We have a unique treat for you folks today! One of our sister-sites @ColoradoDiesel.org was able to get sponsorship from General Motors to check out a media fleet vehicle. Our lucky editors were able to spend time with the all new GMC Canyon 4WD SLT Crew Diesel Pickup Truck for a week.
Here on the tech team, we were given the chance to play around with the infotainment system, which includes integrated Bluetooth and OnStar as well as a fully Wi-Fi enabled 4GLTE mobile internet connection. We wanted to take a few moments to share our experience with it for a couple of reasons: One is just because we wanted to shamelessly plug our awesome @ColoradoDiesel.org sister site while giving GMC props for a great vehicle! The other is because this is a mobile tech site. Since this is basically the same infotainment package found on most GM vehicles, it could apply to many of our members as useful info for helping you decide on a new vehicle if/when you are in the market.
We didn't get too crazy with our testing. The main thing we wanted to do was see how well the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi works with an Android and an iPhone. We tested a Google Nexus 5 and an Apple iPhone 6S Plus. Both connected flawlessly with all the aforementioned features of the truck's infotainment package.
For the most part, the Bluetooth works as expected. There was one annoying hiccup with iOS that Apple is working on with a future update. Basically, when you are listening to the radio, if you interrupt it (whether with a received phone call, or activating Waze or Google Maps), it doesn't immediately switch back to radio when you are finished like most automotive Bluetooth setups do. Instead it hangs on to the phone and then tries to play music or keep activating the app constantly from the phone instead of switching back to radio listening. You have to manually go back to the radio. Again, we want to reiterate that Apple is aware of the problem and their tech support indicated that the company is working on a future update to fix it.
As far as the 4GLTE and Wi-Fi is concerned we were very pleasantly surprised. While the connection won't break any speed records, it was arguably faster than some folks experience with their wireless provider. For reference, after hooking up to the Wi-Fi on the truck, browsing was smooth and fast. We also tested the connection using the Ookla Speedtest app and the Speedof.me website. Here are the results:
- Ookla Speedtest - Ping of 98, Download Speed of 2.37Mbps & Upload Speed of 5.87Mbps
- Speedof.me website test - Ping of 74, Download Speed of 2.62Mbps & Upload Speed of 3.95Mbps
Ultimately, if you are a fan of trucks, and especially GM made vehicles, the GMC Canyon seems like a great choice. From the tech side of things, we were happy with its capabilities (except for the minor Bluetooth problem), and if you are in your vehicle a great deal and need a mobile Wi-Fi connection constantly, then it could be worth it to pay for the monthly subscription to the service. See OnStar.com/4GLTE for pricing info.
Last edited:
