Introduction

Music systems, today, have become an important addition in modern passenger cars in the Indian market. With families and individual buyers spending more and more time on the road, it has become lucrative for manufacturers and aftermarket suppliers to offer comprehensive entertainment packages at decent prices. Most systems these days offer the basics like USB, AUX, radio tuner, CD player and some form of sound adjustment.

However, what if you are willing to trade in your standard head unit for something more premium? Blaupunkt seems to have a solution in the form of its flagship Cape Town 940 audio system. Launched in 2015, this was one of the first comprehensive Android-based systems for the Indian market and it is only recently that other manufacturers have begun offering their own Android enabled infotainment systems in India. Given that this is the next stage of evolution for vehicle entertainment systems we decided to take a look and see what was on offer.

The Product

First the facts; The Cape Town 940 is a two-din music system. It gets a 6.8-inch touch display and runs Android Jellybean version 4.1.1. As is the trend nowadays, the overall design is very minimalistic with physical buttons existing for just the power function, home and CD drive. There is also a dial for volume adjustment as well as one AUX, SD card slot and a USB port. It gets three more USB ports at the rear as well as AV inputs at the front and rear. This system is also capable of supporting two screens at the rear which can function independently from the main screen. It also supports the use of steering wheel mounted buttons and has an input for the rear camera.

The Experience

The interface will be familiar to those of us who have used Android-based smart devices in the last four years. There are three main screens with each giving you access to various functions. The fonts are large and everything is quite visible even if it is quite bright outside. With 1GB RAM and 8GB of flash memory, it would take a very keen eye to notice any lag in terms of load up or transition times.

There is the usual stuff like support for multiple audio formats, pictures and video formats though in the case of the third one you can only view video on the front screen if the handbrake is engaged. Now here is where things get interesting as the Cape Town has four major ‘power’ features that we would like to highlight. These are things that set it apart from the other run-of-the mill systems.

The first is that it can run a variety of apps like Facebook, Google e-mail client, Shazam and Spotify radio. In addition to the existing GPS system, you can also get a Map My India package for a more localised approach but this will cost extra over the price of the system.

There is full internet connectivity and this can be done using a 3G/4G device or even a dongle which can be plugged into one of the USB ports in the back to provide a permanent WiFi connection for the car. A word of warning though, you should load yourself up with a data package if you are going to use this system as it is very easy to get carried away while browsing and downloading.

The next is the Mirror mode function which allows you to connect a supported Android or Apple smart device via a MHL (Mobile high-definition) cable and operate it directly from the infotainment system’s display. This is a function that, since the launch of the Cape Town, has begun to make its way across various models. However, to connect your smartphone you need a device that supports this function as well as a mobile high definition link cable. In addition you also need to download an app to assist in the process when connecting Android devices.

The fourth is that this system has a parametric equaliser as opposed to a graphic equaliser. In the most basic sense it allows you to control a higher number of parameters with regard to the output. It will allow you to customise the sound output from the speakers exactly the way that you want, though this will require individual tuning depending on the vehicle.

The Pricing

The Cape Town 940 is priced in the range of Rs 50,000 to Rs 54,000 and comes bundled with all the requisite wiring, a remote control as well an WiFi dongle. You would have to buy the speakers and other equipment separately. There are similarly priced aftermarket Android-based car audio systems but lack some of the features of the Cape Town like the capacity of the internal memory, digital radio and a parametric equaliser.