Soliom G1 Dual Dash Camera REVIEW | MacSources
On-board dash camera provides a view of what the driver sees as well as the inside of the car.
My teenage daughter just began driving. If you have a teenager, you know how nerve-wracking having a new driver in your house can be. She is doing a good job, but she wants to go everywhere on her own and use her new-found freedom as much as possible. I’m not as concerned about her skills as a driver as I am the stupidity of others on the road. One thing that helps me have some peace of mind when she’s out on her own is the dash camera I installed in her car. Dash Cameras afford the driver the safety of knowing that all events in the car will be recording — no matter who is at fault. This dashcam from Soliom is a great option because it provides a dual view of the car — the driver’s perspective and the inside of the car. This is very useful not only for new drivers but also for rideshare drivers.
DETAILS
The Soliom G1 is a full-angle, dual-lens dash camera that provides a 380º view of the entire driving experience. The camera was designed to give drivers a camera that records without any blind spots around the car. The camera a powerful Sunplus 6250A processor and dual Sony Exmor IMX323 sensors with 6 fixed lenses. Front and inside cameras simultaneously capture the road in front of the car and the inside cabin. The camera features an auto LCD off timer so that the glow from the display doesn’t distract the driver. In addition to recording driving actions, the Soliom G1 also provides a 24-hour parking monitor mode that powers up automatically to record a clip. The camera will also record events detected by motion. Motion detection also records automatically when there is movement within the 190º front camera. The dashcam has a special cooling feature that helps increase the ability to pull heat down in exceptionally hot temperatures. The Soliom G1 can accommodate a 128GB Micro SD card (not included).
USER EXPERIENCE
The G1 Dual Dash Camera comes in a green and white box with a photo of the front of the box. The name of the camera on the box is stated as “Dual 1920x1080P Front and Inside Dash Camera” which describes its form and function nicely. The rest of the package doesn’t provide a lot of details, but it does provide the address of the repair center on the side and a couple of additional photos on the back of the box. The camera comes with a suction cup mount, user manual, car charger, USB data cable, card reader, warranty card, and a reset pin. It does not come with a Micro SD card, which is required for operation. The user manual indicates that you can use an SD card 8GB to 64GB in size as long as it has a speed class rating of 10 or higher. The manual also suggests that you format the SD card every two weeks to maximize the life of the card. Fortunately, I had a spare that I could use with the camera to test it out.
The instruction suggests that before you use the camera for the first time that you charge it for 1–2 hours. There are two main options for powering the camera — manually or automatically. With the manual option, a single press of the power button will turn the camera on. With the automatic function, the camera will automatically power on when it’s connected to the car charger and the car is powered on. With this feature, the camera will power off 3 seconds after the car’s engine is shut off. Once you have power to the camera, you will want to specify the settings you want to use. There is a wide range of options in the settings menu.
- Autostart Recording: Camera will automatically start recording when the car is started.
- Single Recording: This will record single events from the front-facing camera. This is really designed for road events.
- Loop Recording: This is a pretty traditional setting for dashcams. It rewrites the oldest file when the card is full.
- Time Lapse: You have the option to set a time interval of 4, 8, 12 hours.
- G-Sensor: You have the option of setting the sensitivity of the sensor here to High, Normal, Low, or Off.
- Parking Monitor: This feature will detect events when the car is parked. You can set it to High, Normal, Low, or Off.
- Motion Detect: There are no advanced settings available. You simply turn it on or off.
- GPS: Again, there aren’t any fine settings here either. It’s just an on or off choice.
There are also options to control exposure, device sound, auto LCD off, and Auto Power Off. Users can also change the date stamp, date & time, language, and light frequency as well as format the card, reset the camera back to its default settings, check the SD card info, and review the system info. With the Soliom Dashcam you do have the opportunity to review photos and videos directly from the camera. It’s a nice feature and ok for a quick view, but if you were going to use it for any legal actions, I would recommend that you use the card reader provided to check out what’s stored on the card. This method does work very well and you can instantly view any video files that are stored on the card. The card connected to my computer within just a few seconds and the video files were formatted as .mov files so I could easily view them without any issues.
The video quality is above average. It does take a little getting used to the dual view feature. I think that it’s a great option for rideshare drivers. The view of the inside of the car is incredible and it’s really interesting to see both views of the car at the same time. The camera itself is extremely easy to use. While you have the opportunity to adjust settings for most of the features, the camera will actually work directly out of the box. I actually handed the camera over to my fiance at one point to use in her car, but I didn’t give her any instructions. She was able to figure out the basic operations of the device without any instructions to guide her.
CONCLUSION
The Soliom G1 Dual Dash Camera is a solid investment in automotive safety. It’s perfect for rideshare drivers and event for parents who need to keep an eye on their kids. The features have been fully functional for me and I think it will be very beneficial for me and my family for road trips. I do wish that a Micro SD card was included — even a smaller capacity one — just so the end user doesn’t have one more step to complete before using the device.
Originally published at https://macsources.com on May 4, 2020.
