Customer Ratings & Reviews

I'm not going to say that there isn't a better camera out there in the world, I'm just saying that as of the time I bought this I think it was the best option that I could get same-day from my local Best Buy. Its pricey and as always try to catch a sale, but its a good dash cam. At least at this price point it included the SD card and the hard-wiring cable so I did not have to buy anything extra. Directions sucked, no info on the hard-wiring cable and I mean sure, if you have installed a radio before you probably don't need wiring info about the hard wire harness but I am the type who likes reassurance of simple things. I was able to easily hard wire this into a 2020 Jeep Cherokee in about 30 minutes, but I have a fair amount of prior radio/remote start/12v experience too. Connecting via wifi to my android was not a big deal but I did find that sometimes you need to force-quit the app to reconnect. People who don't catch onto that may have frustrating experiences trying to connect and this is something the company should fix. The app itself is just OK. Does what it needs to do. Somehow I screwed up some settings to where it was not recording continuously even though it should have been and I am certain my settings should not have caused that, so I think this again is some app bug causing people frustration when they realize too late its not recording when it should have been. Definitely do a bunch of testing to make sure things are working right. My 30 minute install was nothing to the nearly 2 hours I spent trying to get settings dialed in. No matter what I tried using a parking mode seemed to break continuous recording when driving so I gave up on having a parking mode enabled. Some goofy things like that which just aren't working right and not really acceptable at this price point, but I am not going to un-install it now either. That brings me to a different piece of advice: Maybe use it with the cig light adapter for a while before hard-wiring it in. I went straight to hard-wire and after doing that I'm obviously too invested to not put up with some rough spots like the crappy app and settings issues. I got it back to where it records automatically, and any impact it saves in a special folder which is good. Night viewing I have not reviewed a lot of night footage but it seems to be excellent (once night mode is turned on for continuous recording, mine seemed to be defaulted to off weirdly). Quality low-light recording is a redeeming feature that brings it back up to 5 stars for me. They can easily improve the app post-purchase, but if the camera was low quality the best app in the world would never help. Hence I am setting 5 stars for the camera itself, even if the supporting app and such is weak at this time. I was able to do a clean install without buying anything extra, I got it working to where I am happy with it, night recording is good, its fully automatic and requires no input now that its installed. I am happy with that. The included memory card only seems to hold about 2 hours of video before looping over it, just an FYI. Its probably part of its smart memory management that keeps the memory card from getting wrecked from too many read/writes, etc. Despite being a 32 gig card it only seems to be using about 18 currently. One of the best things is that it does not have its own screen. Yes I consider this a huge plus and almost a requirement. Built-in screens are useless, realistically nobody is ever going to twist their neck around to look at a tiny 240x380 LCD screen to review footage when we all have high-resolution phones in our pockets, reviewing footage is definitely better off on a phone or pulling the card to put in a computer and all a built-in screen does is light up annoyingly at night to blind you in the dark for the first 30 seconds. That being said they really need to improve that app connectivity since its the main way people set their settings and such so its unacceptable that it has the reconnect issues that it does (like I said, just force quit the app and restart it, takes two seconds but most just won't realize to do that). I like that I have the option to add a rear camera some day (I probably will, when its in stock). BestBuy doesn't allow uploading video and I wanted to include still-shots captured from the video as examples but the pictures are so high quality that bestbuy won't let me upload those either because they are too large of files, so take that for what its worth (bestbuy needs to improve their review system to allow photos more than 5MB and videos!) Overall it should be slightly better for this kind of money but then again nothing else actually was better and within grasp when I wanted it, so they are a lazy leader in dash cams basically. They could easily do better but don't have to since no competition is on them hard enough yet. My argument is that if GoPro can give me a 10x better quality camera (picture/framerate/clarity) at almost the same price then clearly Thinkware is sitting on its laurels but yet somehow still leading.

Overall, good dash camera, paired it with their rear view camera also purchased from BB. That is model TWA-F800R. Video quality is very good. I'm sure there are better, but camera quality and clarity definitely makes it easy to see what is going on or happened in the case of an accident. May or may not catch a license plate depending on lighting and angle, but still pretty good. I was unable to get signed up for a cloud account for some reason, never got a confirmation email from their server. Too bad as cloud storage would make this more convenient. The mobile app could use some polish. Need more options regarding the notifications. Right now they are either on or off and volume controls. I would like to turn off the startup intro but retain the speed camera and driver's assist notifications. No way to do that currently. Must listen to startup message and connect to wifi message EVERY TIME. Got old fast. Overall though, works great on our 2015 X5 BMW, and glad we purchased the unit. Small enough to not obstruct driver or passenger views.

You have the ability to set up different options to customize it for the way you drive. I have both cameras, front and rear. You can purchase a quick connect harness separately. We’re worth it.

I was going to get a Blackvue S950, but total costs with installation came in second place to this Thinkware Dashcam professionally installed by Geek Squad. I’m not saying this dashcam is better, but I am saying that it is a better value. I especially enjoy driving it around California and it warns me of video/photo traffic areas .1 miles ahead. Good video quality, but it could be better to read license plates further away.

I didn't expect that 23 days after i bought a new (To me) car that i would be needing to buy another one... I wish I could download the video! A girl texting and driving blew right through a red light and sideswiped the front end of my new Ford Escape. You can see her look up as her car impacts mine, and her Brake light assembly go flying through the air! The Claims Adjuster took one look at the video and said "It doesn't get any clearer than that, we will be finding her at fault". They had to total the car because the impact twisted the frame, Having a Dash Cam made it SO EASY to deal with the Insurance company!

Great Dash Camera and the Phone App that goes along is great as well. Lets you customize the sensitivity of the camera. The Computer app is good as well. It maps out your drive if you want to know that information. Incidents get recorded in a separate folder for easy access. So far the Camera is great. Very Detailed during the day but Needs a little help at Night. Still very visible. Was able to use footage to assist LEO with an multiple issues that I've captured. I definately would buy it again. Dont go with out it

Good dash cam but I would say u1000 had a lot better quality and clear videos when comes to read License plate

I love the simplicity of the dash cam. The only need to improve on the app .

Remote view doesn't work and if someone breaks into your car and steals the dash cam you will have no record of it because it doesn't connect to the internet during parking mode. I have a new galaxy s10 plus and mifi hotspot on Verizon for reference.

Very low quality video when it's not sunny outside. Impossible to see license plates of the cars to the side or even ahead. Very poorly and buggy software. I'd recommend to look into different brand of cameras.

This is a very nice dash cam. Fits unobtrusively behind my rear view mirror. I can barely see it from the driver's seat. Very easy to access from my smart phone and send videos to an email account or upload via wifi at home. This camera does not have its own screen. We didn't want one. Too distracting. Easy to set up. Great video quality. Several ways to hook it up. We actually went out and bought an after market plug n play harness system, so it is hard wired into my car. The harness that comes with the camera was not something my husband was willing to attempt. Fur the first week we ran out of off the auxiliary power port in my car. Writhed nautilus there to. We will be buying another one for my husband's cat next month.

Pretty good video quality with great mounting system. Wish it was easier to hardwire though and better nighttime recording. Definitely overpriced for what it is though, you can get a similar quality one for half the price.

Very slim which is awesome, i like it being out of sight, out of mind. The only negative i have for it is that it talks to you every time you start the car, which is slightly annoying but not deal breaking. No option to mute the voice. Has great night vision.

The cam seems pretty solid and does what it’s supposed to. Could be better though. Connecting via WiFi and HotSpot to phone is pretty clunky and takes perseverance but works. Not intuitive or forgiving. You must follow each step precisely (though instructions could be clearer) and be patient and try repeatedly, if necessary. (To connect via hotspot, you must first connect via WiFi, though instructions seem to imply at first glance that it’s either/or). It’s unclear that it’s working until it does. Switching to any other app or phone sleeping breaks connection and needs to be reestablished each time. Download from cam to phone takes forever; as another reviewer notes, better just to take chip and use chip reader. Desktop viewer only reads files off chip, not those downloaded to phone. You can view on phone but desktop viewer interface is different and better in some ways (can view front and rear footage simultaneously, easier to navigate files, maybe). But then when download from chip to desktop, file viewable in other apps like FaceTime but not in desktop viewer app and features of that are lost. (Though making disk image of entire chip works, but that takes a while and is a huge file, capturing all videos on chip, not just the ones you want.) Both desktop and phone software seems clunky and not very sophisticated or fully developed, but basically works. Note ominous warnings about connecting/disconnecting rear cam while cam is powered on. Seems it shouldn’t be so sensitive to that sort of thing. Haven’t yet gotten hardwire connection that enables parking incident and motion detection features. Probably worth having that done professionally but haven’t gotten to that yet. Note I found googling that BMW computer settings may override recording with ignition off after certain period of time, but that might be able to be reprogrammed on BMW onboard computer. I’ll be asking about that, else it limits use of parking and motion detection features and value of professional installation. Take note of sound recording. It’s illegal in some states to record voices without consent, like Maryland, but you may not even realize you’re recording sound.

If you want a barebones dashcam that captures the details of the incident, this camera will suffice. It clearly captured the incident where a driver cut across a divided highway, and t-bonned a car less than 4 years old w/ 33k miles, totalling it. The camera's wifi network was pretty straight forward, and the app is easy to set up. However, if you want details such as license plate numbers, the camera does tend to be blurry when it comes to text so you will have to verbalize license plate numbers.

This dash cam is great. I bought it on sale so it was comparably priced with similar models. The only thing I don’t like about it is that you can only access the video files if you are near the camera and if the camera is powered on. I can’t check the files from the house while the car is parked in the driveway, for instance. The app is easy to use. The quality of video is good. The wide front view is good. The night vision is good. You can set the sensitivity of the impact detection and the motion detection doesn’t miss anything. I liked the flat profile of this unit so it does not affect my field of vision. I thought this unit had lane departure and collision warning but I have not heard them go off at all. Good purchase if the price is right. Some of the other units at the same price include rear cameras but this unit fit all my other criteria.

Easy to use which is all I could ask for. Set it, forget it, press the button when you want to record something manually or it records if you get into an accident. Awesome piece of kit. Camera quality is good but if I could do it again I would get the 4k version for the extra clarity in license plates. I also like the size and its other ports if you wanted a rear camera, gps, etc.

I purchased the Thinkware Q800Pro from the Best Buy on Nicholasville, Rd. in Lexington, KY along with the Thinkware Rear View Camera (TWA-F800R). (The Q800Pro comes with a wiring kit so no need for an extra purchase.) I spoke with Alex Stephanski in the installation department before making the purchase and he helped significantly. The cameras were ordered and took a few days to get in; installation went flawlessly and looks great! He put the camera on the driver’s side of the rear view mirror which helps with using the controls. The Thinkware Q800Pro uses the Thinkware Cloud app which has difficulties with connecting to the iPhone hotspot using iOS 14 (I’m using iOS 14.4 as of today, 2/27/2021). I called Thinkware tech support Friday (they are on Pacific time, so 3 hours behind Eastern) and they acknowledged the problem with the current iOS. After trial and error for 2 days, these are my suggestions; if you know a better way please post. When setting up the Q800Pro initially connect using “WiFi”; then select the middle icon at the bottom of the app which looks like an up arrow in radar circles; create an account and sign in. Then, you have to accept three items (this may take multiple tries). Once you get past this screen, go to the Home Screen, click the bar at the bottom of the screen (orange or grey) and connect using a HotSpot; make sure to open the HotSpot screen on your iPhone (currently a 12 Pro Max (great camera for kids’ sports)) and, here’s the KEY (PRO TIP) stay on the hotspot screen until the camera connects; then go to the Thinkware app and you can change settings. The first setting to change is under Connections Settings; you want to “Enable” network. Here’s where the frustration begins; when you get back in your vehicle it probably won’t connect. What has worked for me (day 2) is to open the hotspot screen under settings on my phone and leave it on; it takes 2-3 minutes then the camera says (yes, it speaks) GPS connected, then “connected to the internet”. It stayed connected from Lexington, KY to Franklin, TN (about 3 hours) and reconnects when stopping 2 times along the way. It creates folders for different events (“continuous, parking, manual”); click the 3 buttons next to the file you want to keep, click download (140 MB); then find the “Export” button and it creates and album in Photos called “Thinkware”. Works great!! It glitches when watching using the app, but the downloaded files do not glitch. The downloaded files tend to last about 1 minute. Remember, for the Q800Pro to connect via a hotspot to your phone when getting back in the vehicle leave it on the Hotspot screen under settings on your phone. Good luck!!

Okay I finally got enough time with this product to review it. First, the app is CRAP! Everything else, perfect lol. Lets be real, no one will be looking at the app for footage everyday, unless an accident has happened or scenic trip. For a 2k camera I personally think it performs better than other dash with supposely 4k cameras. Colors are natural,dynamic range seems prettt good and night footage isnt purple, pixelated. At 300$ Is a bit pricy. Get it on a deal and its def worth the money!

My son is not very aggressive or assertive. He is in HS. He got into an accodent, he was pulling forward from a parking spot at the same time another student was backing up. They collided. Her car was severely damaged while our truck was not. She was swearing and blaming him. He didnt same much. The cops arrived, we pulled the footage. It was determined to be both there faults, instead of my sons. Definitely helps when people are being super aggressive and giving different accounts of the story.