Having a dash cam should be mandatory in this day and age especially with our cartel insurance industry to crack down on fraudulent claims and so on which come to think my policy is up for renewal very soon which I cant wait to see if I get another hike. By now it should be a standard in vehicles as it is not expensive to install or for manufacturers to make their own but I have been saying that years now but no change.
The 522 GW is part of the new Nextbase line up and we also have the rear camera mount too which covers both sides and ideal and easy to install which is important. This rear camera can be also used as an inward camera or pointing out the back window, The main camera will be applied to your windscreen with a sticky pad and the same applies to the rear which just attaches itself with a cable extension into the side of the front unit.
You will need a different sd card to begin with and this was a spot of bother here trying to find one that works you will need a U3 class ten card as this is 4K and cards below will not allow you record footage, some cards will but you will not be able to use the rear camera and you will get 1080p clips on a lower rated cards so you need to get the right card to have full functionality on the unit for clips front and rear,the set up is different as you would find on other dashcams and here is the following even when set up with the right card installed.
There is different settings on the camera when both front and rear in use
Front – 1080p @60fps Rear – 720p @30fps
Front – 1080p @30fps Rear – 1080p @30fps
The UI on the GW522 is easy to navigate and is all touch which is great with easy to follow set up as seen above in the video and the menu seems to be narrowed down a bit better than previous models in the older lineup you can pick your own settings or leave at default it is pretty much ready to plug and play on opening the box but you might want to change some options to suit your region but this is easy and takes two minutes to go through the whole menu setup.
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After that it is pretty much up to you how to use it, you more or less just leave it there and let it do its thing or you can interact with the App and Amazon Alexa but the app is a bit frustrating at times and prefers a home WiFi connection to work I could not set on my phone to use the features like download clips on the fly which is handy but when you are connected to the WiFi things seem ok and you will see below what I mean in the Video.
However when I did manage to get the Bluetooth connection working (after a few attempts later on)it opens a new way to transfer files on the fly,This is excellent for grabbing footage on the go and for sharing download speeds as you would expect are network dependent on the go, typical file was around 110MB and you can see from above the result and you get a map built in which is cool.
Once up and running all is good though the same applies when you connect to your pc with the provided cable file transfer is simple and viewing files is the same,you get high and low res options and saved clips will be in the protected folder these are the important files no doubt that you have saved or it could be a combination of both as mentioned before with clips automatically saving from bumps or audio but I found if you turn off the audio and turn down the sensor you should be fine having space taken up on your sd card and then having to look for them.
Footage comes out great no doubt even at night time with both front and rear cams, I had to upload clips separate because my phone would not allow it due to 4K to make just the one video so I kept these seperate so it is easier for you to decide what you need to see.
Overall this 522GW is a simple and effective camera to use and anyone will be able to install this and manage,there is a walk-through guide above if you are stuck for menu and set up purposes. The design here too is also nice and looks current and sleek and brings a fresh look to their line up which was needed having said that their is nothing wrong with the older models it is just nice to see the company bring a fresh design to the table. These are not cheap by some peoples standards as we can now buy dashcams for little or nothing but the saying is true you get what you pay for so in short I would have no problem recommending this to anyone if you want to be sure your footage is safe and you car, I tested the rear camera pointing out but as mentioned you can use inward too so you have choice.
The problem with the cheap dashcams you often find in garages and euro stores are not worth the punt in my book due to them breaking to easily ,not functioning all the time and footage being destroyed by corrupting you sd card or else the cheap sd card you get with them.
Key Features: 1440p HD resolution at 30 fps, Inbuilt Polarising Filter, 3” HD IPS touch screen, 140° viewing angle, 10Hz GPS Module, Bluetooth 4.2 , Wi-Fi via MyNextbase Connect and PC/Mac software – MyNextbase Play
Note- For this product a U3 class microSD card is required.
BUY – https://www.nextbase.com/en-ie/dash-cams/522gw-dash-cam/
Rear window camera – https://www.nextbase.com/en-ie/modules/rear-window-camera-2/#buy-now