Most people love to travel, and I mean like, saving up money
for a very long time to go to a new place where they can enjoy and relax mother
earth’s gift to us. Some of us (travelers) like to patch it up with some
adventure trip by going through the public mode of transportation which really
adds some fun, but of course, some people prefer the most relaxing and
comfortable way, via private transportation.
True, you can stop any time you like, wherever you like when
you are traveling if you have your own comfortable vehicle, plugged with your
very well created playlist and chilled by its air conditioning system, what a
life, as they say. But hey, not every trip is exciting if there are other
drivers who are always “Rage-Activated” whenever they are on the road, so you
might as well invest something that can help you on public roads, like a Dash
Cam.
Yes, there are now (as of writing) a ton of options to
choose from in terms of buying a new Dash Cam, even OEM Manufacturers who sell
action cameras now add a Dash Cam feature so you can just buy one and use it to
whatever your liking is, well, as long as it works, right? Well, not all things
can do everything at once, so to help you out, we are presenting this Dash Cam
that is already in the market for quite some time, meet the Xiaomi Yi Dash Cam.
UNBOXING
As always with our previous gadget reviews, we start with
our usual packaging and unboxing routine. To begin with, the product comes in a
clean white box with a “Yi” sitting on the top left of the front of the box.
Going through the back, you will see the technical details and specifications
regarding the product like the maximum video recording resolution, maximum SD
Card storage capacity, Wi-Fi feature, product color, and more. Sliding up the
front cover reveals the actual product.
CONTENTS
So, what will you get in a started packaging? Of course, the
Dash Cam itself (as shown previously) after that, as with all electronic
products, you will get a user manual, a support card which contains Xiaomi’s
contact information, from their support email, website and various social media
pages. You will also get a sticker type mount (If you are going to stick your
dash cam forever in your vehicle, you might as well use it, if not, you might
wanna buy a suction type mount)
Also, inside the box you will get a really long (A really
long one, which you might really use to route the cable properly and
discretely) USB Cable to charge it up using the included USB Car charger which
we highly recommend that you will not replace with other car chargers (Because
the Dash Cam might not be able to handle higher voltages from other chargers)
PRODUCT REVIEW
Let’s begin the product review by showing you the various interfaces
around the product starting with the front of the product. Up front, of course
is the lens, which is a super wide angle lens (165 degrees Field of View) with
an aperture of 1.8. On the bottom of the camera, you will see the Quality
Control standard marking along with a speaker on the right side (Which sounds a
bit low, well, it’s a Dash Cam anyways, not an action camera). On the top of
the camera, you will find the mount hole (which works by sliding the mount to
the left)
Going on the right side of the camera, you will find the SD
Card slot which supports 8GB to 64GB Micro SD Cards (Oh, BTW, the camera
package does not include an SD Card, but some sellers might include as a
package with a higher price, of course). Going the left side and you will have
the Micro USB Charging port, and below it, a tiny Reset Hole button
Going in the back of the device, you will be greeted with a
2.7” display with a 960 x 240 dot-matrix delta type TFT LCD (as written on the
back of the box). And just below the screen, you will get four buttons, from
left to right they are, Record/Emergency record button (more on this feature
later), Loop Recording, Album, and Settings/Power button. And on the bottom
right sits two LED Status indicators, which is the Status indicator light and a
Battery Charging indicator.
Now, as for the basic stuff that you need to know about the
Dash Cam, well actually, it’s just, insert an SD Card, setup the wiring in your
car, place it on your windshield (Behind your Rearview mirror if you are on the
Philippines, yep!), plug the USB Cable to the included car charger and you are
all setup and ready to roam! Well, of course, sometimes you need to check the
recorded videos right? But first, let’s get into details regarding the four
buttons on the back.
Starting from the left, the Emergency record button is used
when you need to record something for a minute that you do not want to be
overwritten by the camera during long driving sessions. The second button which
is the “Loop Recording Button” functions as a, well, a bit off from the name
because it is used to Pause and Resume the recording function of the camera.
The third button, acts as a Gallery button, press it and it will you show you a
gallery view of the recorded videos, also, upon pressing it you will notice a
menu bar on the bottom of the display which shows, from the left, Back, Left,
Right, and Ok button (The physical buttons will be remapped according to the
menu bar shown on the screen
As for the Settings button, it will show the, well, the
Settings of course! (You will also get a menu bar indicating the action of the
four physical buttons on the settings menu). From here, you can adjust/see the
following:
1.
Video Resolution (Default 1080p 30fps, 1080p
60fps and 2304 x 1296 30fps)
2.
Microphone (On or Off)
3.
Collision detection (Low, Medium, High – Records
a 20 second video when an impact is detected, 10 seconds before and 10 seconds
after)
4. ADAS Safety reminder (On or Off – Alerts you
when you are leaving your lane, visit their website for more info)
5. Wi-Fi (On or Off – used to connect to a mobile
device which has Yi Smart Dash Camera App installed)
6.
Auto Off LCD (On or Off)
7.
Format (To format the SD Card, you might do this
on first time use if the card you inserted has a different file system)
8.
Date/Time (Does this need explaining? Well, just
set it up properly)
9.
Factory Reset
10.
About
As for the performance of the product, we will let you be
the judge. We have uploaded different video recordings/samples for you to
decide if it is worth it or not. (Videos are taken with 1080p 60fps settings,
sound is muted via YouTube for privacy purposes)
SAMPLE VIDEO
VERDICT
We are not going to lie, we really love this Dash Cam and
will highly recommend it to our friends and readers. It is really compact and
small and does the work it was given pretty well, also, before we posted this,
we were already astounded by its capabilities and it had already withstood a
long time just below the hot scorching weather. Yeah, it might be a bit pricey,
but hey, you are paying a very worth it product!
PRODUCT LINKS
Full Specs – https://goo.gl/kGcMxx
QUICK UNBOXING VIDEO
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