THINKWARE - Q800 PRO Dash Cam - Black/Blue

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!

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.

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.

It took me awhile to figure out how to get the Q800 my to connect to my car's built in Hotspot.  The only way I could do it was to follow this procedure... 1) Set the SSID and Password for my phone's built in Hotspot to the exact same SSID and Password for my car's (Buick Encore) Hotspot. 2) Go into setting on my Buick Encore and turn off the Wireless Hotspot. 3) Follow the procedures in the manual for "Connecting via hotspot" 4) Turn off your car (to turn the Q800 off) 5) Turn off the Hotspot on your phone 6) Turn on your car 7) Go to settings in your car and turn on the in car WIreless Hotspot 8) Within a minute or so if everything went correctly in the above steps you should hear "Connected to the Internet" from your Q800. Change to SSID and Password on your phone's Hotspot back to what you want it to be. Note: to manage the Q800 from your phone after this you will have to Connect via WiFi and not via Hotspot Also Note: If you have previously connected to Q800 via your phone's Hotspot before steps (1-8) above you need to connect via a new connection (not the existing one) and scroll down on that screen on your phone past the existing Q800 connection to the Q800 option listed below. You MUST select the option connecting for the first time.

I’ve had the camera for about a year front and back camera and only thing I can really complain about is on 80 degrees days + the camera will shut down after a couple hours on motion parking mode from over heating witch I do hate badly and won’t start back up into you come and restart the car also in parking mode at night cars the come by at 25 mph + it’s hard to see the license plate numbers and the sensitive impact on parking mode is set to the highest and if some one barly backs into or what ever it does not pickup I also installed the cpl filter on the lens for a better video overall it’s not a bad camera but definitely some things I’d change

I like the unit. Once installed behind the mirror it's invisible for the driver. That's a plus. It doesn't have a video screen which can be viewed as either a negative or positive. Since I don't plan to watch the video while driving it's not an issue. You have to use your phone to view any video or pull out the SD card. Negative: the voice commands/notices come to often and become annoying. I turned off the volume to the voice so it's no longer an issue.

I've now bought two of these cameras, one for the wife's car, and one for mine. She's had hers for over 6 months now, and not a single issue. I've purchased half a dozen Thinkware cameras of varying models over the past few years for myself, family, or friends. Not a single issue yet. This particular model is obviously not as good as a 4K camera, but for a good name brand, and half the price of some 4K cameras when it goes on sale, I'll take it. So many folks love the no-name 4K cameras scattered over other retailers for less money, but I'll put my trust in a good name brand every time. Thinkware has not let me down yet. I'll convert to Thinkware 4K cameras later when its more mainstream and on sale, but this one should last me years.

So far so good. I like this dash cam, only drawback is how long it takes to get personal hotspot going on my phone but after that connects pretty quickly to it. Was skeptical because of the low rated reviews but so far no complaints.