It really depends on your needs. Personally, like many others, I would rather wait and get the features I want since I am spending this much money on a vehicle, why miss out on the "luxury" features. The 360 cam, memory seats, 14 inch screen are all "must haves" in my books.

On a side note, the performance on the wireless charging pad is very poor. Would not recommend.

 

I recommend your getting the premium for the extras. It is maybe $4000 more? You won’t regret it. The parking sensors, ventilated seats, 14 inch screen with 3 yrs subscription to just name a few will make you happy and not ever make you regret getting the premium. But you may regret getting the base. I have the Premium with a decent number of options like the 14 inch screen and I am very happy with the extras

 

I agree with @Lexus22563 unless you are really tight on finances, I would get the premium with all options you can add. I got a loaded Luxury with all options except for power folding seats and I love the extra features. If you go for the base you will still have a great car, but in the future, you might always regret not getting the extra features.

YMMV,
MidCow3

 

For me, the 14" screen is a must. I think the ventilated seats are almost worthless (heated is another story). My other favorites are the moon roof, power hatch, & auto windshield wipers (which work really good), which aren't on the base.

 

I am curious, what benefit are you getting out of this nice big 14 inch screen? Unlike in Tesla’s big screen, in Lexus you can’t watch Netflix, play games etc. Other than the ability to see larger navigation map, car menus etc. Or, few carplay apps that are not that designed for viewing… not talking here about driving and watching videos…

I own NX 450h canadian exec package with 14 inch screen and can’t find a way to use for something really useful.

As to the topic, I really appreciate functional features like 360 bird view, lane assist and dynamic radar cruise control. But, these I think available in base as well. So, depending how much you are willing to wait but, I would just take base.

 

I agree, functionally I expect it makes no diff. I can't think of any specific feature that demands the bigger screen.

I do believe I get benefits, so I'll share.
I haven't used the 9.8 so am making some assumptions based on screen size alone.
For me, at my age, with my vision and dexterity. Bigger text, maps, buttons speeds up my recognition and reduces my distraction. I know this is true on different phone sizes. I'm speculating it is true on that screen as well. I'm guessing things are 40% bigger? Not certain as parts of the screen are used for other things and hard to know how parts scale relative to each other.

Having said that, I don't want to over sell it. I'm not THAT old, vision is decent, etc.
I won't attempt to argue this is a factor for most people in most situations.
I like the 14" but I can't say it would be a deal breaker for me.
Another way to think of it, if the 9.8 was the biggest option available, I still would have bought it and not worried about it.

Others pointed out the free subscriptions run longer on the 14" as well. Thats a financial benefit "sort of" considering the bigger screen overall is more expensive.

 

The Ventilated seats IMHO in Texas are awesome. Texas is very hot in the summer and we have about 360 days of summer.

YMMV,
MidCow3

 

I’m holding out for luxury even though it looks like I may have to wait forever. Mainly because I like the leather, the seat stitching, the 4 way lumbar, and wood trim. Most of the other stuff I actually don’t care about.

Lack of seat/mirror memory would bother me because it makes it easy to get back to your setting after someone else has driven the car.