How many times have you been an involuntary witness or directly involved in a road accident in which your car, for which you are still paying the installments, has suffered considerable damage but unfortunately the various technical assessments and the insurance companies involved have not compensated rightly, perhaps attributing you a contributory negligence? In this example and many others the solution could be to equip your vehicle with a dashcam, and if you are looking for ease of use, good quality and a low price then the answer is certainly Baideluo, a rearview mirror with integrated dashcam that you can find on various online shopping platforms, including TEMU who sent it to me at no cost (I did some research on this subject) and which we present to you today in our complete review.
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On offer on Amazon
Car front and rear dual lens HD night vision 1080P driving recorder4 inch rearview mirror car DVR, car recorder, car monitoring
20,47€ available
SEE THE UNBOXING OF OUR GADGET FOR ROAD SAFETY
The packaging of the TEMU Baideluo dashcam comes in a brown cardboard box with little information and is rather anonymous. Inside, in addition to our smart mirror, we find the user manual in Chinese and English, two soft silicone tabs to anchor the dashcam to the original mirror of our car, a car charger with 12-24V input and 5V/1A output that integrates the mini USB power cable, double-sided tape for the rear camera, 2 screws for anchoring the rear camera, a rear camera with a proprietary attachment and finally a rear dashcam power cable with an AV-IN jack input (cable length 6 meters + 1,5 meters red cable to connect to the reverse light).
PREFACE REGULATIONS IN FORCE AND LEGALITY OF THE PRODUCT
Before starting with the real review I want to make a clarification regarding the legislation, still unclear, regarding these devices to support road safety, such as dashcams. First of all I want to tell you that the Baideluo product is completely legal, since the legislation does not prohibit the use of video recording media on board the vehicle but what is limited is the dissemination of the videos/photos acquired due to privacy. In fact, if we do not publicly disseminate the videos/photos or if we obscure the sensitive data collected, such as license plates and people's faces, then we do not run the risk of violating anyone's privacy. It should be noted, however, that it is at the discretion of the judge to decide whether or not to acquire the video of the accident as evidence. In addition to this, a further problem could arise from the fact that the screen integrated into the Baideluo smart mirror could be seen as a disturbance to the driver, but this is actually an obstacle that can be easily circumvented since our dashcam allows you to record even with the display off and therefore to all intents and purposes our technological gadget turns out to be a common rearview mirror that does not obscure the view but accentuates it since the reflected surface is generally larger than that offered by the car's original rearview mirror. According to the Italian Highway Code, in vehicles classified as M1 (where the possibility of seeing through the rear window is provided) there are no limitations on the shape or replacement of the central rearview mirror but only on visibility. The field of visibility must be such that the driver can see at least a part of the flat and horizontal road centered on the median longitudinal vertical plane of the vehicle, from a distance of 60 meters behind his eye points up to the horizon over a width of 20 meters.
HOW IS TEMU'S €0 DASHCAM MADE?
Having made this necessary premise, let's start by analyzing the aesthetics of the Baideluo gadget, which offers excellent reflective power and is decidedly better than that provided by the standard mirror of my car, as the surface seems to be treated with a sort of darkening film (tending towards a blue color), similar to that applied to car windshields, which does not create disturbances in the event of direct sunlight on the mirror.
In all respects this gadget looks like a common rearview mirror except for the lower profile where we find five buttons, while on the upper profile we find the input for micro SD (recommended class 10, minimum 8 GB maximum 64 GB), an AV-IN input for the rear camera and the mini USB input for the power cable. On the back, made of well-made plastic, are placed the various components that make our mirror smart, namely a speaker for the reproduction of the system audio, we find a small hole for the microphone, and the camera used as a dashcam that can be rotated 360 degrees.
But it does not end here as always on the back we find two pads that will serve to protect the original rearview mirror of our car from any scratches but also 2 plastic bands that combined with the two silicone tabs contained in the package allow the anchoring of the gadget.
But as anticipated, the peculiarity of the TEMU mirror dash cam is that it offers a rear camera, thus allowing complete monitoring for both standard accidents and rear-end collisions. The module looks like a sort of cube anchored to a metal butterfly which will then be attached to the outside of the vehicle, but it is possible to insert the rear dash cam inside as well. Furthermore, if you connect the red wire of the power cable to the reversing light, every time you reverse your car, the view of the rear camera will automatically be projected on the integrated display of the smart mirror, a really useful function in urban parking lots.
The rear camera is IP67 certified, therefore waterproof, and guaranteed with temperatures ranging from -10 ° C to + 60 ° C. We have a 1 megapixel HD optical unit with the possibility of video recording with resolution 1280 x 720 at 30 fps in H.265 AVI format and 120 degree FOV viewing angle. However, we can decide to insert the rear dashcam inside the vehicle using it as a sort of TAXI CAM, i.e. a camera that frames the driver so as to have proof in the event of an accident on our correct behavior, for example to demonstrate that we were not distracted with the smartphone. It should be noted that the recording made by the rear camera is not "mirrored".
But in these cases what matters most is the front optics which in the case of the Baideluo gadget is a 2 megapixel FHD unit, f/2.0 aperture with the possibility of video recording with resolution 1920 x 1080 30 fps in H.264 MOV format and 138 degree FOV viewing angle. Depending on the capacity of the inserted SD card we can record up to 8 hours of video (64 GB card) with frontal view only or 6 hours of video if we also use the rear camera.
Video quality depends a lot on fps, and therefore a higher value allows for greater fluidity and details. It should be specified and remembered that these types of cameras do not have a cinematic purpose but to record the reality that surrounds us in order to have material proof in the event of an accident. In fact, quality is definitely not the strong point, but above all this is inversely proportional to the speed of the vehicle. In fact on the highway, where we will have a higher speed, the quality or rather the details captured seem to decrease while in the city, considering the maximum limit of 50 km/h, the details increase decidedly to discrete levels. In fact, statistically, accidents and car use are mainly carried out in urban areas. In any case, even if the quality may not seem convincing, in reality this has proven to be better than competing products belonging to the same price range, as in post-production we are able to isolate the details relating to license plates etc. The night performance is a little less convincing, even if the gadget remains a useful and valid tool in the event of compensation for road accidents.
One aspect that makes the TEMU 0€ dashcam special compared to similar products on the market is the integration of a display in the mirror. A 4,3-inch IPS screen through which we can have a clear view of what our dashcams are recording. Discrete vision during the night or when the direct brightness of the sun is not at its maximum splendor, definitely excellent even when the sun beats directly on the rearview mirror. However, I remind you that we should never interact with the display when we are driving except for the general settings of our dashcam. In fact, every time we power the product, it will automatically start recording loop videos, while at the end of the power supply, the video in progress will be saved and we will see a countdown from the display, thanks to the integration of a 150 mAh buffer battery. We can turn on the display at any time via the button located under the lower profile.
At the bottom of the display we find 5 buttons that allow us, for example, to switch the view of the dashcam, going from the front to the rear or to have a combined view of the two cameras. We can then interrupt the video in progress and then resume recording, we can access the album of videos recorded on the micro SD card and finally access the settings, as well as change the audio of the video or switch to photo shooting mode.
The settings menu is completely in Italian, although translated with some smudges. From here we can set the video recording quality, decide whether or not to enable audio recording, format the micro SD card, set the date/time, decide the display's automatic shutdown time, decide the length of the recorded video, activate/deactivate the startup/shutdown sound and system beep, change the language, set some parameters of the recorded video such as white balance and exposure. Finally, we can restore the factory settings and access the general information of the dash cam.
On offer on Amazon
Car front and rear dual lens HD night vision 1080P driving recorder4 inch rearview mirror car DVR, car recorder, car monitoring
20,47€ available
PROJECTED IMPACT
In conclusion, the Baideluo dashcam paid 0€ on TEMU is decidedly less innovative and less smart than other solutions on the market. Perhaps a GPS module would not have hurt, but regardless, a dashcam is always advisable as an equipment for your car and the solution offered by this product is not to be underestimated. What pushes me to recommend it to you compared to similar models or in the same price range is undoubtedly the general construction quality of the product, the possibility of having a rear camera to also use as an aid in city parking, but above all the high quality video captured by virtue of a price less than one euro per day for a month. In fact, we are talking about an average price of around 20 euros, so do not hesitate and rush to buy it to protect yourself in the event of an accident.
