You don’t get the driver assistance systems of other dash cams, so it’s up to you or your vehicle to spot speed cameras and potential collisions. That said, you still get Wi-Fi and GPS connectivity, and we like that Vantrue has focused on video quality over unnecessary extras. If you use the cigarette lighter/USB port to power your dash cam, then leaving it plugged in overnight might drain your car battery, depending on if your vehicle supplies constant power to the ports. Hard-wired dash cams can be set up to switch on with the car ignition in some vehicles to save battery, too. As for the captured footage, it’s good both on sunny days and in overcast conditions, and particularly impressive at night, where you can see more detail outside of the zone lit by the headlights, albeit with a little too much glare on street lights and lights coming the other way. In daylight hours, there’s ample detail to work with and you can easily read number plates, although there’s more grain and visible compression than on the best 4K dash cams. Still, if you want a wide-angle view and great features, this is an excellent buy. This dash cam even crams in an emergency response feature and integration with what3words – the ingenious service that can pinpoint your location without needing to relay the exact GPS co-ordinates. Most dash cams need a microSD card to store footage, and while some will come with one bundled, they’re often on the small side. This can be a problem because when most dash cams run out of space they start saving new footage over the existing footage.

While older models typically required the user to manually save or tag the appropriate clip in the event of an accident, new G-Sensor-based incident detection technology has taken over, and now takes care of this automatically. There are also a wealth of features to consider, including a touchscreen display, a companion app, GPS, parking surveillance, voice control, sat nav and what3words to name but a few. While most dash cams shoot in 1080p, the Thinkware U1000 high-tech dash cam takes video capture to the next level in 4K. Why is this higher resolution useful? Clarity is crucial to catching an offender. For example, the clarity of a number plate could be the difference between catching the absconding villain or letting them slip away. There are also dash cams that boast additional features that, just like any other technology, translate to a higher asking price. In addition to better video quality like 4K, night vision and built-in Wi-Fi or Bluetooth for easy file transfer may also be included. There are myriad reasons why you should have a dash cam installed in your car, and not all of them revolve around fair play.

The best dash cams you can buy in 2023

You only need a simple setup: Its comprehensive feature list makes the Dual Dash Cam good value, but its skills will be overkill for many users.

Note that the night captures have the orange-ish tinge featured by many sensors, but they still reveal quite a lot of detail. Headlight flare is minimal. Some of flare in the image above is due my less-than-stellar cleaning of my windshield. My bad. If you’re buying a 1440p or 4K dash cam, think about a 64GB or 128GB card, and look for one with a longer warranty or one that’s designed for endurance in continual use. Cheap microSD cards can work well in some devices, but dash cams need something that’s built to last. Is there anything else worth looking out for? The colors are quite accurate, details are identifiable, and in general the image quality is about as good as you’ll see with 1080p. If you’re documenting travels, you might opt for a dash cam with higher resolution, but you won’t find anything better for everyday use. IDG You want emergency services on call: Thanks to what3words integration, the 622GW can pinpoint your location and instantly forward it to emergency services. You want comprehensive coverage: The Nexar Pro records interior and exterior video out of the box, making it a total dash cam solution for any vehicle.Using a dash cam is generally legal in both the UK and the US. In fact, certain bodies in both countries actively encourage the use of dash cams to reduce insurance premiums. That said, there are a few basic rules to follow to ensure your dash cam usage stays on the right side of the law. To stop important clips from being overwritten, many of the best dash cams can automatically detect potential incidents and flag the relevant footage to protect it from deletion. Most models with loop recording also allow you to manually tag clips with the same effect, generally by way of a shortcut button on the body of the dash cam. How we test dash cams As for the quality of the recordings, we were happy with the overall look of the video. The camera works well in all sorts of conditions too, with impressive results recorded at dusk and into the night. Joining it is a tiny rear camera that records 2K video at 30fps. Like the forward unit, it covers a 140-degree field of view. That’s enough for the view front and rear, but rivals offer wider angles. Still, with a generous 128GB of internal storage, you get twice as much capacity as the previous Miofive 4K, with space for around 8 hours of record time before loop recording will start to overwrite the oldest clips.

You expect a polarizing filter as standard: Some dash cams include a polarizing lens to reduce reflections from the hood, but it’s an optional extra for the E1. Helpfully, both the display angle and camera lens are adjustable, so you can find the right position between road and driver. Full HD footage is shot in HDR at 30fps, delivering balanced exposure and enough detail to make number plates legible. That said, we found that video suffers from noticeable stabilization wobble. This distortion doesn’t reduce the detail, but footage is worse than from other Garmin dash cams. You want a wide view of the road: Both cameras have a 140-degree field of view, which is narrower than that of many rivals and which only covers the windshield. As for the footage, 1080p at 30fps might not seem amazing now that 4K dash cams are becoming more affordable, but the Dash Cam 47 gives you crisp, bright images whether you’re driving at night or in bright sunlight, with more shadow detail than some other dash cams and good handling of glare from the sun or headlights. Like the Dash Cam 46 before it, it’s a great all-rounder. The exposure is consistently spot on. The A139 Pro performed well in gloomy or stormy conditions and at night, too, minimising headlight flare while amplifying brightness levels in the image. The interior view is surprisingly clear, and the rear camera footage beats that captured by the Miofive Dual Camera bundle.In our tests, the front camera’s footage was generally good enough in most scenarios. Viofo utilizes Sony Starvis image sensors, which perform well in low-light conditions. The lower resolution does compromise quality in subpar driving situations though, with fuzzy detail putting it behind the best 4K competitors. The interior and rear cameras offer a wide 170-degree field of view, and the interior camera is equipped with six LEDs for infrared capabilities. Even in the darkest driving conditions, visibility inside the car remained clear in our tests. Yes, absolutely. Some drivers might not like the idea of a camera constantly monitoring their vehicle, but some models of dash cam (like the Garmin Dash Cam Mini 2) are compact and subtle enough to almost disappear behind the central rear view mirror. In other words, once they are up and running you soon forget about them; they just sit there, quietly keeping an eye out, ready to save footage if you’re caught in an accident. Capture settings can be tweaked via the touchscreen, but we found that it worked well right out of the box: results from both cameras were impressive, with plenty of crisp detail and decent dynamic range, even in dim and dark conditions. If you’re looking for a stress-free and reliable dash cam, the X1000 gets plenty right. Just like the Nexar Beam, the Nexar Pro GPS is primarily designed to simply record the scene in front of it, but it also comes with a cabin view camera in the box which you can choose to install or not. With it, you’ll also record what’s going on inside your vehicle, which could be useful for a number of different types of user.