If you are looking for protection in the event of a road accident or simply greater safety in general, you may need a dashcam to insert in your car. There are many more or less economical solutions with different functions and technologies, but today we are addressing those who love the essentials without sacrificing the video quality of what is recorded during the journey, obtaining useful details such as license plate numbers. Let's find out how the new LAMTTO DC16 works, discovering its strengths and weaknesses.
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ALTERNATIVES ON AMAZON
Package contents and accessories
The LAMTTO DC16 dashcam was launched just a few days ago and will soon be available on the Amazon store. The packaging appears well-finished but above all it contains everything you need for use without having to shell out additional euros. The kit offered by the brand includes:
- LAMTTO DC16 dashcam;
- rear camera with cable;
- 64GB microSD memory card;
- suction cup mount;
- power cable with cigarette lighter socket;
- wiring tool;
- replacement stickers for rear camera;
- USB stick for reading micro SD contents;
- adhesive cable management grommets;
- user manual.
In short, the package contains everything you need to start using both the dashcam and the rear camera, but you can also purchase some elements separately, such as the wiring kit with 24/XNUMX parking monitor function, for uninterrupted protection and maximum peace of mind.
Design and installation
The LAMTTO DC16 dashcam follows the typical design and lines of this product category, without any particular innovations. With dimensions of 89 x 51,5 x 16,5mm, we find on the rear body of the product a 3-inch IPS HD display and a protrusion on the front that integrates the lens surrounded by small grids that also hide the speaker. On the upper profile we have the Type-C port for power, the AV-IN input for attaching the rear camera, the slot for anchoring to the suction cup bracket and the on/off button. On the lower profile instead we find the 5 function buttons.
The orientation of the lens, both on the vertical and horizontal axis, is done by rotating the suction cup bracket. The ideal is probably the mounting to the left of the mirror, which facilitates access to the buttons, the display and the slot for the microSD (supported up to 256GB), which is located on the top left together with a hole for the reset of the device and the microphone, but considering the not exactly compact dimensions of the dashcam, the view while driving could lead to carelessness also caused by the display, if you keep it on during recording, but in this case you can decide whether to turn it off manually using the appropriate button or set a sort of automatic shutdown.
Since the display is not touchscreen, the five physical buttons allow you to interact with the various functions and settings. The rear camera does not give a premium feeling in terms of construction and materials: completely made of plastic, it includes a base with the adhesive part for installation on the rear window with relatively small dimensions, but not too much and integrates an optics that can be adjusted on the vertical axis of 360 °, so it can also be used as a sort of taxi cam, to film the driver or the interior of the car, for example to demonstrate that we were not distracted while driving.
Installation and assembly are not complicated, but require a little attention and care, especially if we do not want to have exposed cables, therefore the wiring tool and cable clamp provided in the package becomes indispensable. The suction cup bracket for the windshield has a good grip and this allows you to keep the dashcam in place without any involuntary movements during the journey, caused for example by potholes or bumpy roads.
The power cable must be connected to the car's cigarette lighter socket, using the appropriate accessory included in the package, which unfortunately does not integrate a USB-A socket to charge other devices. If we can define this type of installation as do-it-yourself, the installation concept for the possible hardware kit (sold separately) for 24/XNUMX monitoring is different, for which we recommend consulting an auto electrician. By installing this kit it is obviously no longer necessary to connect the main body of the dash cam to the power supply via the cigarette lighter.
How is LAMTTO DC16: Video quality, features and functionality
The LAMTTO DC16 integrates a Sony sensor, of which unfortunately no further information is specified, except that it offers recording up to 4K with a 170° wide angle, which translates into a video capture with a panoramic perspective of up to 3 lanes of traffic. The rear camera instead offers a 140° wide angle but with 1080p resolution. The recorded images are of good quality, with a resolution that reaches 4K, a resolution that also allows some zoom of details, for example on license plates.
The presence of WDR is one of the strong points: the video camera offers sufficiently clear and detailed images even in the most complicated light conditions, including night, although in low light conditions it should be specified that the reflection of the headlights could dazzle the view and therefore important details such as license plates or other, will struggle to be immortalized. The rear video camera drops in resolution and quality, but still does its job net of a resolution of 1080p, still sufficient to make license plate numbers readable at close range. It should be noted unfortunately, that for some videos I detected a sort of frame drops and glitches, nothing dramatic but paradoxically what if it happened right at the most important moment of impact?
As I said in the introduction LAMTTO DC16 is a “normal” dash camera and this means that it does not integrate a GPS for tracking movements or ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) functionality but we have a gravity sensor that in case of collision detection, automatically locks critical footage, so that the “evidence” is not overwritten, providing invaluable documentation for insurance claims and legal proceedings. As soon as power is applied, the DC16 automatically begins recording in a loop with intervals of 1/3/5 minutes ensuring uninterrupted recording and eliminating the need for manual file management.
The DC16 has a buffer battery (5 mAh) that allows you to activate a recording in the event of a collision when the car is parked. A very interesting function if it weren't for the fact that, personally, I didn't notice a real functioning. Of course, during my tests I didn't intentionally collide with a car with mine, but by setting the G-Sensor value to the maximum value and trying to shake my car strongly, everything remained still. Probably a more serious accident would have activated the recording but in the case of classic rear-end collisions, the possible proof will not be there. As for the functions related to the buttons, I'll leave you a small summary through the image below.
VIIDURE Smartphone App
The features of this LAMTTO DC16 can actually all be set from the dashcam itself but we also have the smartphone application, available for free on the Google Play Store and the App Store for Android devices. The app is not essential for using the product but we can establish a Wi-Fi connection between the smartphone and the dashcam with a choice of frequency between 2.4 and 5.0 GHz. We can then view the real-time recording on the phone (even from the rear camera, by pressing the appropriate button), change the settings (video resolution, video clip length, sensitivity and so on) and access the recorded videos without "disturbing" the microSD card, even emergency ones and those acquired with the surveillance mode. From the app you can also download the desired clips and videos, so as to save a copy in the smartphone's memory. The app then allows you to view the driving route, using the smartphone's GPS, but this is a paid service.
ALTERNATIVES ON AMAZON
Conclusions and price
I liked the LAMTTO DC16, but I can't deny the product's lights and shadows, such as the parking monitoring function via buffer battery that at least in my case didn't work, or the glitches in the recorded videos. Quality/price ratio? Considering the price list from the official website equal to $99,99 I would say that it could have been done much better. The sensor is not top of the range but unless in very extreme situations or extended zooms it offers clear and perfectly sufficient shots for the purpose even if it suffers a bit at night, but considering what I've told you so far we find cheaper solutions such as the CIEVIE D100 that I recently told you about.
