The red button in the front is very useful if I have to lock a particular video from not overwriting and a simple tap on the screen takes a pic of the video image.
BHPian vardhann5 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Ever since I bought My Jeep in December of 2020, I was looking for a dashcam everywhere. Right from the Jeep showroom/ service centre (they had none at that time and only the meridian has an FHD model now at 36K price) to the after-market places like the JC road Bangalore (who were all only suggesting me to go for an HD or FHD option, most dint even have decent options to choose from). After reading many articles on the world wide web, speaking to multiple people, and countless hours of procrastinating, and driving with a sense of something missing in the car & fear, I have decided on going ahead with Nextbase 622 GW model dashcam with the plug-in rearview cam attachment.
I just had 2 basic and mandatory requirements:
- At least a single channel 4k recording – It’s strange or maybe I just feel it this way. Dashcam resolutions are always a level below the quoted number. For example, I feel a video taken on a 4K dashcam is only as good as a UHD video DSLR/phone, or a video shot on a UHD(2K) dashcam is only as good as an FHD(1080p) video shot on a regular camera, and so on.
- Good night visibility – I mostly use Jeep for the highway runs especially during early mornings or late evenings.
Options considered (in order of preference)
- Nextbase 622 GW
- Thinkware U1000
- BlackVue DR900
- Garmin Dash Cam 66
- Nextbase 522 GW
- Go Pro 10 (Yes you read it right an action cam for Dash)
- 70mai A800
622 GW was finalized majorly looking at the value for the price factor considering dual channel (plug and play for the rear which I loved), in-built battery for emergency events (Records approx up to 3 mins), great image stabilization, and picture quality.
It was not available online and most of the resellers who were shipping from the west were charging exorbitant prices (someone quoted 60K) and months for delivery.
Luckily a friend was travelling to Canada for a month and I sighted the opportunity to get one from Bestbuy Canada. They had offers ($100 off on cam, Free 32GB card, and a pouch) and I ended up getting everything I needed for Canadian $601.65 (Approx 34 thousand INR) including an extra click & go Pro GPS dashcam mount (This is to add in my Swift. I am the only driver for both cars and would be moving the cam to whichever hits the road on a given day)
Pictures below of what was in the package starting with the bill.
Installation:
Took help from the Jeep Yashwantpur service centre to ensure the wire was not visible or hanging anywhere. They did a good job in tucking it underneath the glove box to A-pillar to the roof.
Fast forward – 10 months and approx 12 thousand km of driving in the winters of Coorg to the summers of Hyderabad & Chennai with the Dashcam, below is my feedback on the device.
- The video and image clarity is very good. The only downside is, that it doesn’t exactly capture all the vehicle number plates all the time as they advertise on the website (maybe Indian RTO to be blamed for not having clearer and bigger plates mandated)
- No memory card comes with the box. I got a free 32 GB from Bestbuy and bought an additional Sandisk 128 GB to support my requirement.
- It doesn’t have an Indian time zone for timestamp (GMT +5 or GMT +6 hours are the only close options for India)
- The car plate input field has 9 Characters limit and won’t fit Indian 10-digit numbers in format XX XX XX XXXX
- The Cam touch is a little slow especially if one is used to premium response rates on phones and tabs available these days. For context, consider this as a Nokia 5800 or any other mobile in the initial days of the touch screen revolution.
- The cam hangs at times while connected to 5W adaptor power and requires a force shut down and restart (long press power). Works perfectly fine if I unplug the rear cam module. I do this if I bring the cam home to save/transfer pics and images.
- Maybe it requires more power and I don’t have any other USB adapter at home to verify.*
- A 128 GB card is good to cover about 7 hours of dual channel recording or about 10 hours of single channel
- Image stabilisation ON changes the main camera resolution to HD if the rear unit is plugged in. It remains 4K if the rear is not added. So be mindful to remove the rear cam below enabling image stabilisation while off-roading. Stabilisation OFF is more than enough for regular usage.*
- The red button in the front is very useful if I have to lock a particular video from not overwriting and a simple tap on the screen takes a pic of the video image. It also automatically locks videos that are caught as an impact/emergency by the camera.*
- The IOS mobile app is not great (Feel like a 1st-year college student built it as a beta app) but does the job.
- For the parking mode to work, the dashcam requires to be hardwired (kit sold separately). I am connected to the 12V socket and hence the cam shuts down as soon as the engine is off.
- The reason I did not opt for hardwiring is the Jeep Yashwantpur centre in Bangalore told me it would void my warranty and Insurance (even if connected to a fuse box and any wires were not cut). In fact, they are connecting the Mopar dashcam (that comes from Factory with Meridian) to the rear 12V socket for Compass as an additional accessory.
- The parking mode is a little tricky to use and I haven’t been able to figure out a sure-shot way to work with it yet. I use a Mi 10,000 mah power bank for now in case I have to leave my car on the roads for quick stops and the cam records the whole time and not exactly record only in case of a bump or something. I am fine with it this way though.
- The cam can get extremely hot depending on the outside climate. Be mindful before touching it. It froze a couple of times in Chennai heat this summer and had to be kept aside to cool down for a few mins. Better to put the cam in a pouch in case the car would be parked under direct sun.
- What3words is good to have a feature which I haven’t found much use to date) and never bothered to set up the Alexa.
Video with the settings available on the device.
Sample video links:
- Video 1
- Video 2
- Video 3
- Video 4
- Video 5
Keyword: Dashcam review: 10 months with the Nextbase 622 GW on my Jeep Compass