I write a lot of reviews for a lot of products, and many of those products are “nice-to-have” items. The sorts of things that I feel like you can use to make your life a little easier or a little more fun, but sometimes I come across an item I feel is a must-have. Before I go into any details, let me tell you about why I think this is a product everyone needs.
I lived in Queens, NY for around 15 years. I knew that a lot of people on my block had security systems and cameras, but as a struggling artist and writer at the time I moved there, I thought the cost of something like that was just too much to bear. I settled in and my car joined the miles of street-side-parked vehicles of New York.
Fast forward a couple of years and the whole idea of car security had completely escaped my notice. I had upgraded to a place with a driveway and apparently, after years of street parking, I had incorrectly decided that having a rectangle of concrete dedicated to my car was the same thing and locking it up in a vault every night. What a silly goose I had been because one morning I went outside to start my morning commute to find my door ajar. The battery was fine, thanks to modern car lights actually turning off after a while of the door being open, but that was the end of the good news. It seems I had been car hopped.
Car hopping, for those of you who don’t know, is the practice of going from car door to car door, often late at night, testing to see if anyone has left their car unlocked for easy burglary. Once a poor unlocked car is found, they dive in and steal anything not bolted down. It is a despicable act that can absolutely ruin your day and cost you an absolute fortune if you have left anything of real value in the car. I can’t imagine how I forgot to lock the door, I could kick myself for making such an obvious mistake! I didn’t have much in there, but that didn’t stop them from literally tearing at the car interior to find anything they could. They stole my sunglasses from the overhead holder, a few books from the back seat and all the tools and jumper cables I had in the trunk. They even took the grimy change out of the center console! When it became apparent that I didn’t have anything terribly expensive in the car, they took it out on my poor upholstery, slashing my driver-side seat with some kind of knife. Talk about adding insult to injury!
So that was terrible, I was not happy, but I still had my car and it still ran, so I carried on. That same week, not two days after getting car hopped during my morning commute, I stopped in the usual morning traffic, and someone rear-ended me! It was a classic “not paying attention and didn’t see people stop” sort of scenario, and the moment we both snapped out of the shock of the moment, she wedged herself into another lane and hit the shoulder, speeding off to the nearest exit! The damage wasn’t insane, but it was enough to require a trip to the body shop! This was one of those weeks where everything went wrong all at once, not a fun time, but it was enough to remind me that I wasn’t really taking my car security seriously. It was time to start looking for cameras.
The Best of the Best
Turns out there are a lot of dashcams out there. Looking for the right one was gonna take a while, but I knew two factors I absolutely had to have. First, I needed a camera that would run all night and come on when it detected movement. Secondly, I needed a system that could capture the front, back and interior of the car. That actually ruled out a fair few cameras, mostly the cheap ones with the suspiciously unremarkable brand names. I found a few that did what I needed them to do, but it seemed there was a bit of a discussion about which of the top brands were the actual best.
The three I found most often discussed (and if you want to do these comparisons yourself, I highly recommend hanging out on Reddit) were the Thinkware U3000 Pro, the VIOFO A329 and the BlackVue DR970X Plus. All of them had a lot of fans in the forums, and they all did what I needed them to do. I was able to rule out the BlackVue pretty quickly after reading a lot of comments on reliability and a short product lifespan if used regularly. The VIOFO had a ton of really good reviews and most people seemed to think it was the best value out of the three, but the Thinkware seemed like the winner after enough reading. While the VIOFO was consistently praised for its camera quality and ease-of-use, the Thinkware’s whole design philosophy revolved around the idea that “stuff happens to your car even when you’re not in it.” It is designed with parked safety in mind, while still working as a regular front and rear dashcam excellently! After reading the following list of features, even for $549.99 I was sold.
The Thinkware U3000 Pro Features
We’ll talk about setup in a bit, but here are the basic features taken straight from their website. It’s extremely cool what this dashcam system can do! Buckle in, it’s a lot.
- 4K UHD front camera recording
- 2K QHD rear camera recording
- Sony STARVIS 2 low-light sensors
- Radar-assisted parking mode
- Buffered parking recording
- Motion detection
- Impact detection
- Energy-saving parking mode
- Time-lapse parking mode
- Continuous parking recording
- Automatic event recording
- Parking impact notifications
- Forward Collision Warning System (FCWS)
- Front Vehicle Departure Warning (FVDW)
- Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS)
- Red Light & Speed Camera Alerts
- Safety camera database support
- Built-in Wi-Fi
- Bluetooth support
- Smartphone app integration
- Built-in GPS
- Speed recording
- Vehicle status monitoring
- Remote vehicle location
- Geo-fencing support
- Event file protection
- Manual recording mode
- Automatic incident recording
- GPS data logging
- Speed data recording
The main thing I bought this system for is the overnight radar-based recording. Basically, it will sit idle until the on-board radar detects movement near your vehicle. It also reacts to motion when in parked mode. If anyone so much as sneezes in your car’s direction, it’ll start recording. If I had had this thing running in the first place, my poor car seats would still be in one piece and I’d still have my sunglasses.
The other basic features are complimented with so much evidence tracking that I’d have had the license plate number, speed-at-impact and startled selfie of the lady that
rear ended me to send straight to the police!
Installation and Setup
Here’s where things get a little dicey, but this is the case for any good dashcam so you’re going to have to grit and bear a lengthy installation if you want the protection that comes with the cameras. First and foremost, you need to be ready to have a lot of gear mounted to your windows. You’ve got the front and rear cameras, heat blocking film to mount between the cameras and the glass, nearly 25 feet of cable you’ll need to run under mats, around seats and along the edge of your window to connect the rear camera to the front. There’s also an OBD II power cable that needs to run down the side of your windshield and into the diagnostic port of your car (located in a different spot for every car, but generally under the dash or near your steering column) and a whole lot of sim card and micro SD memory card installation. Even after you do all that, you need to follow a somewhat lengthy setup process to make sure everything is communicating between the main devices and your smart phone, Yes, it has an app. Everything has an app, and an account you have to set up to use it. The whole system adds a lot of hardware and wires to your car, which is enough to stop many from even trying. Trust me, though, once you’re all set up, the whole thing runs like a dream. If you can handle the cable management, it’s very worth it.
Final Thoughts
Obviously, I think this is a must-have and this brand offers excellent protection and reliability. I highly recommend the Thinkware U3000 Pro. If the $549.99 price tag is too steep, though, VIOFO offers some cheaper, but well reviewed options! If you really want to keep your car safe and you want to be able to see the people who mess with it while you’re not around, spend the extra bucks on this one!
About the Author:
Ever since a young George was disappointed with a toy that did match up to the advertising, he became a tireless advocate for consumers. He’ll review anything that folks have to spend their hard-earned dollars on. George is grateful that he gets to use his skills as a writer and an artist to help connect with consumers and help them make the best decisions possible.
This article is for informational purposes only and reflects the author’s independent opinion. Readers should verify details directly with the manufacturer or retailer before making a purchase decision.
