Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsLong-term testing. Not recommended if you need reliability.
Reviewed in Canada on August 6, 2021
I bought three of these in early 2019 and have been testing them thoroughly on a few cars in my fleet. Sadly, I'm still searching for a good and reliable dashcam manufacturer. I'm going to be throwing these ones out, they have been a massive disappointment and I should have done this a year ago.
I would not recommend these. They seem like a good deal with high ratings, but all three of the dashcams had identical issues. If it was just one, it would have been a rare case. But this is an obvious software and serious hardware manufacturing issue.
- Setup is fairly easy. The existing USB cable is a good length, but I had to buy a separate clamp for the front rearview mirror. Suction cup does not hold on hot or cold days. The device can still record in extreme temperatures I've noticed (50 degrees Celsius and -40 Celsius). The parts and memory stick are undamaged. They look nice and are easy to conceal if required.
- Controls are cumbersome, the rechargeable battery does not last long, and it's very difficult to playback video on the device itself. So don't count on videos being quickly accessible. By the time you can play them (unable to fast forward properly) through the device, the battery life will end.
- USB transfer speed is very slow (ie, can't even reach USB 1.0 speeds). To download videos, you'll need to physically remove the memory stick every time and use a direct adapter to movie videos efficiently.
- Nightvision is virtually non-existent. Just bright glare from headlights. That's pretty normal though since dashcams typically don't have high powered infrared lamps and there's a risk of reflection. Don't count on even being able to see lit license plates during the night time.
- Daytime video at highest resolution settings, dual setting, or highest FPS settings, you won't notice much of a difference. Video quality is average, and the same as other dashcams I've used that cost 1/3 the price. Glare is an issue on bright non-cloudy days. Difficult to even make out license plate numbers that are within 1-2 car lengths away. (But this is a similar issue with other models with poor lenses and no polarizing filter.)
- Even those all of the devices have the exact same settings, GPS does not work on two of them and for some reason shows on one (ie, your travel speed.) And even though you set exact file sizes,
- The biggest and most frustrating issue is that it randomly turns off, randomly stops recording videos even though it shows recording, and it seemingly deletes files. Even though you hear the tone when it turns on, you have to cross your fingers that it will actually record most of your trip because usually it won't or skip 5 minutes at a time. Possibly light vibration related? I don't know.
- What I do know is that all three are programmed to record 5 minute intervals (or 920MB) each which is the maximum allowed. Identical setting. But sometimes files just go missing. Using data recovery software, I see the (damaged) file name that should have been there, but it was just randomly deleted on a whim by the software. And there are often multiple files with the same extension, meaning they tried to overwrite each other.
- Also, sometimes the dashcams will randomly record videos in very strange intervals. It should be a constant stream of 920MB files, each 5 minutes right? On some weeks, there will be a string of thousands of video files, ranging from 7MB to 100MB and dozens of 200-300MB clips where they only recorded 3 seconds or 1 minute instead of 5 minutes.
- The clock will also randomly reset back to 01/01/2018. So you have to manually fix the time every couple months when it happens. It all makes no sense at all.
The final straw just happened recently. The dashcam was missing all video files -- although still turned on and recording -- that would have captured a major highway incident. These videos would have proven invaluable to law enforcement and insurance. But, for some reason on a whim, it stopped recording 10 minutes before the scene, and only started recording again about 15 minutes later.
So, if you don't want to keep worrying whether your dashcam is recording or not, and you want a RELIABLE dashcam that will record videos so that they will always be there when you need them, I would not recommend this camera. I can't offer any suggestions however, since I'm still investigating and they require a very long time to test. I suspect that most of the positive ratings come from users within the first month of use (ie, the Honeymoon Period) but their experiences will quickly change after a few more weeks. They'll let the little stuff go, maybe it was just an accident, but it will keep happening and never end.
This device makes me very angry just to think about.