You might assume the 2022 Infiniti QX80’s interior is filled with outdated technology from when it launched here about 10 years ago, but that’s not entirely true. You see, despite the rest of the car carrying over from the previous model year, the 2022 model year QX80 enjoys a refreshed interior.
While this interior is updated, there’s no need to get overly excited. Nissan put the Armada through a mid-cycle refresh last year, and the QX80 essentially cribs all of its new bits directly from the Nissan. We’ve already tested the Armada, so we had an idea about what to expect when the refreshed QX80 landed at our doorstep.
Thankfully, for Infiniti’s sake, the Armada’s new interior is nice enough that it’s largely acceptable in the more luxurious QX80. It features a new, high-res touchscreen, flashy plastics, a simple layout and vital tech like a wireless phone charger, USB-C port and wireless Apple CarPlay — unfortunately, Android Auto remains a wired-only affair.
The new look of this tall and vast center stack doesn’t jive perfectly with the QX80’s flowy, rounded interior design, but that’s what you get when part of the interior is updated and the rest is left to carryover. Straight, strong lines dominate the center stack, complemented by rectangular vents. Meanwhile, rounded wood trim flows out of this brutalist center stack in a jarring manner that makes the interior look like two different designers worked on it separately, then had their work combined.
Functionally, the new parts of the interior are just fine. The new single touchscreen and its supporting user interface is a welcome update over the old dual-screen infotainment system that’s still found in other Infinitis (it had only just received that system for 2020). Its large, width-oriented and mounted higher for easy viewing, plus the presence of supporting physical knobs and buttons make vital controls easy to use and adjust. The odd storage compartment in the dash…