I drive one of the smallest cars on the road, so I leaped at the chance to review the Aukey Dual camera dash camera.  I drive a Smart. It’s 8’3”, but being so small comes with a price – bullies!  I’m a very conservative driver (I’m old) and each week, I get tailgated, cut off, and even flipped off, FAR more frequently in my tiny Smart Car than in a year of driving my gigantic Nissan Armada. I’m not doing anything wrong, but my car seems to bring out the worst in some. Aukey’s DR02 dual camera system is just what the doctor ordered to bring peace of mind to happy motoring.

What is it?

The Aukey DR02 is a dual-camera dash cam featuring a primary main unit for front recording, and a secondary camera for rear-view recording. It captures video simultaneously from both cameras in 1080P and has a set of features.

Hardware Specs

Sony Exmor Sensors in both cameras capture super-sharp 1080p video (accompanied by optional in-car audio) and perform well for nighttime driving

Full Six-Lane View: The wide-angle  170° front and 152° rear fields of view monitor vehicle movements and other activity in front, behind, and even towards the sides

Emergency Recording & Loop Recording: Emergency Recording automatically captures unexpected driving incidents and protects the recordings. Loop Recording allows continuous use by writing over old, unneeded footage. Connect to the AUKEY GM-32 GPS Antenna (sold separately) to embed location & speed data for trip tracking and greater protection.

What’s in the box?

Dual Dash Cameras (front and rear camera), Dual-Port USB Car Charger, 4m / 13ft USB Mini-B Cable, 6m / 20ft USB Mini-B Cable, Two Sticker Mounts, Six 3M Stickers, Six Cable Clips, User Manual, 45-Day Money Back Guarantee and 24-Month Product Replacement Warranty Card

Design and Features

The cameras arrived in a well-padded box with USB plug adapter, power and video cables, instructions, mounting plates for front and rear, and cable clips. I carefully read all of the instructions and jumped into the installation process.  Because I planned on making this a permanent fixture in my Smart Car, I went a few steps further, removing all of the internal body trim panels to hide the wires and make the installation as professional looking as possible.

I even cut a small notch into one of the trim panels to hide the somewhat bulky cable connector for the rear-facing camera. The system can be powered up by the car’s ignition but has the option of wiring it always on, triggering by motion detection. I chose the former.

After running the power and video cable to the rear camera and plugging in a 128GB SD card, I powered up the system for the first time and an image appeared on the front camera, but I was unable to access any camera functions. I found the main camera would function unless the rear camera was connected. As soon as I plugged in the rear camera, all of the lights would come on indicating everything was correctly powered, but the image and all of the functions on the main camera would lock up. After many hours of troubleshooting, Aukey graciously sent me a replacement.

I had a few issues running the cables – the cable is a 10 conductor Mini-USB male. You read that correctly, a 10-conductor oddball, not the run-of-the-mill 5-conductor connectors that were used everywhere as a precursor to the Micro-USB. It would have been ideal to purchase another cable and move the cameras from one vehicle to another, but this isn’t an option. I contacted Aukey’s customer support to inquire if spare cables and mounting plates could be purchased, but they are unavailable apart from the kit. Bummer.

Next, the connectors, particularly on the rear-facing camera have bulky, inflexible strain reliefs with very a wide bend radius, so I found routing them through existing cable paths was VERY challenging. Admittedly though, if I had just used the included cable clamps and double-sided tape, this wouldn’t have been an issue.

Because of the density of the rear-facing camera cable and the rigidity of the connectors, coupled with my Electrical Engineering background, I have some concerns that any lateral forces applied to the cable when being plugged into the cameras could result in broken connectors on the cameras, so care should be taken not to apply any stress. Been there, done that. It’s no fun.

Since everything was wired and ready when the replacement arrived, installation of the front and rear cameras only took a few minutes. I reformatted the card, chose 10-minute loop recording, no audio, and the rear camera as the display, and went for a drive. The system records 1080P from both cameras simultaneously which could prove invaluable in a fender-bender. It’s also fun just to review the recordings just to see things you missed while paying attention to the road like a well-behaved motorist should.

For the most part, the videos were crisp and clear, but on occasion, the screen would lock up, display a corrupted or pixelated image. I found with one of my SD cards, I would get frequent “Memory Error” errors and the corresponding files could not be viewed. This was particularly disappointing as I had an incident where I was tailgated and passed by a truck, on the right, that ran a red light in front of several other drivers, putting several lives in jeopardy. It really should have been reported to the police, but without the video evidence, there’s not much point.

Final Thoughts

I really liked the features, video quality, compact size and dual-cameras in this system and will definitely keep it running at all times while I’m in the most bullied vehicle on the American roads. Having a record of my surroundings will be used with the inevitable interactions I will have with my insurance company.  As an entertaining bonus, I can keep an eye on the driving habits of my 16-year-old daughter and I’m looking forward to preserving picturesque drives through the mountains of Vermont.

Positives

• Small size
• Good video quality
• Lots of features

Negatives

• Bulky cables
• Expensive
• Sometimes glitchy recording
• Has some trouble starting when the weather is extremely cold

Price: $129.99
Where to Buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Aukey. Please visit their site for more info.

While cars have gotten much safer over the years in terms of protection, there is still little to protect you from other drivers. In the event of an accident, even a little fender bender, it’s easy to miss important details that could prove vital in an insurance claim. We could all use a little more peace of mind in that regard, and that’s exactly what Conbrov hopes to bring you with their T17 Car Dash Cam.

What is it?

The Conbrov Car Dash Cam is a tiny HD video recorder that can be easily secured to the windshield of your car for recording events and details while driving. It automatically records while your car is running and could provide vital proof in the event of an insurance claim or if you like to record yourself on off-road adventures.

Hardware specs

• Camera size is 2” x 1.4” x 0.3”
• Captures 1080P HD resolution footage
• Loop Recording
• Night vision mode
• “World’s Smallest Dash Cam”
• 1.5” LCD screen
• Auto accident detection feature triggered by G-sensor automatically locks videos in event of an accident
• Supports up to 32GB microSD cards (not included)
• 12-month warranty

What’s in the box?

• T17 Car Dash Cam
• Car charger
• USB cable
• Car bracket with suction cup
• Card reader
• Pin for reset button
• User-manual
• VIP registration card

Design and Features

Let me start by saying this camera is tiny. Conbrov claims it’s the smallest dash cam in the world, which always seems to be a haughty claim, but they might be right in this instance. This allows the camera to be positioned in an area that’s out of direct sight from the driver, namely obscured by the rear view mirror, and that’s great for reducing distractions from a tiny, floating rectangle while driving at night.

Installation and usage are straightforward, as seen below.

Setup

The Conbrov Dash Cam was very simple to set up.

Once I found a spot on my windshield that was just out of my field of vision (I placed it so that it was mostly obscured by my rear view mirror).

I secured the suction cup bracket, attached the camera, plugged in the charger and ran the lengthy cable from the passenger side floor, up the side of the door, and around the edge of the windshield to obscure it from sight.

Once the cable was plugged in, I turned on the car and the camera turned on as well and instantly started recording.

Usage

The thing about a dash cam is that, like most safety features on your car, you don’t really actively use it unless you have to, and you hope that you never have to. Once I had the camera in place, I didn’t touch it, save for checking out the footage that I had recorded. It was easy enough to forget about completely while in use.

More on that point, it’s entirely hands-off. Once you start your car, the camera recognizes the power source and begins to record immediately. When you turn your car off, the camera continues to record for a set time (1 minute default, adjustable in the settings) and turns off.

While it does have a still camera setting, and you could use it like a pocket-sized video camera, the size and interface aren’t very practical for that purpose. It’s perfect for what it was meant for, a constant recording device that sees what you’re seeing behind the wheel, providing proof in the event of something eventful.

The camera features an adjustable loop recording feature. You can select the length of the recordings in the settings, in 1, 2, 5 and 10-minute increments. The loop recording basically means that it creates video files until the SD card is filled and then starts overwriting the oldest file. The size of the SD card determines how long the videos are archived.

For instance, the video files at full resolution took up about 800MB on average for a 5-minute clip. Given that, the oldest record on my 16GB SD card was about an hour and a half of drive time.

Fortunately, the camera features a G-lock setting which detects sudden stops, such as in an accident, and automatically “locks” the currently recording video. This prevents accidental deletion or overwriting of that important video file. One note: I found that a lot of the videos were locking themselves, which means the were not being overwritten and my card was filling up. I can’t figure out if it was because of the G-lock system being a little too finicky, so I ended up turning that setting off.

Video quality

Below are two examples of day and night recordings. The camera was set to 1080p resolution and highest quality.

Daytime

Nighttime

While reviewing the videos, I found the quality slightly lacking. It’ll do just fine for recording the cause of an accident in front of the car, but if you’re looking to capture something like the license plate of a hit-and-run vehicle, or any car that’s further than 20 feet away, that might prove difficult. Overall, it gets the job done. The night mode was pretty decent.

Positives

• Very small and visually unobtrusive
• Auto-start and stop
• Relatively inexpensive

Negatives

• Doesn’t come with a required SD card (which is common among dash cams I’ve found)
• Power cable could be visible on dash
• Mediocre video quality
• Smaller SD cards fill up really quickly

Final thoughts

I was impressed with the Conbrov Dash Cam’s simple set-and-forget functionality. Thought it might not be the sharpest camera, its size and cost are very well suited for those looking for a little extra protection on the road.

Price: $42.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Conbrov.