Amazingly good features for the price and size
While I have only owned this for one day, my initial reactions are almost entirely favorable. I do have a basis for comparison, as I have previously owned a Crystal Eye Dashcam. Compared to that, this has superior image quality, many additional useful features, and a much smaller footprint that is less of an obstacle to seeing the road. That said, the Crystal Eye has a much better screen; it's larger, brighter, and the correct aspect ratio. Also, the Crystal Eye has a slightly wider camera lens angle. Still, I think the Rove R2-4K is a very nice upgrade compared to my previous Dashcam. For the price, you simply cannot get anything nicer.
Pros: Astonishingly clear video in every resolution I tested. Doesn't need to run in 4K to be significantly clearer at playback than my former Dashcam. Someone else complained that playback made 55MPH look like 90MPH, to which I can only say that I didn't have that experience. Presumably he was recording 24FPS video which was being played back at 30FPS by his player. I have not tested the built-in player, but can confirm that my clips (including 24FPS) all played at the correct speed in VLC Media Player. The GPS speedometer and position tagging are very nice features, and I already took advantage of the on-screen speedometer when I went for a drive in the dark in an old truck where the dash backlight doesn't work. It can actually run off its internal battery for a few minutes, something my other one can't do, and this allows parking monitoring even if it doesn't have external power connected. The suction mount is very high quality, and the inclusion of an adhesive pad mounting system for permanent mounting, including cable management clips, is a very nice touch, although as the sheepish owner of nearly a dozen vehicles, I'm stuck with suction for now.
Cons: The screen is a little weird. The biggest thing that is weird about it is that it is a 4:3 screen in a 16:9 device, so the video preview is distorted (compressed) in the horizontal plane (i.e., things look tall and skinny.) This is not a hindrance to using the device. The screen is not ideal for daytime viewing at a slight angle such as you might typically see it when it is mounted on a window, but it is adequate.
Other thoughts: I had no card compatibility issues with my SanDisk flash card, even though the instructions say not to use them. However, this was not a cheap SanDisk; it is U3 rated, so it is claiming to be capable of handling the tremendous volume of data this camera generates, and it seems to be so. Clearly the person who reviewed this as locking up and stopping its recordings was using an inferior card that couldn't cope with the sheer volume of data high-quality chip-encoded video recording generates. Also, take the protective plastic off the lens. It seems so harmless, until you realize that it is creating massive edge distortion by creating a second refraction on the image. I was very disappointed with the image quality until I removed it.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
