You can’t go wrong with either of these picks, especially when they’re on sale.
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A few months ago, I was given the task of rounding up and testing a number of dash cams for our buyer’s guide series. It turned out to be a bigger project than I anticipated. For those who haven’t shopped for one recently, the market is enormous. There are all different price ranges, they vary in size from barely bigger to a tube of Chapstick to units bigger than a Nintendo Switch. As I was putting together our Daily Deals for this week, I happened to notice two units that I’ve already tested are on sale.
They also happen to represent two ends of the spectrum in size, the Garmin Mini 2 being the smallest I’ve seen and the Nexar One is one of the biggest.
One Serious Dash Cam
This dash cam, the Nexar One is literally in my car as I’m writing this. It’s a big, substantial camera for people who are serious about recording their drives. The unit I have, which is what I have linked to, has the basic front-facing unit you see in the center of the photo above, plus the Connectivity Module (left), and the interior-facing camera (right). The connectivity unit allows you to view what’s happening remotely on your phone. It can even alert you to hard braking and impact detection if someone else is driving your car, which might bring peace of mind for parents of teen drivers. Meanwhile, the interior camera is not only good for possibly demonstrating you were paying full attention before an accident, but will also record what’s going on in the car when the camera is in parking mode. Catch car thieves in the act!
It’s powered off the car’s OBD II port, which means you need to run a wire around the top of the windshield, down the A-pillar and down to the footwell. Like I said, it’s for people serious about recording. So far, my experience with the video quality leaves me impressed, but I will have more in the full review later. Right now, it’s a hundred bucks off on Amazon so it’s down to $349.
Small Price, Smaller Size, Big Performance
If you’re looking for an incredibly simple, easy to mount, easy to use dash cam, this is your solution. This is one of the smallest dash cams I have ever seen. It’s powered by a USB cable, which can be plugged into a 12-volt/cigarette-lighter socket with the included adapter if you don’t have an open USB. The camera is controlled through a smartphone app but is also voice-controlled.
The video quality is excellent, it captures great detail in all different light conditions and can capture audio as well. Though I always turn mine off, don’t want my renditions of punk classics leaking. This is always a good deal at right around $130 but it is on as I type this for just $99.99 on Amazon.
