This facelifted Proton X70 brings with it some new cabin tech to complement its redesigned visage.
It has certainly been a long time coming, but Proton has finally given the X70 a (proper) mid-life facelift. Malaysia’s most popular C-segment SUV for the last 5 years has since gained a redesigned face and some much improved tech to now better help it fend off stiff competition, especially from a certain SUV that also has 7 in its name made by a marque starting with C.
And just putting it front and centre here because this is what everyone wants to know, joy of joy for Proton to finally offer Android Auto and Apple Car Play on this facelifted X70, with it to be wireless no less as well! This most welcome of news does unfortunately come with a proviso however, in that this smartphone connectivity tech will not actually be available with this newly-updated SUV upon its initial launch, with it to come as an over-the-air update later in the year (allegedly around October time) instead.
Touching on the other bigger-ticket changes with this X70 meanwhile, the most immediately obvious will be for it to come featuring a new X90-inspired visage… which frankly at some angles at least has actually more than a little hint of Jaguar F-Pace to it too. This resemblance to the big cat SUV is particularly striking when observing its new bold grille shape in concert with its revised pair of sleek LED headlights, as well as the new more pronounced lower intakes on its redesigned front bumper.
Now the inserts within the grille itself incidentally also shares some resemblance to products from another luxury marque, with those chrome pins looking a lot like what is currently found on some Mercedes-Benz models. Adding some macho to the bling up front is in turn a new silver-painted cosmetic brush guard, in addition to a reworked bonnet that now prominently features twin strakes that run along it.
Moving rearwards on this facelifted X70, this refreshed Proton comes sporting a set of new rims (19-inch two-tone on the flagship, 18s on the rest) down the side of it. All the way round its rump on the other hand is a restyled lower rear bumper, with its new-found chunkiness giving this SUV a slightly wider stance when viewed from the rear.
Cabin-wise, the refreshed X70 sports a reworked dashboard that has been given more flair to its design from a new backlit gloss black panel running right across it. The more striking change on its dash though is the new floating 12.3-inch central infotainment display that replaces its predecessor’s integrated 8-inch display, with this particular unit quoting hardware specs of a dual quad core processor with 4GB of RAM and 32 GB internal storage.
Also new on the dash of this refreshed X70 here is a three-spoke flat-bottomed steering wheel first seen on the X50 and S70, with new graphics from the latter Proton model being incorporated into its 7-inch digital instrument cluster right behind it. There are further some other upholstery changes such as the introduction of black headliner material and new stitch patterns, with a new Stone Grey Nappa leather upholstery replaces the old brown hue from before.
On the tech front, the new 72-colour configurable ambient light system on this Proton is apparently to be 8 more than what its primary competitor is offering. This facelifted X70 also sports a new walk-away auto lock feature and an improved 360º surround view camera with a new 3D display too, not to mention an upgraded Level 2 ADAS suite that finally adds stop-and-go and lane centring functionality to its adaptive cruise control.
Finally finishing up here on the changes made underneath the newly-updated X70, this Proton SUV soldiers on with the same 1.5-litre turbocharged TGDi three-cylinder that still produces the same 177 PS and 255 Nm of torque. Changes made to its 7-speed wet dual clutch transmission though has apparently resulted in reduced vehicle NVH, in addition to yielding fuel efficiency gains (of 4% from the 2022 model to a claimed 7.3 l/100 km).
It has also been mentioned by Proton that although the suspension setup remains the same on these facelifted X70s as before, it has however retightened quality control on the dampers fitted. A first drive impression of this updated SUV is available for your reading pleasure here, but the TL;DR of it is that this refreshed iteration pretty much drives the same as its predecessor.
The facelifted X70 will be available in four variants: Standard, Executive, Premium and Premium X, with the differentiation between the trims detailed in the image below. As for colours, a new Marine Blue hue joins the existing palette of Ruby Red, Snow White, Armour Silver and Jet Grey.
Proton has yet to officially announce the price of this freshly updated X70 thus far, but whispers are that it will not be a whole lot more than what its outgoing iteration is selling for. The order books for this facelifted SUV have since been open as well, with first deliveries targeted to be due within the next month or two.
