At a look

Expert’s Rating

Pros

• Attractive
• Good day and night time captures
• 64GB built-in eMMC reminiscence
• Super-easy setup with GPS
• Phone connectivity

Cons

• No onboard show
• Memory isn’t replaceable (15,000 hour lifespan) or upgradeable

Our Verdict

We just like the class of the DDPai Mini5 and its good day/night time captures. It’s telephone centric/dependent, so if that’s your factor, you’ll prefer it. Note that the reminiscence is hard-wired internally (64GB), however ought to nonetheless final you round 15,000 hours in response to DDPai.

Price When Reviewed

$159.99

Best Prices Today: DDPai Mini5 sprint cam

$139.99

The $160 ($110 on sale by way of a coupon on Amazon on the time of this writing) DDPai Mini5, is among the extra elegant entrance sprint cams I’ve skilled. It’s of the display-less (and largely buttonless) selection, however with the telephone connectivity, most customers will barely miss it or the buttons. It additionally opts for inner reminiscence and laptop connectivity over TF playing cards.

This assessment is a part of our ongoing roundup of the best dash cams. Go there to study competing merchandise, what to search for in a touch cam, and shopping for suggestions.

DDPai Mini5: Design and options

The Mini5 is a flattened cylinder roughly 4.15-inches lengthy, 1.45-inches deep, and a hair lower than an inch thick. The 140 diploma field-of-view, 4K UHD digicam is by far probably the most outstanding function on the primary physique. The solely different notable bodily options are an emergency save button on the left and a Type-C port on the fitting, plus an exercise mild on the again (inexperienced means lively).

The mount is a self-adhesive (semi-permanent) cage that the digicam itself slides into. You connect the Type-A-to-Type-C USB energy cable (an aux adapter is included) after the digicam is in place and it helps maintain the digicam from slipping out. Not that that could be a doubtless situation—the match could be very comfortable. The Mini5 and mount each have a considerable really feel. Many sprint cams really feel low cost; this one doesn’t.

As talked about, the Mini5 options built-in eMMC reminiscence—64GB of it, to be precise. That’s a good quantity; nonetheless, the maths is likely to be thought of a tad regarding. With the video captures taking roughly 234MB per minute at 3840×2160 (222MB for a full-res file, and 12MB for a smaller file used for show, and many others.) you’ll write the total capability of the cardboard in lower than 5 hours.

DDPai describes the eMMC as having 3,000 write cycles, so that you’ll doubtless get round 15,000 hours out of the Mini5. That’s quite a bit for many customers, even journey givers. But there are additionally methods to chop down drastically on the disk house used: using h.265 (100MB per minute at 4K UHD ) reasonably than the default h.264 in case your units help it, and flattening the decision to 1600p (50-60MBpm utilizing h.265), or 1080p (25MBpm utilizing h.265).

Good optics and processing could make up for lots of the lacking element from 4K UHD, however attempt the three resolutions and see which you want greatest. Normally, I step as much as 4K UHD solely when the surroundings warrants it. That stated, I’m unlikely to ever method 15,000 hours of sprint cam use so I’d simply set it to max and overlook it.

The Mini5’s Spartan design is as a result of all settings are tweaked utilizing the DDPai app. The app options an set up information and alignment grid on the house web page’s dwell view. You join by way of Wi-Fi (quicker 5GHz when doable), so there’s solely your telephone service web whereas utilizing the app. Various parameters embody g-sensor tweaking, deal with GPS data, quantity, audio seize, and many others. All the traditional goodies.

There’s in fact a parking mode, but it surely requires that the digicam have fixed energy. This means a hard-wire equipment or OBDII energy cable. Note that it’s doable to run your battery down with such a setup, although most cameras will ditch the parking mode if an under-voltage state happens.

The app additionally will show a map of your travels, however solely after you obtain movies to your telephone. The aforementioned smaller recordsdata are used for preview instantly from the digicam. On a reasonably random word, I’ll say that listening to “Hello Ding Ding Pai” each time the digicam powers up makes me smile.

So does the two-year guarantee, which is twice the size of most. Note that some cheaper sprint cams are solely warrantied for 90 days. I can’t vouch for DDPai’s customer support, however the firm’s PR have been dogged of their communications with me.

DDPai Mini5: Performance

Though I discovered the Mini5’s daylight video a tad overexposed, the impact was minimal and will be dialed again within the settings. Some of the vague mottling you see beneath is my windshield and attributable to inclement circumstances the night time earlier than. Most cameras filter this out. However, all in all, day captures are colourful and reveal loads of element. That built-in GPS permits you to pinpoint areas and observe your travels.

Night video was usually fairly good, although I did discover one occasion of flare blowout you could see within the second seize. This should’ve been a freak angle and even vehicles driving intently by didn’t trigger this phenomenon.

Below is the artifact I advised you about. As famous, this was the exception and customarily flare isn’t a difficulty. Note you could nonetheless see good element within the surrounding areas. And sure, 0km/h means I used to be parked. There’s a setting to alter this to MPH for the U.S. market. I didn’t discover it instantly as sprint cams offered listed below are usually set to MPH.

I ought to word that the Mini5 ran very cool. The unit employs a brilliant capacitor which permits the digicam to run lengthy sufficient to avoid wasting any present video, however to not seize post-incident motion ought to the automotive energy fail.

Should you purchase the DDPai Mini5?

Other than the built-in reminiscence carrying out within the far future (like Apple’s deliberate obsolescence with SSDs), there’s nothing concerning the Mini5 to not like. It’s lush, exceptionally straightforward to arrange and use, and the captures are superb. If you need the premium expertise offered by the DDPai Mini5, go for it.