Power Consumption and eMMC storage testing for the 70mai 4K M800:
The 70mai 4K M800 uses the existing MiDrive CC01 cigarette lighter power adapter, which has been used on previous 70mai models. However, it has lower power draw requirements than the newer MiDrive CC02 used on other 70mai models. Power consumption hovers around the mark, with operating temperatures.
The 4K M800 has eMMC 5.1 specification storage on-board, with no option for microSD memory card expansion. The variant I received for testing has 128GB of internal storage, and is formatted in the FAT32 file system. When applying the Format setting in the dashcam settings page in the APP, the M800 verbally announces: "Formatting built-in memory". Upon completion of formatting (a mere few seconds later), "Formatting successful" is announced.
When testing the in-built eMMC storage of the dashcam, the copy speeds obtained where at an average of ~18.73MB/s. Do note that only USB-C to USB-A connections are permitted, not USB-C to USB-C. While decent in a pinch, I believe that Wi-Fi transfers may be a faster alternative to offloading footage when on the go.
Ring Indicator Light and Power Button Functions for 70mai 4K M800:
The 4K M800 has a ring indicator light around it's power button (much like it's brother, the 4K T800), which is located on the left-hand side of the main unit. Blinking blue comes on when the unit is powering on, during initial setup and during formatting of the internal eMMC memory. Solid blue is displayed when accessing the photo/video album using the APP, and when connected to PC via USB. Whilst blinking green indicates emergency video is being recorded, and solid green means the dashcam is recording video.
The power button also functions as follows:
- tap to turn on/off Wi-Fi hotspot
- press and hold to turn the main unit on/off
- (no double-press functionality)
Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE) for the 70mai 4K M800:
Contained below are screenshots for the setup process for the 70mai 4K M800. There were some additional prompts in the APP itself letting the user know that there are voice prompts available to operate the dashcam (as the M800 is screen-less). Example voice prompts during the setup process are: "Please connect your app to activate the dashcam" and "Click the power button to authorise".
Upon connecting the APP to the 70mai 4K M800, there were no firmware updates prompted to be installed. The initial loaded version is 1.0.37ww, and I expect there to once again be a raft of firmware updates to both smooth and improve the M800.
A curated selection of screenshots from the 70mai APP itself. As you can see, there are quite a lot of options available to the end user of the 4K M800. Much like I have already covered in my previous 70mai 4K Omni and 70mai 4K T800 reviews, I have only tried to include the major settings in these screenshots. A pretty great job by 70mai as usual in including a wide breadth of settings in their products.
Bitrate Values, Wi-Fi transfer speeds and Resolution Settings for the 70mai 4K M800:
Front camera (recorded in 2160p HEVC 30fps HDR): 30.9 Mb/s Rear camera (recorded in 1080p HEVC 30fps HDR): 8.19Mb/s
(all recorded in two-channel configuration at maximum resolution settings) Audio: AAC format recorded at 64kb/s at 16kHz resolution
Wi-Fi transfer speeds (using Wi-Fi 6): 10.43MB/s, where file size for one-minute 4K clip is ~265MB
Video resolution settings: Connecting the rear RC14 camera to the main 4K M800 unit makes no difference in terms of video resolution settings being available.
