Toyota Camry Hybrid interior, dashboard & comfort

The Camry's interior, like much of the rest of the car, is perfectly fine on its own terms, but a little lacklustre when seen next to more cutting-edge and interesting competition. Comfort and material quality are both excellent, but on-board technology isn't great. There's only a small seven-inch infotainment system on the entry-level Design trim, but an April 2021 update did add Apple CarPlay and Android Auto across the range, as well as upping the Excel trim's screen size to nine inches.

Toyota Camry Hybrid dashboard

The Camry's dashboard looks a little dark, but is livened up by a swooping line that runs from just behind the steering wheel down to the centre console, wrapping around the main controls and infotainment screen in the process. There are some attractive wood inserts here and there, along with high-quality leather trim, but overall it's definitely a step down from something like and Audi or BMW, which can be had for similar money.

Equipment, options & accessories

Like many Japanese cars, the Camry has a fairly simple trim-level structure and not a great deal of optional extras – you get pretty much everything you'd want thrown in as standard. There are two trim levels, Design and Excel, and some equipment changes and additions were made as part of the April 2021 model update.

Both grades get the full Toyota Safety Sense suite of collision-avoidance and driver-assistance systems, although you need to upgrade to Excel if you want blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alerts.

Parking sensors, a reversing camera, a seven-inch sat-nav and infotainment system, voice recognition and smartphone connectivity are standard across the range, too. Power-adjustable, heated and retractable door mirrors also feature on both specs, as do LED headlights, rear privacy glass, heated front seats, 60:40 split-folding rear seats, leather upholstery and steering-wheel trim. 

Excel adds a few minor convenience features, such as a wireless phone charging pad, an auto-dimming rear-view mirror, powered steering-wheel adjustment and front cupholders, as well as additional LED lighting compared to Design and larger, 18-inch alloy wheels. The only extra-cost options are metallic and pearlescent paint shades.

April 2021 additions to the Excel kit list comprised a new leather upholstery design, along with ventilation and memory functions for the power-adjustable front seats. A 360-degree parking camera, an automatic tilt action on the door mirrors when reversing, steering-wheel-mounted paddle shifts and heated steering wheel were also added, while the Excel gained a larger nine-inch multimedia display, too.

Infotainment, apps & sat nav

This is the one seriously sub-par aspect of the Camry's interior. The huge touchscreens and digital dials that are becoming commonplace in modern executive cars aren't to be found here: the infotainment screen only measures seven inches and the dials are traditional analog (although there is an info screen between them).

The big omission that many buyers will notice is Apple CarPlay and Android Auto capability; there is a 'MirrorLink' smartphone connection, but it's not as straightforward as the Apple and Android-specific systems that have become must-haves in almost every other car on sale. However, this is set to be sorted out by a forthcoming update for early 2021.