Qobuz's recent CarPlay update is a major improvement – but it's not quite perfect

Qobuz's updated CarPlay interface couldn't come soon enough.

As someone lucky enough to have multiple music streaming services to hand as I trek from my home to our Reading office (or anywhere else for that matter) in my increasingly road-weary Audi A1, I'm well-versed in how each major brand has integrated Apple CarPlay into their respective platforms.

For those not in the know, Apple CarPlay is simply a way of displaying some of the key features and functions of your iPhone and its iOS operating system on your car's display screen. Whether wired or wireless, (I tend to plug my phone in directly via USB-C) you'll generally get a sample rate of around 16-bit/48 kHz, a little lower than Qobuz's 24-bit/192kHz maximum.

If Spotify has been the gold standard for on-the-go enjoyment from your iPhone to your car (if you take audio quality out of the equation), hi-res service Qobuz has always lagged seriously behind.

Using Qobuz in your car felt practically medieval, with limited functionalities and poor user control seeing the experience lag well behind the likes of Spotify or Tidal. It was, to be frank, a long way off the finished article.

A recent update, however, has rectified so many of those issues. Now, you're able to delve deep into playlists, explore by genre, ask Siri to play audio and access shuffle play, while the whole arrangement and layout now feels far more intuitive and easy to navigate. It's a far smoother, cleaner experience, and a far cry from the clunky, sparse ordeal of those bad old days.

Accessing specific tracks is far easier, too. Whereas before, clicking on a playlist would just automatically play the whole roster of songs (Tidal still does this), pressing on a chosen list brings up the entire catalogue of tunes from which you can make your selection.

Fancy features such as curated playlists are also on the menu, with the whole suite of features feeling so much fuller and more personalised than before.

It's not yet perfect. There's no way, as far as I can tell, of skipping forward once a track starts playing, either by holding the skip button down or having access to a 15-second time jump, both of which are accessible with Spotify's implementation of CarPlay.

Plus, some features don't work as smoothly or reliably as you might like, although this might be down to personal experience and the fact that this is still a very recent update.

Pressing the 'radio' icon, which generates a sort of bespoke playlist based on the song you're listening to, nearly caused an entire system crash during testing, but that might rectified later down the line. Maybe my 4G connection just wasn't as strong as I thought it was, or maybe I caught the service on a bad day.

Nevertheless, Qobuz's recent overhaul in the way it implements Apple CarPlay is a vast improvement on that which preceded it, making it a genuinely viable alternative to the likes of Tidal or Spotify when you're hitting the road.

Qobuz has already dramatically reduced the gap between its own service and those of its key rivals, with this latest upgrade proving that the French brand is serious about making itself the premier hi-res service on the block.

Now that its sound and music catalogue are up to scratch, alongside this new upgrade to its in-car integration, it may be time for rivals to stand up and take notice of a service that has gained serious momentum in the past few years.

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