2024 the best dash cams review


Price: $129.99 - $99.99
(as of Dec 04, 2024 23:27:08 UTC - Details)

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Tiny camera, huge protection. The car key-sized Garmin Dash Cam™ Mini 2 with voice control (only available in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Swedish) automatically records 1080p video and provides discreet eyewitness incident detection. Notice: Some jurisdictions regulate or prohibit use of this device. It is your responsibility to know and comply with applicable laws and rights to privacy in jurisdictions where you plan to use this device.
Car key-sized dash camera mounts discreetly behind rearview mirror and goes virtually unnoticed; automatically records and saves video of incidents
Wide 140-degree lens records 1080p video with Garmin Clarity HDR optics for crisp detail day and night
Voice control (only available in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Swedish) lets you use spoken commands to save video, start/stop audio recording, take still pictures and more
Saved videos automatically upload via Wi-Fi connection to the secure online Vault to view and share later
The Parking Guard feature (requires constant power and an active connection with Wi-Fi technology; access via the Garmin Drive app on your compatible smartphone) monitors activity around your parked vehicle and alerts if an incident is detected
Access the camera remotely for Live View monitoring (requires constant power and an active connection with Wi-Fi technology; access via the Garmin Drive app on your compatible smartphone) when you’re away from your parked car
Get more awareness around your vehicle using the Garmin Drive app on your compatible smartphone to view video from up to 4 dash cams (sold separately)
Durable design withstands harsh vehicle environments, including direct sunlight and hot temperatures
Includes dual USB charger, giving drivers an extra USB charging port. Requires at least 8 GB microSD card (supports up to 512 GB), Class-10 or faster (not included). Frame Rate - up to 30 FPS. Field of View -140 degrees (diagonal). Dash Cam Auto Sync - yes (up to 4 cameras). Mobile app to review videos - yes (Garmin Drive app)
Notice: Some jurisdictions regulate or prohibit use of this device. It is your responsibility to know and comply with applicable laws and rights to privacy in jurisdictions where you plan to use this device.
Reviewer: Scott
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Small, good quality images.
Review: I got this just to have in the case of an accident that was disputed. I don't need a screen on the dashcam as I will only be looking at it after an incident.This fits the bill perfectly. It is so small it almost disappears on the windshield. Connecting to it with my cell phone can be a bit cumbersome, but I do not expect to do it ofterìn.But, if I DO need footage from it, I can either grab it with my phone and send a link to my computer OR I can just pop the chip out and download the footage.The video quality is very good. Not like a high quality movie, but clear, crisp and with the details obvious.Price also was a plus.Installation was a breeze. Just ran the cord across the top of the windshield, down by the door, under the dashboard and to the USB adapter. Took all of 15 minutes.

Reviewer: will snyder
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: You can't go wrong
Review: I have over time purchased every member of my family a pair of these (8 pairs total). On balance, they are hands down the best cameras on the market (yes, I am aware the camera does not excel in any one area. I traded an older Thinkware dash cam for this unit in my wife's car, despite the Thinkware costing 4x more and having 4k). Ultra low costs, simplicity, very discreet size, and several useful features make these the best to have.The individual who posted the long comment below about saving videos manually seems to be confused. You never have to "save" your videos to preserve them, even in the event of a crash. As long as your storage card is large enough, you'll have many days worth of video before the camera starts to overwrite older material. My 256gb card stores several weeks worth of day-to-day driving before the older stuff starts getting overwritten. There is really never a need to manually save anything, and I never, ever see any "gaps" in my coverage.For folks with large travel trailers, this is a Godsend. You can use 2 in your truck, and then another 2 in the front and back of your trailer (you can actually pair as many as you want in groups of two...for example if you wanted a couple inside to monitor your horses).I got my first set back in 2019. The only issues I ever run across is an occasional glitch with my wireless Android Auto interference (both use WiFi and there's a trick to get your phone to switch from wireless Android Auto to your camera if you need to view pictures). I'd also pay more to have 4k resolution (allows farther zooming for license plate reading).

Reviewer: A Customer
Rating: 1.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Save functions ruin main video record
Review: UPDATE 4: Throughout several phones and app updates, this thing continues to have problems. Updates don't fix things, and Garmin does not seem to care if updates break stuff. My current phone is a Samsung A54, hardly an obscure thing, and it has the endless "connecting" problem when trying to see the live view or access videos.UPDATE 3: I reinstalled the app, and now it won't connect until I go to my wifi settings and "forget" the camera "DC Mini2". Problem: there is no such thing in my wifi list. So I can't remove a thing that isn't there, and the camera refuses to do anything until I do an impossible thing. This. Is. Junk. Do not buy it.UPDATE 2: I took the risk of updating the app to see if they fixed the constant logging-out problem. Now it disconnects from the wifi every 5 seconds, so I can never get any videos off of it. It loads all the thumbnails, and then connects to wifi when selecting one (because it's still too stupid to connect when you open the app), starts loading the video, and then says wifi connection lost. This thing is a useless brick now.UPDATE: In addition to everything below, the app periodically logs you out of your "session", so if you have an accident and want to manually save a clip, you might open the app and be told you need to log in again, so you have to dig around to find your password. AND you need to receive a verification text message code.Overall, it doesn't seem like a good deal for the hardware you get. I kept this camera mostly because I had to. The dash cam market is a mess. I don't want the kind where the display and camera are both hanging down in the middle of my view of the road. I don't know why the standard dash cam design isn't a separate camera you mount to the window and the wire runs to a display/setting device you can mount under the dash.I am going to use the next few paragraphs describing what I think it the worst thing if you plan to use the auto-save features. It seems like an absolute failure from a data-preservation point of view.Marking video to be saved (done by save button, voice command, or crash detection) saves a separate 30-second video file, centered on the time the save was triggered. So if you have a crash at 1:00:15pm, you get a saved clip covering from 1h:00m:00s-1:00:30.BUT!......there is now a period of 7 seconds missing from the main video recording, right from the point the save was triggered. If 15 seconds on either side of a point in time is not enough and you want to manually select a larger clip to save, there will be 7 seconds of reality missing from that new clip. It's like the camera can't handle copying the previous 15 seconds to the new file and also continuing to record new video to the main string of video, so it just gives up on one of its jobs for 7 seconds. There is a clock displayed on the video, and you will see the video skip ahead and the clock will jump forward.Everything is still recorded SOMEWHERE, but 7 seconds of critical time will exist ONLY in the auto-saved clip... which the manual trimming feature of the phone app can't splice in. If you try to manually cut a longer clip, in the middle of playback the video will jump ahead 7 seconds. It will not be possible to save a new continuous clip which includes more time before or after the auto saved 30s clip.Suggestion to Garmin: Why not just have the save function mark the current file as protected (along with either the previous or next file, if the current time is too close to the beginning or end)?The camera also includes a handy voice command to "take a picture". This saves one frame of the video as a separate picture, which is much easier to transfer to your phone if that's all you need. BUT!... this ALSO interrupts the recording process, though for only about half a second. While this is much less than the 7 second skip from saving a video, you now have a fraction of video fully missing which does not exist anywhere!OK, now some various comments:I like having display and controls separate from the camera. It's ridiculous how most dash cameras force you to have the camera and the controls in the same location. I don't know why there aren't loads of dash cams made which have the main good camera on the end of a wire and a display/button unit mounded on your actual dash (or under it, etc).App instructions are unclear. To connect to the camera, you need to turn on 3 things on your phone:1. Wifi (NOT your phone's hotspot feature, wifi like you don't have Internet service, but used to transfer videos)2. Bluetooth (uses for basic commands)3. Location (I have no idea why, but it won't connect if you don't)The app is mysteriously slow at establishing the wifi connection to the camera, but it does not bother trying to connect when you open it. It waits until you do something which NEEDS it. Why not start working on that in the background as soon as I open it?Initial setup was confusing because by default, it was set to only use a wifi connection (not cellular data) to upload to the vault. If I am in a crash, what are the odds I happen to be connected to an existing wifi spot? I was not prompted to choose this when starting it the first time, it was just set to this absurd option in one of the menus.Video quality is medium. Not great for night, OK for day. Expected for a midrange 1080p sensor.The included USB cable is for power ONLY. Annoyingly, you can't unplug it from the power block and connect it to a laptop or USB OTG adapter to transfer stuff to your phone without wifi. To do that, you will need to disconnect the cable at the camera end and use another USB cable.When saving a video clip, it is not always clear what is happening. FYI, the export screen's status bar means loading to phone. Upload to cloud status is not shown and happens in the background.The clip-cutting setup of the app is great (as long as you haven't lost 7 seconds of time from an auto save). Videos are all grouped with a single icon per day. A day is then displayed as a single timeline, and there are sliders you can use to select start/stop points for a clip to export. Tapping and holding the sliders will zoom in on the timeline so you can be precise.Something which makes up for the terrible auto save feature (which I disabled) is that this camera supports HUGE 512GB SD cards. Buy as much memory as you don't mind paying for, and you don't have to worry about critical footage being overwritten any time soon. A 64gb card holds about a week worth of driving for me.Accessory note: Garmin sells a separate polarizing filter which reduces glare. For what Garmin wants for this camera, they should have included it for free.Cloud storage: If you upload a clip to Garmin's cloud storage, they save it for free for 24 hours. You can generate a shareable link to the file and email it to people. They have a monthly subscription option if you want to store videos on their server longer, otherwise there is no fee for any features.App warning: You need to be logged into the app to connect to the camera (yikes). Save the password somewhere on your phone.App warning 2: There is an option in the app to set the camera to delete video after only 3 minutes! Make sure this is not turned on. I have no idea what kind of wannabe secret agent is using a phone/web-connected dash cam but also thinks their driving history is so secret it must vanish after 3 minutes.

Reviewer: Enio
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Foi muito fácil o procedimento de instalação e as imagens são muito boas.

Reviewer: Chrisis1033
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I purchased this dash cam in 2022 and it has worked flawlessly since then. install was simple with a nice long power cord i was able to tuck up into the headliner and trim all the way around to a power port. it comes. with a usb connection and an adapter to use it in a 12 volt port if needed. i had the dealership install a usb port (ignition power) up behind the passenger for well because i wanted the wire out of the way but that’s not needed. the phone app is good and controls the unit for playback of video, downloading video and the settings of the camera. the app linked easily and found the camera’s wifi signal which then connected to my phone and displayed the videos. i added a memory card and the camera activates with my ignition and switches off when my vehicle power turns off. once you lean how to save video and what the various settings do it’s a very slick little camera. i have it tucked up behind the rear view mirror beside the ford housing for its lane keeping system. you can set it to auto activate save the last 30 second if it senses a crash or aggressive maneuver and mine is set to medium because high was being set off by simple speed bumps. you can also manually activate the save feature by taping the button on the rear of the camera or by a voice command. the camera records in a loop so when the memory card fills up it simply records over it but by bit. love this camera!!!

Reviewer: Excelente producto , superó las expectativas
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Fácil de instalar y muy discreta

Reviewer: SCO
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Sahip olduğu özellikleri, sorunsuz, stabil şekilde yapıyor. Özellikler sizin için yeterli ise stabil bir kamera isteyenler için tavsiye ederim.

Reviewer: sy
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Requires app to view the video or live view. Bought a mount with suction to hold it. Fix onto rental car easily. Very handy n portable

Customers say

Customers like the ease of installation, video quality, and camera quality of the onboard camera. They mention it's discreet, produces clear images, and is a solid product. Some also like its size. However, some customers have reported issues with connectivity and speed. Opinions differ on functionality and app quality.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

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