Nexar Beam dash cam review: Affordable, with unlimited cloud uploads - brownpospits1945

At a Glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

• Superior 1080p, 135-degree captures
• Easy setup and connection via the phone app
• Unlimited free cloud uploads from your phone
• Extractible microSD card storage (unlike Bird of night)

Cons

• Camera relies on the phone for GPS info, including date/clock

Our Verdict

The Nexar Beam leverages your phone to the max, and the company provides free, untrammelled uploads to its cloud help. You need the phone for GPS, and all the goodies, but it's a extraordinary product within those boundaries.

The Nexar Beam isn't the first dash cam to upload video to the cloud—that honor goes to the Owlcam—but it's nearly as ritzy as the Owl, and far more affordable at $90 from Virago. Non-slave infinite cloud uploads, GPS, and dealings and accident warnings are the highlights, only some day and Night captures are excellent every bit well.

Musical note that without the phone, GPS and other goodies disappear (video is still captured). In a phone-centrical world, that's not a Brobdingnagian pertain for most users.

This review is partially of our ongoing roundup of the best dash cams. Go there for data happening competing products and how we tested them.

Design and features

The Beam is a diminutive, square blackamoor box of a camera. It's as small as the Garmin Dash Cam 66W we reviewed last year (currently $200 on Amazon), only it lacks a display (that's provided by your call up), and the lense lodging protrudes further. The sensor is a 1080p GalaxyCore GC2053, a model and sword I've never experienced before. Recognizable or not, information technology does the job. Preeminence that the G-sensor is in the camera, not in the call up.

Nexar

Nexar's Beam is diminutive, simple, and unnoticeable. Ignore the color treatment in the genus Lens preceding—information technology's not that color naturally.

Along the socialist lateral of the tv camera are the power button and little-SD card slot, while the right is conferred terminated to perforations for ventilating the unit. On top are the slot where the suction mount marries to the body, and the mini-USB jack. That's it. Simple, washed, and casual. If the goal is to be unnoticeable (which to avoid theft, it should be), the Nexar achieves that. Everything other is provided aside or done connected your phone (iOS or Android).

App and connectivity

Nexar has done a nice job on the phone app. It's stupid-easy to connect the tv camera to the phone, and the port is clean, well-orderly, visceral and informative. Of course, you'll need to create an account for the telephone so you can upload videos, etc.

When you're finished and have uploaded close to "rides" (videos), you can check them out at the online portal dashboard.getnexar.com. I didn't link as you won't have access unless you buy. Sign away-in is easy, as an access code is sent to your phone.

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This is the drive playback information page. At this point I had parked along tip of my local Lowe's afterward hitting the freeway Here in San Francisco.

The camera records to the micro SD card, then transfers to the phone as sentence allows (IT's stingy-real-meter), then gives you the opportunity to save them to the cloud. You can limit the Beam's use of phone storage to 20-, 50-, or 80 per centum of what's available; once IT hits that limit, it will overwrite previous videos. At that place's also machine-controlled upload triggered away the G-sensing element, as with the Owl. Information technology worked perfectly in my exclusive, proprietary bang-the-flash back-Cam-on-the-desk tests, and IT didn't trigger falsely piece on the road.

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Nexar has tired a stack of time honing the options for a shine experience.

You can likewise twine the video with all the important data into a report and upload it immediately using a one-click report go. Siri voice command may be victimized if you have an iPhone, and the Nexar Groups app allows you to look into the kids, or vice versa–you know, run across if they are where they allege they are. I tested the Mechanical man version, which lacks the vocalisation command and groups at the moment.

Capture quality

The Beam takes excellent 1080p, 30-fps video. I was especially impressed with the apparent motion stabilization. Even over the rough local roads and the occasional speed bump, the video remains flat on the horizon with no tearing or jumps.

IDG

Though the colours may not appear very sodden, they are partly weakened by the overcast skies hither in a dreary San Francisco summer. If information technology weren't August, I'd call it the June Gloom.

The colors are quite dead on target, details are identifiable, and in general the double lineament is about as good as you'll see with 1080p. If you're documenting travels, you might opt for a dash cam with higher resolution, but you South Korean won't find anything better for everyday use.

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This capture suffers some flare in the light, but a good deal of it was my schmutz on my windshield. Notice the escort and time. This is what happens when you don't get in touch to the phone and Radio beam bombardment runs down over a a few years.

Note that the night captures have the orange-ish tinge featured by many sensors, but they still reveal quite a lot of detail. Headlamp flare is minimal. Some of flare in the image above is due my less-than-prima cleaning of my windscreen. My bad.

It's also my fault that the screenshot shows a 2018 date. The Beam had been disconnected for a week, the bombardment drained, and I didn't have my phone with me to reset the camera. Speaking of which, the Beam will run for approximately 15 seconds after the power is removed, reassuring that post-incident events are captured.

I was a bit worried about battery lifetime on my phone with the Nexar app jetting. When connected to the dash cam and occupied, the app's obviously departure to use extraordinary juice, so keep the phone charging if you'atomic number 75 on a long trip. The auxiliary power connector with dual USB ports that Nexar includes helps with that. That same, the drain wasn't atomic number 3 significant as I was expecting, and the Nexar app didn't seem to affect battery life at all when not in operation.

Excellent with the phone

When put-upon in conjunction with your headphone, the Nexar Beam delivers an excellent dash cam experience. Super-easy and glibly designed. For the great unwashe World Health Organization wouldn't follow caught dead without their phone, and only ask front coverage, it's fantastic.

If you need cabin reportage, the front/interior Nexar Pro is $130 on AmazonRemove non-product connexion with the synoptic cloud features.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/393316/nexar-beam-dash-cam-review.html

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