LateralNW
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2016
- Messages
- 1,146
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- Country
- Australia
- Dash Cam
- VArious
I posted this after I had shown the review in another thread. I am now updating this so it makes much more sense
I won this Dashcam on this site from Vantrue.
As many regular readers on this site will know I'm more familiar with Viofo products.
I have created an unboxing video and also show the Dashcam starting and how the touch screen responds.
I also have a first look at what the Vantrue app does in brief.
I expected a 3 channel unit to arrive but for whatever reason (near xmas, out of stock, forgotten) it was the main unit only.
This Dashcam was sent via Amazon arriving in only 2 days! I'm not used to things arriving that fast.
Well packed in a solid labeled box - see video.
When I removed the main unit from the box I don't know why but I didn't expect the main unit to have such a great solid feel.
It has a quality feel and both the front facing and cabin facing camera have excellent firm movement. I don't see these lens moving by driving over ruff roads.
Things that stood out was that it only has one physical button,
that the gps mount once stuck down to the windscreen with the supplied 3M tape is permanent,
that is you can remove the main unit as it can be slid off the gps mount but it's the same problem as some other Dashcams it stuck for good
of course you could pry it off the windscreen but that's not really ideal.
I have since discovered that you can run the dashcam on the USB C port that would normally be used for a third camera. You would only use this because you don't have the GPS adapter which in turn means that it won't have GPS information.
On startup you are prompted with simple questions, language, date and time, gps location eg London I think would be 0 and Sydney +10 (or 11 for current daylight savings)
It then prompts if you would like to format the micro SD card which can be up to 512GB (can't test that as I don't have one that large)
Every answer is done by the touch screen, not a single physical button to press.
The touch screen is responsive and a pleasure to use. See video
After those steps it's ready and starts recording.
It has a really neat feature in how to decide when the cabin camera requires Infrared turned on by an LCR(or similar )which also activates the internal IR filter to turn on/off.
This allows for full colour when it has sufficient light. On some Dashcams you'll find that it turns certain colours pink ish which is not such a great look.
Here's a link to its specs but I will also confirm them soon.
In some preliminary testing I found the unit just worked you can hear a very faint click when the IR cut is activated/deactivated.
On a warm day 26c in direct sunlight and possibly 45c in the car it wouldn't start. After the aircon was on for say 5mins it was fine. Interestingly the A129 Duo started up straight away.
So why have I suggested the Vantrue S2 might be a preferred option to the T130?
Well the S2 is a wedge similar to the A139 has a tidier cable setup has a screen which is also touch sensitive with a really nice layout for configuring the device.
Similar resolution in two camera mode and is able to go a higher resolution in front camera mode only. (oddly I have found that with two cameras working it seems to still do 2K on the front camera. Its not possible to set this in the onscreen menus however. I'm not sure what made it change to 2K with the interior dashcam on.)
The video I've recorded so far during daylight does seem like it has the colour turned up a bit. Video quality I'm still deciding.
Here's the unboxing video
Other link now redundant.
dashcamtalk.com
I won this Dashcam on this site from Vantrue.
As many regular readers on this site will know I'm more familiar with Viofo products.
I have created an unboxing video and also show the Dashcam starting and how the touch screen responds.
I also have a first look at what the Vantrue app does in brief.
I expected a 3 channel unit to arrive but for whatever reason (near xmas, out of stock, forgotten) it was the main unit only.
This Dashcam was sent via Amazon arriving in only 2 days! I'm not used to things arriving that fast.
Well packed in a solid labeled box - see video.
When I removed the main unit from the box I don't know why but I didn't expect the main unit to have such a great solid feel.
It has a quality feel and both the front facing and cabin facing camera have excellent firm movement. I don't see these lens moving by driving over ruff roads.
Things that stood out was that it only has one physical button,
that the gps mount once stuck down to the windscreen with the supplied 3M tape is permanent,
that is you can remove the main unit as it can be slid off the gps mount but it's the same problem as some other Dashcams it stuck for good
of course you could pry it off the windscreen but that's not really ideal.
I have since discovered that you can run the dashcam on the USB C port that would normally be used for a third camera. You would only use this because you don't have the GPS adapter which in turn means that it won't have GPS information.
On startup you are prompted with simple questions, language, date and time, gps location eg London I think would be 0 and Sydney +10 (or 11 for current daylight savings)
It then prompts if you would like to format the micro SD card which can be up to 512GB (can't test that as I don't have one that large)
Every answer is done by the touch screen, not a single physical button to press.
The touch screen is responsive and a pleasure to use. See video
After those steps it's ready and starts recording.
It has a really neat feature in how to decide when the cabin camera requires Infrared turned on by an LCR(or similar )which also activates the internal IR filter to turn on/off.
This allows for full colour when it has sufficient light. On some Dashcams you'll find that it turns certain colours pink ish which is not such a great look.
Here's a link to its specs but I will also confirm them soon.
In some preliminary testing I found the unit just worked you can hear a very faint click when the IR cut is activated/deactivated.
On a warm day 26c in direct sunlight and possibly 45c in the car it wouldn't start. After the aircon was on for say 5mins it was fine. Interestingly the A129 Duo started up straight away.
So why have I suggested the Vantrue S2 might be a preferred option to the T130?
Well the S2 is a wedge similar to the A139 has a tidier cable setup has a screen which is also touch sensitive with a really nice layout for configuring the device.
Similar resolution in two camera mode and is able to go a higher resolution in front camera mode only. (oddly I have found that with two cameras working it seems to still do 2K on the front camera. Its not possible to set this in the onscreen menus however. I'm not sure what made it change to 2K with the interior dashcam on.)
The video I've recorded so far during daylight does seem like it has the colour turned up a bit. Video quality I'm still deciding.
Here's the unboxing video
Other link now redundant.
Vantrue S2 a T130 competitor?
I won this Dashcam on this site from Vantrue. As many regular readers on this site will know I'm more familiar with Viofo products. I have created an unboxing video and also show the Dashcam starting and how the touch screen responds. I also have a first look at what the Vantrue app does in...
dashcamtalk.com
Last edited:
(Fingers Crossed)
