Dashcams have come a long way since their early days
The tons of videos that captured Russian traffic madness hid a necessity we all, as drivers, are aware of: recording our (and others) behavior on the road.
Dashcams gained popularity around the world, thus leading to progress when it comes to these devices’ technological innovations. Having a good camera is enough, but enhancing it with motion sensors or a GPS tracking device is even better.
Just to see how much smarter dashcams got, we’ve taken a NextBase 4063 for a test.
Small, compact, and super-high-tech, the 4063 is range-topper for the 40xx series from NextBase — a name you might have heard of, as it’s strongly associated with in-car entertainment equipment. Besides the FullHD feature (standard for all the products in this series), NextBase 4063 also comes with Wi-Fi connectivity and GPS tracker.
Through Wi-Fi you can connect to your smartphone (via the Cam Viewer app) and get live feed even when the camera is recording; this is helpful as well for playback on a bigger screen. We tried to connect, but we failed repeatedly. However, I can't say for sure if it's the app's fault, or it's just the fact I'm using the stupidest smartphone of all.
The 2.7” display is useful for browsing the camera’s functions, but given the fact you have a 1920×1080 recording it’d be a pity not to see it on a bigger, clearer screen.
The GPS tracker function does exactly what it says: using your location at any given moment (the camera is on), NextBase 4063 can track your car’s position and speed — which can be used as further evidence in case of a crash.
Now, we didn’t crash (yet), so we can’t show you just how good this camera is at capturing relevant incidents (for the insurance companies, of course) but you must know that the NextBase 4063’s eyes are always open.
The 2.0 megapixel Sony 6G lens has a wide-range, 150-degree angle with a diaphragm opening (aperture) of 1.6. Thanks to its G-meter, the dashcam knows when something is wrong (detecting any sudden stop). If this happens, it will automatically lock the video, so it won’t be erased even after the card is full — in case you're out of storage, NextBase 4063 automatically deletes the oldest recording(s).
And if you want an extra set of eyes while away from the car, it’s good to know it uses motion sensors to “wake-up” from the standby mode and record whatever moves in its proximity. If you’re lucky, it’s just a small, funny animal. Or it might as well be a big, furry thief.
There are so many things that these small cameras can do it’s somehow unfair to call it just a “dash cam.” They’re more like sophisticated journey data loggers. This being said, give it some time when learning its functions — the buttons are overwhelmed by the number of features, which is a polite way of saying browsing the menu might get annoying.
But again, a small price to pay, compared to what the 4063 has to offer.