Are Vehicle Entertainment Systems Still Worth It?

This post is part of a sponsored automotive series. All opinions are mine. 

A question that I recently got asked on Twitter the other day, was this; “In the age of tablets and smartphones, are vehicle entertainment systems still worth it?” And it got me thinking, because it’s a great question! In this day and age, there is a lot of technology out there that could replace a vehicle’s built-in equipment. So the question remains, is it worth it?

The answer according to a great resource at a Maryland Toyota dealer is, it depends.

Built-In TV vs. Tablets

If you’re mostly using the technology to watch movies, you could go either way. If you have small kids who like to watch movies, then you are probably safe going with the built-in systems in your vehicle. It will cost you the investment of purchasing the DVD’s but once you have them, you should have a good collection to pick through. Not to mention, a movie can typically last around two hours and it will pick up where you left off when you get in and out of the vehicle.

On the other hand, if you have older children who don’t want to watch the same movie as the others, or if they get tired of the same movies over and over, then you may want to look into the tablet approach. The nice thing is that now days, many vehicles offer a wi-fi option, so you can stream movies or shows right there in your vehicle. If your vehicle doesn’t have wifi, you still might have the option on your phone to enable a hotspot so that the kids can stream from their tablets as well.

A con to having tablets vs built-in entertainment is the fact that you will need to bring chargers or bring in the tablets to charge often. Whereas the built-in equipment will never need to be charged or moved. They also won’t get lost or broken as easily.

Streaming Options

If you do choose to go the tablet/smartphone option, you’ll probably want to invest in a monthly subscription to a streaming service. Some of the popular streaming options include Netflix, Hulu Plus, Sling TV, or DirecTV Now. We personally use Netflix and DirecTV Now and with that we’re able to stream live TV from DirecTV Now and watch movies on Netflix. Not only that, but you can actually download movies from Netflix and watch them even when you don’t have internet. This has been really handy so we don’t need to run a hotspot that often.

What does your family do for entertainment in the car? I’d love to hear your strategies!

Til next time,
Sarah