Proton just launched their new car over the weekend with the name of Proton Suprima S, which basically is the hatchback version of the Proton Preve. One point that is particularly intriguing is that this car is the first local Malaysian car that features an Android-powered console built right in the car itself. I got a look at this car and played around with what’s Proton has to offer with Android. 
Let’s take a look at this console as a mobile device first. When I looked at it, the one essential characteristics of this console is the matte screen that totally makes sense for a device that’s constantly under the bright sunlight while in use. The screen is about 7 inches large, with the control buttons at the right side of the screen. Oh wait – the screen is resistive instead of capacitive. 
As I approached, the screen showed a rather familiar widget that was used to be in Android’s pre-Ice-Cream Sandwich days. It doesn’t look exactly the same though, just with much resemblance. At the side you can see that there are the 3 essential buttons of Android back in the old days – Back, Menu and Home button. The Navi button is something which I never got to try, and I will tell you why in a while. As for the connectivity, the flap is a little hard to open and even harder to let it hang while you deal with the connecting devices. 
Agonizing, as they did include one standard USB port for you but it’s beside the 12V outlet at the bottom. It also supports microSD and SDHC cards as shown in the picture.
Going to the homescreen itself, there is this nostalgic view of the old Android, where the menu is still pretty much just black and highlights were orange in colour. You have a home launcher with 5 different homescreens, a settings button, an app drawer button, and also an equalizer button at the left side. At the bottom dock, you have the four fixed apps, Navigation, Radio, Media and Bluetooth. We pretty much know what Radio, Media and Bluetooth does so I just skipped that part as it is redundant. So let’s go ahead and press Navigation and check out their GPS interface.
In this error message, it is pretty much confirmed that the version of Android on this console is not even Honeycomb – it’s either Android 1.6, Android 2.X – Donut, Eclair, FroYo or Gingerbread – and all those versions of Android are announced at least 3 years old. 3 years. That’s how old it is! Android changed from this style of its interface to its current Holo design since Ice-Cream Sandwich, which is already two years old. 
Despite having an old version of Android, it still has some core essentials of Android running in it, such as the Bluetooth connectivity app, the good ol’ Browser, DVD player, equalizer, Media and Media Player app, the wonky Navigation and also a tuner app. Other than those however, I think it’s quite useless to be included in the console. A PDF viewer while driving? Not such a good idea, unless you’re someone who does meetings in your car and have all your documents in PDF format and transferred to your microSD or SDHC memory card. Calculator is just… speechless. The Search is another thing that I can find no use for unless your Android is filled with files and you just can’t find one particular file that you know its name like the back of your hand. 
Having said all those, the Android-powered console does indeed offer a completely different feel to interfaces compared to the conventional button-controlled systems as Android offers a graphical interface. Well, it’s not so graphical, just something that’s directly communicable with the press of anything (it’s a resistive touch screen!). The media player definitely doesn’t disappoint when it comes to practicality, as it is much more responsive and faster compared to – oh, let’s say the Kia Carens, which takes a long time to initialize and play a CD, touches are unresponsive and the Bluetooth is glitchy. Maybe the Proton Suprima S’s console isn’t as good as it is while on the road too, but for the first look, it is indeed very satisfying, despite the super old version of Android. As many people and even I am questioning, will enthusiasts root and flash in some custom ROMs to this baby to unlock its greater potential?
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There is a USB port at the bottom compartment right above the gear knob. Better modify your posting before others start laughing.
i dont mind to install Lotus Traveler on the HU, just for a backup purposes should i fail to charge my handphones.. this is so cool…
Hi there,
If i’m not mistaken, the USB port is located next to the 12v power outlet below the console.
The USB port is at the bottom of the centre console together with the power outlet, thought you should know 🙂
The USB port is at the bottom of the centre console, together with the power outlet 🙂
Oh? It’s that well hidden?
its the same position with preve..unless you never test preve…
Usb at the bottom. You will need to modify your article.
Thanks for the correction, it is now amended
Salam semua, saya terima tempahan suprima s saya 3hari lps. Agak mengecewakan-tak dapat buka gps sama spt yg dipaparkan disini. Akan hubungi wakil penjual untuk cari jalan penyelesaian.
untuk guna gps kena guna sd card yang diberi oleh proton bila beli kereta ini. sebabnya semua peta tu offline punya (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arEBHOfDJUQ). Bagaimanapun ada orang komen yang skrin ini pada waktu malam agak terang walaupun setting kecerahan pada minimum
They use Android version 1.6, and it cannot, I repeat, it cannot upgrade to 4.3 or 4.2 JellyBean, it is useless, and Preve GPS console until now still don’t have software update, I already file a case to sue Proton why there is no software update for Preve.
How did that go? I got a suprima 2 weeks ago and the GPS is not working so is the bluetooth. I went to the place I got my car and they asked me to go to Shah Alam’s service centre!
That surely sucks. Anyway as far as I know, the GPS needs the SD card that contains the map data to run it. As for the Bluetooth, well… good luck.
Tq Tay atas info. Pomen proton pun cakap kena guna sd card yg dbekalkan oleh proton. Tp lepas guna, gps dia tak terus jadi, kena ambik masa sikit. Tak tau kenapa. Sekarang dah boleh guna dah.
Boot belakang suprima ni boleh buka guna remote. Tp selalu tak boleh nak bukak bila try guna remote, bengangnya!!
double click unlock, then hold down unlock button till it opens. should be 5 seconds.
the search button is actually for searching the web. pdf viewer has the user manual for the audio player. thats the only user manual u get for it.
Trima kasih Hafiz
1st time tinted suprima ni (crmin dpn) lampu brek mnyala xpadam2! Pergi adjust kt proton-ok. Xpuas hati wrna tinted pegi plk tinted kali ke-2 kdai lain jd masalah sama-lampu brek nyala xpadam2. Padahal kain dah lapik byk kat area dpn crmin. Pening kpala.
Kalau kita tukar software gps ke garmin bole ke? agak kekok guna software dia.
Satu lagi, sound proofing kena tambah lain… bunyi masuk ke dalam kereta agak kuat…
Salam / hi to all..
I just have 1 ques. For the day at the main menu(before u switch on the radio), Can i change the launguage from bm to english??
I’m sorry as I can’t help you on this issue. My guess is that you can, but you’ll need to tinker around the settings.