i7 Frozen Deep Grey on Smoke White w/Cashmere Inlays

[Carboraine]

Just picked up my i7. Custom ordered on 12.08.22, arrived on 03.30.23. I waited for the graphene coating and ceramic tint to be applied before taking possession so I didn't pick it up until 04.08.23.

Frozen Deep Grey
Smoke White w/Cashmere Inlays
Driving Assistance Pro
Luxury Rear Seating
M Sport Pro
Parking Assistance
Executive Package 2
Panoramic Sky Lounge LED Roof
Rear Executive Lounge
BMW Theater Screen
22" Rotiform LHRs
Carbon Fiber Trim
Bowers & Wilkins Diamond Surround Sound
Onyx Graphene Coating
Ceramic Tint
Badge Delete

This is my 6th BMW. My car right before this was a MY19 Alpina B7 in Frozen Alpina Blue on Tartufo.

So far, I love it. Drives super smooth and quiet. Plenty of power and enjoy the instant torque.

I love the looks, inside and out. I think this car looks much better in darker colors with the shadow line grille. I am really happy I opted for the smoke white w/cashmere interior. The cashmere is a very unique look and feel that really makes the cabin stand out from any other vehicle I have experienced.

Love the Digital Key Plus. I was a little concerned it wouldn't work quite as reliably as the standard key fobs but I set it up with my iPhone and Apple Watch and it has been working flawlessly. I don't usually wear my Apple Watch (prefer mechanical ones) but I might start wearing it more now.

I watched a number of professional reviews where people were having issues with the automatic doors but mine are working great. I can tell in at least some of the videos the reviewers aren't positioning themselves correctly but, once you understand how they work (ie where you can and can't stand), it's pretty reliable.

The buttons are almost completely gone and I think I'm onboard. The entire cabin looks much cleaner as a result. I've seen professional reviewers complaining about this but IMO they are missing the point. I don't think the idea is for you to hunt for those functions in the iDrive menu, I think the intention is that you use the voice assistant (which works extremely well). There are some random situations (like when the parking cam is up) where the voice assistant is unable to complete an action that you can trigger in that same situation from the menus. I think they should address that. Id also like a little more control over which commands it will confirm before executing (I almost never want audio confirmations). I'm sure this will all improve as they analyze how people are actually using the commands (in the absence of buttons).

The B&W diamond system in the i7 is a palpable upgrade over the B&W system in the B7. Plays 24/96 and 24/192 Flac files beautifully and even plays 5.1 Flac files. I never tested 5.1 files in the Alpina but everything else sounds quite a bit better. I'm generally a snobby audiophile and am usually disappointed by car audio systems (at least compared to my home setup) but this is the best car audio system I have heard so far. CarPlay doesn't sound nearly as good as using high resolution files off of a thumb drive/SSD. Not BMWs fault (just a limitation of how CarPlay connects). iDrive 8 seems to still have a limitation regarding how many files it will see on an attached drive. I was hoping they would have updated this by now but alas it seems I still won't be able to put my full library on a 4TB SSD and access everything in full fidelity on the go.

I haven't activated the eSim yet. Unfortunately with both AT&T and t-mobile you have to have an existing phone plan and add the vehicle to it. They are supposedly adding Verizon as an option this month.

I hooked up a Chromecast to the theater screen and it worked fine. The HDMI input accepted a 4K60Hz signal. I plan on hooking up a gaming PC later and testing the input lag. I'll also test a 8K60Hz signal over the HDMI input (mostly curious if it is supported). It would be great to be able to play some Halo Infinite while I am waiting for my daughter at her ballet practice, lol.

I bought the Wallbox Pulsar Plus 48A charger and hardwired it. It's working great so far and charges faster than the BMW Level 2 charger (hence why I skipped that one).

Will add more thoughts and impressions as I have them. Happy to answer questions.

[Beemer2018]

Congratulations! very nice 👌

[Lovin7er]

Absolutely gorgeous! Congrats! How about some more pictures.

[patrikr]

Beautiful! Congrats!!

[Carboraine]

Originally Posted by Lovin7er

Absolutely gorgeous! Congrats! How about some more pictures.

Sure thing! Took some more this morning and updated the original post.

[EQStoI7]

Originally Posted by Carboraine

Just picked up my i7. Custom ordered on 12.08.22, arrived on 03.30.23. I waited for the graphene coating and ceramic tint to be applied before taking possession so I didn't pick it up until 04.08.23.

Frozen Deep Grey
Smoke White w/Cashmere Inlays
Driving Assistance Pro
Luxury Rear Seating
M Sport Pro
Parking Assistance
Executive Package 2
Panoramic Sky Lounge LED Roof
Rear Executive Lounge
BMW Theater Screen
21" M Aerodynamic Bi-Color Wheels
Carbon Fiber Trim
Bowers & Wilkins Diamond Surround Sound
Onyx Graphene Coating
Ceramic Tint
Badge Delete

This is my 6th BMW. My car right before this was a MY19 Alpina B7 in Frozen Alpina Blue on Tartufo.

So far, I love it. Drives super smooth and quiet. Plenty of power and enjoy the instant torque.

I love the looks, inside and out. I think this car looks much better in darker colors with the shadow line grille. I am really happy I opted for the smoke white w/cashmere interior. The cashmere is a very unique look and feel that really makes the cabin stand out from any other vehicle I have experienced.

Love the Digital Key Plus. I was a little concerned it wouldn't work quite as reliably as the standard key fobs but I set it up with my iPhone and Apple Watch and it has been working flawlessly. I don't usually wear my Apple Watch (prefer mechanical ones) but I might start wearing it more now.

I watched a number of professional reviews where people were having issues with the automatic doors but mine are working great. I can tell in at least some of the videos the reviewers aren't positioning themselves correctly but, once you understand how they work (ie where you can and can't stand), it's pretty reliable.

The buttons are almost completely gone and I think I'm onboard. The entire cabin looks much cleaner as a result. I've seen professional reviewers complaining about this but IMO they are missing the point. I don't think the idea is for you to hunt for those functions in the iDrive menu, I think the intention is that you use the voice assistant (which works extremely well). There are some random situations (like when the parking cam is up) where the voice assistant is unable to complete an action that you can trigger in that same situation from the menus. I think they should address that. Id also like a little more control over which commands it will confirm before executing (I almost never want audio confirmations). I'm sure this will all improve as they analyze how people are actually using the commands (in the absence of buttons).

The B&W diamond system in the i7 is a palpable upgrade over the B&W system in the B7. Plays 24/96 and 24/192 Flac files beautifully and even plays 5.1 Flac files. I never tested 5.1 files in the Alpina but everything else sounds quite a bit better. I'm generally a snobby audiophile and am usually disappointed by car audio systems (at least compared to my home setup) but this is the best car audio system I have heard so far. CarPlay doesn't sound nearly as good as using high resolution files off of a thumb drive/SSD. Not BMWs fault (just a limitation of how CarPlay connects). iDrive 8 seems to still have a limitation regarding how many files it will see on an attached drive. I was hoping they would have updated this by now but alas it seems I still won't be able to put my full library on a 4TB SSD and access everything in full fidelity on the go.

I haven't activated the eSim yet. Unfortunately with both AT&T and t-mobile you have to have an existing phone plan and add the vehicle to it. They are supposedly adding Verizon as an option this month.

I hooked up a Chromecast to the theater screen and it worked fine. The HDMI input accepted a 4K60Hz signal. I plan on hooking up a gaming PC later and testing the input lag. I'll also test a 8K60Hz signal over the HDMI input (mostly curious if it is supported). It would be great to be able to play some Halo Infinite while I am waiting for my daughter at her ballet practice, lol.

I bought the Wallbox Pulsar Plus 48A charger and hardwired it. It's working great so far and charges faster than the BMW Level 2 charger (hence why I skipped that one).

Will add more thoughts and impressions as I have them. Happy to answer questions.

Congrats! A few questions:

Do you have climate comfort glass option? Do you feel like your vehicle is quiet on the freeway (some complaints on the forum about excessive wind noise)

How did you get your vehicle so quickly based on your order time? (My order still stuck in transit, pre-ordered last year)

Where you able to get any deals on the purchase (slightly below or at MSRP, good lease terms, or good financing incentives)?

Love the matte frozen grey, great choices on interior too with the cashmere.

[Carboraine]

Originally Posted by EQStoI7

Congrats! A few questions:

Do you have climate comfort glass option? Do you feel like your vehicle is quiet on the freeway (some complaints on the forum about excessive wind noise)

How did you get your vehicle so quickly based on your order time? (My order still stuck in transit, pre-ordered last year)

Where you able to get any deals on the purchase (slightly below or at MSRP, good lease terms, or good financing incentives)?

Love the matte frozen grey, great choices on interior too with the cashmere.

I didn't get the laminated glass option. I originally selected it but my dealer mentioned they had experienced some interference issues with cellular connectivity. Not sure if that's a real problem but they had driven the car with and without the option and didn't think it added much so I skipped it. I honestly haven't noticed any wind noise. I usually drive with the music turned up and it's like a silent coffin.

As far as how I got the car so quick - my dealer is awesome. As soon as I ordered, they started hunting for allocations they could transfer. They found one a month earlier that they could transfer that had gone into production but lacked a few of my options. I declined and they kept looking. They subsequently found one about to go into production that was close but the buyer cancelled. They were able to transfer and match my spec.

They knocked $1000 off of MSRP and then gave me the graphene coating and ceramic tint at cost. Given how high the demand is and the lack of part availability (you can't currently order the cashmere, theater screen, or reclining rear seat) I was happy to get everything exactly as I wanted without having to wait some silly amount of time.

Many thanks!! It gets plenty of head turns and people rolling down their windows to take pictures. Didn't buy it for any of that but it's fun nonetheless. My kids are loving the back seat experience.

[Carboraine]

Thanks to a thread elsewhere and a little tinkering I figured out the iDrive song limit. You can have about 16,000 tracks on an external USB drive and about 40,000 tracks across multiple USB drives connected to the vehicle. Size of the files doesn't matter. Also, if you want the album art to show up, the embedded album art has to be 600x600 or lower in resolution. Maybe others here already knew this but it was driving me crazy so I'm glad to have figured it out!

[nv6425]

Great review, I have the same interior with lighter wood trim and the CF changes the look significantly, well done.

I have a question re USB/SSD for music; for the life of me, I can't figure where it plugs in. Any help would be very much appreciated.

[Carboraine]

Originally Posted by nv6425

Great review, I have the same interior with lighter wood trim and the CF changes the look significantly, well done.

I have a question re USB/SSD for music; for the life of me, I can't figure where it plugs in. Any help would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks! The USB-C ports in the front center arm rest are both wired for data and will allow music playback.

[Snake 33]

Great looking ride.

[jettie1767]

@op My dealer has a similar color arriving in late July and I'm contemplating getting it. My only concern is the matte paint and how to take care of it. I usually put Xpel PPF on my cars and I believe Xpel has Stealth for matte paint. In reading your post, you went with Graphene coating. I'm curious to know why not PPF for you?

[Gemini7866]

Originally Posted by jettie1767

@op My dealer has a similar color arriving in late July and I'm contemplating getting it. My only concern is the matte paint and how to take care of it. I usually put Xpel PPF on my cars and I believe Xpel has Stealth for matte paint. In reading your post, you went with Graphene coating. I'm curious to know why not PPF for you?

I have frozen pure grey and I went with stealth ppf with ceramic coating ..These frozen color are very easy to get scratch and there is no touch up paint is what I was told by my dealer ..when I took the car in for an auto door issue I told the advisor no car wash because of the ppf and she said she always put no wash for the frozen colors ..just my 2 cents ..no regrets for me with full ppf

[jettie1767]

Originally Posted by Gemini7866

I have frozen pure grey and I went with stealth ppf with ceramic coating ..These frozen color are very easy to get scratch and there is no touch up paint is what I was told by my dealer ..when I took the car in for an auto door issue I told the advisor no car wash because of the ppf and she said she always put no wash for the frozen colors ..just my 2 cents ..no regrets for me with full ppf

Thanks for the feedback! So you had ceramic coating done on the PPF? Why did you do that?

[Gemini7866]

Originally Posted by jettie1767

Thanks for the feedback! So you had ceramic coating done on the PPF? Why did you do that?

It was recommended I can’t remember the benifits but it made sense so I did it..it was really the best decision ..it’s so easy to clean

[Carboraine]

Originally Posted by jettie1767

@op My dealer has a similar color arriving in late July and I'm contemplating getting it. My only concern is the matte paint and how to take care of it. I usually put Xpel PPF on my cars and I believe Xpel has Stealth for matte paint. In reading your post, you went with Graphene coating. I'm curious to know why not PPF for you?

This is my second BMW with frozen paint (previous was an Alpina B7 in frozen Alpina blue) and I had no trouble with the previous one without PPF so I decided to stick with the coating. The few matte PPF applications I have seen were noticeable up close and muted the metallic flakes. They made the matte paint look like it was a wrap (to my eyes anyway). The graphene coating is imperceptible but makes it way easier to wash. So far, I haven’t had any trouble keeping it scratch free.

I do hand wash mine and my dealer hand washes it if it goes in for service. I know some people that send their matte paint cars through the car wash but I wouldn’t recommend it. The car wash itself (if relatively modern) probably isn’t a huge deal but I’m always paranoid about other people sending rusted jalopies through the wash ahead of me and getting debris stuck in the fibers.

[Snake 33]

Very nice looking ride, congrats! Enjoy!

[patrikr]

I have Frozen Grey as well and did full matte Suntek PPF and Dr Beasley’s matte paint ceramic coat. Very happy with the results. I still hand wash but probably don’t have to.

[jettie1767]

My i7 got on the July 1st sailing. It will be here last week of July but we'll be away for a 2 week vacation. But, I'll definitely schedule a PPF install as soon as I have a delivery date. Thanks for all the feedback here!

[Carboraine]

Updated the original post to include some pics with my new wheels - 22" Rotiform LHRs.

[Gemini7866]

Originally Posted by Carboraine

Updated the original post to include some pics with my new wheels - 22" Rotiform LHRs.

Did the ride change at all ??what tire size did you go with ??did you need hub rings?im also considering 22” for my i7

[Carboraine]

Originally Posted by Gemini7866

Did the ride change at all ??what tire size did you go with ??did you need hub rings?im also considering 22” for my i7

The ride did not change. I have 265/30s in the front and 295/25s in the rear. I did not need hub rings as these were custom made for the 7-series.

I’m not sure if the range has changed. I would say if it has, the change was minor. When I plug the car in to charge at night it’s at about the same remaining charge as it was before I switched the wheels.

I’d say go for it! All the factory wheels for this car look rather bland.