Nextbase - 322GW Dash Cam - Black

I recently moved out of state and wanted to get a cheap little dash cam just in case anything happened. As previous reviews have said, the 322 isn't going to get you license plate numbers or fine details but you'll be able to get the basic idea of what was happening. The time stamps are in day/month/year sequence on the videos. When it records, it's in one-minute increments and it creates two final recordings- one labeled FL at about 20,500 KB and one labeled FH at about 150,000 KB (for each minute recorded). I bought a Samsung ProEndurance 64 GB SD card to go with it and it was when footage got to around 6 hours 15 minutes that it started to go back and delete the first recordings to make room for the new ones. I'm not sure if the screen flashed or notified of the SD card being full, because I was driving, but luckily nothing happened so it wasn't too much of a loss that the first five hours of the drive are gone. *The screenshot I took from a video is tinted blue because I positioned the camera right at the top of my windshield.

I love the product and the Camara view is great but i we love too get the 4k for upgrading

Was unhappy with the 622. 422 and 522 wasn't available so I got the 322. Depending on how it will be used, this provided good enough images

Didnt work as well as I’d hoped. Super compact which is nice but not the easiest to use.

The NextBase 322GW is a 1080p 60FPS car dashcam with a 2.5” color touchscreen. The camera comes with 2 adhesive mount bases, an articulating mount, vehicle adapter charge cable (DC cigarette port), a car trim prying tool, and a computer transfer cable. I have been using a dashcam daily for about a year now because I appreciate the extra security and peace of mind that comes with having a video record of potential accidents. I thought I would give the NextBase a try since it was a decent upgrade over my existing setup. Straight out of the box you need to charge the camera a couple of hours before using it. Pros: Clear picture quality – 1080p 60FPS Snappy interface on camera and app GPS tracking and overlays Computer Video Player and Software Editor Fit/Finish build quality is excellent 2 adhesive bases for secure attachment in 2 vehicles SOS Emergency Setting Cons Wi-Fi connection is buggy Parking Mode Glitched on me – excess recordings G Sensor a touch too sensitive for rough riding vehicles on equally rough roads Setup I have 2 vehicles – a small crossover and early 2000’s small truck – that I installed the camera in. My crossover is where my first camera was living, but I occasionally swap it over since it has a suction mount. The 2 adhesive mounts came into play for me since I could install both base mounts, and easily switch the camera between vehicles. My crossover has both continuously-on and ignition triggered power ports. The truck has only continuously-on ports. Initial setup seemed pretty straightforward – selecting my region, speed units, time zones, and language. Then it prompted me about the companion app, which I downloaded on my phone (Android – LG V40). The app connection my phone to the camera via Bluetooth. Inside the app I could more easily fiddle with the camera settings. All settings can be configured on the camera, but the app allows for easier navigating configuration. In the app I could adjust the length of each recording, resolution and FPS, G sensor sensitivity, overlay information, screen behavior, and more. I have messed around quite a bit with each setting, but I am still fine-tuning things after a couple of days of use. I loaded a 64GB U3 speed microSD card and formatted it. There is also a Wi-Fi direct connection that allows for camera feed streaming to your phone, image and clip download/viewing, and firmware updates. It’s with this connection that I had my first struggles. I could not get my phone to connect to the camera Wi-Fi. It has a password protected SSID, but nowhere does it give you the password (someone online said the default password was 12345678, but that didn’t work). Eventually my phone would get caught in a connection loop (connecting, disconnected, connecting,….) and I would have to kill the app to get it to stop. At some point my phone connected without the password and I could see the live feed, and the library of clips, but once I disconnected it wouldn’t reconnect. Unfortunately, this Wi-Fi connection was needed for a firmware update, and pulling recorded clips – without it I would have to connect the camera to a computer every time for these activities. I searched online and some direction from a thread from 3-4 years ago (apparently this is an old/recurring issue) was to uninstall the app, reset the camera to factory, redo the setup of the camera, and start the app setup in airplane mode (after downloading it again, of course). I did all of this, but it didn’t seem to change things and I was still stuck in the loop. I killed the app and tried again several times only for it to randomly fail one of these times, and pop a message up that provided the Wi-Fi password to me. I was honestly dumbfounded that this is the way the password would be given – I could not locate anything in the documentation that explained the Wi-Fi process or how to directly find or even change the password. Nevertheless, I got it connected and somewhat stable, but this was a major headache that took over an hour for me to solve. Features The 322GW, while entry level in the NextBase lineup, has a decent feature set. It has an onboard battery to record while the unit isn’t receiving power from the vehicle, video overlays, GPS tracking for speed, phone connectivity for transferring videos, a parked mode, and more. Some of these features really lived up to their expectations, while others were a letdown. Firstly, the app was great (other than the Wi-Fi debacle), and really made setting up the camera easy. Setting overlays was a nice feature – my other camera doesn’t have a speed overlay (no GPS velocity), so I was happy about this. I configured the auto-shutdown mode to turn the camera off after 30 seconds of losing power – this worked well. I used the screen saver to display my current speed, which acted like a HUD and was nice to implement. Taking a screengrab/snapshot just by tapping the screen was useful for capturing license plates. Viewing, editing, and trimming clips on the camera worked well. There’s also an SOS feature, that once setup, will trigger an automatic emergency signal in the event of a major accident where you are unresponsive or unable to contact help. The camera gives a countdown to cancel in case you are fine or if it’s a false alarm. This feature is free for the first year and doesn’t require a credit card to sign up for the trial. Some features fell a bit short: The Wi-Fi direct connection honestly isn’t great. It was a real pain to setup. Its pretty fragile as well. I was looking at videos and trying to pick one to download so I could review everything the camera records. In the middle of browsing the library the camera went into standby mode and so the connection was lost. Waking the camera back up, and reestablishing the connection was an endless loop of the app trying to reconnect the Wi-Fi. I killed the app, my Wi-Fi/Bluetooth several times but only once I power cycled the camera could I reestablish the connection. If I ended the connection on my phone to reconnect to my home Wi-Fi, and then tried to reconnect again the app would just spin. I would have to manually go into my Wi-Fi connections and select the camera signal. All of these things together makes me believe the Wi-Fi implementation is very buggy – at least with my phone. I don’t think I will need to link up to my camera all that often so this issue should only bother me once in a great while. The Parking mode gave me issues, and it’s something I have to investigate. The mode description sounded great to me. It turns the camera off after 2 minutes of sitting still and no motion/G shocks detected. If a G shock is large enough it will turn the camera on and record a 30 second protected video, and if no motion is detected it drops to standby mode. The camera can be popped on by closing the car door, banging on the hood, and other impacts. If you start driving it will continue to record a regular video and operate like normal. It sounded great for my use in the truck since it has continuously-on outlets only (my other camera requires a switched outlet or be unplugged for every use, so that’s why it mainly stayed in my crossover). With hard wired or continuously-on outlets the parking mode would save my vehicles battery and would eliminate needing to unplug the camera. The first few times I used it it worked great and worked exactly as expected. However, on day 3 it started to act up and it would turn itself back on. Over the course of 2 different days the camera triggered itself 164 times and recorded protected events and proceeded to make a regular recording before turning back to standby. This happened in my garage, in the driveway, day, night, etc. I couldn’t tell if it was because my phone could still make a Bluetooth connection, or if the sensor was glitching or what. I had to turn off Parking mode and unplug the camera after parking. I have since turned Parking mode back on while I have it inside and plugged in to my computer for power, and it seems to be working as designed for the last several hours. It has shaken my confidence in the mode a bit, so I will have to keep an eye on it. The G sensor felt a bit sensitive to me. It defaults to medium, but you can set it too high, low, or off. My truck has a rougher ride so bumps and potholes were triggering it on medium to protect files. On low setting it could still trigger on some harder bumps. I figure on rough roads I will need to turn the G sensor off. There is an option if you don’t want to use the G sensor. A button centered below the screen - pressing it will protect your clip. In my crossover I could get away with medium sensitivity not triggering bogus events, but high would get triggered to protect a file every so often. This is more of a minor thing, but something to keep in mind. Playback There are 3 different ways to review your footage: Straight from the camera, via the phone app, or on your computer. If you download the NextBase Player (free) from their website it will make use of all the embedded metadata (GPS info, speed, G sensor readout, etc.). With all 3 of these modes you can edit the footage by trimming it, making a timelapse, etc. On the Player on my PC I could add a title frame ahead of the video, highlight areas on frames, take snapshots, and review all relevant video data. I really liked the PC interface, but the app interface is adequate as well. Add-ons There is an expansion port on the side of the camera body that allows a rear facing cabin camera to connect. Or you can connect a compatible rear window camera. There’s also a hardwire kit if you don’t want to rely on the DC charger port in your car. Overall, this camera really has a lot going for it in my opinion. I can overlook some of the bugginess in the Wi-Fi connection and the sensitivity on the G sensor as just something to get used to. The Parking Mode issue is a bigger sticking point, but I won’t know if it was a one-off glitch for awhile.

Dont buy it not worth the money first time charge for 4 hours the device itself got extremely hot and it turn off by itself always crap in middle of using it very hard to connect to the app

The Nextbase 322GW is Nextbase’s current middle of the line Dash Cam. This is an up to 1080p at 60 fps dash cam that records to a Micro SD card. It has an app to communicate with your cell phone as well as a desktop application for your computer. What It Comes With Inside the box you will find the dash cam, a suction mount, a sticky mount, a USB A to USB B cord (less than 3 ft long), a 12 volt adapter, a power cable fitting tool, and a quick install set of instructions. Note that a Micro SD card was not listed. You will need to purchase one separately. This dash cam supports up to a 128GB card. Per the Nextbase website the 128GB SD card with hold approximately 16 hours of footage. Installation The installation is not difficult. It’s very similar to a GPS or radar detector. The sticky and suction cup mounts attach to the front of the camera with a magnetic attachment. The other side attaches to the windshield. Plug the 12 volt adapter into the accessory outlet at one end and the camera at the other. I opted to go ahead and have Geek Squad professionally mount the device in the vehicle. I purchased a part that allowed me to hardwire the dash cam and keep my accessory outlet free. If you have the Total Tech Support plan from Best Buy this installation cost is reduced. Features The camera has several settings that can be controlled. You can chose your video quality (720 vs 1080), units of speed, parking mode, device sounds, and screen brightness. There are also settings to set for language, time and date, and time zone. The app for your phone allows you to communicate through a local Wi-Fi and pull information from or control settings on the dash cam. If you are out and about but need to share video footage you can load it to your phone and/or share the footage through your wireless network. The app for your computer can be downloaded from the Nextbase website. This will install the “Nextbase Player” which is program that will help you read, edit, and save files from the dash cam. You can connect your cam via the USB wire that comes with it or by inserting the SD card to the computer without the camera. The Nextbase Player overlays all information about the recording onto one video playback screen. It will simultaneously show the date, time, speed, direction, longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates as well as the video. A Google Map is shown at the top right of the player with the recorded trip highlighted and a directional arrow. This feature went above and beyond a typical dash cam for me. Recordings As I mentioned previously you can choose between 720 and 1080p recordings. The upper models offer higher recording resolutions. They can be recorded in segments as chosen in the settings for 1, 2, or 3 minute segments. The file format is MP4. I recorded mine in 1 minute segments at 1080p 60 fps. The recording quality was okay. Depending on environmental factors such as weather, sun glare, cleanliness of your windshield (summertime bugs), etc you could get less than ideal footage. This isn’t the camera’s fault. I did notice that even when in ideal conditions, it may be hard to read a person’s license plate. The camera’s image quality suffers while in motion and you’d have to be fairly close to see a license plate clearly. Also, I get a lot of glare from my dash reflecting in the windshield. The 322GW has an option to purchase a polarizing filter separately. I may consider purchasing this at a later time. Here is a list of Pros and Cons for the dash cam Pros *Video Quality is good *Amount of metadata information on the video recording is substantial *Does audio and video *Has options for separately purchased add-ons such as a hardwire kit, polarizing lense, and rear camera *Support up to a 128GB Micro SD card (Approximately 16 hours of footage per Nextbase) *Can pull video straight to phone or share through app *Can plug in dash cam to computer or just use the SD without the camera *Nextbase Player program for computer is feature loaded and can help with editing, screenshotting, and saving footage *Suction mount works very well to secure camera to windshield *Parked Monitoring feature can help detect something hitting your vehicle and turn on the dash cam while car is off Cons *Instructions in box weren’t very clear *Initial setup was rough. Didn’t want to talk to my cell phone. Had to do firmware upgrade which wasn’t smooth. Couldn’t tell if the firmware update had finished. *Dash Cam does not hold a charge for very long. I can charge with the USB cord to maximum charge, but won’t stay powered for more than a few minutes. *Dash Cam turns on too often which is creating a shorter battery power storage. Turns on every time I leave the vehicle. Turns on with slightest bump even with gyro sensor set at medium *No SD Card. SD Cards are cheap. I think that this should have come with at least a smaller one. *Polarized filter not standard. This would help with glare issues. Overall, I was very impressed with the dash cam. I am very picky about video quality, so I might look at a higher model if I were to make another purchase. I think Nextbase has a lot of good things going here, and that the dash cam seems pretty reliable. The Nextbase Player is really impressive to me and is one of my favorite features.

Nextbase - 322GW Dash Cam. This Nextbase camera has so many desirable features and great basic performance, but it falls short in the setup and also in movie retrieval for SOME end-users. Issues involving setup rarely trouble me too much, ‘cause they are often one-time affairs, with little future consequence. But, here, the Wi-Fi linkage problem I ran into becomes an obstacle for some users to implement other features. I’d predict a future update will solve this . . . but I own it now. SETUP: The instructions could be more helpful. I immediately went looking for the online manual. The startup guide in the box assumes the Nextbase phone App will work for you. If it does, the process is probably fun and easy. Not for me. The first requirement is to update software. This easy phone-based method relies on a temporary Wi-Fi connection between the Nextbase Connect App on my iPhone XR and the camera. The App on the phone manages the download (worked fine) and transfers it to the camera (no dice). My XR won’t make that connection, now or later. It probably works for many other phones, but . . . ALTERNATE SETUP: Make sure you buy a MicroSD card at the same time you buy the camera. Download the more comprehensive Instruction manual. It’s very well done, accurate. loaded with illustrations and useful narrative. A manual firmware update process is described on Pg 39 of the USER MANUAL, and requires you to download the firmware at this same Nextbase online site. The installation was very straightforward, but did require that I format the microSd card on the camera, and have a MicroSD card reader for my computer (Mac). Once downloaded, it was easy to transfer the downloaded BIN files to the card, insert into camera, and allow the update process to proceed. I wasted a few hours trying to figure out why the “easy” process wasn’t working, but this manual download and install only took minutes. After this hurdle, the remaining setup is intuitive and easy. It can be accomplished using the App or directly on the screen. The Camera has a battery for limited use, but it means entering settings on the screen can be done from an armchair. Those basic settings include speed units, sound On/Off, screen dimming, Auto Power, Format SD card. A Video setting menu sets resolution (1080p default), exposure level, video (clip) length (1,2,3 minutes), Time Stamp, Speed stamp, GPS stamp. model stamp, dual (H/L) quality, Time Lapse, your number plate (default off), G sensor (trigger for file protection), Alerts, Recording History, Parking mode. The Nextbase Dashcam also controls accessories, and can record video from a rear camera. Features such as Emergency SOS and Autosync require that same phone link that still vexes me as I write this review. OPERATION and PERFORMANCE: It’s here that you will forget all your setup issues. The camera and its mount are as small as they come, with the mount attaching to the windshield using an effective suction plate or adhesive plate. The camera itself uses a magnet design so removing/attaching the camera to its permanent mount is easy. Video recording is the default mode. You’ll capture everything in a 140 degree wide view out in front of your vehicle. You can review, edit, and save clips directly on the camera screen. or using the App (if you’re able to make that connection), or, my favorite, the spectacular My NEXTBASE PLAYER APP for my computer. See my picture along with this review. It tells the story with far less words. To summarize, everything you enabled in your camera settings is now on the screen underneath the very detailed video image. The speed and other travel conditions are illustrated on a speedometer, a GPS readout, a compass, and a map! It’s all here, waiting for you to select, or trim, or edit, or annotate, add titles, or zoom or save to a shareable file. It’s all pretty impressive. SUMMARY: This moderately priced Nextbase 322GW is a richly features dash cam that will meet the needs of most end users. It has a few neat, phone based features that are out of my reach right now because of a frustrating connectivity issue between my phone and the camera. But, I’m setup, so setup issues are irrelevant now, until the next firmware update, which I know how to accomplish manually. Using the phone App to view videos or edit them is something I would never do. I’m laptop based, and much prefer capturing videos directly from the camera (using provided USB cable) or ejecting the microSD card from the camera and using my card reader. So, what are unfortunate bugs for some phone owners, aren’t significant to me. I can recommend this Dash Cam with some important caveats for users whose needs are different from mine.