Which Dashcam Should YOU Buy?
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,604 words · ~8 min read
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i think we've all watched those dash cam videos where someone gets caught doing
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something super dumb and thought how could you prove that just happened
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and you weren't the one being dumb if you didn't have a dash cam
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the answer is you probably couldn't but
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there are a lot of terra bad dash cams out there and it's hard to tell the good
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ones from the bad so i took it upon myself to create this video showing off
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six of the most popular models out there because i know you guys love my videos
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so much
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there are two main kinds of setups single camera and dual camera single
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camera is pretty self-explanatory most people mount it facing forward but the
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second camera in the dual system can be deployed in a couple of different ways
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depending on your needs a cabbie for example might be less concerned about
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capturing a rear ender versus a destructive passenger in the back seat
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we'll start with the cheapest of our single camera contenders the g1w comes
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in at around 50 dollars depending on which company rebadged it it has a
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surprisingly good picture and that's pretty much all it has going
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for it like any generic chinese electronics product the menu system is
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kinda bad so the translation isn't great the menu's navigation is bad and you
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just have to hope that the settings stick and that they do what they say
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they do so in fairness there aren't that many things you can change anyway
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it's ugly and kind of sticks out so if you live in the kind of neighborhood
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where someone might walk by and go hey that looks like something i should steal
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you might not have it for very long if you leave it mounted all the time but as
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long as you use the suction cup instead of the janky quick release to take it
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down it's 140 degree horizontal fov and
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decent night quality make it a good buy personally though i'd spend another 15
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bucks on the skyview a118 it's footage looks as good as the g1ws but it's got a
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wider field of view a better quick release system though it would benefit
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from an upgrade to the adhesive and it's much more compact and selfie so you
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probably won't have to take it down anyway these little upgrades might not seem
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like much but they feel like the difference between a real dash cam and a
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webcam that you stick onto your windshield which might seem confusing
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when you see my pick for our premium single cam the xiaomi yi dash cam my
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theory as to why it looks so much like an action cam is that they basically
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recycle the yi action cam when they realize people were already using it as
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a dash cam the good news is that thanks to this heritage the picture from the yi
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dash cam is great it's sharp enough to read license plates during the day and
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at night things are pretty clear as long as there's some street lighting it's got
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the highest resolution of anything we tested at 1296p and there's more good
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stuff too the user interface for setting everything up is also the best of the
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dashcam so far it's clean it's attractive and it's responsive you can
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even do this via wi-fi on your phone and that is similarly responsive and quick
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to connect unfortunately the form factor makes it incredibly easy to spot from
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the outside and the premium look as much as i might like it
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makes it an even more attractive target for would-be thieves
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thankfully it does have a good quick release system but at this price point i
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think xiaomi should have considered this and designed a more subtle housing
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form factory criticism aside though the yi dash cam is a great package that
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feels like a piece of modern consumer electronics while everything else feels
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like it was designed by an accountant in 2010 the dual channel systems could
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learn a thing or two from xiaomi in spite of their much higher prices all
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suffered from lesser image quality overall and clunkier Wi-Fi connectivity
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which is an even bigger problem since none of them have screens or menus built
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in so then why would you buy a dual channel system instead of a couple of
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these well it's easier to set up one camera than two separately they can
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record to a single sd card you can adjust the g sensor sensitivities for
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different directions of movement while driving and there's parking mode which
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allows the cameras to record vandalism or hit and runs first up is the blacksis
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camsys its image quality is unexceptional and its form factor might
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not be super stylish but it's subtle enough to blend in the main benefit
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though is its parking mode the app may not be pretty but it allows a number of
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key variables to be tweaked like tuning the motion detection in certain parts of
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the frame or turning one of the cameras off together all of these things are
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important because for parking mode to work it needs to be wired into your car
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battery and the more they're recording the faster that will drain
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fortunately blaxis includes a low voltage cutoff that will prevent your
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battery from dying outright making this kit popular among tinkerers and people
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who park on the street often the same can't be said of the blackvue dr-650gw
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2-channel it does have a basic parking mode with tunable motion settings and
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shock sensitivities as you'd expect but you'll need an add-on kit from the
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manufacturer to protect your battery so
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why would you choose this one well
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it looks really cool i mean physically
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not the image quality which i would describe as good enough in spite of the
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720p rear cam i mean if you think about it if you get rear-ended they're gonna
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get pretty close to your camera anyway right overall there's not much to set the
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black view apart from the pack their cloud backup solution won't really make
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much sense until mobile data is a lot cheaper which brings us to the thinkware
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f770 it's it's not cheaper but i like
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this one the most it doesn't have as many settings as the black system you
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can fiddle with for parking mode and it's not as cool looking and compact as
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the black view but the image quality at night is the best of the dual channel
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systems with 1080p recording on both front and rear cams you get voltage cut
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off built in like the black sys and though the parking mode configuration
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options aren't as detailed i think they struck the best balance between
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tunability and simplicity it has the biggest footprint on your windshield but
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by staying more flush to the windshield it ended up being more discreet the
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thinkware also features recording to built-in flash memory for emergencies in
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case your sd card fails somehow and the feature i like the most
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it warns you of red light cameras not that i run red lights all that often
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this is done with the built-in gps and the locations can be updated by
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downloading them from their site so conclusion time
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some of the dash cams feature additional driver safety systems like lane
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departure and collision warning but they're all inaccurate inconsistent
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and in the case of the yi dash cam really annoying keep a safe distance
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please none of them are anywhere near as accurate as my car's built-in systems
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and frankly i wouldn't recommend buying them for these features for a basic
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single cam the g1w is fine if you're looking to spend as little as possible
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but the a118 gets my pick due to the form factor as for the dual cams the
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image quality on the f77a thinkware and its red light warning helped justify its
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price but at the end of the day the black sys camsys offers the best
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LTT thanks for watching guys if this video
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sucks you know what to do i know you do but if it was awesome get subscribed hit
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that like button or even consider buying one of these dash cams with our
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