

In the time that's passed since we reviewed a number of dash cams last year, the essential use of an in-car camera hasn't changed. Dash cams record footage of the road in front of you (and sometimes behind) while you drive, ensuring you have a video account of any incident that occurs while you're in or around your vehicle. But dash cams haven't really caught on in the United States as much as they have in countries like Russia, which is often the country of origin of most of the dash-cam videos you've seen. The benefits of dash cams are clear: they can prove what really happened if you're in an accident, some can monitor activity around your car even when the car is off, and your insurance provider may offer a discount for having a dash cam installed in your car.

But most of the benefits of these little black boxes may never reach you if you never end up needing their footage, and this lack of instant gratification is likely a big reason why Americans haven't bought into them yet. Some companies are trying to change this with dash cams that do more than just monitor your driving, or are designed to fit into your vehicle more discreetly. We've tested a few new dash cams to see how companies are setting their devices apart from others, and what extra features we could see dash cams provide for drivers in the future.

Specs at a glance: Dash cams Vava Dash Cam Magellan MiVue 480D Garmin Dash Cam 55 DDPai X2 Pro FOV 140 degrees Main: 140 degrees; Rear: 130 degrees 122 degrees Main: 140 degrees; Rear: 120 degrees Recording resolution 720p-1080p Main: 1296p WDR; Rear: 1080p 1080p-1440p Main: 720p-1440p WDR; Rear: 720p Night vision Yes Yes Yes Yes microSD card Yes, up to 128GB Yes, up to 128GB Yes, up to 64GB Yes, up to 128GB Built-in GPS Yes Yes Yes Yes G-sensor Yes Yes Yes Yes On-device display No Yes, 2.7-inch LCD Yes, 2-inch LCD No Parking mode Yes, with additional cable Yes, up to 30 minutes when not receiving power Yes, with additional cable Yes, with additional cable Mobile app Yes No Yes Yes Extra features 360-degree swivel design, included Snapshot button, mobile app for sharing videos over social media forward-collision and lane departure warnings, traffic camera and speed warnings, driver fatigue alert voice commands, forward-collision and lane departure warnings, traffic camera and speed warnings, Travelapse video recordings DDPai social network for video sharing, included Snapshot button Price $199 $299 $199 $299

Vava Dash Cam

The Vava Dash Cam started as a Kickstarter campaign earlier this year when the project's creators asked people what they wanted in the perfect dash cam. As of early late June, the project has collected over $425,000 from Kickstarter backers, proving if nothing else that consumers are intrigued by Vava's features.

We received a pre-production unit to try, and arguably the biggest draw of the Vava Dash Cam is its swivel design. The hockey puck-like camera body attaches magnetically to the windshield mount, letting you face the camera in front of you, toward the street, or into your car where it can watch you and your passengers. Hand-in-hand with this is the device's mobile app, which lets you share photos and video clips taken by the dash cam to social media.

In the box you get the camera module and suction-cup mount, a pre-installed 32GB microSD card for saving photos and videos locally, a USB cable with built-in GPS chip, a 12v car charger that also acts as a 2,300 mAh power bank, and the snapshot button that you can stick anywhere in your car to quickly take a photo with the dash cam. The Vava Dash Cam connects to your vehicle in the same way that most other dash cams do—connect the camera to the mount, secure the mount to your windshield (preferably in the middle, behind your rear-view mirror), and connect it to the car charging port using the USB cable and the car charger.

Handling a dash cam that doesn't have a display on it is a little off-putting at first, but the mobile app provides a live feed if you really need it. In fact, you won't really use the live feed on the screen of any dash cam while you're driving, and the onboard screens are mostly for changing settings using the on-camera controls. The Vava Dash Cam mobile app is where you do all those things, so there's no need for an onboard display.









The dash cam will automatically turn on when you turn on your car, but, unlike other dash cams, the setup process is a little unclear. After you download the Vava mobile app and create an account, you're neither prompted to do anything nor are you guided through setting up a new dash cam. The homepage of the app has a live-feed window as well as manual photo and video capture buttons. The way to connect the camera to your smartphone is by connecting to its unique Wi-Fi network using the information and password provided on the packaging, and then you press the live-feed view. After that, your smartphone should automatically connect to the Vava Dash Cam's network whenever you get into your car, and you have to be connected to it to have access to all the mobile app's features.

While you're driving, the Vava Dash Cam records video clips in one-, three-, or five-minute intervals. You can pick your clip duration preference in the video settings, and everything recorded shows up in the Media Gallery folder in the mobile app. That folder is nicely organized by manual snapshots (or those you take with the app or the snapshot button manually), travel recordings, and emergency recordings (which are automatically saved when the camera detects sudden breaks). The contents of those folders are sorted by date, which makes finding footage easy.

You're supposed to be able to download specific clips and photos to your smartphone while connected to the dash cam's network, but I was never able to do so. Each three-minute video would be half-downloaded before the action failed and I was told to try again. You'll have better luck connecting the microSD card to your computer and finding footage that way.

Each video clip and snapshot photo has a small arrow at the top-right corner of its thumbnail that you can tap to download it. Once the file is saved locally to the app, you can download it again to your smartphone, or you can immediately share it via Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Downloading clips to your smartphone is the most convenient way to get footage fast, but I was only able to do so after receiving an updated version of the Vava Dash Cam.

The original pre-production unit had a bug that prevented me from downloading any clips to my smartphone. Thankfully, that was fixed in the new unit I received, which is one from the first batch of devices being sent to Kickstarter backers.

If you don't want to bother with OTA video downloads, you can always go the traditional route and remove the microSD card from the camera to view footage on your PC. The card is also organized conveniently into Emergency, GPS, Movie, Snapshot, and Thumb albums, with the Thumb album saving one snapshot for each video clip taken. Each three-minute, 1080p clip takes up about 307MB on the microSD card, allowing you to save approximately 104 clips on the 32GB card provided.

By default, the camera records in 1080p at 60 fps, but you can change the quality of the video in the mobile app. Both daytime and nighttime footage is relatively clear, and you can even make out license plates in daytime footage. The 140-degree field of view is certainly enough to capture you and your passengers if you choose to turn the camera toward the car, and the quality is perfectly fine for social-media video clips. Thanks to its magnetic construction, swiveling the Vava Dash around 360 degrees is easy, and the magnet is strong enough to keep the camera in place through a bumpy ride.







Each driving trip you take is recorded in the travel log where you can see a GPS-assisted map of your route. These maps are useful if you need to remember an unfamiliar route, but as you'll see when we discuss the DDPai X2 Pro and its similar feature, the log isn't as useful as it could be. The Vava Dash Cam also includes a "driving journal" in which you can name and save a route found in the travel log and give it a cover photo. While the travel log is just a collection of mapped routes you've driven, the driving journal lets you put a more personalized, emotional feel to special trips you want to remember.

Thanks to the power bank in the included car charger, the Vava Dash Cam can record potentially valuable footage when you're not around. The bank accumulates power when the car is on, so it can turn on the dash cam in an emergency if necessary. There's a G-sensor in the camera, so if someone vandalizes or hits your car when it's parked, the Vava Dash Cam will turn on using the power bank's battery and record a 15-second video clip. That video will only be helpful if it manages to capture the perpetrator, but it's better than nothing when you're not around to protect your car or call authorities immediately. Vava estimates this Parking Mode will be effective for up to 30 days when they power bank is fully charged, and it allowed my dash cam to record clips for hours in between my driving sessions. The G-sensor is helpful in case of an emergency when you're not around, but extra, passively-recorded clips could also let you see suspicious activity around your car when you're not around.

I personally think the "carpool karaoke" sharing aspect of the Vava Dash Cam is frivolous, but I also don't do a lot of daily driving—nor am I in the car with a group of friends more than a couple times a month. However, this might be a feature that can get both parents and young drivers on board to the idea of having a dash cam in the car. Above all, dash cams are protective tools—they won't prevent you from getting into an accident, but they can protect you after the fact using the footage they capture. While that's enough of a reason for me to install a dash cam in my car, it might not be for others. Dash cams are also tools that you set and forget; unless you get into an accident or someone bumps your car, you may never touch the camera after installing it. The Vava Dash Cam is one of the only in-car cameras to offer a social aspect in addition to regular safety features, and that social aspect will keep users interacting with the Vava Dash Cam and its app more than they would a regular dash cam.

Listing image by Valentina Palladino