Traffic accidents are increasing every year. Thinkware are a leading Dashcam brand, who I have used before, so I immediately said yes when I was offered the chance to review one of their leading models. Read on for my Thinkware F770 Dashcam Review.
Thinkware F770 Installation
The installation of the F770 was done professionally, and seeing what was involved this is definitely a sensible option unless you’re experienced with auto electrics.
Installation Images:
Rear Camera
The rear camera is optional, you can buy the F770 in front only, or front and rear camera combinations. The cabling is brought through the electrical conduit into the roof space of the car. It then runs along the roof to the rear passenger door, down the door pillar and then along the sill line to the front of the car to the fuse box which in my Mitsubishi Outlander, like many cars, is behind the glove box.
Make sure the rear camera is low enough that the glass is cleared by the rear window wiper.
It’s important the cable from the rear isn’t taken along the roof line all the way to the front due to airbag ‘curtains’ that are in that space and could not deploy correctly if an additional cable was added there.
Front Camera
The front camera was fitted high up on the front windscreen, next to the rear view mirror. The lens was position just below the wiper ‘sweep’ so it would get good visibility in the rain.
The F770 has a nice low profile, and is very discreet when viewed from the outside. Thanks to the tint and sun glare protection on the windscreen is is barely visible at all.
Once installed the F770 has some front facing LED lights that can ‘pulse’ left and right to indicate the unit is running, and makes it more prominent to anyone in front. I chose to turn this off however as I don’t want to draw attention to the unit.
Remote WiFi Connection
In order to configure the F770 you need to connect to it over WiFi. You add the Thinkware Dashcam App from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store onto your phone. Then press the WiFi connection button on the main unit. “WiFi pairing mode” is announced.
Connect to the Thinkware WiFi network from your phone, then toggle the “Connect” slider in the App and you’re connected. The F770 announces when a phone is connected, and automatically stops recording.
You can then configure a host of settings via the App, or view/download stored recordings. The App interface is very dated and could do with an update, but what’s there is simple to follow and works.
Parking Mode
The Settings are extensive, and include the settings for Parking mode if you installed a permanent 12v feed in addition to the ignition feed. You can set Parking mode to 6 hours / 12 hours or 24 hours – which starts when you turn the car off. This is one of the features that really sets the F770 apart from competitors.
There is a voltage detector which will disable parking monitoring if your 12v battery drops too low, meaning it shouldn’t cause you to come out to a flat battery the next day!
When you get back in the car, the F770 announces how many parked motion detectors were recorded from the previous session.
Reliability is something I value the most in a dashcam. I’ve bought £50 units before and either has them visibly fail, or worse – fail without you realising until you suddenly need them. In this Thinkware F770 Dashcam Review it was something I was pleased to find that the F770 has good notifications that its running so you can always be sure its working when you set off on each journey.
Key Features
- SUPER NIGHT VISION
- Time Lapse
- Road Safety Warning System
- Safety Camera Alert
- 1080p Full HD & Full HD 2CH 30fps
- Advanced Video Clear Technology
- Built-in Wi-Fi
- Built-in GPS
- DUAL SAVE® (Internal Backup Memory)
F770 Audio Prompts
One of the more annoying features of the F770 is you cannot make it silent. There is no volume control on the device itself. The remote App has a volume slider, but even when you set to its lowest point, you can still hear audible notifications of speed camera zones. They are at least relatively discreet at this setting.
About once a month though, the F770 will prompt you to format the memory card. This ignores the App set volume and announces very noticeable on start-up, every start-up, (repeating itself 4 times) until you give in and format the memory card!
The same goes for the notification of events while in parking mode, but this I’m a lot more tolerant of as its something you would want to be notified of, and only gets announced once.
Super Night Vision
The Super Night Vision, which is optimized for cars parked in dark environments, delivers up to 10 times the brightness of existing dash cams on the market, featuring a new image signal processing (ISP) technology and a real-time video processing function. This sets the F770 apart from the other dashcams we’ve tested in the past.
Recorded Video Samples
See some sample front and rear daytime footage I took while driving below.
See some sample night time footage I took while driving below:
Thinkware F770 Dashcam Review Conclusions
The Thinkware F770 dashcam is a solid contender if you’re looking for a new dashcam. Its particularly suited if you want a discreet front and rear dashcam you can ‘set and forget’, and has outstanding camera quality.
There are a few annoyances, mostly in the audio prompts, but once you get past those this will give you peace and mind that any incidents will be recorded and captured in high quality.
Pros
- Low profile and discreet
- Set and forget – works flawlessly.
- Camera image quality is excellent
Cons
- No screen to confirm recording view (can be live viewed by the App though)
- Annoying voice prompts which cannot be disabled, especially on the frequent ‘format memory card’ alerts.
- App interface is dated
>> Buy the Thinkware F770 Dashcam on Amazon UK from £229.00
>> Official Thinkware F770 Dashcam website
This post was written by Rob Gordon, an IT geek, gadget lover and blogger. Rob has been using the internets since 1994 when the only streaming video was that coffee pot in Cambridge (rip)….
Follow Rob on Twitter – @robgordon – about.me/robgordonuk
