Sony’s new car head unit has a 6.95-inch screen, CarPlay, and Android Auto

Sony hasn’t forgotten about car audio in the wide mix of TVs, speakers, headphones, and other products it’s introducing at CES. Here in Las Vegas, the company is introducing a new head unit with a 6.95-inch capacitive display, Apple CarPlay, and Android Auto. That’s a big larger than the 6.4-inch model that Sony currently sells. The 6.4-inch XAV-AX100 — a produced introduced in 2017 — used a resistive touchscreen, so Sony was really overdue in making the upgrade to capacitive with this new product.

An aluminum panel at the bottom has physical buttons for audio source and volume. There are two USB ports, and FLAC playback is supported over USB.

Sony has also designed the new in-dash receiver to save space. “The rear chassis is designed with single-DIN dimensions that give enough room to store connected cable harnesses, steering wheel control adopter, and more,” the company says. “The XAV-AX5000 boasts 23% shorter depth in comparison with the XAV-AX100.” And the new head unit is rear-camera-ready and will automatically show the camera’s feed on that big screen when you shift into reverse. Sony also says the whole thing is very fast to start up whenever the ignition turns out.

The XAV-AX5000 will be out sometime this spring, but as of yet there’s no confirmed price. For reference, its predecessor still retails for $400.