Budget ideas: Front camera only, wifi preferred

[Graeme]

I'm looking for a front camera dash cam to run when the car is being driven in the midwest USA. Wifi would be nice so it's easy to review videos. No plans to hardwire it. Trying to balance cost vs quality.

Looking at these so far and prices I'm seeing now:

• Viofo A129 Plus - $139
• 70mai Dash Cam Lite - $45
• Rove R2-4K - $76
• BlueSkySea 4K $120
• ROAV A1 - $46
• Roav S1 by Anker - $64

Thoughts?

 

[SawMaster]

FWIW I do watch more than my share of car-crash vids on YouTube, so I get to see what lots of cams can do keeping in mind that YT compresses vids...

The Rove seems darkish at night. Both Roav cams have what looks like low-resolution or cheap lenses. I've heard one person mention their 70Mai 'lite' has problems with high hear reliability but the vids are decent. The B4K I like (Disclaimer: I beta test for that company), very good vids, very reliable, good at night. Of the cams in your list, the A129 Plus has the best vid quality and seems to do OK in high heats. So of the last 2, form-factor may help you decide: If you like 'wedge' cams that's Viofo but the B4K mounts coompactly and may hide better if the windshield's tint band or frit is narrow. The vertical angle adjustment is coarse with the B4K but you should be able to find a good angle for any car with it. Now the bad news...

Wifi in dashcams is not very useful. If you want to download a clip or two to your phone and you've got 4-10 minutes to do that in then you might be happy with it. But if you're expecting wifi performance like you get with other wifi-equipped gadgets you'll be very disappointed or worse. Most cams can't do wifi and record at the same time so if you're stopped at the end of your drive anyway just pull the card and view your vids direcrtly from there. It's faster-better-easier that way.

Phil

 

[Graeme]

Thank you for those good points. If I don't prefer dash cams with wifi, that makes it easier to priorities quality and reliability.

Here's the current selection list.

• Viofo A119 V3 - $89 to $119 (Amazon with or without GPS)
• BlueSkySea 4K $120

I already have an Aukey DR02 and it works well, but they got delisted from Amazon. Some 70mai models look good, but they use batteries and might present issues. Based on reliability and cost differences it's looking best to stick with something like Viofo or BlueSkySea. Are there other models or brands to consider?

 

[Leonauto]

You can also watch Street Guardian, it is a decent brand, very reliable, with high video quality