It powered on and prompted me to scan a QR code on the screen with my phone.
To get started using the Car Thing, I placed it on its mount and plugged it into my car’s USB port. Easy Setupįirst off, you need a Spotify account to use the Car Thing, so if you don't already have one, you'll need to create one. You can also power the Car Thing directly if your car has a USB port it worked with the one in my vehicle without issue. In addition to the mounting accessories, the Car Thing comes with a cigarette lighter adapter with two USB ports, a USB-A-to-USB-C cable, and two small adhesive cable clips to prevent the wire from dangling. The magnetic holder clipped in securely and the Car Thing stayed put in testing, despite remaining easy to remove. My Honda Fit doesn’t have a CD player, and the adhesive mount didn’t stick too well to the textured surface of my dashboard, but the vent clip stayed in place despite my nonstandard air vents. There’s a vent clip with two sets of flexible prongs, a CD mount with a flat insert that fits inside any slot-loading CD player, and an adhesive mount with a sticky strip that attaches to the dashboard. You get several different mounts with the Car Thing, in addition to the magnetic holder that snaps into all of them. The Car Thing comes with several mount options This protrusion includes a USB-C port for power, and has a metal panel behind the plastic casing that facilitates the connection to the magnetic puck-shaped holder. The back is mostly flat, with a raised section that takes up about a third of the space. A tiny rubber tag with the Spotify logo extends from the left edge.
Spotify car thing series#
The top edge of the device has a series of five buttons (four for presets and one for settings), as well as four pinhole microphones. A 4-inch, 800-by-480-pixel touch screen sits on the front, with a large rubberized dial and a smaller black plastic button on the right. The Car Thing looks a bit like a small smartphone: It’s a black device with a plastic body and a glass front panel that measures about 3 by 5 by 1 inches (HWD). For far less money, a simple car phone mount brings similar utility to your vehicle using your existing handset. While the Car Thing is easy to use and nice to look at, it relies relies heavily on your smartphone, lacks a navigation mode, and doesn't offer any voice features you can't already get via the Spotify app. If you don't have access to easy connectivity options and still want to stream music as you drive, you might be tempted by Spotify's $89.99 Car Thing accessory, which clips to your dashboard and features both a color touch screen and a dial for controlling Spotify playback.
Spotify car thing android#
And generally speaking, it’s easier than ever to hook your phone up to your car in a safe and useful way (I swear by my Honda Fit’s Android Auto and Apple CarPlay integrations). If this were a solution to that that didn’t cost as much as, say, Porsche’s faux-classic infotainment system (albeit without phone features), that could be a useful product.Between streaming audio and providing turn-by-turn directions, smartphones have become essential for most drivers. Classic cars with modern head units are a real pet peeve of mine, but I understand the impulse.
The great benefit of a product like this one could be its non-intrusive nature. If that’s the case, that would be a shame.
One of the promotional pictures shows a cable running down from the device, though, suggesting that it could require an aux cable, which could limit the number of vehicles it works with. The product looks pretty easy to use, allowing you to either use the dial, physical buttons on top, voice controls, or the touch screen to scroll through Spotify’s library of music and podcasts.Īlthough the way the user interacts with it is clear, how it interacts with the car is a little less clear. Still in limited release, Spotify is testing the idea as part of its “larger ubiquity strategy.” The ‘Car Thing’ is Spotify’s in-car audio device that clips to an A/C vent and can play your favorite songs or podcasts effortlessly.
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