Nextbase iQ review

Nextbase has spent years creating the iQ, and its launch was pushed again a number of instances. It’s now on sale eventually, albeit with out a few key options that the corporate has shouted puffed up over the previous 18 months or so.

Nonetheless, as laborious an idea as it’s to promote to shoppers, the iQ is supposed to be an ever-evolving platform that can get new options over time.

The one drawback with that method is that this isn’t an inexpensive gadget and, as with so many internet-connected ones, it’s worthwhile to pay a subscription to make use of the options.. even when they’re not but there.

There are three fashions within the vary: 1K, 2K and 4K, beginning at £349 / $499 and rising to £449 / $699. The resolutions check with the forward-facing digital camera, however there’s additionally a cabin-facing digital camera, and an optionally available rear digital camera for £149 / $199 which wasn’t fairly on sale on the time of writing however needs to be from 14 November.

Nextbase despatched the 4K mannequin for evaluation.

Options & design

• Straightforward to put in
• Embedded SIM
• 64GB microSD card included

The iQ has been designed from the bottom up, and that’s very apparent in the event you’ve seen or owned any of the corporate’s earlier sprint cams.

It has a reasonably chunky base which attaches to your windscreen and has a material speaker cowl very like a sensible speaker. The LED ring solely provides to that similarity.

The 2 cameras are mounted in a pendant-style unit that factors downwards into the automotive. In your hand, it looks like it is going to be massive and obtrusive, however when put in it actually isn’t.

The design is important for the digital camera to get a great view of the inside and passengers. The cabin digital camera additionally has infrared LEDs so you’ll be able to nonetheless see what’s occurring at night time when the cabin is darkish.

Nextbase features a 64GB microSD card which you shouldn’t ever must take away from the iQ, however you’ll be able to improve it to 256GB if you wish to.

It’s used to document video like a conventional sprint cam, however the iQ does far more than that, and I’ll get to that in a second.

Putting in the iQ in your automotive is straightforward as a result of Nextbase features a intelligent energy cable that plugs into your automotive’s OBD II port. You might need to Google its location in the event you’re not acquainted, however all automobiles since round 1996 have one.

Jim Martin / Foundry

The connector is as slim as potential so ought to match behind a canopy, however the cable exits from the facet which proved to be an issue in my spouse’s 2013 Vauxhall Corsa which has a recessed OBD II port, making it unimaginable to plug it in. It wasn’t a problem in my Ford Focus although.

There’s a answer within the field although: fuse faucets that you would be able to connect with the suitable fuse in your automotive’s inside fuse field. The one drawback is that it’s worthwhile to know which fuse to make use of, and to discover a useful bolt that connects to the automotive’s chassis to which to connect the damaging wire.

The one gotcha is that the adhesive mount must be caught to your windscreen in a exact orientation. Rotate it barely left or proper and the iQ received’t be vertical, so it’s a good suggestion to supply it up with the digital camera connected to the mount.

Jim Martin / Foundry

The ability and rear digital camera cable use proprietary connectors, like squared-off USB-C, which connect neatly into the rear of the iQ.

Jim Martin / Foundry

As a part of the method it’s worthwhile to set up the Nextbase iQ app in your cellphone and create an account. The app will stroll you thru the {hardware} set up and ask when you’ve got a rear digital camera. The iQ’s knowledge connection ought to activate and also you’ll should scan a tiny QR code on the iQ’s display screen.

That is the place the method fell down for me, because the code appeared far too shiny within the preview and any slight motion of the cellphone precipitated it to blur. Utilizing the guidelines offered within the app, it did ultimately scan after I double-tapped the preview to activate my cellphone’s rear LED flashlight and slowly transfer the cellphone nearer to and away from the display screen till it scanned.

Jim Martin / Foundry

See also  'The Last of Us Part I' is a gorgeous, faithful, expensive remake

For those who handle to leap this specific hurdle, the iQ will obtain the most recent firmware and restart, at which level you’ll be able to see the reside digital camera view and regulate the angle to get the very best view of the street forward (and behind when you’ve got the rear cam).

Reside view & alerts

Getting again to options, the embedded SIM means the iQ is all the time related to the web. It isn’t the primary sprint cam to do that, but it surely’s definitely the best-executed.

By way of the Nextbase iQ app, which has clearly been impressed by Ring’s, and with the suitable subscription in place, you’ll be able to watch the reside views from every digital camera and see on a map precisely the place the automotive is together with the What3Words location.

Jim Martin / Foundry

In fact, any safety digital camera value its salt will let you know when one thing vital is occurring and the iQ is nice at it. Utilizing quite a lot of sensors, together with radar, it’ll ship you notifications of “Parking occasions”, which may very well be somebody reversing into your automotive in a parking lot or an individual loitering with intent. I discovered it might additionally notify me once I parked up and bought out of the automotive, and once more once I returned.

You’ll be able to watch the recorded occasion, which exhibits all digital camera views on the identical display screen, and a helpful crimson spotlight on the playback bar means you’ll be able to skip straight to the place the motion occurred.

Though these occasions are mechanically uploaded to the cloud (the place they’re secure for 30 days in the event you subscribe to Defend or 180 days with Defend Plus) you’ll be able to obtain them to your cellphone after which share them or, higher nonetheless, ship somebody a hyperlink and distinctive code to see the video on-line.

Jim Martin / Foundry

These aren’t the unique full-resolution variations, although. They’re standard-def 848×480-pixel clips.

Within the SmartSense settings within the app you’ll be able to regulate how distant in every quadrant to observe. There’s additionally a setting for the ‘activation voltage’ at which SmartSense ought to kick in.

Jim Martin / Foundry

That is completely different from the ‘Low energy cut-off’ setting which shuts off the iQ in case your automotive battery drops beneath a set voltage as a way to guarantee it doesn’t drain a lot you’ll be able to’t begin the engine.

Emergency SOS

One of many different most important security options is Emergency SOS, one thing earlier Nextbase sprint cams have supplied. You’ll want a Defend Plus subscription to allow it.

When arrange, the iQ will monitor for a “extreme crash” and when it detects one it’ll mechanically ship an SOS to emergency providers together with your actual location and – in the event you’ve offered it – your medical knowledge.

You’ll obtain a name again from these providers however in the event you’re unable to reply, an ambulance will likely be dispatched to your location mechanically.

Voice instructions

In a few of Nextbase’s 2-series sprint cams you may use Amazon Alexa. With the iQ, Nextbase has custom-built its personal voice instructions. This implies you’ll be able to say “Hey sprint cam, allow Witness Mode” and it’ll document and add no matter’s occurring – and reside stream to as much as two emergency contacts. As soon as the occasion is over you’ll be able to say “Hey sprint cam, cease Witness Mode” or “We’re secure now”.

It’s also possible to say quite a lot of different issues prefixed by “Hey sprint cam” corresponding to:

• Flip the microphone on
• Flip the microphone off
• Begin recording
• Cease recording
• Lock this file
• Flip the cabin digital camera off
• Flip the cabin digital camera on

For every, your command is processed regionally and there are a lot of variations of every command so that you don’t have to recollect the precise phrase. All of them labored reliably once I tried them whereas driving.

Thankfully, turning the mic off solely means audio isn’t recorded – it stays on to pay attention in your subsequent command.

At the moment, there’s no spoken suggestions: all the things is communicated utilizing alert tones and a small LCD show which exhibits icons – it isn’t used for displaying video.

Lacking options

As talked about, a few options are usually not out there at launch. One is Guardian Mode. That is designed partly for fogeys with younger drivers who need to hold tabs on them. When it’s added, you’ll be capable of set velocity and placement limits, and get notifications when the automotive exceeds or leaves them.

That is additionally helpful in the event you go away the automotive at a storage for restore, or with a valet.

A chat-back characteristic will can help you talk with whoever is within the automotive, too.

The second headline characteristic that isn’t out there is Roadwatch AI. This makes use of a mixture of pc imaginative and prescient and radar to establish different street customers, their velocity and trajectory.

This knowledge can then be used alongside the video itself to assist show what occurred if there may be, for instance, a collision.

Because the iQ data video utilizing H.265, you’ll be able to’t use Nextbase’s present desktop viewer because it helps solely H.264, so there was no approach of getting at any of the recorded meta knowledge on the time of evaluation.

Efficiency & high quality

As you’d anticipate at these costs, high quality is nice, though maybe not so good as would possibly hope for. Decision relies upon upon the mannequin you purchase. The 1K has 1080p entrance and cabin cameras, however the inside is recorded at 1440p in the event you purchase the 2K or 4K fashions.

The rear digital camera data at 1440p and could be related to any of the three fashions.

Jim Martin / Foundry

I examined the 4K and the standard from the primary front-facing digital camera is usually respectable, and a step up from Nextbase’s 622. There’s numerous element which suggests you’ll be able to learn registration plates of different automobiles, whether or not they’re parked or driving.

There are fairly a couple of exceptions to this, although. At night time or if the climate is unhealthy, particulars could be obscured by rain in your home windows, or as a result of your automotive’s headlights are reflecting off quantity plates.

The huge subject of view means automobiles additionally should be fairly shut by, in any other case their plates are just too small to see. Normally, although, you solely care about these particulars if one other automotive hits yours – that means it will be very shut.

As there’s no HDR, dynamic vary is considerably restricted and this could trigger over- or underexposure when the solar is within the body.

It’s stunning there’s no polariser for the entrance or rear cameras, neither built-in nor optionally available. There are simply two video high quality settings within the app, too, one being to disable audio recording. That leaves solely publicity, which could be set individually for every digital camera.

Listed here are some examples of snapshots from day and night time recording from all three cameras.

Within the app, you’ll discover recordings cut up into two sections: Occasions and Library.

Occasions is the vital stuff, corresponding to impacts, movement detected whereas parked and guide recordings the place you’ve locked a file by saying the command, or urgent the button on the underside of the iQ. All are uploaded to the cloud mechanically when you’ve got a Defend Plus subscription.

Library is the place you’ll see an entire timeline of all of the occasions together with the common steady clips recorded whereas driving alongside. You’ll be able to obtain any of those clips inside the app so long as the iQ has energy and a cell knowledge sign – and you’ve got a Defend or Defend Plus subscription.

Everytime you obtain one thing, you’ll be able to choose which of the digital camera feeds to incorporate: you don’t should obtain all of them.

It will probably take some time for the iQ to get up and begin streaming video if it’s in low-power mode, however the app does an excellent job of telling you what it’s doing relatively than merely displaying a spinning circle.

Though there’s built-in Wi-Fi, Nextbase says it’s engaged on a direct Wi-Fi hyperlink and expects native downloading to be potential some 4-6 weeks after launch.

You’ll be able to after all take out the microSD card and pop it right into a card reader in your laptop computer or PC however Nextbase has added an HD obtain possibility within the app. Sadly, that is just for movies within the Library tab. It’s not an possibility within the Occasions tab, however these are the clips you’re extra prone to need to obtain. There, you’ll see the standard-def model that are mechanically uploaded to the cloud as a part of a Defend Plus subscription.

Steady recording splits clips into 30-second chunks. These are 143MB for the entrance 4K digital camera, and 86MB for the cabin and rear 2K cameras. Alongside every is a low-resolution 5MB model which is what you see within the app.

With all three cameras recording, the 64GB card can maintain round 1.5 hours of footage.

When it comes to energy utilization, I discovered the iQ labored nice in a automotive that’s used day by day and has a battery that’s in good well being. However in the event you go away it parked lots of the time, you’ll discover the iQ switches off to protect energy after a day or two and subsequently received’t be capable of notify you or document something.

Worth & availability

Within the UK you should purchase the iQ from Halfords or direct from Nextbase.

As talked about, the 1K prices £349, the 2K £399 and the 4K £499. The rear digital camera is £149.

Within the US costs are increased: $499, $599 and $699 respectively, and these are the identical whether or not you purchase from Nextbase or Finest Purchase.

It’s potential to make use of the iQ with out a subscription: the free tier is named ‘Solo’. The one characteristic it consists of is textual content notifications despatched when an occasion has been detected. These don’t specify what sort of occasion and as you’ll be able to’t join remotely, you received’t be capable of see the reside view, nor watch cloud recordings of the occasion.

This implies a subscription is crucial: with out it, the iQ isn’t a lot completely different to conventional sprint cams.

Within the UK the cheaper Defend tier prices £6.99 per thirty days or £69.99 per yr, whereas Defend Plus is £9.99 or £99.99.

Within the US, costs are once more increased at $9.99 per thirty days or $99.99 for a yr of Defend, whereas Defend Plus is $19.99 per thirty days or $199.99 per yr.

As there’s no contract, you may theoretically pay for a month, cancel after which re-subscribe subsequent time you want the options.

Defend Plus shops occasions for 180 days and likewise provides a number of person accounts (so different relations can use the app), Emergency SOS and computerized incident backup. The latter is a vital distinction: in the event you choose just for Defend, nothing is uploaded: you simply get the choice to obtain movies remotely to your cellphone manually.

For alternate options, see our roundup of the very best sprint cams.

Ought to I purchase the Nextbase iQ?

The iQ is the neatest sprint cam I’ve reviewed. It’s nice to have the ability to watch the reside view and see what’s occurring when notifications arrive, in addition to see the place your automotive is from the GPS location.

The app is – on the entire – nice and it makes the iQ simple to make use of. Voice instructions are helpful, too.

Nonetheless, regardless of that lengthy improvement time, the iQ seems like an unfinished product. There are a good few options lacking, not simply Roadwatch AI and Guardian Mode however issues like the flexibility to obtain full-resolution movies to your cellphone through Wi-Fi and watch movies alongside GPS and G-sensor knowledge. Firmware updates, of which there have been a great few throughout my testing, aren’t notified: you need to go into the settings and test manually to see if there’s a brand new model to obtain.

Nextbase says it’s working laborious to handle these items, however there aren’t any ensures of once they’ll arrive.

Regardless, value goes to be the sticking level for a lot of: paying £349 / $499 for a 1080p digital camera is asking lots, and it’s an additional £149 / $200 for the rear digital camera (which is a sensible funding).

As I’ve stated, you additionally want a subscription to make use of any related options, which provides much more price and, on the time of evaluation, there was no possibility so as to add additional iQs. In case you have two automobiles, you’d must subscribe individually for every iQ.

Given the comparatively excessive subscription costs it’s disappointing that movies backed as much as the cloud are so low high quality and that you just want Defend Plus for occasions to be uploaded to the cloud mechanically: a characteristic we take without any consideration on Wi-Fi safety cameras.

Lastly, there’s the one-year guarantee, which is commonplace for Nextbase. However with the promise of the iQ being upgraded with new options over an extended interval than that, it feels too quick.

In the end, the iQ is a superb safety system in your automotive which ought to enhance over time. I’ve no cause to doubt that Nextbase will make good on these guarantees, however you would possibly need to wait a bit till a few of them are fulfilled earlier than shelling out.