The $100 Thinkware F70 Pro is a combined bag of a touch cam expertise. With 1440p now frequent, the F70 Pro’s 1080p is notable by comparability, and its captures are hardly the perfect we’ve seen at that decision.

The digicam is svelte and good-looking; nonetheless, it lacks a show — as a substitute counting on the telephone app for viewing and configuration. That can be high-quality, however the app doesn’t assist the somewhat well-liked Google Pixel telephone. Additionally, GPS is a $40 exterior choice, and with out buy of a continuing energy cable (hard-wire, OBDII), parking surveillance can’t be used.

Given all that, fairly frankly, we’re questioning precisely why it’s labeled as “Pro.”

Further studying: See our roundup of the best dash cams to study competing merchandise.

What are the F70 Pro’s options?

The F70 Pro is a front-only, 1080p, 30fps, 140 diploma field-of-view single-channel sprint cam. It could also be faraway from its semi-adhesive sticky mount for safekeeping, and it sports activities an auxiliary port energy cable that connects to the digicam through a small coaxial energy port. Yup, nonetheless no Type-C from Thinkware.

Small and cylindrical, the F70 Pro measures a mere 3.23-inches large, by round 1.35 inches thick. It weighs just one.49 ounces (42.4 grams) so it received’t unduly stress the mount. Said mount is adjustable vertically, however not horizontally so watch out that it’s oriented accurately once you stick it to the windshield.

There’s a Wi-Fi-enable/Bluetooth-connect button on one finish, subsequent to the GPS port and simply in entrance of the standing LED. The different finish sports activities the Rec button, which saves your present recording so it isn’t overwritten.

The F70 Pro accepts as much as a 128GB SD card. At round 100MBps per minute with 30fps/1080p captures, that’s sufficient for about 21 hours. Not dangerous, however many more moderen sprint cams will settle for 256GB and even 512GB playing cards, which clearly allows you to take much more video earlier than older captures are culled. Again, Pro?

Thinkware pioneered the display-less, phone-centric sprint cam design. However, progenitor or not, when you’re counting on a telephone app for altering settings, it is best to assist all telephones. As I instructed you up entrance, the corporate’s Dash Cam app doesn’t assist Google’s Pixels, a highly regarded telephone and, as luck would have it, the telephone I usually use for testing. The firm’s different Cloud app doesn’t assist the F70 Pro, so I used to be caught having to search out one other gadget.

Thinkware has mentioned that this lack of assist is one thing peculiar to Google; nonetheless, each different vendor’s Android app has labored simply high-quality on my Pixel. Methinks the corporate protests an excessive amount of, and I feel I’ve lower them slack lengthy sufficient for this persistent deficiency. A half star off. Fix it.

What’s the standard of the F70 Pro’s captures?

The F70 Pro’s captures, whereas not as detailed as we see with the brand new breed of 1440p sprint cams, are workable. The processing is nice, with no tearing or jitter once you go over a bump.

However, I used to be anticipating a bit higher total high quality from a venerable vendor similar to Thinkware. There’s a sure fuzziness to the video, particularly within the evening captures. Color is essentially correct, however not as vivid as I’ve turn out to be used to in latest opinions.

I cleaned my windshield twice for this evening seize, however the fuzziness persevered. You can, nonetheless, see the license plate numbers straight forward — barely.

While the F70 Pro’s captures are nothing to put in writing house about, they get the job carried out and can serve capably as proof — the primary level of sprint cams. I discovered the g-sensor too delicate at its default setting, and needed to dial it down — as soon as I had a telephone that supported Thinkware’s app.

Note that regardless that the F70 Pro makes use of a brilliant capacitor, the digicam’s standing mild stayed on for an excellent 10 seconds once I switched off the facility. That’s about twice regular so that you would possibly seize a little bit of publish power-loss motion.

Should you purchase the Thinkware F70 Pro?

My total expertise with the F70 Pro was middling, largely due to the Google Pixel subject. It is, nonetheless, straightforward to put in and use, and the captures are workable if not better of breed.

But including GPS and an OBDII cable makes for not less than a $160 package deal and fairly frankly, there are higher sprint cams for the worth. In explicit, the Garmin Dash Cam 47. You can examine its slightly pricier 57 cousin here.