Verdict
The Thinkware X800 style River Cam combines sane daytime quality with potentially utilitarian driver aids . It ’s also got a large touchscreen , which helps you shoot for it properly and transfer the context from inside the car . However , it ’s a little dear , and its night time television is disappointingly soft and absent item .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
you could buy Thinkware ’s X800 flair Cam River on its own for about £ 200 , or as a front and rear television camera bundle for about £ 250 – I ’m reviewing the bundle .
It ’s in general a well specify camera , with a high - ish 1440p ( QHD ) resolution . Its rear - prospect module declare oneself only 1080p ( Full HD ) , but that should still be enough to record the item you ’ll likely need . At the time of review , the X800 pile was £ 100 cheaper than Thinkware ’s Q1000 bundle . Is it salutary value ?
Design and features
This is a significantly cheaper package than the Thinkware Q1000 . While the X800 has get a crushed resolution rear camera and no Wi - Fi , it has a large 6.9 cm colour touchscreen , so you get a decorous live sentiment .
This dashcam await much more like a ceremonious compact photographic camera than the slimline Q1000 . Although it comes with an adjustable mountain that obtain it a trivial way below the windowpane , it ’s not too intrusive provide you position it carefully .
I ’m not a huge lover of the X800 ’s windscreen mount . Like all the Thinkware front and rear cameras I ’ve try out , there ’s no pull pill on the charge card that cut across its sticky pad , so you ’ll spend ages trying to tease it off .
Once you ’ve done this you may climb it on the windshield , adjust the camera slant , and then tighten it up to stop it from moving . While it ’s easy to retrieve the microSD wit from this camera ’s slot , you ’ll want to disconnect the rearward television camera jack before you could slue the elan cam itself off its backing . bad , you ’ll need to mount the camera before plugging the seaman back into the hole , which you wo n’t be capable to see .
Thinkware ’s X800 site seems illogical about whether this dash Cam River has GPS or not . It definitely does , recording position location alongside video , but it ’s not enable unless you fit the extraneous GPS pass catcher . This now appears to arrive as received with the front and rear bundle , but it ’s worth checking when you buy . The antenna also connects to the television camera ’s top side , so it ’s another lead to fiddle with if you want to take the X800 from your car .
Like many dash cam , the X800 come with a rear tv camera cable television service that ’s several meter long . That ’s big if you ’ve got a new wave – or a limousine – but in a normal car , it might leave you with a couple of metres of unneeded cable television to conceal .
In this pillow slip , the lead uses four - pole 2.5 mm jack connectors , so you probably could find a shorter alternative if you looked around . I managed to mount the rear photographic camera itself upside down , but thankfully there ’s a scene to invert the video from it . The X800 ’s big concealment pass water it easy to access and vary its setting from the car , and you may even browse and replay stored video .
Remove the television camera ’s microSD card and you could , of course , look at your transcription on a computer . alas , while the X800 can stamp your speed onto footage , it does n’t also pigeonhole GPS coordinates onto it .
If you want to see where something happened , you ’ll require to launch the supplied Thinkware looker on a PC – it can overlay your position on a mathematical function while you watch front and rear footage . You ’ll also come up a place setting app on the storage card , although this just duplicates the on - photographic camera options .
Performance and video quality
There ’s not much untimely with this television camera ’s front - face daytime footage . It ’s sharp and elaborated , containing most of the item you ’d require to show what happened in an incident . It ’s not perfect – like most other style cams , it ’s hard to make out numeral scale on vehicles travelling across the frame or when there ’s a moderate closure speed .
Things are less telling from the back . epitome were much less sharp by day , although they were n’t helped by the fact I had the tv camera pointed too far down during the first few days of testing .
Unfortunately , things rather fell aside front and back at night . Thinkware make much of this camera ’s Sony Starvis sensor , which is designed to be especially sore in broken light . It did a peachy job of scavenge some detail from badly lit parts of the street , revealing the facade of buildings and the arena between streetlights on my inner - urban center test tour .
Unfortunately , like the Q1000 , it could n’t bring forth sharp image . I fight to resolve a single parked motorcar ’s bit plate in the footage from my nighttime trip around the block .
That ’s not always likely to be a problem , as you ’d hope that most motorist involved in an incident would stop . However , it could be an emergence if they do n’t , and nobody make out to get a fomite ’s number at the time of the incident itself .
Video quality aside , this tv camera can be a minuscule chatty . It greets you with a saccharine ‘ Please have a good effort today ’ every time you bulge your cable car , and its advanced driver assistance features add their own bings , bongs and knocks to alert you to various things . I did n’t find these specially helpful , usually triggering after than the equivalent systems in my elevator car . And as with all dash Cam River - based eq , they still depend on you to play on any warning .
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
This dash Cam River offer a adequate screen and reasonable daytime footage
it ’s just not good enough at nighttime
Final Thoughts
Thinkware ’s X800 volunteer sane daylight footage , in particular at the front . I also wish its sizeable screen , and the fact it offer advanced driver aids – even if I ’m not in person trade on how effective they are .
However , it cost a fair bit more than theNextBase 422GWwith a Rear View Camera , and much more than the Road Angel Halo Pro parcel . At night , it ca n’t pair either for video quality .
Trusted Score
How we test
We test every dash cam we retrospect thoroughly over an elongated period of time of fourth dimension . We use standard tests to compare features properly . We ’ll always assure you what we find . We never , ever , accept money to retrospect a product .
regain out more about how we try out in ourethics insurance policy .
FAQs
No . you’re able to assure the X800 via its touchscreen , and even apply it to view your footage . You ’ll need to copy your transcription to a computer , however , if you postulate to submit them to the police force .
