The center stack info screen.

I bought the "Wired Pkg" w/ the bigger center screen. I have it set to split screen where the Nav gives me location and the other half shows song and album art.

Why in the world did Mini/BMW think the orange lettering (and then decide that some of the orange lettering should be more illuminated that others) on a gray screen was a good driver viewing combination?

Most of time I cannot read any of the song info due to ambient daylight washing out the poorly contrasted screen, but even at night they decide that the screen should be dimmed further (which makes driving during the day when raining and the lights are on, sensors assumes it night and dim the screen more.

My C7 has a bight nav/info screen where I can glance at it (day or night) and get whatever info I desire. Bright white letters on a dark background.

Mini failed miserably on this one. I have the back light illumination set to max and it is still awful. Is there something else I may be missing on the settings?

Maybe in the design lab where the engineer is holding the center stack screen at book reading distance away, thought it looked fine. In the real world it sucks.

I get that since the gauges glow Orange, they thought Orange on the center display would go with the motif, but they could have at least brightened up the letting so it's more readable.

Honestly, that is my only real complaint I have with the car and one that makes me want to get my hands around the throat of the design engineers every time I glance at that screen.

 

With so much customization potential for iDrive, it boggles my mind how limited it actually is for the end user. +1 for your observations. I'd love to be able to customize the heck out of the UX, as well as the car functions out of the box.

 

They picked a color pallet , it the same on the my R58 nav. I do like the newer XL screen on the F56 , very fast and its the same screen used in Rolls Royce.

 

reds and orange have the lowest negative impact on your night vision. the bright blues and whites used by some manufacturers may look fancy, but they'll make it harder to see out into the world when driving in the dark.

 

Thank you. As my friend said, "It's like I'm in a submarine! I never been in a submarine!" Frankly, I think there's too much light from the dash, especially when driving through sparsely populated areas at night. I wish MINI would have a Saab-like "Night Panel" button.

 

My issue is daytime driving, some of the information displayed on the center stack is unreadable unless I get within 10 inches of the display (which isn't smart when driving).

Yes, a day time setting with brighter characters for daytime and maybe a night time mode (although my screen dims when the headlights come on automatically). Again, not talking about the entire instrument clusters, just the center stack LCD display.

Since I rarely drive at night I have never thought to look for one, but isn't there a dimmer **** to reduce the brightness on all the instrument displays (speedo-tach, etc.,)?

 

Yes, to the right of your headlight controls, near where your left knee would be on the dash.