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Garmin Dash Cam 67W review: does it have an extra gear with the ADAS?

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Garmin presented its new dash cam line and I immediately felt a certain curiosity; towards the 67W flagship model, capable not only of offering the classic dash cam features, but also some interesting pluses such as some ADAS functions, a prerogative of the most popular cars; recent.

To date, the regulation on dash cams remains nebulous and, in fact, compared to other countries, a regulatory vacuum persists that sooner or later will go away; bridged. However, the possibility exists; that the videos recorded via a dash cam are taken into consideration as & quot; atypical evidence & quot ;, a choice that today remains in the hands of the competent judge in the event of a dispute.

But a dash cam like Garmin's can be an interesting solution for other reasons as well, and considering last year's experience with a more advanced model; economic type of “ mirror '', I therefore decided to also test Garmin's solution to understand how it behaves in everyday use and if its distinctive features really make a difference compared to other models on the market./p>

APPEARANCE AND TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Garmin's new dash cam solution is very small and compact, with dimensions similar to those of a Go Pro to be clear. There & ograve; on the one hand & egrave; good for the footprint, on the other a limit if we think about the small size of the display. Compared to the latter, on the right side of the body there are 4 buttons that allow you to move around the menus. allowing total control, however you can & ograve; also opt for the use of the Garmin Drive application, available for Android and iOS, and definitely more; comfortable to move in the menus of the unit.

The packaging is essential, so it is; in addition to the unit dash cam, a user manual, the adhesive system for fixing to the windshield and the connection cable (unfortunately still of the microUSB type …), we find nothing else.

The rear camera is an optional, so & igrave; as are the other two units & agrave; laterally positioned, which if purchased allow a total of 3 video cameras that can be connected to the unit & agrave; main. These are the technical specifications of the 67W model.

Garmin Dash Cam 67W

INSTALLATION TYPES

With Garmin Dash Cam 67W does not change the approach offered by the classic aftermarket solutions, since & egrave; You can choose whether to rely on a & # 39; simplified & quot; do-it-yourself & quot; installation but potentially castrated in functionality, or contact a professional installer and in that case the expense goes up. Being a test model that I was only able to test for a few days, I willy-nilly had to make do by configuring the system in the most appropriate way; simple, so I could not connect the unit & agrave; to a continuous power source but I limited myself to the basic installation via USB via the cigarette lighter present in my Audi A1 version 2012. Even if I had had more; time available I would still need the cable with OBD2 connector, unfortunately not present in the accessories.

A cigarette lighter socket is supplied which not only allows us to power the dash cam, but also offers an extra USB connection; which does not nullify the possibility; to recharge our smartphone, or any other device with the same connectivity.

As explained above, to have continuous feeding it will be; necessary to connect the dash cam to the car through the OBD connection., In that case we will be able to choose between an operation with the vehicle off for 10 minutes, 24 hours, or even without limits, with automatic stop in the event that the battery voltage drops below a certain threshold. It is therefore inadvisable to rely on do-it-yourself solutions to get directly to the car battery, under penalty of the possibility; to end up with the latter completely discharged.

USE AND FUNCTIONALITY

After installing the dash cam in the car we can finally move on to the configuration phase, really simple if we rely on the Garmin Drive application. The dash cam starts when the car is turned on, as soon as the cigarette lighter plug supplies current. At that point the continuous recording function is activated by overwriting, if the memory is full, the most movies.

There is also a cloud save function called Garmin cloud , which however is limited to the previous 24 hours with the free plan. Videos are saved in 1440p at 30 fps resolutionby default, but & egrave; You can also choose other resolutions such as 1080/720p at 30/60fps. The quality & agrave; & egrave; truly remarkable and & egrave; You can choose whether or not to include the audio component. The recordings can be reviewed directly on the display or viewed via the Garmin Drive app on the smartphone, and then decide whether to save in memory, share, or delete. Among the features; in addition, but of little use; in my opinion, we find the possibility; to save videos called TravelLapse, which are nothing more than shareable travel timelapses, and which essentially condense captures of trips lasting several hours into a few minutes.

Garmin 67W & egrave; also controllable via voice commands and to my surprise they work very well. We have the possibility; to use the keyword & quot; Ok Garmin & quot; to activate and ask for the saving of videos and photos, the saving of the audio or the creation of a TravelLapse. We can not do anything else, but in defense of this model I must point out that the capture of the voice is; always perfect and commands detected correctly, even when listening to music at medium-high volume. If we talk about utility; of the function, & egrave; rather questionable since & eacute; we will hardly feel the need; to perform these operations manually, however someone might like to be able to decide independently in certain situations. Then there are all the ADAS functions to which I want to dedicate a separate chapter.

The level of interaction also changes depending on the car in use, therefore the functions; Garmin's Dash Cam 67W offers go a long way. A little above I talked about the possibility; to connect it via OBD2 and the lack of the supplied connector makes itself felt, but it is not; the only variant in play. Let's take the function for exampleLive View , this is; very useful to see with the smartphone what is happening around our car in real time, however to use it & egrave; it is necessary to have a constant connection to a data network, and this too is; a feature often missing in cars where you decide to install a unit & agrave; similar. Dashcam 67W does not have its own data network, so don't expect any sim slots. The Live View function also works wirelessly, but it is; clear that the limitation of 10 meters of bluetooth nullifies any usefulness.

And speaking of power supply, the absence of an OBD2 connection does not allow to exceed the life of the small integrated battery when the car is; turned off, therefore its use & egrave; functional only in case of short stops (unless you rely on imaginative solutions .. such as the use of a power bank). The fully charged battery allows an operation of about 30 minutes, but if the movements we make are very short (for example in the city) it will result; also difficult to recharge the unit between one trip and another. The presence of an integrated battery & egrave; however, a plus compared to the most popular models; cheap.

ADAS, A LITTLE HELP TO DRIVE

Garmin Dash Cam 67W offers something more; compared to similar solutions, introducing some driving aids that in daily use turn out to be a pleasant surprise. From men & ugrave; settings we can decide whether to activate the optional assistance functions. Among these we find, for example, the signaling of traffic light cameras, speed cameras and exceeding the speed limit; while driving.

Then there are some functionalities; driving assistance type ADAS, which improve general safety. Garmin 67W & egrave; able to warn us of a possible risk of a frontal collision , intervening when those in front of us suddenly brake or when we are accelerating too much compared to those in front of us. To emphasize the event, when there is a risk of collision the display turns red and the unit & agrave; emits a clearly audible buzzer even when listening to music. Similar speech also for the lane departure warning, since it is; Garmin 67W & egrave; able to warn us when we cross the lane both to the right and to the left. In this case, the on-screen warning appears accompanied by the audio and the screen turns yellow. And it is not; everything, if we are in a queue or at a traffic light and we have not noticed that the cars in front of us begin to move, the unit & agrave; warns us that the traffic & egrave; in movement.

All these warnings are optional and can be enabled or disabled from settings. For some they could almost represent a nuisance, however after a few days of use I can say that they are invasive to the right point and you quickly get used to them. It is It is possible to adjust the volumes of notifications, but even set to maximum they are never too annoying, and indeed, a few more db & ugrave; maybe it would have been useful.

IN CONCLUSION

After trying Garmin 67W for a few days I can say that all this is; which promises it does it very well, so if you need a reliable and easily controllable dash cam; from your smartphone & egrave; the right choice. However, there are some shortcomings that I would like to point out, especially in relation to the price at which the single unit is offered; front (you can find it on the market at around 249 euros).

First of all the OBD2 cable, an essential component if we need to; to use the dash cam to the fullest of its features; video recording mode parking area. The second is; related to the display, since & eacute; if on the one hand the compactness of the unit & egrave; good if we look at the overall dimensions, from the other & egrave; really too small to use.

There is to say that Garmin 67W was created to work in symbiosis with our smartphone, so we will soon forget about this detail. As for the camera, the promotion is; net, the field of vision & egrave; really adequate and the quality & agrave; satisfactory video. On ADAS there & # 39; & egrave; little to say, they are a plus that never hurts from a safety perspective and above all they are always precise. The parking monitoring function also does its job well; me & egrave; For example, it happened that I received an alert when washing my car, a sign that even a minimum contact is; able to alert the g-sensor and start recording. Too bad we didn't have a lower priced bundle with the rear cam (optional purchase at 129 euros) and the OBD2 cable (additional 49 euros), which if purchased separately increase the cost to over 400 euros.

VIDEO TEST AND TRAVELAPSE

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