REVIEW - Mijia Car DVR / the dashcam according to Xiaomi
La road safety is a difficult topic to deal with, especially when it comes to claims that have been affected by the victims. According to data released by State Police, in 2016, have occurred 73836 road accidents , 2 million road traffic offenses, about 3 millions of decimated points and almost 45 thousands of patents withdrawn.
It becomes indispensable for the car driver then to equip yourself with a tool that can reconstruct precisely and reliably what happens during car trips, and this tool takes the name of dashcam, a room that can record videos of what's going on around the vehicle.
It will be easier to claim the right compensation for the insurance company but also to avoid small scams such as the mirror. Taking this prerequisite we could not avoid trying and reviewing it for you Mijia Car DVR, dashcam according to Xiaomi. I thank the online store immediately Gearbest for sending the sample, which is sold at present only 57 € with shipping included in price. At this price, do not get away.
CONFEZIONE
The sales package comes in classic Xiaomi style, white coloring with logos on the sides and some summary indications on the front and back of the box. The cardboard used is very often and it is a great thing as often couriers tend to launch the products on the doorstep, and in this case the product inside it has been well protected. The inside of the box cover also holds one small chicca, as there is a small layer of foam to the further scratch or shock protection, to which Mijia dashcam might meet.
The equipment is very rich as we find in addition to the Mijia Car DVR also the USB connection cable with micro USB connector long 3 meters and a half, instruction manual in Chinese, mounting bracket for car glass, car charger with output 5V / 2A, a spare sticker to replace the one already on the bracket, 2 Transparent Films for fixing the bracket to the car glass and finally a small plastic tool which will be used to plug the Mijia Car DVR into the car inserts as shown in the dashcam card.
DESIGN AND MATERIALS
Mijia Car DVR is made of matte plastic while the objective is enclosed in a ring made of metal knurled and smooth on the front. The design is minimal but elegant, in fact on the back we find the display from 2,7 inches that hosts 4 touch buttons for functions, the left side is cleaned while the right one incorporates a small led indicating the operation of the room which will be white when it becomes red when it is turned off.
There is also a micro door that houses the 'micro SD housing with support up to 64 GB. On the underside of the room besides the label with the indications of the product we find a hole for reset of the Mijia Car DVR and the microphone for recording ambient sound. At the top we find the 'input for charging in micro USB format which requires a power supply from 5V / 2A, the bracket for bracket insertion anchoring and the power button or shutdown.
Just press the power button once to turn off the screen, or hold it down for about 3 seconds will enable the camera to turn off, even if the camera is actually powered on automatically when it is connected to the power supply. Finally at the front, in addition to the presence of the objective, we find one small system speaker for audio playback of recorded movies and logo Mijia.
DISPLAY
Xiaomi thought to equip the Mijia car DVR with a comfortable one 2,7 LCD display than at the bottom incorporates 4 touch buttons including the one to enable / disable the microphone, the one to turn WiFi on / off for remote connection to the smartphone.
Very important is the Event button which is used to tag movies, that is, if activated dashcam will immediately save what it was recording by storing it on the micro SD card in a separate folder, so that the video will not be overwritten in the future but above all it will be easily searchable.
Finally, we find the button for the Settings through which we could find serious difficulties as well the big defect of Mijia Car DVR is that it "speaks" only Chinese but I'll show you the menus in succession as you will find them.
SOFTWARE
Before the actual Settings we will find a menu of menus in which we can view all the videos saved on the memory card or those marked as an Event.
Il first menu which we will find will be related to WiFi, where we will see the password for accessing the smartphone to the dashcam interface, but we will also have the option to turn off the signal.
Il second menu will relate to display power on, time that can be set to 30 seconds, 1 minutes or keep the display always on to keep an eye on what the Mijia Car DVR is recording.
Il third menu instead it will give us the chance to calibrate it sensitivity of the Event, choosing between the low, high option, or disable the option, as you might find yourself in a road with many holes that would generate a series of useless Events.
Through our fourth menu we will have the chance to format the SD card inserted in the dashcam for video recording, which will be required when the dashcam is first powered on or after a system update.
From fifth menu instead we could adjust the date and time to make it appear on movies, an option that can not be eliminated, so our videos will always have a signature consisting of the company logo and time / date.
Il sixth menu it will only come into play when we have a system update for dashcam, which will always be performed via smartphones with the proprietary application Mi Home.
Il seventh menu will serve a reset to initial settings dashcam, a menu that could be useful in case the same gives rise to problems, which I personally have never encountered.
Finally,eighth and last menu will provide us with the firmware information of the Mija Car DVR. Having eliminated the language handicap the system is very simple and fluid and personally during my long use I have never encountered bugs or bugs from bugs or anything else. In short, Xiaomi's dashcam proved to be a faithful witness to my traits.
HARDWARE
The hardware that animates the Mijia dashcam is based on the combination of MSTAR MSC8328P image processor and Sony CMOS sensor IMX323 size 1 / 2.9 inches while the resolution ratio is 2: 19 megapixel (meaning the same resolution used in professional video surveillance cameras). There is also one mini battery from 240 mAh which can only be used only as a reserve to save videos when the power fails, in fact the camera must always be powered via the micro USB input to work, and finally there is the gravity sensor.
Do not miss the support for 802.11 b / g / n mono band WiFi through which Xiaomi dashcam creates its own WLAN network to which to connect with the smartphone / tablet for see streaming recorded images from the same but also to archive previous video recordings on your device.
USE
Once connected to the car's power, the Mijia Car DVR is will turn on automatically and will start recording the scene immediately. Therefore, no action will be required from the user who will have to concentrate on the guide. The dashcam will record one series of 2 minutes with a footprint of approximately 250 Mb. Therefore with a 16 GB card you will be able to store about 64 movies for a total of about 2 hours and 15 minutes of recording.
Of course as soon as the memory is saturated the room will begin to overwrite older movies except those labeled as Event, so there is no danger of losing important files but above all finding yourself without dashcam support during a long journey. I personally preferred to keep the display on and disable the possibility of automatic autopilot, as I found it very sensitive and in the streets with remarkable holes the same was activated frequently.
CAMERA
The objective of the Mijia Car DVR is comprised of 6 lenses with focal opening f final match. and viewing angle of 160 builds FOV. The sensor is entrusted to the performer Sony IMX323 which allows you to record video with resolution 1920 x 1080 pixels at 29 fps in the compression standard H.264 in MP4 format. Videos are shot in loops and will be overwritten once the available space on the micro SD card is finished. The opening f / 1.8 and the excellent sensor offered by Xiaomi give detailed, noise-free videos even in low light conditions.
PRICE AND CONCLUSIONS
I claim that the Mijia Car DVR is a great dashcam, however it is not immediately possible to adjust the settings of the same, it is easy to use since it is enough to connect it to the power supply and the recording, and any event is completely automatic. Unfortunately Xiaomi lost 3 small things as I found it: first of all, the language of the product that was only in Chinese when it was enough to insert into the firmware at least the English one.
Secondly, it would have been the top if the company had also included a GPS that traced the path so that it could have further "evidence" of an accident, and finally the insertion of a secondary chamber that would frame the back scene would be crucial in in order to ascertain any tampons. Surely these features would increase the price but maybe the end user would also be willing to spend them.
At any rate I would definitely recommend this product Xiaomi fans and especially those who already have other Mi Home ecosystem products but also those who are looking for one dashcam with high quality performance in terms of video recording and does not need any additional settings that could affect ease of use. In addition, the Xiaomi dashcam is very compact (87.5 x 53 x 18 dimensions 84.7 grams) and can be comfortably rested in a pocket of a trouser, but especially when in operation it does not weigh the sight of the guides camouflaging well behind the mirror rearview. So if you are interested in the Mijia Car DVR you can contact the store Gearbest, one of the most reliable which I tested in my reviewer and user path and thank you for sending the sample.
Hi… I need some dispassionate advice.
Now I discover the existence of the Mijia Dash Cam ... I was about to buy the Yi DashCam released last year (it is at the same price as this Mijia) ... the YI also has firmware in English and an application in Italian ... and this Mijia does not seem to have “Something more”… but I'm here to ask you… which one to orientate on?
The “old” but good model… or the new one in the hope of soon having updates that improve it?
I thank anyone who will help me.
PS: thanks for your arecension
strange but worse than the "old" version, only the design is more beautiful. then, the field of view goes from 165 ° of the old model to 160 ° of this one, the recording goes from 1080p 60fps of the old model to 30fps of this one. the new model is for now only in Chinese while in the old you can put the international firmware. if you watch comparative videos of the recordings of the two dashcam on yt the old one surprisingly wins ... during the day the new one burns the image that is always overexposed and you lose details ... it would logically seem to give it advantages at night but in my opinion it also loses at night ...... Read the rest »
Hi the Yi dashcam released last year is an equally valid alternative that at least on paper would seem even superior to the Mijia model. The possibility of the firmware in English, even if not so immediate as it is necessary to tinker a little, is certainly a point in favor but I assure you that using the Mijia is so simple that once you understand the Chinese voices, the same is not absolutely a problem. What to choose? Well this also depends on you, the products are practically identical, even if the Mijia undoubtedly offers more quality at the video level. I personally would opt for the... Read the rest »