/Apple will all have augmented reality based navigation over the next year (at the latest). And who knows what else over the next 3-5 years. Assuming it's a valuable feature, who would use their vehicle's nav over the app based ones? And the experience is not that different on the 8.4" vs the 12" at that point.

Also, and maybe FCA will prove me wrong, I can't imagine their pace of innovation will keep up with smartphones and whatever IoT devices are going to be mainstream in a few years. Looking back over the last 10 years of car ownership, over time I end up using less and less of the features of my vehicles for this reason.

But it is super cool for the here and now, and glad to hear others are generally loving the large screen!

 

[GoMango16]

A 12" screen is a good option for my Laramie. Some truck owners need a 70" tv in their home to feel adequate.

 

[SpeedyV]

This. I am generally an early adopter, but I didn't see the benefit of the 12" screen.

Just my opinion - as great as it is today, FCA is not a software company and my fear is over the lifespan of my ownership, what's cool and awesome will not be as cool and awesome 3-5 years from now.

Augmented reality navigation is one such feature - Google/Waze/Apple will all have augmented reality based navigation over the next year (at the latest). And who knows what else over the next 3-5 years. Assuming it's a valuable feature, who would use their vehicle's nav over the app based ones? And the experience is not that different on the 8.4" vs the 12" at that point.

Also, and maybe FCA will prove me wrong, I can't imagine their pace of innovation will keep up with smartphones and whatever IoT devices are going to be mainstream in a few years. Looking back over the last 10 years of car ownership, over time I end up using less and less of the features of my vehicles for this reason.

But it is super cool for the here and now, and glad to hear others are generally loving the large screen!

While I agree with many of these points, I went with the 12”. I can recall no instance where I jumped in a used vehicle and thought, “Man, I wish my new car had this smaller display!” Quite the opposite; I can typically take a glance and guess the age of the vehicle. Regardless of FCA improvements, the larger screen real estate and ability to run multiple apps will remain attractive...and the aftermarket will undoubtedly give us additional possibilities in the future.

 

[Ortiz7983]

The 12" is one of the reasons I went Ram. I absolutely agree with you on buttons over touch screens, especially in cars but I LOVE Android Auto split screen with another 8" screen below it. I was hesitant about the lack of some buttons but all of the climate controls have physical buttons so that really left the heated/cooled seats and steering wheel.

But, Ram did a cool thing. When you start it up the screen with those controls displays along with the legal BS screen long enough for you to tap anything you want before it switches to your last screen. It's a great compromise.

You do still have to tap that one to turn off heated seats or wheel vs. a hard button but the other capabilities of the 12" (especially nav and split screen) outweigh those for me.

I rarely see it with the screen off so there are no fingerprints.

I feel the same way. Just with Apple Carplay.

 

[go-ram]

When Ram finally has the 6'4" bed available with Ram Box, and Patriot Blue with Walnut Brown Metallic is available again, I'll definitely order the 12" display, just to have the vehicle be a bit more current and a bit more "future proof".

For navigation, I use 95% just audio instructions, listening to the instructions and watching the road signs ahead. I glance at the display only very occasionally to see which lane I should be in for an upcoming freeway transition or turn. But when I do need to glance at the navigation screen, I know I'll be very glad to have the 12" screen, much easier for my older eyes and slower brain to quickly get a bead on the larger map image.

For me, my audio needs are not great, I just listen to the few over-the-air radio stations I like. And whenever the wife and I are in the same vehicle, she handles all of the audio via Spotify on her iPhone. If I don't care for one of her song choices, I just tune out for a few minutes until it passes. So a giant display for audio is not a big requirement for me, but I love the larger display for the vehicle camera functions and, as mentioned above, the occasional glance at navigation for an upcoming directional change.

So definitely the 12" display for me whenever we can finally order exactly what we want. The way Ram is having trouble keeping all options available, I'm guessing not until March/April 2019 timeframe.

 

[dn325ci]

Some really rational responses here guys - thanks. I’m back and forth on it. Seems more of a preference than a capability advantage for either the 12 or the 8.4. It’s largely the same functionality and its more about whether you like to engage with all screen or screen+buttons. I’ll sit with it for a few more days before ordering.

 

[cmdr bobert]

While I agree with many of these points, I went with the 12”. I can recall no instance where I jumped in a used vehicle and thought, “Man, I wish my new car had this smaller display!” Quite the opposite; I can typically take a glance and guess the age of the vehicle. Regardless of FCA improvements, the larger screen real estate and ability to run multiple apps will remain attractive...and the aftermarket will undoubtedly give us additional possibilities in the future.

Can't argue with that either! I'm sure if all features were equal then most would choose the larger screen, because of what you said.

I can also tell you that after a couple years, I never used the touchscreen displays on my last 2 cars either...other UX paradigms changed or the software just didn't age well. I hope you are correct about this with the new RAM being different and having more options via aftermarket down the road.

It's interesting in how many configurations there are and how it becomes a bit part of prioritizing what one wants.

In my search, every Laramie which had the 12" display got into the weird price point of being about the same as a Longhorn with its L1 package or a nearly base Limited, which made the decision more complicated than it ought to have been.

 

[MJP]

Guys, I'm just getting ready to order a Laramie Sport with all the fixins and I'm pretty excited about it. I'm torn on the 12" Uconnect, which is funny because I'm usually a tech guy. It's not a money thing - I have no problem with the price/cost if it has value. But I really like having physical buttons for climate, and further, I don't like manipulating pages of stuff that have no tactile feel, and therefore I have to take my eyes of the road and refocus to find the button. And every one of them I've seen so far looks like a grimy fingerprint mess when the truck is off. So I'm wondering what you guys like & dislike, and I'm wondering what you typically have/show on the bottom half of the screen.

Thanks!
Don

I absolutely love the 12" screen but hate the fingerprints. I am a button guy too. It is definitely a great thing to have when you are using Nav as you can use the split screen with radio...and Nav at the same time. I generally leave it full screen with the radio unless using Nav. One complaint is that the clock and temp is so ridiculously small you almost need a magnifying glass to see them. No clue why they didn't make those bigger with all that screen space.

 

[dn325ci]

Guys, today I did side-by-side testing at a dealership with and without my iPhone XS Max pushing CarPlay. For those interested in this subject I had 5 final observations, and reached a conclusion for me.

1. Going back and forth between them, the 8.4 inch diagonal screen actually looks slightly wider in CarPlay mode (in other words wider horizontally) than the 12.1 inch diagonal screen. Would that even make sense mathematically? I don't know, but that was a small difference I felt I was seeing.
2. CarPlay running on the 8.4 inch uconnect sits higher on the dash than when running on the 12.1 uconnect. The difference was significant enough to note.
3. Something that surprised me: going back and forth I kept seeing that hands down the 8.4 inch screen was the better quality display on the metrics that display people usually measure. The 12.1 has all kinds of light leakage from the backlight. Also it's blacks aren't as inky as the 8.4, and it's colors aren't as vibrant. Frankly, and I hope you guys would extend me some grace as I don't mean to offend, but it shows like some of the lower quality laptop displays. I would also not be surprised if the 8.4 had higher pixel per inch density - it looked a notch more crispy.
4. One functionality I definitely preferred about the 12.1 was the ability to have Waze on top, media on the bottom.
5. One functionality I definitely preferred about the 8.4 was that my wife could turn on her seat heater (or cooler!) without having to mess with the screen.

Anyway, for me I've decided to go with the 8.4. Appreciate you guys and the info this forum provides.
Don

 

[cmdr bobert]

Guys, today I did side-by-side testing at a dealership with and without my iPhone XS Max pushing CarPlay. For those interested in this subject I had 5 final observations, and reached a conclusion for me.

1. Going back and forth between them, the 8.4 inch diagonal screen actually looks slightly wider in CarPlay mode (in other words wider horizontally) than the 12.1 inch diagonal screen. Would that even make sense mathematically? I don't know, but that was a small difference I felt I was seeing.
2. CarPlay running on the 8.4 inch uconnect sits higher on the dash than when running on the 12.1 uconnect. The difference was significant enough to note.
3. Something that surprised me: going back and forth I kept seeing that hands down the 8.4 inch screen was the better quality display on the metrics that display people usually measure. The 12.1 has all kinds of light leakage from the backlight. Also it's blacks aren't as inky as the 8.4, and it's colors aren't as vibrant. Frankly, and I hope you guys would extend me some grace as I don't mean to offend, but it shows like some of the lower quality laptop displays. I would also not be surprised if the 8.4 had higher pixel per inch density - it looked a notch more crispy.
4. One functionality I definitely preferred about the 12.1 was the ability to have Waze on top, media on the bottom.
5. One functionality I definitely preferred about the 8.4 was that my wife could turn on her seat heater (or cooler!) without having to mess with the screen.

Anyway, for me I've decided to go with the 8.4. Appreciate you guys and the info this forum provides.
Don

I believe the 12 in display is simply 2 of the 8.4 displays stacked vertically.

Without taking apart I don’t know if thats accurate (2 sales people at 2 dealerships said the same thing about the 12” being 2 of the 8.4s) .

I assume they meant the panels are from the same manufacturer simply put in a different configuration cut to a different size.

It would also make sense in terms of light leakage between the 2 panels if they weren’t one large LCD.

which brings up a good point - one would think it could be a differentiator if the 12” display were a single panel OLED or a single panel of anything higher quality than LCD.

 

[Ickabod]

I must say I prefer the 8.4 screen. After 8 months of ownership, I rarely touch my screen while driving. I use the volume knob, the temp knob, fan knob and heated seat/steering wheel button, all without looking at them. This is how I prefer to drive...eyes on the road. Use the steering wheel controls for the radio.

 

[MacDuff]

It sure

I am having the same issue too.

Everyone talks about how great it is having navigation on the 12" screen, but I would never preferentially use RAM navigation over Apple or Google Maps.

A big thing for me is being able to see my audio track name while also running CarPlay navigation. My F-150 can't do that. In the RAM, I can put the audio track name in the instrument cluster, and navigation on the screen, so while the tech geek in me really wants the 12", the 8 inch is probably much more usable on a day to day basis.

If there was a way to run 2 separate CarPlay apps on both top AND bottom at the same time (Spotify + Apple Maps), the 12" would be a no-brainer, but you can't.[/QUOTE

 

[dn325ci]

I believe the 12 in display is simply 2 of the 8.4 displays stacked vertically..

Really appreciate your comments, cmdr bobert. But I’m almost certain this is not true. The quality of the displays is plainly different in back to back comparison.

 

[Gman]

They were probably trying to compare the screen real-estate. I don't think that has anything to do with who made the glass. It is a high quality panel.

ETA: The display is seamless. There's no way they are 2 panels put together.

 

[foolsh1]

I got the 8.4 Nav. There was 2 Laramie black editions on the lot, both were differently optioned.
Mine(the one on the right) = E-torque, 3.92's, Sunroof, Black side bars, Bed Group, 8.4"
the other = No E-torque, 3.21's, No sunroof, Power side steps, 12"
So I made a choice to get what was closer to my needs for pulling.
I say if you are going to order your truck get which one you want, both are nice!