Audi S7 review

The S7 comes with Audi’s Virtual Cockpit as standard, which replaces traditional analogue dials with a 12.3in screen. It’s excellent, being highly configurable and showing a wealth of useful information just below your sightline. In fact, it makes the optional head-up display (standard on Vorsprung trim) a worthwhile extra but hardly an absolute must.

Look to the left and you’ll find the infotainment screens. The top one is 10.1in, and covers things such as the radio, navigation and smartphone links (Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard). Just below that sits another 8.6in touchscreen dedicated to climate controls and convenience features.

The menus are a little convoluted, so it takes time to work out where everything is, but generally it reacts quickly to commands. Both screens provide haptic feedback to confirm when you’ve touched an icon, but you still have to glance away from the road to hit the icon in the first place, and that’s our biggest bugbear; it’s so much more distracting to use on the move than Mercedes’ Comand system.

The rest of the driving position is good. The supportive sports seats come with electric adjustment (including memory recall and lumbar adjustment) and Vorsprung models have a powered steering column, too.

Visibility is about as good as it gets forwards, with thinner front pillars than its rivals. Being a coupé, with narrow side and rear windows, means the view backwards over your shoulder is rather less clear — but you get parking sensors front and rear and a rear-view camera to help guide you. Bright LED headlights illuminate the way ahead after dark, and are adaptive if you opt for the Vorsprung trim.

It’s an Audi, so don’t think for a moment that the S7 isn’t deluxe inside. The standard leather-covered seats fit well with the host of other high-grade materials, and everything feels beautifully constructed. That said, it is a little soulless compared with the flamboyance of the CLS 53’s interior.