Miofive Car Dash Cam with GPS and Speed – 4K Front Dash Camera with 5G WiFi, 2160P UHD Recorder, Built-in 64G eMMC Storage, Night Vision, G-Sensor, Motion Detection and Parking Mode with Time Lapse

FIRST IMPRESIONSI am not new to dash cams, I’ve been using them for over twenty years and I’ve bought (and used) well over a dozen of them. Yet when I wanted the newest and most useful features I found that my box full of what used to be top-end models were eclipsed by this particular model that claims 4k resolution, premium night vision, AI features and an impressively small size that weren’t even available in top-tier models five years ago. The first impression of opening it is that they are serious about their image perception, it reminds me of first seeing my smartphone. Inside are an adequately long power cable with cigarette lighter adapter, what they call a crowbar to tuck the cable into the windshield trim, mounting adapters and an owners manual. What impressed me the most was the actual unit. It shames most of the others I’ve bought in the high quality material used for the case, it seems to be a tougher material that looks and feels like cast aluminum but is probably some kind of synthetic. The lens looks impressive but not so much that it attracts unwanted attention. The unit is entirely devoid of physical buttons save for one power switch which blends into one of the long ends with no markings on or around it. They scorevery high on making a solid feeling device that is one of the smallest I’ve ever owned.THINGS TO KNOWIn researching this model I read the adverse as well as the positive reviews and found some fact errors at both ends. To be clear you don’t have to glue this to your windshield, they include (and recommend) the included clear cling pads that you position on your windshield and then mount the 3M adhesive tape to the cling strip. In any event, once it’s in place it is very easy to snap the camera on and off the mounting pad leaving very little evidence to tempt would-be window smashers. And to be clear, they include two sets of clear strips and mounting pads in case you want to use the camera in two vehicles or transfer it to a new car and you can easily purchase more at their website. I have an area of expertise in writing and editing technical manuals and would rate this as one of the best owners manuals I’ve ever seen for a dash cam. It is 34 pages, all written in clear and easy to understand English. It is evident that the company did the right thing by hiring a U.S. technical writer rather than just a translator. The manual covers almost everything you would want to know. Correcting another misstatement, the built-in memory card doesn’t just record for 60 seconds and then erase over itself, the fact is that is the duration it records after an impact and keeps it in non-volatile memory, not the total amount of video to the internal 65GB EMMC memory. The manufacturer states (depending on conditions) you can expect to get “several” hours before it erases over and starts again. I calculated it at approximately 5 hours, and if you drop the resolution down to 2k for long boring trips you will likely get more like 10 hours on the internal card before being overwritten.. If you are a vlogger and want to keep trip segments for your content reel it is possible to save to the cloud, and if you have privacy concerns the manufacturer makes it clear that your content is saved to the Amazon Cloud, not an offshore data collector. Some of these would have been dealbreakers if I went by some of the one star reviews. And on that topic, one thing I saw mentioned several times is the voice that greets you when you first power the unit up and the other that warns you if you are driving too close to the vehicle in front of you –some people might find both of those useful some may not. If you don’t care for them, they can be turned of in the setting. In fact there are a whole series of opt-out controls in the setup menu, including turning the AI feature off entirely. I wouldn’t miss it, the features it offers I find to distracting to me while driving, but as I say, some users may love it.MOUNTINGA little more on mounting this device. They suggest the best place is the top passenger side (in left-hand drive vehicles) windshield corner. While I don’t disagree, my years of using dash cams of all different kinds tells me that the somewhere just under or alongside the interior rear view mirror is best, that way you are looking directly down your own traffic lane and have as little hood in the field of view as possible. Unfortunately the vehicle I bought this for has a wider than usual blue tint band at the top of the windshield and two sensing devices built in to the back of the mirror so nothing can obstruct them. My personal preference is to do something very few people do, I like to mount it on the top center of my dash so I don’t have any wires dangling across my windshield. Be careful though, not only about that position but anywhere you choose to mount it – every U.S. state has different laws about at least two important things … having anything that their state defines as obstructing the driver’s field of forward vision, and second, anything that has a video display screen that could distract the driver. Always check your state’s laws and if you spend any amount of time driving in another state – or Canada or Mexico – be aware of their laws as well. I’m not a legal or law expert but my understanding is that if you are just passing through the laws of your home state prevail, but tell that to the officer who is about to write out a ticket. In my vehicle the dash is large and the hump over the center controls is high so I can mount this far back out of my field of vision and it barely sticks up two inches from the dash. I have a custom cover on the top of my dash and I’m using a very cool Amazon brand non-slip pad that is designed to mount vlogger cameras to. It has a flat smooth plate that is the perfect place to mount the plate for this dashcam (inverted). I make a point of all this because virtually all dash cams are designed to be mounted one way and you mounted it to the dash the video would be upside-down and all of the control labels would be as well. This dashcam is in the minority in that if you mount it upside-down you simple change one setting and the video flips over and all of the control labels do too. I love that feature.PERFORMANCEAs a professional photographer and videographer I have a keen eye for video quality and in general specs never are a sure indicator of performance. I was quite satisfied by this camera, considering the Sony chip and high quality lens. There is the usual distortion that any wide-angle lens would have (but they cleverly have a selectable distortion correction control). As a test I changed the resolution to 2k and I honestly couldn’t see that much difference and it recorded twice as much before having to record over the previous segment (about 10 hours). The camera actually has four selectable video resolution settings. Even the lowest setting is more than adequate for the simple purpose of documenting who’s at fault if need be.GPS, WIFI AND PHONE CONNECTIVITYI was pretty impressed by the GPS, although almost every phone has it these days, it does come in handy for documenting when and where a certain segment was recorded. And this I no puny GPS, when I was playing around with it in my kitchen it was capable of reaching out to 12 satellites and locking on strongly to half of them (it only requires a lock on 3 satellites to be functional). That’s impressive, it should do even much better than that on the open road. The GPS also pulls the correct time and date from the satellite so it’s always spot on accurate (you can opt to have the screen switch to a digital time clock if you prefer not having it display what you’re already seeing through your windshield, or if there are laws that prohibit a video display, there are no laws that forbid a digital clock). Setup was straight-forward in connecting it to my iPhone, I could either scan a QIC code from the instruction manual or let the dash cam reach out and handshake with my phone. There were a couple of adjustments I had to make to my phone’s wifi security settings (understandable) and I experienced the same “inability to connect” a few people say they had, but that was easily corrected by switching from a 5G connection to a 2.4G connection which makes absolutely no difference at all in terms of the recording quality and it might actually save some data usage for some people. Problem solved for any who encountered it. The app isn’t very complicated (which is to say it does a good job at the basics) and very easy to understand. Using the app (which to me shouldn’t even be an option) I can set up a lot more things than I mentioned here and use my phone’s display for monitoring what the camera is seeing rather than using the tiny (but bright) built-in display.OTHER GENERAL IN-USE TOPICSWhen you push the power on button it immediately says it is ready to start recording. You can set it up to recognize such commands as a voice control but these days that takes some coordination when my phone recognizes voice commands and so do about 20 things in my car’s NAV system.FEEDBACKIf the designers of this product are looking for feedback, most of mine is positive. There are a very few things I’m not quite clear on. One is that the supplied cable has a USB-C connector at the camera and a USB-A at the power port end. The camera is rated at requiring 5v 5a, and they include a cigarette lighter adapter to adapt to a 12v cigarette lighter. Most modern cars no longer have cigarette lighters but most do have USB ports. Yet the makers are mum on whether or not it is okay to plug this into a standard USB-A port to power it. That is valuable information I would advise them to be more clear on. So I’ll answer that for you right now. Yes I was able to plug this directly in to a USB-A port in my car. One minor quibble is that while the clock sets automatically via GPS it can only set in the 24 hour time format. That’s not all that important but good to know. And finally one other minor suggestion, this is the second decade of the 21st century, people now shoot videos vertically and use their phone and especially tablet in landscape mode. For an app that is supposed to let you see a live view of what the camera is seeing I am shocked that the app only works in portrait mode. Please make that easy change in a future software update.YES NO MAYBESearching for reviews of dash cams isn’t always helpful, it’s a product that historically has been dominated by unfamiliar brand names and usually the same names pop up over and over, despite the fact that there are dozens, maybe hundreds, of other brands sold here and at other stores. That creates uncertainty about how impartial some reviews really are. Breaking away from the rest I learned of this brand from one of the trusted online sources and decided to check it out. It flies right in the middle of the pack in terms of price – it’s not cheap nor is it a budget breaker. Yet it seems to have high-end specs and features that you expect to find in the very top premium brands. In full transparency I bought and paid for this at full retail price. You can be assured that my review was not influenced by anyone. Buying this model was a more difficult decision than it should have been because it was mentioned in only one of the several dozen online review sources. Being unrecognized by the media makes this model a sleeper and makes factual reviews all the more vital in deciding if this is the right choice regardless of price. I think it is worth considering – it is small but not miniature, it has excellent resolution both day and night, the quality of construction far exceeds my expectations and the features are useful without being redundant with things that are already built in to modern cars and smartphones. I find the feature set to be just right for safe driving or content creation. I like this dash cam and think it is worth considering.

Good storage capacity. Sharp video resolution. Camera connects to smartphone app and you use the app to view videos, download them to the app and save them to your Photos. Camera mounts on a sticker you apply to the windshield. The dashcam records unusual acceleration, deceleration and cornering. A voice wakes you if you don’t follow the preceding car when the light turns green.

Had this for a few days so far to replace a Nextbase 512gw.Installation very easy, as was setting up the camera and muting the annoying voice.Picture quality is absolute superb day and night. Very impressed.App is easy to use and so far no issues.

Kurz zu meinen Erfahrungen, alles andere wurde bereits reichlich beschrieben.Ich hatte an meiner Camoft GPS Probleme, hatte Dienstag Abend den Miofive Support auf Instagram angeschrieben, Mittwoch früh bereits eine Antwort erhalten und heute, Donnerstag, habe ich gerade vom Amazon Lieferdienst die Ersatzkamera erhalten.Bin schon sprachlos, besser geht es einfach nicht.Alles funktioniert jetzt einwandfrei, bin sehr zufrieden.Vielen DankBeste Grüße

Well built unit, with excellent video quality. Easy to set up and unit itself very unobtrusive while still having a small screen. Plus 5 star customer service backing it up. Hard to go wrong and highly recommend .