Hyde
New Member
Hi, bought two sets (front and rear for two cars) of these dash cams off the back of reviews saying how good they were, especially in low light conditions; and they are!
But the Android companion app and linkage with Alexa is a hotchpotch of ideas that either don't work as the titled feature would suggest or perform really badly.
1. The Auto Sync feature is anything but. Connects with the camera, yes. But auto sync most definitely not. You still have to manually select the videos you want downloaded to your phone.
2. The direct Wifi connection is anything but fast, it's painfully slow (I've seen up to 500 b/s) and only works when you're in close vicinity to the camera and it's powered. So all those video clips you want on your phone.... You have to sit in the car at the end of your journey to download at a snails pace. Why the 'Auto Sync' couldn't be doing this in the background as you drive is beyond me.
2a. So you're best to remove the SD card from the camera and stick it directly into a laptop and use the Nextbase PC app.
3. Alexa integration. Just what is the point? Why would I need to speak to my camera to ask it start / stop recording when the camera does this automatically when you turn the ignition on/off? Granted, it can do other things too, but so does Bixby / Siri / etc.
3a. And if Nextbase are promoting the use of another app, you might like to add a warning that by default the Alexa app will add items it thinks you want to purchase to your Amazon basket!!!
4. Camera sounds. What are they and what do they mean? My camera often plays sounds during startup, during and end of a journey, but what the heck they mean, God only knows. I know... You could put samples in the app so that folk could hear what the sound is that goes with a particular feature/notification. ;-)
4a. Assuming those sounds do mean something, why not actually add these as notifications to appear on your phone?
I've yet to setup the SOS feature, as based on the poor implementation of the above I'm currently loathed to set something up, that likely as not, will call the emergency services when no such action is required. But I could be doing Nextbase as disservice here?
So the only thing the app does with any sucess is update the firmware of the camera. But even that was painful the first time around with the camera often switching off before the process could complete.
Lastly, why would I need to lock a recording? Does the camera use so much space to record video that I'm likely to overwrite it on a journey? Appreciate that folk could be driving for 4+ hours at a time but would that fill a 32GB card in that time? I'm using 128GB cards in mine but appreciate the minimum spec is 32GB.
But the Android companion app and linkage with Alexa is a hotchpotch of ideas that either don't work as the titled feature would suggest or perform really badly.
1. The Auto Sync feature is anything but. Connects with the camera, yes. But auto sync most definitely not. You still have to manually select the videos you want downloaded to your phone.
2. The direct Wifi connection is anything but fast, it's painfully slow (I've seen up to 500 b/s) and only works when you're in close vicinity to the camera and it's powered. So all those video clips you want on your phone.... You have to sit in the car at the end of your journey to download at a snails pace. Why the 'Auto Sync' couldn't be doing this in the background as you drive is beyond me.
2a. So you're best to remove the SD card from the camera and stick it directly into a laptop and use the Nextbase PC app.
3. Alexa integration. Just what is the point? Why would I need to speak to my camera to ask it start / stop recording when the camera does this automatically when you turn the ignition on/off? Granted, it can do other things too, but so does Bixby / Siri / etc.
3a. And if Nextbase are promoting the use of another app, you might like to add a warning that by default the Alexa app will add items it thinks you want to purchase to your Amazon basket!!!
4. Camera sounds. What are they and what do they mean? My camera often plays sounds during startup, during and end of a journey, but what the heck they mean, God only knows. I know... You could put samples in the app so that folk could hear what the sound is that goes with a particular feature/notification. ;-)
4a. Assuming those sounds do mean something, why not actually add these as notifications to appear on your phone?
I've yet to setup the SOS feature, as based on the poor implementation of the above I'm currently loathed to set something up, that likely as not, will call the emergency services when no such action is required. But I could be doing Nextbase as disservice here?
So the only thing the app does with any sucess is update the firmware of the camera. But even that was painful the first time around with the camera often switching off before the process could complete.
Lastly, why would I need to lock a recording? Does the camera use so much space to record video that I'm likely to overwrite it on a journey? Appreciate that folk could be driving for 4+ hours at a time but would that fill a 32GB card in that time? I'm using 128GB cards in mine but appreciate the minimum spec is 32GB.