The Interphone SYNC 70 is the brand’s latest CarPlay and Android Auto display, designed to keep riders connected without mounting a phone on the handlebars.
It uses a 7in screen mounted to the bike, mirroring compatible apps from your phone and acting as a control hub for navigation, music and calls.
There are two versions - the SYNC 70 Essential focuses purely on phone mirroring, while the SYNC 70 Smart Display adds front and rear cameras and tyre pressure monitoring. I’ve been using the full kit for this review to see how it performs on the road and whether it offers good value against more expensive alternatives.
Installation and set-up
In the box you get a handlebar mount that uses Interphone’s Quiklox system, which means there are plenty of alternative mounts available to buy if the supplied one doesn’t suit your bike. Once fitted, the SYNC 70 pushes on and locks into place with a clockwise twist.
Power can be supplied by connecting it to the bike’s battery, or via a USB-A or USB-C outlet. If you’re using the Essential version, installation pretty much ends there.
With the Smart Display kit, you’ll also need to connect the two dashcams and tyre pressure sensors. These are straightforward to fit, and once everything’s wired in, set-up is completed by pairing your phone via CarPlay or Android Auto.
Display and interface
The home screen shows the time, compass heading, total distance travelled and live tyre pressures. You can set alerts to warn you if pressures increase or fall beyond a set limit, though you can’t set different limits for front and rear tyres.
Tapping the centre of the screen brings up a full-screen speedometer with trip and pressure information, while the 'Phonelink' icon launches CarPlay or Android Auto. From here, compatible apps on your phone become available through the app matrix.
There’s also a dedicated menu for brightness control, dashcam settings and general system options.
Photography: Helen Meeds
Overall responsiveness is better than Interphone’s older Sync 55, though it’s still not as slick as using a phone directly - there’s a slight delay between input and action, which is to be expected for a relay device.
Navigation, audio and connectivity
Navigation is the SYNC 70’s primary role, and it handles this well. I tested several apps, including Waze and Google Maps. Waze works nicely for straightforward A-to-B trips, while Google Maps offers more controls but I find it harder to follow at a glance.
For touring, I still prefer a dedicated sat-nav when I want full control over route planning. That’s more down to app limitations than the SYNC 70 itself, as the most effective app I found (TomTom Rider) has sadly been discontinued.
The display isn’t the brightest or sharpest on the market, but it’s readable in daylight and perfectly usable for navigation purposes. Spoken directions can be routed to an intercom as well, though I prefer visual prompts.
Having easy control of audio that's playing to your intercom is genuinely useful. Pausing, skipping or restarting audio without digging out a phone quickly became something I relied on.
Calls can also be managed, and while I don’t like answering while riding, it’s handy to see who’s calling and (perhaps) return the call once I've had time to stop. The touchscreen works well with screen-friendly motorcycle gloves.
Dashcam performance
The Smart Display version includes front and rear cameras, which record footage to an SD card that you need to purchase separately.
The front records in 2K resolution, adding around 8GB to the SD card per hour, while the rear records at 1080p, which accounts for around 4GB per hour.
I suggest using a 128GB SD card, to give you around 10 hours of footage from both cameras before older clips are overwritten.
Recording starts automatically whenever the unit powers on. Files are saved in short clips, with emergency videos and still images protected from auto-deletion.
Footage quality is perfectly acceptable for dashcam use - clear enough to show what happened - but it’s not comparable to a modern action camera. Side by side with a GoPro Hero 8, the SYNC 70’s video looks flatter and less detailed. This is utility footage, not cinematic content.
Dashcam controls are accessed directly from the screen, with swipe gestures switching between front, rear and split-screen views. You can mute the mic, take still photos and browse recorded clips directly on the device, which works well.
The biggest issue is the padlock button, which is used to store footage to the emergency folder, protecting it from auto-deletion.
Pressing it doesn’t protect footage from before the button was pressed - only what’s recorded for one minute afterwards. That means if something important happens, you’ll need to manually retrieve the clip before it’s overwritten. We're waiting to find out from Interphone whether a software update could fix this, and will update the review when we hear back from them.
There’s also a phone app designed to access footage wirelessly. In practice, it was so frustrating that I abandoned it entirely, as did a colleague who has also used the SYNC 70.
Tyre pressure monitoring
Live tyre pressures are shown clearly on the home screen, with alerts if pressures move outside your preset range. It’s useful information to have - I found it to be accurate, and saved me the weekly task of checking with a physical gauge - though the inability to set separate warning thresholds for the front and rear tyres feels like a missed opportunity.
Phone battery drain and practical considerations
Like any CarPlay or Android Auto system, the SYNC 70 relies heavily on your phone. Running Android Auto has a noticeable impact on battery life - around 8-10% per hour on my Samsung A35, which has a 5000mAh battery.
For everyday rides this isn’t a problem, but on longer days you’ll need a way to keep your phone charged. On a riding tour I kept my phone in a tankbag and ran a charging cable from it to the bike's USB charging port, which did the job.
Price and alternatives
At the time of writing, the SYNC 70 Smart Display costs £299.99, while the Essential version comes in at £259.99, and you lose the cameras and tyre monitors.
That’s less than half the price of the Chigee AIO-6, which offers a sharper display, faster response and more sophisticated camera features - but costs over £700 for a comparable set-up.
The Interphone’s seven-inch screen is larger than Chigee’s six-inch display, and that extra size is noticeable and useful on the bike. The SYNC 70 focuses on the essentials at a more accessible price point.
Conclusion
The Interphone SYNC 70 is a practical CarPlay and Android Auto display that does the basics well. Navigation, audio control and tyre pressure monitoring all work reliably, and the cameras add peace of mind as an evidence-gathering tool.
Its shortcomings - particularly the inability to lock previous footage and the average video quality - stop it from being class-leading, but they’re easier to accept at this price.
If you want a simple, functional way to streamline navigation and reduce strain on your phone while riding, the SYNC 70 makes a lot of sense. It’s not the most exciting gadget you can fit to a bike, but once you’ve lived with it, it’s surprisingly useful.
Interphone SYNC70 SmartDisplay
