Vantrue N5 review: This dash cam offers nearly 360 degree coverage

Finest Costs At present: Vantrue N5 sprint cam

The Vantrue N5 is a primary for us, and so far as we all know, the trade. It’s not a three-, however a four-channel system sporting entrance, rear, and two cabin cameras — one on the entrance digicam going through aft, and one on the rear window digicam going through forwards.

The twin cabin cameras not solely cowl the cabin extra totally, however will catch motion out the facet home windows that the entrance and rear cameras is not going to. Blind spots would possibly stop true 360-degree protection, nevertheless it’s darn shut.

The one catch for some customers is likely to be the value, $400 (£320). That mentioned, Garmin’s single-channel however elegant-and-then-some Sprint Cam Dwell prices much more, and Cobra’s three-channel SC 400D is simply as costly. Plus, the Vantrue N5 is less expensive on Amazon – at the very least it was on the time of evaluation.

Additional studying: See our roundup of the very best sprint cams to study competing merchandise.

Vantrue N5 specs and design

The cylindrical entrance/cabin digicam is 4.88 inches broad, and a couple of.7 inches tall (from the magnetic mount to backside of digicam). That’s on the massive facet, but additionally accommodates a crisp, simply readable 3.18-inch coloration show. The SD card is saved beneath a captive magnetic cap on the left finish of the unit whereas the proper facet sports activities solely a brand.

The supplied auxiliary energy cable attaches to the Kind-C connector within the base of the mount. Meaning you trigger the digicam to lose energy if you take away it, so you’ll be able to’t get a better look. However, it means you don’t need to disconnect the facility cable each time you take away it. Yin, yang.

The N5’s entrance digicam maxes out at a non-standard 4:3, 2592×1944 however defaults to 16:9, 2560×1440. The rear and each cabin cameras are all 1080p.

The sphere of view for the entrance digicam is 158 levels, whereas the others are 160 levels. These are on the broad facet and assist cowl as a lot space as potential. All use Sony STARVIS sensors: an IMX675 within the entrance and the IMX307 in the remainder.

There are 4 buttons on the underside of the entrance digicam for navigating the menus, toggling Wi-Fi (for telephone/app connection), begin/cease video recording, begin/cease audio seize, and different features. The N5 additionally helps voice instructions: “Lock the video,” “take picture,” and so on.

The rear/rear cabin digicam physique options the identical cylindrical design because the entrance — a pleasant break from the mismatched types which are so frequent. It’s fairly a bit smaller although, at solely 3.34-inches broad and 1.5-inches tall. Each the rear and rear cabin digicam rotate about 45 levels so you’ll be able to regulate the seize angle. One finish is house to the Kind-C connector for the connection cable, the opposite is naked.

Each the entrance and rear cabin cameras sport infrared lighting as you’ll see under within the seize high quality part under.

Each the entrance and rear digicam our bodies use semi-permanent sticky mounts; however the entrance mount is adjustable on each the vertical and horizontal planes so that you don’t need to be uber exact when mounting it.

The entrance digicam physique {couples} magnetically with its mount and is detachable; the rear digicam is fastened. The 2 are related by a 20-foot, considerably thick Kind-C cable.

I’d desire that the rear digicam was detachable as effectively, as I park within the metropolis with a convertible that I depart unlocked (even that doesn’t at all times stop slash and seize). However to be truthful, regardless of numerous idiots rummaging the inside, I’ve by no means misplaced a rear digicam. Don’t depend in your luck being the identical.

Tip: I’ve switched to plain razor blades to take away sticky mounts. Not solely are they simpler to get beneath the plate than a knife, they make fast work of scraping off the residue. Work the razor across the entirety earlier than prying off by hand or different instrument (the razors break simply).

You would possibly prefer to peruse our treatise on the right way to set up a splash cam in the event you’re new to the duty. There are some pitfalls, comparable to blocking the entrance cabin digicam with the rear view mirror as I partially did throughout my N5 testing. Doh.

GPS is on board and is each watermarked and embedded into the video so as to use the downloadable participant to trace the place you’ve been. Good.

If ever there was a splash cam you’d need to pair with a 512GB SD card (the restrict), it’s the N5. Capturing 4 comparatively high-resolution streams can eat up storage in a rush.

The entrance digicam defaulted to 1440p at about 110MB per minute, however you could possibly scale back that to 1080p like the opposite cameras for round 80MB per minute. Nonetheless, add all 4 collectively and also you’re consuming up between 19GB and 24GB per hour. 720p can be out there for all of the cameras, however you’ll lose fairly a little bit of element. Why purchase a high-res money cam to run it at 720?

The digicam after all deletes older movies when it wants room, however in the event you’re documenting your travels, it’s good to maintain stuff round till you’re certain you don’t need it. Purchase a high-capacity card.

The N5 after all gives a parking mode, although it requires a relentless energy supply so that you’ll want a hard-wire package or OBDII cable. There aren’t any “bad-driver” options, comparable to lane departure warnings, however to be utterly sincere, I don’t like them or use them as they are often distracting on the unsuitable time. Should you really feel you want them, enhance your driving.

How is the N5’s seize high quality and efficiency?

I discovered the N5’s captures greater than serviceable, if not spectacular. I hoped for a bit higher element (much less compression) from the entrance view given the default 1440p decision. The primary seize is on the max 1944p and mainly simply exhibits extra sky and dashboard. If there’s really a bonus intimately, it’s very exhausting to see. I perceive why 1440p is the default.

Regardless, entrance captures provide wealthy HDR coloration (all of the cameras are HDR), which exhibits off a rainbow that I didn’t notice was there throughout the precise drive. Element is sweet sufficient you could learn the license plate of the Fedex truck, though it wasn’t greater than 10 ft away at this level.

Jon L. Jacobi

This early morning rear seize exhibits good element and the colour really matches that of the second.

The entrance cabin digicam captures additionally present wealthy coloration and good element, together with the baggage beneath my eyes. Hey, it was early!

Coloration and element from the rear cabin digicam are fairly good throughout the day as effectively. Observe that not having rear seats within the MX-5 implies that the digicam doesn’t catch motion to the facet as it could in a four-seat car. Sorry, Vantrue.

Coloration within the entrance evening shot is sweet, however the particulars within the license plate you see have been a bit blown out by my headlights. 20 ft nearer they usually present up. The Nexus 5 really handles headlight flare very effectively; these halos and streetlight flare are as a consequence of a considerably soiled windshield. Sure, I do know.

The rear digicam evening seize exhibits good element, partially due to a streetlight overhead serving to out. However different pictures with out such assist present related qualities.

Jon L. Jacobi

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As I discussed already, take the entrance cabin digicam captures as a warning. I mounted the digicam partially behind the rear view mirror, which is what is obstructing off the highest of the picture. While you mount a entrance digicam with a captive inside cabin digicam, mount it decrease to keep away from this situation.

Infrared lighting helps illuminate the inside for the entrance cabin digicam and maintain it from over-reacting to the headlights exterior. Clearly, the infrared renders the picture as grayscale.

The rear cabin digicam does a very good job of capturing the inside. However once more, the shut proximity of the rear window in a two-seat automotive means it’s not capturing plenty of information to the perimeters.

The N5 employs a brilliant capacitor to maintain it operating for a few seconds after energy is eliminated, permitting it to save lots of the present captures. Some great benefits of tremendous capacitors are virtually limitless cycles and a wider temperature working vary. The destructive is that you just solely get a few seconds of juice whereas batteries can energy a digicam for as much as half an hour.

The G-sensor was set a bit too delicate for my MX-5 and its monitor suspension, so I needed to dial that down, nevertheless it was nice on the decrease setting. I didn’t wreck my automotive, so I can’t say how effectively it does with extreme impacts. You need to cease your sprint cam anyway shortly after any such incident to protect the video.

Do you have to purchase the Vantrue N5?

There’s no sprint cam combo in the marketplace that can do a greater job capturing occasions in and round your automotive. I’m certain ride-givers will respect the rear cabin digicam, which is able to catch again seat motion that the entrance inside digicam won’t.

All in all, an excellent sprint cam system from Vantrue. A brief-lister. You should purchase one direct from Vantrue, however amazingly it was on Amazon UK on the time of evaluation for absolutely the cut price value of £239.99. It had not but been listed on Amazon.com.

This evaluation initially appeared on PCWorld.com