Car and Driver - Minio Pro CDC-628 Dash Cam - Silver

I've been looking for a "stealth" dash cam and the Car & Driver - Minio Pro CDC-628 fit the bill... small & mounted behind the rear view mirror, it offered the features of bigger & bulky dash cams on the market, but without being a distraction to the driver. Unfortunately, removing the camera from the packaging was impossible without using drastic measures (see other reviews). I used a 1/4" drill to bore 6 holes around the plastic base holding the camera to crack the base from the plastic cube, being careful to not damage the camera! The product manual didn't provide any instructions on removing the camera from the plastic cube. The manual is worthless, it doesn't provide any details about setup nor operation. These drawbacks will prevent this product from becoming a popular consumer dash cam choice. Through trial & error, I've used the Minio Pro for a recent 2,000 mile road trip. The image quality is excellent (day & night), but could have saved time & less aggravation if the product manager had written a better manual!

for the $49 you get features you do not find on similar priced cams.. i bought three and came to the following conclusions using my iphone 8 plus pros - clear pictures--recording is date time and MPH stamped--loop recording--wifi connect to your phone using their app--parking mode--gps travel records. comes with a long enough wire to completely hide it from view cons - package removal process is complicated yet simple (slide it out)--app needs an update. yes it works but it is clunky, gps works but maps do not load, and there is a complicated connection process..after you connect for the first time via wifi you have to remove the app and reinstall it.. then turn voice recognition on.. she will tell you a code and you enter it.. done. if you do not do this process the app will continuously crash.. after i did that process, i have had no issues. so four stars based on having to figure out those issues.. update the app and you get five stars

Love the small size because it doesn't have a screen and instead uses your smartphone's screen. I would like to have seen a wifi connection to a rear camera.

Very good dash cam and fairly easy to use. The only reason I gave it 4 stars because you'd have to download software to your phone to use it and I didn't like it. I have plenty of junk on my phone as is and space is limited. I didn't have to do it with my old dash cam. I've heard a lot of complaints about difficulties removing it from the box but I didn't have problems with it. Just look carefully at it and you will see that it slides forward, not to the side. Look at the picture on the box it shows the mount. Same mount installed permanently in the box and cam is in the mount. You have to slide cam out of the mount instead of trying to remove whole thing.

I bought this because I don't like having a dashcam that has a screen to distract me. This does OK in that regard. However, it has very poor night performance . . . useless I'd judge, based on the stored video. Poor customer support. I wrote them on their Web site and a week later I have no reply.

The camera seems to be working as it should and the pictures are sharp and clear. However, there were two big problems in setting it up. First - I couldn't get it out of the plastic container; so I took it to my BestBuy store and three of their strongest people including the head Geek couldn't get it out of the container. They finally just smashed the plastic container and the camera came out. Second - Back home I tried to follow the instructions to set it up, but could not find the "Bracket Socket" to insert the SD card. Finally I called the manufacturers tech support line. The support person helped me remove a "packing bracket" that was covering the "Bracket Socket". It took a large vise grip and a lot of strength to remove that bracket. Seems like Car and Driver could improve their packaging to be customer friendly and then explain that there is a "Packing Bracket" that also needs to be removed from the camera and put some lubrication on that bracket to allow it to come off without tools and a lot of effort.

Dash cam works great. I bought two. It did take a while to figure out how to remove it from the package. No need to destroy the package. Simple. Put your hand into the plastic case and grab the black base of cam with fingertips. The cam needs to slide backwards (away from camera lens). Using the force needed to unplug a tight extension cord, push the cam rearward while gently twisting/wiggling it side to side on it's base. The twisting is just to help the cam slide rearward. It does not rotate at all but will just slightly wiggle as it comes off it's mount. Take a look at the suction cup base mount. That is exactly what you will be removing it from in the package.

I've driven with this model for a year in my car, and I like it so much that I bought one for my wife's car, too. It uses a WiFi connection to link to a cell phone for setup. It also uses WiFi to view videos and photos via cell phone, but it works very slowly and unreliably (in my case). Whether that's attributed to the device, the app, or my phone, I don't know, but I just put the micro SD card into my computer to view files. The video resolution is fully 1080p. It looks fantastic in daylight, and still very good at night. The built-in GPS is an excellent feature, allowing your speed to be recorded along with other location data. Of course, this may or may not be a good thing if you happen to be a "spirited" driver. This camera can record onto a micro SD card up of to 32GB capacity. Although I would like to be able to use a higher-capacity card, but that's on me. 32GB has proven to be plenty.