The 2014 Lexus RX isn’t without its quirks; the asterisk is just a little smaller. The touchscreen and tech enhancements are the most significant changes for 2014 , though a bunch of little things — new smartphone holder, over-the-air updates, expanded F-Sport line — have similar executions: They sound great on paper but are a little less impressive in practice. The bulk of the RX is unchanged, available in five-seat RX 350 and hybrid RX 450h variants, along with an L version of each that includes a small third row for a total of six or seven seats.

We all gasped when we heard Lexus was getting a touchscreen — actually, it was a sigh of relief — because the way the previous Lexus RX controlled the non-touch display distracted drivers, requiring them to use the mouse to select a little button. No longer, as the 2014 RX gets a standard 8-inch touchscreen or the optional, vibrant 12.3-inch touchscreen I sampled. Lexus moved the screen 5 inches closer to the driver for 2014, though that might not be enough. I’m 6 feet tall with long arms and like to sit fairly close to the wheel, so I didn’t have a problem using the screen while driving, but the touchscreen might prove too far to be useful if you have shorter arms and/or like to sit farther back; I had to fully extend my arm to reach the far end of the screen. Oddly, Lexus’ Remote Touchpad, seen in other models, snuck into the party when no one was looking, but it’s relatively obsolete in this application because of the touchscreen, and I used it only for the menu button during my short drive. If you can’t reach the touchscreen, the touchpad is how you’ll have to control CarPlay/Android Auto; Godspeed, you poor short-armed bastard.

My preference is the RX’s widescreen format — a style also offered on the BMW X5 — versus the vertically oriented touchscreen in a Volvo XC90. I exclusively use Apple CarPlay while driving, and CarPlay fills the entire display on widescreens like the Lexus, versus on a Volvo where CarPlay is stuck in a little box on the bottom half of the screen, barely larger than the plus-sized phone providing the function. In the RX, all 12.3 inches show CarPlay, so the buttons are large and easy to press (if you can reach them), and annoyingly long podcast titles that would normally be cut off in a small screen are fully displayed.

For those who don’t use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, which provide navigation from a smartphone, the optional built-in navigation system is quite good and boosted for 2014 with more humanized voice recognition (it recognized numerous ways I asked to get to the nearest Starbucks). Most notable is that there are now over-the-air navigation updates that replace the need for a physical SD card. This isn’t the first Lexus to receive the system, named Dynamic Navigation, but it’s new to the RX. When maps are updated, the update comes straight into the RX via the onboard cellular connection. The functionality is active only if you subscribe to Lexus’ Enform cellular service, however, which comes with a free three-year trial before a subscription is required, and the updates are good only for navigation. Unlike the Tesla Model X, you won’t be getting vehicle functionality or systems updates. Those kinds of updates aren’t out of scope, however, as Lexus College senior product specialist Bob Gleich says there are numerous regulatory hoops Lexus must hop through first before that can happen.

Lexus has an intriguing solution for storing phones, a center console cellphone pocket. The sizable slot was large enough to hold my iPhone Plus, which is impressive because my monster of a phone is wrapped in a toddler-proof thick, shock-resistant case. The holder stands the phone up vertically so it’s not using storage space in the cubby if laid down flat. Another bonus: The phone won’t fly out of a bin when accelerating like it does in some cars. On the downside, this cubby won’t wirelessly charge your phone, and CarPlay isn’t wireless as in some BMWs and Audis, so you’ll have to string a data/charge cable across the cupholders to the center console. Oddly, the USB ports literally right next to the phone holder are charge only, and not data ports that stream CarPlay/Android Auto and music to the media system like in the center console storage bin.