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As anyone knows who enjoys a good crash compilation on YouTube, anything can happen while you’re on the road. It’s best to be prepared, and a dash cam is a fantastic way to capture evidence (or a good story for the bar on Saturday night). But like anything techy, there are way too many options to choose from. Should you get one with a screen? How about an interior camera? Do you need extra functions like vehicle speed and GPS locating? How well do they do at night? And what’s the deal with legality and insurance on these things?
We at the Gear Team aimed to answer these questions and more with this comparison test. We ran a selection of top dash cams through a set of exacting testing parameters to separate the decent from the great. Here’s everything you need to know about choosing the best dash cam for your vehicle.
Vantrue N4 3
The Vantrue N4 3 is an exceptional value, offering a dash cam, cabin-facing camera, and rearview camera. It attaches to the windshield with a suction mount, and its cameras can be adjusted for optimal coverage. The front dash cam records at 2560 by 2160 pixels but drops to 2560 by 1440 when all three cameras are used. The cabin and rear cameras have 1920 by 1080 resolution. The cameras have wide fields of view with minimal distortion, and the cabin camera includes infrared lighting for low-light conditions.
The N4’s integrated screen features a picture-in-picture mode that displays all three cameras’ feeds simultaneously, along with settings and recording modes. It offers low-frame-rate and low-bit-rate recording modes, but we found these can drain the car battery. The device also includes collision and motion detection, automatically saving relevant footage. A 128 GB micro SD card holds about 6.7 hours of footage.
We picked the Vantrue N4 as our Best Overall dash cam mainly because of its value. It’s a strong competitor at a great price, with three cameras and lots of features, and it came in only slightly behind our top pick in image quality. Video quality was impressive across various light conditions, with good dynamic range and minimal noise reduction.
| Resolution (front, cabin, rear) | 1440p, 1440p, 1080p |
|---|---|
| Field of View (front, cabin, rear) | 155, 165, 160 degrees (diagonal) |
| Parking Crash Video Protection | Yes |
| Crash Detection Video Protection | Yes |
| App? | No |
| Micro SD included? | No |
| Cameras | Front, Cabin, Rear |
Cobra SC 400D
As far as pure visual performance, the Cobra SC 400D was the best dash cam we tested thanks to its 4K resolution. We agreed that its video footage genuinely looked the best too. We found the touchscreen to be easy to operate and responsive, and the Cobra uses its proprietary DriveSmarter app to provide police alerts and other driver reports. If we had one minor grumble, it would be that the mount only swivels forward and backward, not side to side. However, the wide angle of the lens practically eliminates the need to do so. The Cobra secures to the windshield via a large sticky pad for the mount and a very strong magnet for the camera itself.
Of course, this kind of quality and sheer amount of features add up in cost, but if you’re serious about purchasing a dash cam, we loved this one.
| Resolution | 1080p |
|---|---|
| Field of View | N/A |
| Parking Crash Video Protection | Yes |
| Crash Detection Video Protection | Yes |
| App? | Yes, Android and Apple |
| Micro SD included? | Yes, 32 GB |
| Cameras | Front, Rear |
Car and Driver Dual View
We appreciate that we’ll probably get some flak for including this model in this test when there are so many dash cams out there. But we were determined to evaluate our (licensed) namesake unit on its own merits—and darned if it didn’t step up as the best budget option we tested.
The Car and Driver Dual View model has front and rear cameras and a touchscreen interface for easy driver control. The unit has standard features like parking mode, collision detection, and a G sensor to keep one eye open after you’ve left the vehicle.
One thing we really liked about this model is its dual tripod option that allows different mounting iterations from the top or bottom of the camera. This feature made it easy to adjust the dash cam according to the angle of the windshield. During our driving test, we detected a faint magenta hue on the screen, which we could not adjust for. But when we uploaded the data, the magenta hue did not affect the footage.
This budget-friendly dual camera covers all the essential features and has adjustable orientations. It’s an excellent choice for dash-cam beginners.
| Resolution | 1080p |
|---|---|
| Field of Vision | N/A |
| Parking Crash Video Protection | Yes |
| Crash Detection Video Protection | Yes |
| App? | No |
| Micro SD included? | No |
| Cameras | Front, Rear |
Garmin Mini 2
The Garmin Mini 2 is an excellent choice for someone looking to keep their dash cam discreet and out of the way. It’s compact enough to tuck behind your rearview mirror if so desired. The app functionality is quite nice as well, and the 1080p matched up well against the competition despite its diminutive size.
While it’s a nice set-and-forget dash cam, we found that it’s a bit tricky to determine whether everything is set up correctly without checking it via the app. The lack of a screen makes it difficult to see if the camera is lined up properly. Additionally, there are a few different lights that blink on the cam, and it’s confusing at first to know what they all mean. But once you get that all set, the Garmin Mini 2 is a solid choice for a tiny dash cam.
| Resolution | 1080p |
|---|---|
| Field of Vision | 140 degrees |
| Parking Crash Video Protection | Yes |
| Crash Detection Video Protection | Yes |
| App? | Yes, Android and Apple |
| Micro SD included? | No |
| Cameras | Front |