Can the 2020 Prius Prime do what my 2015 Kia Soul can do tech-wise ?

After reading some of the negative posts in the "Prime Audio, Electronics, and Infotainment" section I am having second thoughts about getting the 2020 Prius Prime, let me explain as follows:

Our current car, a modest 2015 Kia Soul, only has a small LED display and not a video screen, yet we can press a button on the steering wheel and talk to the car's computer and do several things by voice control including:

making (or receiving) a hands free phone call by just saying: call "person's name" and it calls and we talk thru the car's radio speakers

receiving and replying to text messages "hands free", the car's computer notifies us we received a text message and reads the text message someone sent and asks if we wish to reply, we can then (by voice) tell the car's computer what to reply via text message

change radio stations by voice control, we just hit a button on the steering wheel and tell the computer what station to switch to.

……..so unless I am getting the wrong impression from some of the negative posts I have read about how bad the 2020 Prius Prime fancy 11.6 inch screen infotainment system is, it seems like the technical ability of our 2015 Kia Soul is far advanced over what the 2020 Prius Prime can do. (except for the map feature)

I get the impression that the 2020 Prius Prime system can't do much more than be a manually controlled radio and a 2nd rate map navigation and little else.

As much as I was looking to get a 2020 Prius Prime, some of those posts are about making me think I'd be better off keeping my 2015 Kia.

After all, if we're going to pay that much for a new 2020 car I expect to be taking a big step forward in technical ability over a 2015 car but some of those posts make me feel like I'd be downgrading from what we can now do with our 2015 Kia Soul.

If I am misunderstanding, please clarify just what the 2020 Prius Prime can do and can't do as far as the infotainment system, thanks !

Note: we would be getting the 2020 Prius Prime XLE model, and we use Android phones, and we have Echo with Alexa in our home with an Amazon Prime account if that makes a difference as far as Alexa connectivity with the Alexa features in the 2020 Prius Prime.

 

Thanks for the detailed reply, okay, I'm still learning and sometimes there is so much info to read thru it's sometimes hard to tell for sure what it can and can't do, especially when people mention a newer year model can't do what a previous year could, or that what a model year was advertised to be able to do is not actually working as advertised.

When you mentioned "You can do all of the things you mentioned via voice-commands" that was very good to hear.

Now I do appreciate you relating your experience with both pros and cons, but I wonder if all of what you said still applies to the 2020 model since it looks like your experience is based on the 2017 model and I have read a post where someone wished they got the 2019 instead of the 2020 because of things the 2020 could not do that the 2019 could.

Hopefully those with experience with the 2020 Prius Prime XLE model can relate their experience so I can know if the 2020 is actually less capable than the 2017 model as far as the experience you had with the 2017 model. It would be sad if the 2020 is a downgrade in ability from earlier models as you would think Toyota would make things better not worse with each new year.

Also, I understand that the "Alexa" capability is new to the 2020 model so hopefully anyone with experience with how that function is working (both pros and cons) that would be good to know too.

 

I understand, and your info is appreciated and hopefully still applies to the 2020 model, I am just hoping the 2020 model is better than what some people have been saying, if you look at some of the threads in the "Prime Audio, Electronics, and Infotainment" section you will read comments like:

"Just picked up my 2020 Prius prime limited yesterday. It looks like Toyota killed off the prime apps from entune 3.0. The entune website says that it is supported, but you cannot register for an entune account. It's a bummer. Also havent been able to get Alexa to work. Anyone doing any better than me?" (end quote)

and

"the 'Toyota+Alexa' application is what is available on the 2020 Primes. It isn't the Toyota skill with Alexa. Thus, you can use Alexa inside the car to do various things (check the weather, ask alexa questions, I'm assuming control your smart home), but not the other way around. It does not allow you to start the car/adjust temp/lock or unlock the vehicle using Alexa. I love the car, but they absolutely gutted all the remote functionality from it and from what I can tell, did so without really mentioning it was going to happen. You can also still go to the entune site and click on 2020 Prius Prime 11.6 with JBL and still see support for all those Prime apps even though they don't exist dor the newer models. It's disappointing to say the least." (end quote)

and

"There is no Prime app through Entune at this time for the 2020 Prius Prime. I also found out Apple CarPlay only works when your iPhone is connected via USB." (end quote)

…...that is just a few to give you an idea about my concerns and reason for my thread. As far as AppleCarPlay do they expect everyone to switch to expensive iphones just to be able to fully use that feature ? I think a majority of people like myself have Android phones.

 

Okay, thanks for clarifying that, as a relative noob to the world of "Prius Prime" it can be confusing sorting thru all the info and what applies to what models. We are planning to buy a 2020 Prius Prime XLE around May of 2020 unless too many negative posts could possibly change my mind, I am hoping any negative stuff related to the XLE might be resolved by then, in the meantime I am just doing my homework in advance researching the experience of current owners so I can feel confident about buying a 2020 Prius Prime XLE as it seems like there is not any major advantage enough making it worth it to getting a model above the XLE.

 

I understand what you are saying and I agree the extremely low gas use is definitely the major selling point for us too, I guess I just feel if we are going to pay that much for a new car we expect the other things to be working as expected too.

I would be disappointed if Toyota had the attitude that customers just had to put up with things not working as expected instead of quickly working to resolve those issues with the current model in a timely manner and not merely putting it off till the next model year.

 

Thanks, that's why I like doing research on a major purchase well in advance of when we are ready to buy so I can be really sure I will be satisfied with what we pick and not later feel like we should have gotten something else. While we currently are very strongly leaning towards the XLE model I will revisit the added benefits of the higher level model just to be sure whether or not it is worth the extra expense to us, though I remember thinking it wasn't the last time I researched the high end model.