Ddpai X2 Pro Review

At a Glance

Expert’s Rating

Our Verdict

The X2 Pro is well designed and one of the most convenient and easy-to-use dash cams around. It’s great for quickly downloading clips to your phone and sharing them, a task that’s hard on most rivals. However, it’s expensive – you could buy two decent 1080p dash cams for less – and isn’t available locally in the UK, which means you’ll pay extra for import duty.

Best Prices Today: DDPai X2 Pro

The DDPai isn’t the first dash cam I’ve seen without a screen, but it’s certainly the best. The X2 refers to the fact that there’s a second camera – on a long wire – which records the view out of the rear window, although you could stick it on any other non-moving window if you prefer.

DDPai X2 Pro: Price

Adding a second HD camera inevitably pushes up the price, but at US$299 (approximately £240), this is one of the most expensive dash cams around. And it’s not available locally in the UK – it has to be ordered via DDPai’s website and shipped from China. You’re likely to pay import duty as well.

If your car has a second accessory socket in the boot, it could well be cheaper to buy two standard dash cams, such as the Nextbase 312GW .

Also see our roundup of the best dash cams .

DDPai X2 Pro: Features and design

DDPai was set up by eight engineers from Huawei and the X2 Pro uses Huawei’s HiSilicon processors in both cameras.

Since there’s no screen, the unit is compact, but thanks to the ultra-slim adhesive mount the X2 Pro can easily hide behind your rear-view mirror.

The lens rotates so you can adjust it for the best view and the whole device is easy to remove from the mount, save for the fact that two cables plug into it.

One is for power (a 3.5m cable with a microUSB connector is supplied), the other runs to the rear camera. You might think you’d get a wireless rear camera at this price, but unless it was battery powered, you’d still need a wire – and a power source.

The other component is a wireless button which you can stick somewhere appropriate within the driver’s reach. Whenever it’s pressed, a photo is taken.

The kit includes a 32GB microSD card, but there’s support up to 128GB, which is 96GB more than most dash cams. And that means many hours of footage can be stored: don’t forget that two cameras create a lot of data.

The main camera can record at 1440p, but only at 25fps. If you want 30fps, you’ll have to set it to 1080p. At the rear, it’s 720p, and a slightly narrower 120 degree field of view compared to 140 up front.

DDPai has clearly thought hard about usability and to this end the only button on the camera itself is for muting the microphone to prevent sound being recorded. It lights up to tell you the mic is muted.

The device also talks a lot to tell you what’s going on, including when a GPS signal has been found, which is usually within 20 seconds or so.

If there’s a fault with the microSD card, video is recorded to on-board memory but the voice tells you “there’s a problem with the SD card” every couple of minutes.

The main interface is via the app, which is available for Android and iOS. You connect via Wi-Fi to the X2 Pro and you can review and download videos and photos.

Oddly, though, there are hardly any camera settings. All you can change is the resolution. There’s no need to set the date and time as this is done via GPS, but it does mean you don’t get any choice about what information is stamped onto the video, which is just the date and time.

Worse is that you can’t disable the annoying start-up welcome message which says “Hello ding ding pie”, and sometimes twice. All you can do is adjust the speaker volume via the app.

The app itself is one of the best around. Although there’s a bit of a delay because you’re streaming video via Wi-Fi, performance is the best I’ve seen from a Wi-Fi dash cam. This is potentially down to the use of those HiSilicon processors.

They’re by no means high end – there’s no support for recording at 60fps, for example – but the whole system is responsive.

You can scroll through thumbnails of the videos rather than a list of filenames, which means it should be quicker to find what you’re looking for.

The best part, though, is that you can start a download, then stop it before the complete file has downloaded. It means you can grab just the section you need (the video plays while downloading so you can see what’s being saved) which saves time and storage space.

Downloading was a little hit and miss. Some files failed every time, while others started downloading almost instantly. Of course, you can grab the microSD card from the camera and pop it in a card reader to more quickly transfer lots of files to your laptop or PC.

If you’re viewing files directly from the camera, you’ll see a map and your location on it, and you can swipe to a ‘dashboard’ screen to see speed and other data. But for downloaded videos, you’ll just see the video.

The app allows you to trim videos, add music, remove any recorded audio and then share them by any way your phone allows, such as uploading to cloud or social media sites, by message or email, or you can even use the social aspect to post your footage or photos for other DDPai users to see and comment on.

Correct English isn’t the app’s strong suit: the firmware upgrade message is so confusing, you’re left wondering if it’s safe to tap ‘Update now’ or not.

In July 2017, a 4G version will launch so you’ll be able to view and download video files from the camera even when you’re miles from your car. There’s no word on pricing for this, however.

Performance

Video quality from the front camera is good, but it’s not noticeably better than a £100 dash cam. There is a good amount of detail, and you can generally read signs and number plates when you pause the video on a laptop or PC – not your 5in phone screen because there’s no way to zoom in on the video.

When recording in 1080p at 30fps, video is recorded at 10Mb/s. Here’s an example:

At the rear, 720p video has a much lower bitrate of 3Mb/s. This means quality is noticeably poorer and it can sometimes be tricky to work out whether a numberplate has an O or a D on it.

At night, quality is also good but as with all dash cams, it’s rare you’ll capture registration plates unless you’re very close and your lights aren’t reflecting off them.

Specs

DDPai X2 Pro: Specs

• Display Size: N/A
• 140° lens (front), 120° lens (rear)
• Resolution: 1440p25 (front), 720p30 (rear)
• GPS Logging: Yes
• Speed Camera Alert: No
• Micro SD Included: Yes (32GB)
• 98 x 62 x 29mm (main camera)
• Accessories: 3.5m car charger, adhesive mounts, mini USB cable to rear camera, wireless button

Best Prices Today: DDPai X2 Pro

Author: Jim Martin, Executive Editor, Tech Advisor

Jim has been testing and reviewing products for over 20 years. His main beats include VPN services and antivirus. He also covers smart home tech, mesh Wi-Fi and electric bikes.

Recent stories by Jim Martin:

• The best dash cams 2023
• Nextbase iQ review
• Nextbase launches internet-connected iQ car security camera

At a Glance

Expert’s Rating

Our Verdict

Despite the mediocre app and slow Wi-Fi transfer times, the Nextbase 312GW is an excellent all-round dash cam. It offers great-quality footage during the day, is easy to use and has a convenient magnetic mount that allows you to quickly remove and replace the camera without unplugging cables. As long as you don’t want your video recorded at 60 frames per second, it’s an excellent choice at this price.

Best Prices Today: Nextbase 312GW

The Nextbase 312GW is a smart-looking dash cam which does a lot well, and only a little badly. It has a 2.7in screen that’s flanked by well-labelled buttons which makes it easy to use.

Nextbase 312GW review: Price

This puts it in direct competition with the Asus Reco Classic – a dash cam we rate very highly.

One of several things in the Nextbase’s favour is that it’s on the dash cam lists of several insurers, some of which will give you a bigger discount if you tell them the make and model when you take out (or renew) the policy. Swiftcover offers a 12.5 percent discount for Nextbase cameras – it only offers 10 percent for other makes. If you want a bigger 20 percent discount, try Sure Thing! , a new insurer which which has teamed up with Nextbase.

Update 21 November: There’s now a limited edition Rose Gold model which you can buy from Halfords for £99.99.

Nextbase 312GW review: Features and design

The Asus Reco Classic has an unusual portrait design which makes it a little unwieldy in certain cars. The 312GW, meanwhile, adopts the standard landscape orientation which means it sits a bit higher in the car and doesn’t impede the passenger’s view.

The rear-mounted buttons aren’t as easy to use if you mount the camera immediately behind you review-view mirror, but then again, you won’t see the screen easily if you do that.

Another reason to mount it so you can see it is that it slides backwards off its magnetic mount, leaving the power cable attached to the GPS receiver built into the windscreen suction mount. This makes it so easy to quickly remove it and pop it in your glovebox when you park without fiddling around with cables or having to readjust the angle when you reattach it. The same can’t be said about the Asus – it’s removable, but it’s not nearly as easy.

The 312GW comes preset with the most common settings, so most people shouldn’t need to adjust anything – even the date and time should be correct because it’s part of the GPS data, but you may need to adjust for British Summer Time.

What you might want to change is whether or not your speed is stamped on the video. Time, date, location and even your number plate can all be there, but if you’re prone to a heavy right foot, it’s probably best not to incriminate yourself by recording excessive speed on your dash cam.

There’s built-in Wi-Fi, too, but as I’ve said in previous dash cam reviews, it’s an unnecessary extra. It sounds good to have, but the reality is that it isn’t as convenient as whipping the camera off its mount and connecting it to a PC.

Nextbase claims that the 312GW is the world’s most connected dash cam, but it fails to live up to this promise. It says you can easily share the video with friends, family, your insurer or the police. But as videos exist only within the Nextbase app and aren’t part of your camera roll, all you can do is tap the upload button (and the video uploads only when the app is open).

Videos are uploaded to Nextbase’s server and you then get a link that you can share. What it needs, of course, is a trim function so you can upload only the relevant section of a long video. This would make it faster all round: quicker to upload, quicker for the recipient to download and quicker to see the incident itself.

You can take a screenshot (as you can in any app) so you’ve got a still of an incident which is then easy share, but the dated-looking app could be so much better.

You enable Wi-Fi through the 312GW’s menu, and the screen displays the network name and the 12345678 password. Before you connect, you’ll have to install the free Nextbase Cam Viewer app (for iOS and Android).

When connected, you see a live view on your phone’s screen along with ugly folders which you can tap to see either videos on the camera or those stored on your phone. To download a video, you tap the download button, then select the video you want and tap Done. Selecting more than one at a time is unwise: a single 187MB file (one 2-minute loop) took 2 minutes and 44 seconds to download to our iPhone 6S.

When connecting the camera to a PC, the same transfer took less than 20 seconds, and it’s then much easier to take screengrabs or upload the video you YouTube or a file sharing service such as Dropbox, which allow you to give others a download link.

Nextbase 312GW review: Performance

While it doesn’t have a wide dynamic range option like the Asus Reco Classic, image quality from the 312GW is very good. It uses the same six-element lens as the much more expensive 512G, but lacks the polarising filter. In many situations, though, the 312GW equals the 512G’s quality, particularly in daylight. (Click the image to enlarge it.)

Whether sunny or in rain, you can almost always make out the registration plates of cars parked at the side of the road, or those on cars driving in the opposite direction. The 140-degree lens means you don’t have to be as close to the car in front to read its plate as some competitors with wider lenses, but you’re still not going to be able to read them at motorway cruising distances.

The top quality is 1920×1080 at 30fps and – in common with most dash cams – it’s recorded at roughly 12Mb/s

At night quality is markedly reduced, and you’ll be lucky to make out any registrations at all. But the same goes for all dash cams, including the 512G and Asus.

Audio recording isn’t quite as clear as on the Asus, but unless you need to hear your own breathing, it isn’t a reason to demote the 312GW on your shortlist.

Here’s the quality at night – bear in mind that as ever, our video player compresses the footage and loses a little sharpness and detail:

Specs

Nextbase 312GW: Specs

• Display Size: 2.7in
• 140° wide-angle lens
• GPS Logging: Yes
• Speed Camera Alert: No
• Micro SD Included: No
• 32GB SD card recording time – 4.6 hours
• 92 x 56 x 37 mm
• Accessories: 4m car charger, suction mount, mini USB cable

Best Prices Today: Nextbase 312GW

Author: Jim Martin, Executive Editor, Tech Advisor

Jim has been testing and reviewing products for over 20 years. His main beats include VPN services and antivirus. He also covers smart home tech, mesh Wi-Fi and electric bikes.

Recent stories by Jim Martin:

• The best dash cams 2023
• Nextbase iQ review
• Nextbase launches internet-connected iQ car security camera

At a glance

Expert’s Rating

Pros

• Great monitoring features
• Impressive app
• Easy to install

Cons

• Expensive
• Subscription required for connected features
• Some features not yet available

Our Verdict

The iQ is a smart security camera you can put in practically any car and get alerts on your phone if anything happens. It’s expensive though, and there’s not much point in buying one unless you also take out a subscription. It has promise, but at the time of review was missing some of its big features.

Best Prices Today: Nextbase iQ 2K Smart Dashcam

Nextbase has spent years developing the iQ, and its launch was pushed back several times. It’s now on sale at last, albeit without a couple of key features that the company has shouted hyped up over the past 18 months or so.

However, as hard a concept as it is to sell to consumers, the iQ is meant to be an ever-evolving platform that will get new features over time.

The only problem with that approach is that this isn’t a cheap gadget and, as with so many internet-connected ones, you need to pay a subscription to use the features.. even if they’re not yet there.

There are three models in the range: 1K, 2K and 4K, starting at £349 / $499 and rising to £449 / $699. The resolutions refer to the forward-facing camera, but there’s also a cabin-facing camera, and an optional rear camera for £149 / $199 which wasn’t quite on sale at the time of writing but should be from 14 November.

Nextbase sent the 4K model for review.

Features & design

• Easy to install
• Embedded SIM
• 64GB microSD card included

The iQ has been designed from the ground up, and that’s very obvious if you’ve seen or owned any of the company’s previous dash cams.

It has a fairly chunky base which attaches to your windscreen and has a fabric speaker cover much like a smart speaker. The LED ring only adds to that similarity.

Jon L. Jacobi / Foundry

The two cameras are mounted in a pendant-style unit that points downwards into the car. In your hand, it seems like it will be large and obtrusive, but when installed it really isn’t.

The design is necessary for the camera to get a good view of the interior and passengers. The cabin camera also has infrared LEDs so you can still see what’s going on at night when the cabin is dark.

Nextbase includes a 64GB microSD card which you shouldn’t ever need to remove from the iQ, but you can upgrade it to 256GB if you want to.

It’s used to record video like a traditional dash cam, but the iQ does way more than that, and I’ll get to that in a second.

Installing the iQ in your car is simple because Nextbase includes a clever power cable that plugs into your car’s OBD II port. You might have to Google its location if you’re not familiar, but all cars since around 1996 have one.

Jim Martin / Foundry

The connector is as slim as possible so should fit behind a cover, but the cable exits from the side which proved to be a problem in my wife’s 2013 Vauxhall Corsa which has a recessed OBD II port, making it impossible to plug it in. It wasn’t an issue in my Ford Focus though.

There is a solution in the box though: fuse taps that you can connect to the appropriate fuse in your car’s interior fuse box. The only disadvantage is that you need to know which fuse to use, and to find a handy bolt that connects to the car’s chassis to which to attach the negative wire.

The only gotcha is that the adhesive mount needs to be stuck to your windscreen in a precise orientation. Rotate it slightly left or right and the iQ won’t be vertical, so it’s a good idea to offer it up with the camera attached to the mount.

Jim Martin / Foundry

The power and rear camera cable use proprietary connectors, like squared-off USB-C, which attach neatly into the rear of the iQ.

Jim Martin / Foundry

As part of the process you need to install the Nextbase iQ app on your phone and create an account. The app will walk you through the hardware installation and ask if you have a rear camera. The iQ’s data connection should activate and you’ll have to scan a tiny QR code on the iQ’s screen.

This is where the process fell down for me, as the code seemed far too bright in the preview and any slight movement of the phone caused it to blur. Using the tips provided in the app, it did eventually scan after I double-tapped the preview to turn on my phone’s rear LED flashlight and slowly move the phone closer to and away from the screen until it scanned.

Jim Martin / Foundry

If you manage to jump this particular hurdle, the iQ will download the latest firmware and restart, at which point you can see the live camera view and adjust the angle to get the best view of the road ahead (and behind if you have the rear cam).

Live view & alerts

Getting back to features, the embedded SIM means the iQ is always connected to the internet. It isn’t the first dash cam to do this, but it’s certainly the best-executed.

Via the Nextbase iQ app, which has clearly been inspired by Ring’s, and with the appropriate subscription in place, you can watch the live views from each camera and see on a map exactly where the car is along with the What3Words location.

Jim Martin / Foundry

Of course, any security camera worth its salt will tell you when something important is happening and the iQ is good at it. Using a variety of sensors, including radar, it will send you notifications of “Parking events”, which could be someone reversing into your car in a car park or a person loitering with intent. I found it would also notify me when I parked up and got out of the car, and again when I returned.

You can watch the recorded event, which shows all camera views on the same screen, and a useful red highlight on the playback bar means you can skip straight to where the action happened.

Jim Martin / Foundry

These aren’t the original full-resolution versions, though. They’re standard-def 848×480-pixel clips.

In the SmartSense settings in the app you can adjust how far away in each quadrant to monitor. There’s also a setting for the ‘activation voltage’ at which SmartSense should kick in.

Jim Martin / Foundry

This is different from the ‘Low power cut-off’ setting which shuts off the iQ if your car battery drops below a set voltage in order to ensure it doesn’t drain so much you can’t start the engine.

Emergency SOS

One of the other main safety features is Emergency SOS, something previous Nextbase dash cams have offered. You’ll need a Protect Plus subscription to enable it.

When set up, the iQ will monitor for a “severe crash” and when it detects one it will automatically send an SOS to emergency services with your exact location and – if you’ve provided it – your medical data.

You’ll receive a call back from those services but if you’re unable to answer, an ambulance will be dispatched to your location automatically.

Voice commands

You can also say a variety of other things prefixed by “Hey dash cam” such as:

• Turn the microphone on
• Turn the microphone off
• Start recording
• Stop recording
• Lock this file
• Turn the cabin camera off
• Turn the cabin camera on

For each, your command is processed locally and there are many variations of each command so you don’t have to remember the exact phrase. They all worked reliably when I tried them while driving.

Fortunately, turning the mic off only means audio isn’t recorded – it remains on to listen for your next command.

Currently, there’s no spoken feedback: everything is communicated using alert tones and a small LCD display which shows icons – it isn’t used for showing video.

Missing features

As mentioned, a couple of features are not available at launch. One is Guardian Mode. This is designed partly for parents with young drivers who want to keep tabs on them. When it’s added, you’ll be able to set speed and location limits, and get notifications when the car exceeds or leaves them.

This is also useful if you leave the car at a garage for repair, or with a valet.

A talk-back feature will allow you to communicate with whoever is in the car, too.

The second headline feature that isn’t available is Roadwatch AI. This uses a combination of computer vision and radar to identify other road users, their speed and trajectory.

This data can then be used alongside the video itself to help prove what happened if there is, for example, a collision.

As the iQ records video using H.265, you can’t use Nextbase’s current desktop viewer as it supports only H.264, so there was no way of getting at any of the recorded meta data at the time of review.

Performance & quality

As you’d expect at these prices, quality is good, although perhaps not as good as might hope for. Resolution depends upon the model you buy. The 1K has 1080p front and cabin cameras, but the interior is recorded at 1440p if you buy the 2K or 4K models.

The rear camera records at 1440p and can be connected to any of the three models.

Jim Martin / Foundry

I tested the 4K and the quality from the main front-facing camera is generally respectable, and a step up from Nextbase’s 622. There’s lots of detail which means you can read registration plates of other vehicles, whether they’re parked or driving.

There are quite a few exceptions to this, though. At night or if the weather is bad, details can be obscured by rain on your windows, or because your car’s headlights are reflecting off number plates.

The wide field of view means cars also have to be quite close by, otherwise their plates are simply too small to see. Usually, though, you only care about these details if another car hits yours – meaning it will be very close.

As there’s no HDR, dynamic range is somewhat limited and this can cause over- or underexposure when the sun is in the frame.

It’s surprising there’s no polariser for the front or rear cameras, neither built-in nor optional. There are just two video quality settings in the app, too, one being to disable audio recording. That leaves only exposure, which can be set separately for each camera.

Here are some examples of snapshots from day and night recording from all three cameras.

In the app, you’ll find recordings split into two sections: Events and Library.

Events is the important stuff, such as impacts, motion detected while parked and manual recordings where you’ve locked a file by saying the command, or pressing the button on the underside of the iQ. All are uploaded to the cloud automatically if you have a Protect Plus subscription.

Library is where you’ll see a complete timeline of all the events along with the regular continuous clips recorded while driving along. You can download any of these clips within the app as long as the iQ has power and a mobile data signal – and you have a Protect or Protect Plus subscription.

Whenever you download something, you can pick which of the camera feeds to include: you don’t have to download all of them.

It can take a while for the iQ to wake up and start streaming video if it’s in low-power mode, but the app does a great job of telling you what it’s doing rather than merely showing a spinning circle.

Although there’s built-in Wi-Fi, Nextbase says it’s working on a direct Wi-Fi link and expects local downloading to be possible some 4-6 weeks after launch.

You can of course take out the microSD card and pop it into a card reader on your laptop or PC but Nextbase has added an HD download option in the app. Unfortunately, this is only for videos in the Library tab. It’s not an option in the Events tab, but those are the clips you’re more likely to want to download. There, you’ll see the standard-def version which are automatically uploaded to the cloud as part of a Protect Plus subscription.

Continuous recording splits clips into 30-second chunks. These are 143MB for the front 4K camera, and 86MB for the cabin and rear 2K cameras. Alongside each is a low-resolution 5MB version which is what you see in the app.

With all three cameras recording, the 64GB card can hold around 1.5 hours of footage.

In terms of power usage, I found the iQ worked fine in a car that’s used every day and has a battery that’s in good health. But if you leave it parked a lot of the time, you’ll find the iQ switches off to preserve power after a day or two and therefore won’t be able to notify you or record anything.

Price & availability

In the UK you can buy the iQ from Halfords or direct from Nextbase .

As mentioned, the 1K costs £349, the 2K £399 and the 4K £499. The rear camera is £149.

In the US prices are higher: $499, $599 and $699 respectively, and these are the same whether you buy from Nextbase or Best Buy .

It’s possible to use the iQ without a subscription: the free tier is called ‘Solo’. The only feature it includes is text notifications sent when an event has been detected. These don’t specify what type of event and as you can’t connect remotely, you won’t be able to see the live view, nor watch cloud recordings of the event.

This means a subscription is essential: without it, the iQ isn’t much different to traditional dash cams.

In the UK the cheaper Protect tier costs £6.99 per month or £69.99 per year, while Protect Plus is £9.99 or £99.99.

In the US, prices are again higher at $9.99 per month or $99.99 for a year of Protect, while Protect Plus is $19.99 per month or $199.99 per year.

Protect Plus stores events for 180 days and also adds multiple user accounts (so other family members can use the app), Emergency SOS and automatic incident backup. The latter is an important distinction: if you opt only for Protect, nothing is uploaded: you just get the option to download videos remotely to your phone manually.

For alternatives, see our roundup of the best dash cams.

Should I buy the Nextbase iQ?

The iQ is the smartest dash cam I’ve reviewed. It’s great to be able to watch the live view and see what’s going on when notifications arrive, as well as see where your car is from the GPS location.

The app is – on the whole – great and it makes the iQ easy to use. Voice commands are useful, too.

However, despite that long development time, the iQ feels like an unfinished product. There are a fair few features missing, not just Roadwatch AI and Guardian Mode but things like the ability to download full-resolution videos to your phone via Wi-Fi and watch videos alongside GPS and G-sensor data. Firmware updates, of which there have been a good few during my testing, aren’t notified: you have to go into the settings and check manually to see if there’s a new version to download.

Nextbase says it’s working hard to address these things, but there are no guarantees of when they’ll arrive.

Regardless, price is going to be the sticking point for many: paying £349 / $499 for a 1080p camera is asking a lot, and it’s a further £149 / $200 for the rear camera (which is a wise investment).

Given the relatively high subscription prices it’s disappointing that videos backed up to the cloud are so low quality and that you need Protect Plus for events to be uploaded to the cloud automatically: a feature we take for granted on Wi-Fi security cameras.

Finally, there’s the one-year warranty, which is standard for Nextbase. But with the promise of the iQ being upgraded with new features over a longer period than that, it feels too short.

Ultimately, the iQ is a great security device for your car which should improve over time. I’ve no reason to doubt that Nextbase will make good on those promises, but you might want to wait a bit until some of them are fulfilled before shelling out.

Best Prices Today: Nextbase iQ 2K Smart Dashcam

Author: Jim Martin, Executive Editor, Tech Advisor

Jim has been testing and reviewing products for over 20 years. His main beats include VPN services and antivirus. He also covers smart home tech, mesh Wi-Fi and electric bikes.

Recent stories by Jim Martin:

• The best dash cams 2023
• Nextbase launches internet-connected iQ car security camera
• Viofo A229 Duo review: 1440p front + rear video

Nextbase officially announced the iQ at CES 2022. It’s a new range of dash cams that do more than simply recording when you’re driving and parked up.

That’s because it’s also a security camera for your car. And no security device would be much use if it couldn’t notify you of critical events. So one of the iQ’s key features is internet connectivity, but it has a bunch of other features as well.

It isn’t the only dash cam to have a built-in SIM – Blackvue’s DVR750 and Thinkware’s T700 LTE already have them – but the iQ does more and offers higher resolution video.

How much does the Nextbase iQ cost?

There are three models:

• 1K – 1080p resolution – £349
• 2K – 1440p resolution – £399
• 4K – 2160p (UHD) resolution – £449

All three have two cameras, one facing the road in front, and one facing the cabin. The cabin camera on the 4K model records at 1440p, not 4K. A 1440p rear camera will be available in the near future for £149, and this mounts in your rear window for a clear view of what’s happening behind.

In the US, subscription costs are higher. Protect costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 annually, while Protect Plus is $19.99 per month or $199.99 per year.

When is the Nextbase iQ release date?

Developing the IQ took longer than expected: the company had originally said it would go on sale before the end of 2022, then pushed it back to spring 2023.

The iQ was finally released on 30 October 2023.

You can buy an iQ immediately from Nextbase , or from Halfords in the UK.

Nextbase

What are the Nextbase iQ’s features?

At launch the iQ has the following features, but Nextbase has always said this is just the beginning and it plans to add new features regularly in the future.

• Smart Sense Parking : Using a combination of radar and g-force sensors, you get notifications (with images and video) when someone is acting suspiciously around your vehicle
• Driving/Security Mode : The iQ automatically switches between driving and parking modes, connecting to either your car’s OBD II port, or using the included hard-wire kit.
• Witness Mode . Activated using your voice, this records any incident and uploads the recording to the cloud and shares it with an emergency contact or designated third party in real-time.
• Live View: Just like a home security camera, you can watch the live camera feeds at any time via the Nextbase iQ app.
• Event notifications: Sent in real-time for events you’ll care about such as when someone reverses into your car in the car park or when an intruder attempts to enter your vehicle. Fast wake-up means you won’t miss anything important.
• Remote Alarm: Via the app you can set off the iQ’s built-in alarm to deter intruders.
• Emergency SOS : Alerts the emergency services with your location and other critical details following a serious accident.

Future features, which are already well into their development, include:

• Guardian Mode: Sends a notification when your vehicle exceeds a set speed or location, useful for parents wanting to keep tabs on young drivers.
• Push to Talk : This lets you to speak to anyone in the vehicle, whether your kids or an intruder.
• Roadwatch AI : Tracks the speeds and trajectories of other vehicles around you, as well as pedestrians, cyclists and e-scooters, providing warnings to the driver and evidence that can help prove who was at fault in the event of a collision.

Another feature on the horizon is Driver Aware. Also known as DMS, this will monitor the driver using infrared sensors and provide alters to combat distracted and/or drowsy driving.

Nextbase

Nextbase iQ subscriptions

As mentioned, there are three options. Solo is free, but doesn’t allow you to connect to the iQ remotely to see live or recorded video. Here’s how they compare. Any marked with an asterisk means those features are coming soon:

Solo – Free

• Nextbase iQ app
• Voice control
• Real-time text notifications

Protect – £6.99 per month or £69.99 annually

• Nextbase iQ app
• Voice Control
• Real-time image notifications
• Live View (60 minutes)
• Smart Sense Parking
• Witness mode
• *RoadWatch AI
• *Guardian Mode
• Remote Alarm
• Cloud Storage – 30 days

Protect Plus – £9.99 per month or £99.99 annually

• Nextbase iQ app
• Voice Control
• Real-time image notifications
• Live View (120 minutes)
• Live View Look Back
• Smart Sense Parking
• Witness mode
• *RoadWatch AI
• *Guardian Mode
• Remote Alarm
• Cloud Storage – 180 days
• *Multiple User Accounts
• Emergency SOS
• Automated incident back-up

We’re reviewing the iQ and will have a full review soon. If you need recommendations of more affordable models, here are the best dash cams to buy .

Author: Jim Martin, Executive Editor, Tech Advisor

Jim has been testing and reviewing products for over 20 years. His main beats include VPN services and antivirus. He also covers smart home tech, mesh Wi-Fi and electric bikes.

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