Car Facts

Just Three BMW Models Remain Without A “Curved Display”

Published

2 years ago

March 21, 2025

Ehijie

Minimalism and touchscreens are rapidly taking over car interiors, and BMW is no different. Only three models in the brand’s extensive portfolio still feature a traditional BMW dashboard with buttons and no ‘curved display’.

Early in the morning, somewhere in Germany, a BMW employee in one of the brand’s gigantic factories starts the day with a huge stack of then still-straight, 14.9-inch widescreen monitors. With every new car, a new screen is taken and, thanks to years of experience, folded over the knee with exactly the right pressure in exactly the right curve, and then screwed into the car. That could be any car because the curved screen combination with almost all functions can be found in all new BMW models.

Also See: BMW Showcases Next-Gen iDrive System Set For Late 2025

Of course, we also know that it doesn’t work that way, and not just because you don’t bend a ‘curved display’ over your knee. However, it is also not the case that this screen can be found in all new BMWs. That is quite remarkable, because we have known the combination of information display and touchscreen since 2020. Since the BMW iX was launched that year, every model change or facelift has been used to provide other models with a similar display. This intervention not only brought the modern screen combination to cars such as the 3-series, 4-series, and X5 but also immediately meant that a lot of buttons were deleted. Traditional control clusters for climate control, for example, are no longer an issue with this new system, whether it is a facelift or a completely new model with this screen.

We now know that BMW is on the eve of a completely new interior chapter, with yet another new infotainment system. That’s pretty fast because even in 2025 there are still three models that have to do without a ‘Curved Display’. The BMW Z4, BMW X4, and BMW 8 Series, all three launched in 2018, still have an ‘old-fashioned’ BMW dashboard. In these models, we find a separate (but digital) instrument cluster under an awning, with a separate touchscreen next to it and traditional ventilation grilles, buttons for climate control, and programmable shortcuts underneath. On the center tunnel in these models, there is also a small lever for the automatic transmission, whereas the newer BMWs have a simple button. Anyone who likes all that should take a quick look (or buy) because you can bet that these three models will eventually fall for the axe.