Xiaomi Xiaoyi Smart CAR DVR Dashcam Recorder Camera Full Review(Operation Video Included)
Right now i am presenting the review of the Xiaomi Xiaoyi Smart Car DVR dashcam which was on sale for about $50 USD recently from Tomtop.com. It is quite important nowadays to have a DVR in your car as witnesses are more and more reluctant to help you when you get in an accident, either because they’re too busy or just don’t want the hassle. That is why it is important to protect yourself with a good quality DVR so you can accurately record what happened and provide it to the police or your insurance company, because at the end of the day, words are just words but video doesn’t lie. This is where Xiaomi / Xiaoyi comes in. With an well-established reputation through their action cam’s, it’s really a natural evolution for them to expand into the Car DVR market as the hardware is basically the same, all that needs to change is the type of mount. Which is why when you look at the Xiaoyi Car DVR, you’d probably think it’s an action cam rather than a Car DVR.
The Xiaomi Xiaoyi Car DVR is a DVR with 165 degree wide field of view, it has a large F-Stop 1.8 Aperture allowing it to capture clear day and night shots. It takes transflash / microsd memory cards upto 64gb Class 10. On the back it has a large 2.7 inch colour LCD screen with 960×240 resolution. It is powered by an internal 240mAh lithium polymer battery for G-Sensor stationary recording or by its main MicroUSB power input. The DVR itself can record in H.264 mp4 format in 3 different modes: 1080p at 30fps, 1080p at 60fps and 1296p at 30fps. Please check out our video review for sample videos of these three resolutions. One great feature of the Xiaoyi Car DVR is the fact that it has 802.11n Wifi built into the unit and its interface. This allows you to connect to the Car DVR via Wifi & the YI DVR app (Android / IOS available), and view or download recordings wirelessly to your personal device. This means you don’t need to be constantly taking out and plugging in your microsd card to copy / view your recordings, which will lower the wear and tear on the memory card and the memory card slot.
In terms of accessories it comes with the DVR itself, a very very long MicroUSB cable (which you’re supposed to snake around your windshield and under your console, in order to hide the cable from view), a Xiaomi Branded single USB adapter with 5V/1A and a 3M adhesive mount (although it states it’s supposed to come with the suction mount). Overall all components, as well as the DVR itself, are of high quality and do not feel “cheap”.
After operating and testing the device for the past week here are our findings:
1)Build quality is extremely good
2)While day time recordings are very clear, night recordings do suffer slightly from haloing from light sources. Do keep in mind though that the most important thing a Car DVR needs to do is clearly and accurately record the circumstances in which a car event takes place. So while it might not be crystal clear, it’s more than clear enough to be submitted as evidence to police or your insurance company
3)The ADAS Lane Departure and Forward Collision detection system works adequately, however it’s really too sensitive to be practical. It constantly triggers false positives especially during city driving. It is more accurate and helpful for highway driving where we might have a tendency to doze off.
Overall the Xiaomi Xiaoyi Car DVR is one of the best Car DVRs for its price. As most of you know, nearly anything associated with Xiaomi screams amazing quality at a very reasonable price. The videos produced are very clear and we are happy that it supports up to 64gb microsd as well as three levels of HD video recordings. Definitely an awesome buy at $50USD. Check out TomTop’s other bundled deal which includes a DUAL USB car adapter for only $55, instead of this one which only includes a single USB car adapter.
