- 2 days ago
Lexus Arene OS is a clear step up from the old infotainment system, but it still leaves room for improvement. In this hands-on review of the 2026 Lexus ES, the new multimedia interface is explored in detail, from the language switch and shortcut screen to navigation, charging menus, climate controls, and driver-assistance settings.
The system feels faster and more usable than before, with handy one-tap access to some functions and better organization in places. But there are still frustrations: route planning with charging is weak, charger information is limited, and some EV-specific controls like battery preconditioning are tucked away too deeply. The video also highlights odd equipment differences in the electric ES, including the missing 360 camera and other features that appear to be reserved for the hybrid version.
Along the way, there’s practical commentary on speed-limit alerts, hidden climate buttons, physical volume controls, and the overall balance between touchscreen convenience and real-world usability. It’s a useful look for anyone researching Lexus ES infotainment, Arene OS, electric car navigation, EV charging menus, or modern Toyota and Lexus user interfaces.
SEO: Ideal for viewers searching for Lexus Arene OS review, 2026 Lexus ES infotainment, Lexus ES navigation system, EV charging route planning, car touchscreen review, and in-depth automotive technology commentary. A strong pick for fans of Lexus reviews, electric vehicle infotainment, and real-world car interface testing.
The system feels faster and more usable than before, with handy one-tap access to some functions and better organization in places. But there are still frustrations: route planning with charging is weak, charger information is limited, and some EV-specific controls like battery preconditioning are tucked away too deeply. The video also highlights odd equipment differences in the electric ES, including the missing 360 camera and other features that appear to be reserved for the hybrid version.
Along the way, there’s practical commentary on speed-limit alerts, hidden climate buttons, physical volume controls, and the overall balance between touchscreen convenience and real-world usability. It’s a useful look for anyone researching Lexus ES infotainment, Arene OS, electric car navigation, EV charging menus, or modern Toyota and Lexus user interfaces.
SEO: Ideal for viewers searching for Lexus Arene OS review, 2026 Lexus ES infotainment, Lexus ES navigation system, EV charging route planning, car touchscreen review, and in-depth automotive technology commentary. A strong pick for fans of Lexus reviews, electric vehicle infotainment, and real-world car interface testing.
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MotorTranscript
00:00hello since you're here i assume i don't have to tease you i don't have to do any clickbaits
00:06you just want to find out how is the new lexus infotainment and is it any good so here we
00:14go
00:19so this is the new lexus es 2026 or 2027 depending on whether we're in europe or
00:26in the us and this lexus es is electric although there is a hybrid version as well and being
00:34electric is important at least for europe not because it's better or more sought after but
00:41because there are certain shortcomings resulting from it now before we go any further let me switch
00:47the language to english and i haven't done that yet because i want to show you how quickly
00:54this happens so i'm in polish right now and i'll just go to english
01:03boom it's ready it didn't have to reload or anything like that it's just there it's pretty quick so if
01:11we go into the map for example it's well it's better than it used to be right
01:21okay uh main screen uh now i'm not logged into my profile because i don't have my profile because
01:30this is a press car and because this is a press car uh toyota lexus poland hasn't still figured out
01:36how to assign let's say test profiles to journalists which it could then easily delete and
01:45which nobody would lose passwords to etc etc it is a logistics nightmare with driver profiles because
01:54as journalists we have problems testing these additional features which sometimes are the main
02:01feature in a given car but i'm not logged into any profile so i won't be able to show you
02:06just about
02:06everything but i will show you as much as i can first things first isa the annoying beeper that beeps
02:14at you every time you exceed the speed limit you can switch it off with a press of a button
02:19here on
02:21top of the screen there is a nice shortcut for that in older versions you would have to click through
02:27like i don't know 20 stage menu on the center on the driver's display to to get to it so
02:33now it's a one
02:35click job now i do not encourage you breaking the law but i also know that the traffic sign recognition
02:45isn't faultless because some of the traffic signs it sees in front of it some of it it sees on
02:55adjacent
02:56roads which aren't exactly true some of them are stored in satnav and i call them phantom speed limits
03:02which don't exist in a given area or should have been taken down some time ago but haven't it's a
03:10mess
03:10especially in poland what's it like in your country let me know in the comment section below now once we've
03:17switched off isa there is a kind of general shortcut uh shortcut screen here where you can
03:27go to android auto apple carplay right now my phone is disconnected because i don't want it to ring
03:32while we're while we're recording but you can do that you can turn the screen off you can turn on
03:39the recorder there is a camera here and this camera can be used to record like a dash cam and
03:47it stores
03:48information in the car's memory now because i'm not logged in i'm unable to do it and this is only
03:56a
03:56front facing camera however if this car had a 360 degree camera it would record all the way around the
04:04car now this car doesn't have a 360 camera only a backup camera because it's electric and it seems
04:13that lexus for europe for reasons which toyota lexus weren't able to explain to me hasn't seen it hasn't
04:25seen fit for the backup for the 360 camera to be on the electric car only on the hybrid
04:31personally i think they really don't about the electric lexus they just want to sell hybrids
04:38and maybe that's why on a hybrid lexus es you can buy this multimedia package which includes the 360
04:47camera which includes a parking assistant which includes mark lewinson audio and something else oh
04:54and a digital mirror which this one doesn't have so for some reason it isn't available on what i would
05:04expect to be the flagship model the electric model but no we don't have that anyway shortcuts from there
05:12we have the main screen and two additional screens now
05:17you can put a drive mode shortcut here which isn't the best place for it at all
05:27but there are worse places for it and we'll get to them so you can customize this screen and sort
05:35of
05:35add stuff you might want to put here rearrange them and things like that so that's that i mean you'll
05:43be
05:43using android auto or apple carplay anyway then we have satnav and satnav at least in poland isn't
05:52particularly good when it comes to planning your route so i have a recent destination here oh i don't
06:02have a recent destination because i'm not logged in so anyway let me just type something far away
06:10there we go go this is 300 something kilometers away so it's it's sufficiently far and obviously i
06:23won't be able to make it on a single charge let alone with 26 charge like i have right now
06:29so add
06:30charger to root and it's thinking now i've recorded this in polish 20 minutes ago and it still takes
06:40ages i thought it would at least like store it anyway let's see if we can find out anything about
06:46this
06:51no we cannot if i press here
07:03nope nothing i don't know how fast the charger is is it available or not and i mean i know
07:13the road so
07:14i suspect this is the one where you would not normally stop because it's too slow but
07:23that's just me um so no this isn't like the best the best solution but let's see
07:30how's the situation in the area because there are some chargers in the area
07:36and there we go there's one
07:44and there is no information about this one whatsoever now i know this one is pretty good it's pretty fast
07:51um what about this one this one is crap and indeed it is crap but this is like the only
07:58information you
07:59have about it you don't know if how many uh how many plugs are there is it available or not
08:05you just
08:06don't know so as far as uh route planning with charging is concerned this isn't a very good system
08:15at all and this car doesn't charge very fast so you see how this could be important anyway
08:23uh then we have media sorry my phone isn't connected um you know i could go to uh you know
08:30listen to the
08:30radio or something shut up uh at least it's got um it's got a physical uh physical volume rocker and
08:42or tab or whatever you want to call it and a mute button so that's good uh then we have
08:47the phone which
08:48isn't connected and then we have our charging menu now charging menu um okay you have your schedules which
08:54i suppose are the most important then you have um pre-conditioning somewhere you have to go here
09:02and only then you have pre-conditioning now since route planning with charging is crap you will have to
09:10do this yourself and you will probably be using android auto apple carplay so you will have to
09:21turn uh battery conditioning by on by yourself which means that um this could be somewhere higher there
09:33could be a shortcut for it somewhere and there isn't let's see if we can add if we can add
09:41it to the to
09:42the home screen so at least you don't have to look for it for so long customize
09:50oh so the only thing i can do is reposition the widgets but i can't add a widget what if
09:56i delete one
09:57widget oh i can't delete it all right so that's uh unfortunate geez i mean you can really tell
10:15they don't want to make evs they really really don't want to make evs and um this is uh this
10:24is what it
10:25looks like anyway moving on uh we have our general settings and the good thing is that when you go
10:32into
10:32your sort of vehicle settings you can customize a lot of things you can leave some of the things to
10:40be automatic like automatic doors and locks and stuff like that i'm not a great fan of that so i
10:47turn this
10:47off but you can leave it on i like to do things myself if the car likes to think for
10:54me
10:54i don't like that but maybe it's just me i'm old school like that but everything here is actually
11:03very well customizable and relatively easy to park to find auto lock unlock that's actually quite
11:13important because this car doesn't make a sound i will press the lock button now
11:21and unlock and there is no sound so you don't know whether the doors are locked or unlocked even now
11:32when there is sun shining on the on the buttons on the door i don't know and if it's locked
11:37okay i used
11:40the emergency release right if it's locked at least the driver door works but the passenger door
11:51doesn't so the passenger never knows if the door is locked or not i wish they added some sort of
11:58audible feedback like little click or ding or something that would tell the passenger whether
12:04they can open the door or not minor annoyance but uh but still anyway uh driver assist features you can
12:13turn a lot of things on and off permanently one of the things i turned off is a notification telling
12:22me
12:24this one uh road sign assist which is um it tells me uh it tells me like for example if
12:36the new road sign
12:38is detected i hate that because there are too many road signs uh in poland and it's just like 50
12:4740 30 70 50 40
12:4970 70 70 100 something and it just keeps on beeping at you we don't like that so this i
12:54can turn off
12:55then there is this rear vehicle approaching indication which i'm not really sure what it is
12:59for i mean i know what it is for it's for bmws and audis which keep flashing lights at you
13:06because
13:06you're going only 180 in the left lane and they want to go 250 happens driver monitor i wish this
13:14could
13:14be disabled permanently but it cannot be disabled permanently and again i would like this to be
13:18somewhere higher in the uh higher in the menu so that i can find it more easily but generally
13:27speaking i can find stuff here even if it uh if in if it uh takes a while to do
13:34so now climate control
13:36i can have for example automatic steering wheel heating or automatic
13:46uh shush i don't want this or automatic seat warmers or ventilation which is fine i don't like
13:56it to be automatic but i can have it automatic now if i go into the climate menu there is
14:02this thing like
14:03okay so this is the front windshield fan which is okay it has to be visible somewhere this is the
14:12rear
14:12window defroster and the wing mirror defroster but this is the front
14:23wiper probably heater so when your wipers are frozen you can defrost them or something again this is something
14:31i would probably use quite often in the winter and i would like it to be somewhere outside if
14:39um if possible and uh and it is in there lexus is very proud of what they call hidden switches
14:50which
14:51means they are kind of flush with uh with a dash here and okay fine but just give me more
14:58don't hide
14:59everything on the screen uh what else uh dark buttons on the steering wheel and they are actually
15:07physical ish and they are separated with these little bumps humps so it's easy to to know what what
15:16you're pressing so that's good there is basically no piano black in this car so that's also uh good
15:25do i like this multimedia system it's not leading i would say but it's better than what lexus and toyota
15:33used to um used to offer do i like the fact that this screen looks like an afterthought no but
15:40i've also
15:40seen a chinese spec car or a picture of the chinese spec lexus es um with a screen which goes
15:50all the way up
15:51there so there we are then right anyway it's better than it used to be now do you have a
16:01lexus es and
16:03maybe you you are logged into your profiles and maybe you know something more you tried something
16:09more to play around with it do you have any tips for me and for uh other viewers who may
16:16be considering
16:17this car let me know in the comment section below also uh watch my lexus es review to which i'm
16:24linking
16:24somewhere either on the screen or in the uh in the end screens and definitely in the video description
16:33i will be doing infotainment system walkthroughs every now and then so if you're into that
16:42keep on watching as well i'll see you next time if you like my sarcastic down to earth and possibly
16:50mildly amusing car reviews join me every friday 3 pm central european time and don't forget to subscribe
16:57and like this video as it helps me with the youtube algorithm thanks for watching and i will see you
17:03in the
17:04next one