Review on Vantrue E1 Mini Dash Cam With Voice Control, WiFi, And GPS - 2.5K 1944P, 1.54" LCD Screen, Night Vision, 24-Hour Parking Mode, Super Capacitor, Wireless Controller - Supports Up To 512GB by Alex Foley

This product does a great job performing the basic functions I look for in a dashcam and in almost every case also does a great job with what I consider secondary functions. It also has a number of additional features that I find useful.Basic Functions:1. Daytime Video Recording: I'm very pleased with the video resolutions offered by this dashcam. I normally run the camera at 2560x1440P (HDR) @ 30FPS, but I've also tried it at 1920X1080P @ 60FPS. At both resolutions the quality of the recordings was excellent. At certain times of the day I had some minor reflections showing up in videos, but no where near enough to make the videos unviewable.2. Night-time Video Recording: I'm pretty happy with the quality of the night-time videos the camera produces. This area has been the weak point of cameras I've used in the past. This camera does a much better job and the only thing I sometimes find distracting is the halo effect on the headlights of oncoming vehicles, but since I see the halos while driving the videos are accurate.3. Windshield Mount: The mount for this camera is easy to install and very stable. Vantrue uses an electrostatic sticker that's placed on the windshield and the GPS adhesive mount is placed on the sticker. The sticker is similar to a screen protector you would place on your cellphone or tablet and adheres to the windshield very well.4. Windshield Mount Release: This camera is very easy to remove from the windshield mount. Vantrue uses a strong magnet to hold the camera in its slot, but the camera is very easy to remove. This ease of removal combined with the camera's small size means I normally take it inside when I'm parked in my garage. The other cameras I've owned weren't easy to dismount and/or too bulky to bother bringing in, this one fits in your pocket.5 Audio Recoding Quality: The audio recording on this Vantrue camera is incredible compared to my previous cameras. You can clearly hear the radio playing and people speaking in the car. In general my other cameras had very poor audio pickup and the recordings were normally very low in volume and muddy to say the least.Secondary Functions:1. Date and Time: You can manually set the date and time on the camera or use the GPS to automatically set the date and time. I like the GPS feature, but it has one minor bug I'm working with support on. The time is off by one hour; e.g., it shows 2 instead of 3. This should be a simple for them to fix, I'm guessing a DST coding issue. Note the camera has to be attached to the GPS mount for the date/time to sync.2. Parking Mode: This function works much better in this camera than any of my previous cameras. You have several options while in parking mode and I normally use the collision detection mode. The camera will continue recording for about five minutes after the ignition is turned off, and will only record again if it thinks a collision has occurred.3. Menu Display & Navigation: A menu systems that's very easy to use, especially on such a small camera. It's missing a back arrow button when stepping through menus, but in most cases the menus are short enough that it's not an issue.Additional Features (As I Value/Use Them):1. GPS Connection: Besides automatically setting the camera's date and time this feature lets you show your location and speed on the camera and your videos. It's a neat feature and the speed measurement seems to be accurate.2. Voice Command: Lets you verbally control the camera (Take Photo, Video Start, Turn on Audio, Turn off Audio, Turn on Screen, Turn off Screen, Turn on Wi-Fi, Turn off Wi-Fi, Lock the Video). Again a neat feature that's handy at times.3. Car Charger: Has an 11.5ft cable if you want to route the cable so it's out of site. A nice extra is it has a USB port on the charger so you can connect a second device to USB power using the car's lighter.4. Format Card Reminder: I routinely forget to do this even though every camera I've owned says to do it every so often to avoid issues. Nice to have a reminder.5. Wireless Connection: Let's you use your phone to control the camera, display it's live view and download files. Since I normally use my phone for mapping I doubt I'll routinely use this, but perhaps I might have a passenger use their phone or maybe use an old phone.6. Wireless Remote - Gives you some remote control using a small remote device (Turn off Audio, Turn on Audio, Lock the Video). I doubt I'll use this much since the voice control lets you do this and more.Dings:1. The GPS date and time sync is off by an hour, but it works. They should be able to fix this easily at some point.2. The manual is pretty large but as with most manuals these days the text is difficult to understand in a few places. The manual does seem to cover every aspect of the camera.3. The camera comes with two electrostatic stickers and a tool for removing it, but I'm not sure if the stickers can be reused.