VANTRUE Nexus 2X (N2X) - 30 Day Review

Omega-TI

Omega-TI

Active Member
Joined
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Country
United States
Dash Cam
BlackVue DR900S-2CH, Vantrue N2X, Vantrue S1 Pro Max
Vantrue reached out to me to do a review on their Nexus 2X dashcam. Over the next month (not daily), I'll be posting pictures, video from the camera and making observations on it's capabilities, functions and operation. When the month is over, many of the photos and video I will be posting here will be combined into a single YouTube video of my final review.

Day one:
The dashcam arrived today, but is not yet installed. My first observations are positive. It comes nicely packaged and seems to be nicely built and does NOT have a cheap feel to it. One feature of this camera that I think I'm truly going to like is the little orange button to mark a specific events for later use, something my BlackVue DR900S-2CH does not have.

I comes with a cigarette lighter plug for quick install and two mounting plastic/stickies so this could easily be used in two different vehicles. The cigarette plug also has a USB plug built into it so you can also power/charge a secondary 5V USB device like a cellphone, which is kind of a nice touch.

I doubt I'm going to need the backwards facing camera, but for people who drive for rideshare companies like Lyft, this could add a level of protection from false claims against the driver.

Below is a photo of the contents of what was sent to me...

NX2-A.webp


... to be continued.
 
In the comfort of my living room, I powered up the N2X dashcam today with my 12v power supply with a cigar accessory socket...
While testing though, I've not yet figured out how to remove the Vantrue watermark from the upper left hand corner of recorded images. I'm wondering if I'm missing something or if it can even be done. Anyway, I'll put it in the car tomorrow, I'm continuing to get more familiar with it today.
 
on the N5 i think it was possible to remove, it is for sure annoying if you can not, even if i do leave it on when reviewing systems.
 
kamkar said:
on the N5 i think it was possible to remove, it is for sure annoying if you can not, even if i do leave it on when reviewing systems.
Click to expand...

Yup! I connected my cellphone to it and found the setting. You can also turn on and off the individual settings on the bottom of the screen like GPS, SPEED, DATE, TIME. On the whole it appears to be an easy camera to get used to and use. I will for sure leave it on while making review footage.

I think I found one found one thing I'm going to have to double check and verify, but IIRC if you set it for 4K @ 60FPS it precludes the use of the cabin cam. It's not really an issue for me, but I need to get familiar with all the modes before I go out for a drive tomorrow.
 
I installed the Vantru N2X review unit today as I finally found the time, and have now started taking footage for the revue video I'll be posting around February 1st. For starters I decided to run it at it's second setting of 2992 X 1944 which turns out to be the old style 4:3 aspect ratio.
Specs.webp

You can see a reflection of the vents at the bottom of the windshield, so I'll be needing to purchase the polarizing filter available at Amazon...

Filter.webp



Anyway it seems to do a decent job on the license plates... but you have to view it a 4K to see it.

 
I repeat myself again, ALL dashcams should come with a CPL for the front camera, i find it extremely rare a car will not need it, 99% of cases it is needed.

Just got a new charger for the car, if dashcams supported PD 3.1 i could supply 165 watts to a dashcam 😱 😀
 
kamkar said:
I repeat myself again, ALL dashcams should come with a CPL for the front camera, i find it extremely rare a car will not need it, 99% of cases it is needed.

Just got a new charger for the car, if dashcams supported PD 3.1 i could supply 165 watts to a dashcam 😱 😀
Click to expand...

I had to lookup PD 3.1 << LINK HERE >> ... interesting.
On the CPL, yeah, that would be nice, maybe they are just trying to keep the price point down? Actually I was surprised my obscenely expensive BlackVue 900S-2CH didn't come with one. This Vantrue unit has a much better retail price though, which is more inline with reality, especially with all it's functions, which I will be covering, so I'm going to give it a pass on the CPL.
 
There is one feature of this N2X so far that I really, really like. It's the "HANDS OFF" control capability, which is great for a dashcam in this price point. The photo below was taken with me simply saying, "Take photo".

20250115_072420_00007_N_A.webp

Click on the photo to get the full size image and then use the CTRL button on your keyboard and mouse wheel to zoom in on the details.


Below is the list of the recognized commands...

Capture.webp

Now number 13 is one I'd never use when driving. To be continued...
 
The new CPL arrived this evening, I'll install it tomorrow and do some testing on Tuesday with and without it installed during the day and evening. I'm anxious to see how it affects nighttime use.
 
kamkar said:
I repeat myself again, ALL dashcams should come with a CPL for the front camera, i find it extremely rare a car will not need it, 99% of cases it is needed.

Just got a new charger for the car, if dashcams supported PD 3.1 i could supply 165 watts to a dashcam 😱 😀
Click to expand...
Lol USB 3.1 hasn't really been a thing like people predicted it would.

Phone companies were going all the way up to 240W with their charging to get insane speeds of full battery charges in 8 to 12 minutes, but apart from a few models that had it, it's largely died off.

Phones are now coming with denser batteries at 6000/7000mah that will fully charge in the same 30/40 minutes that they did previously at 120W at say 5000mah. But doing so at a charging rate of 80/90W. Much more efficient.

I suspect silicon carbide batteries will make their way into more consumer tech soon enough.
 
While I'm still playing around and collecting video, I installed the program on the PC to view video. The program connects with Google Maps to display the current location at the time, derived from the GPS data collected by the camera. You can zoom in or out and pan from side to side for a better view of things like license plates. I'll go into more detail in the final review/video. For the most part I'm quite pleased with this Vantrue N2X so far.

 
SOMETIMES IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS

For the record and full disclosure: I have a six year old BlackVue DR-900S-2CH in the car and to remove it's SD card, you have to unplug it's two cables and fight with the little door just to access the SD card... all from the passenger side of the car. In other words it's a royal pain.

Now I really didn't want to sound like a commercial in a review, but Vantrue put the SD card on the drivers side and to top it off there are no cables or door in the way, so it's easy to remove and re-insert. I don't know about other dashcams, but I really like the functional design!

Yes, the camera has WiFi, yes I could download selected images, but sometimes it's faster and easier to just remove the card and stick it directly into your PC for file manipulation.
 
So, I just received my Vantrue N2X today, and had to install it with the hardwire kit I just put in the car yesterday. This camera is supposed to be an upgrade to my 5 year old N2 Pro, which has served me well, and still works. In just the few hours that I've had the unit installed in the car with the (5 setting) hardwire kit, I notice that it seems to be quite warm, even the the car is parked inside a garage, in the middle of winter. Also, in just an hour or two of sitting, I take my phone to the garage, connect via WiFi, to see what, if anything it has recorded. To my astonishment, there are DOZENS of STILL PICTURES! I don't understand why it's taking photos? It also recorded a couple of sets of videos from when I walk into the garage, but I'm curious why it's depositing so many pictures, and running so warm. Anyone else experience this?
 
As a follow up, I disabled Parking Mode altogether, formatted the SD card, and can't wait to see, what, if anything, it decides to create regardless of it being set to OFF.
 
Gunslinger4u said:
As a follow up, I disabled Parking Mode altogether, formatted the SD card, and can't wait to see, what, if anything, it decides to create regardless of it being set to OFF.
Click to expand...

Set parking to Low Bitrate Recording instead of Motion Detection or Low Framerate Mode.

After entering the low bitrate recording mode, the resolution of all cameras will be automatically switched to 1080P 15FPS or 720P 15FPS for recording, and the recording time is 3 minutes, and the file is saved in the parking video folder
 
jsmith said:
Set parking to Low Bitrate Recording instead of Motion Detection or Low Framerate Mode.

After entering the low bitrate recording mode, the resolution of all cameras will be automatically switched to 1080P 15FPS or 720P 15FPS for recording, and the recording time is 3 minutes, and the file is saved in the parking video folder
Click to expand...

Interesting. But if I set the thing to be "off", it should not record anything at all. Unfortunately, I just went out to the car, it the damned thing has been on since I put it back in the car with Parking Mode set to OFF. What gives? If you turn the car off, the thing should turn itself off, if it's not in parking mode. But it did the opposite, it turned it on in regular driving mode. I may send this thing back. It doesn't behave the way I would expect a dash cam to behave. If you turn off the ignition, the unit should shut off, using the hardwired kit, which is keyed to an ACC fuse location, UNLESS using parking mode. It's counter intuitive.
 
Gunslinger4u said:
Interesting. But if I set the thing to be "off", it should not record anything at all. Unfortunately, I just went out to the car, it the damned thing has been on since I put it back in the car with Parking Mode set to OFF. What gives? If you turn the car off, the thing should turn itself off, if it's not in parking mode. But it did the opposite, it turned it on in regular driving mode. I may send this thing back. It doesn't behave the way I would expect a dash cam to behave. If you turn off the ignition, the unit should shut off, using the hardwired kit, which is keyed to an ACC fuse location, UNLESS using parking mode. It's counter intuitive.
Click to expand...

1. The Vantrue parking kit comes with a Voltage Cutoff of 11.6 (dead battery) and 12.0 (25% battery).

2. The Vantrue parking kit has a Red Wire (connected to an always on fuse i.e. Battery) Yellow Wire (connected to a fuse that is only active when car is started - Accessory) and Ground (needs connected to a grounded metal body bolt - Black Wire)

3. The proper sequence is the car is turned on, camera powers on, and begins recording. Car is turned off, and then car enters parking mode.

The Manual for the N2x (English) can be found here:; https://vantrue-app.vantruecam.com/files/manuals/N2X_UserManual.pdf

4. Navigate to page 16.

Under the Menu select Low Bitrate Mode. In Vantrue's case, this means 15 frames per second at 1080p or 720p. I'm not sure if that means the Front 1080P and Interior 720p. It's a bit ambiguous.

It will record as if it were a security camera with a live real time feed, except at 15 frames per second.

I hope this helps.
 
jsmith said:
1. The Vantrue parking kit comes with a Voltage Cutoff of 11.6 (dead battery) and 12.0 (25% battery).

2. The Vantrue parking kit has a Red Wire (connected to an always on fuse i.e. Battery) Yellow Wire (connected to a fuse that is only active when car is started - Accessory) and Ground (needs connected to a grounded metal body bolt - Black Wire)

3. The proper sequence is the car is turned on, camera powers on, and begins recording. Car is turned off, and then car enters parking mode.

The Manual for the N2x (English) can be found here:; https://vantrue-app.vantruecam.com/files/manuals/N2X_UserManual.pdf

4. Navigate to page 16.

Under the Menu select Low Bitrate Mode. In Vantrue's case, this means 15 frames per second at 1080p or 720p. I'm not sure if that means the Front 1080P and Interior 720p. It's a bit ambiguous.

It will record as if it were a security camera with a live real time feed, except at 15 frames per second.

I hope this helps.
Click to expand...

That helps partially explain why it remains on, however, I'm still at a loss as to why it is taking dozens (40-50) still pictures per hour?
 
jsmith said:
Do you have Motion Detection Activated?
Click to expand...
Yes, Parking Mode, motion, middle (default) sensitivity option, but that is for the intended purpose of recording motion activated videos. I'm not sure why it takes still pictures in Parking Mode. There does not appear to be an option that explicitly mentions taking still pictures in Parking Mode.
 
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