BTBR
New Member
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2020
- Messages
- 21
- Reaction score
- 5
- Location
- Redditch
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Dash Cam
- Nextbase 522GW
A few months ago, and after looking at recommendations etc, I opted to purchase a Nextbase 522GW dash cam. Initially I was very impressed with it, I liked the overall design, the features and especially the mounting base, which I think is brilliant. But then within a couple of days, its started to either freeze or disconnect from Bluetooth, or the Alexa function wouldn't work. Quite a few conversations with Nextbase customer services over it, plus a couple of return visits to Halfords who fitted it, plus trolling through the pages on this great forum, I managed to get it all back up and running as it should.
Sadly my delight was short lived as the Alexa and Bluetooth functions decided to malfunction once again after just a few days. Reset everything and repeated the whole pairing process, only to have it all fail once again. All within a couple of weeks of puchasing it, so after speaking to Halfords customer service it was returned and I was refunded.
I have now replaced that camera with a Garmin 66W unit, which I have to say is a great little unit, it is so easy to set up and operate. But the mounting system isn't any where near as user friendly as the Nextbase unit. Okay, yes its very discreet, but you have to unplug the cable from the unit before you can remove it from the vehicle. Then faff about plugging the cable back in and then checking the camera view before you can drive off.
The other point I don't particularly like is that it mounts the camera quite a long way from the screen and unlike the Nextbase, the lens sets near enough flush with the camera body. So with the very wide angle of the 66W its picks up door pillars and the centre section on the windscreen. As for the wide angle lens, I can sort of see the benefit of the really wide angle lens, but the downside is that looking at the recorded footage, everything looks a very long way away. To the point that I've since purchased a Garmin 56, which has a narrower lens angle. It still sits to far away from the screen IMHO, but Im trying to figure out and maybe fabricating some sort of bracket so that its sits closer to the glass, while utilizing the OE mount? In the near future the 66W will be mounted as a rear view camera but in the meantime I'm using it in a company vehicle.
But overall I'm really pleased with both the Garmin cameras, and at the risk of giving them the kiss of death, but the voice function has worked every single time and so to has the connection via Bluetooth to my phone. Everything has worked as it should from day one with no blips or issues. Some of the features are a little pointless, lane departure example is a utter waste of time, but the speed and average camera data base, works very well. Although, the constant bleeping does get very annoying, so that's been turned off. Its now all wired up with the Garmin Park cable and Ive changed the cutoff voltage setting from the default 11.7v to 12.3 volts. I've also now fitted a San Disk Endurance 256GB Micro SD card to the 56 unit and a same make, but a 128GB Micro SD card to the 66W unit. I'm still playing around with the most appropriate setting when its in the park mode, I can go from zero amount of "parked recording" to over 80 in a 12 hour period....?? Work in progress as they say
Its a real shame about the Nextbase unit, some really great design features and good support from their technical help desk, and I really, really wanted it to function as it should, but sadly it just wasn't meant to be.
Sadly my delight was short lived as the Alexa and Bluetooth functions decided to malfunction once again after just a few days. Reset everything and repeated the whole pairing process, only to have it all fail once again. All within a couple of weeks of puchasing it, so after speaking to Halfords customer service it was returned and I was refunded.
I have now replaced that camera with a Garmin 66W unit, which I have to say is a great little unit, it is so easy to set up and operate. But the mounting system isn't any where near as user friendly as the Nextbase unit. Okay, yes its very discreet, but you have to unplug the cable from the unit before you can remove it from the vehicle. Then faff about plugging the cable back in and then checking the camera view before you can drive off.
The other point I don't particularly like is that it mounts the camera quite a long way from the screen and unlike the Nextbase, the lens sets near enough flush with the camera body. So with the very wide angle of the 66W its picks up door pillars and the centre section on the windscreen. As for the wide angle lens, I can sort of see the benefit of the really wide angle lens, but the downside is that looking at the recorded footage, everything looks a very long way away. To the point that I've since purchased a Garmin 56, which has a narrower lens angle. It still sits to far away from the screen IMHO, but Im trying to figure out and maybe fabricating some sort of bracket so that its sits closer to the glass, while utilizing the OE mount? In the near future the 66W will be mounted as a rear view camera but in the meantime I'm using it in a company vehicle.
But overall I'm really pleased with both the Garmin cameras, and at the risk of giving them the kiss of death, but the voice function has worked every single time and so to has the connection via Bluetooth to my phone. Everything has worked as it should from day one with no blips or issues. Some of the features are a little pointless, lane departure example is a utter waste of time, but the speed and average camera data base, works very well. Although, the constant bleeping does get very annoying, so that's been turned off. Its now all wired up with the Garmin Park cable and Ive changed the cutoff voltage setting from the default 11.7v to 12.3 volts. I've also now fitted a San Disk Endurance 256GB Micro SD card to the 56 unit and a same make, but a 128GB Micro SD card to the 66W unit. I'm still playing around with the most appropriate setting when its in the park mode, I can go from zero amount of "parked recording" to over 80 in a 12 hour period....?? Work in progress as they say
Its a real shame about the Nextbase unit, some really great design features and good support from their technical help desk, and I really, really wanted it to function as it should, but sadly it just wasn't meant to be.
