I provide honest ratings and reviews on tech, toys, and consumer home goods that I've purchased and used. Reviews are based on hands-on testing and personal observations. All opinions and comments are my own.
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Takeaway: Compact, clear HD video and audio, wide angle view; easy to set up and download footage w/ plenty of basic dashcam features.EXCLUSIVE 40% off code below!
Takeaway: Compact, lightweight, accurate, and simple to use. The tire inflator comes in a zippered nylon padded case. Inside you'll find the air compressor, instruction manual, and nozzle accessories for inflating sports balls and other inflatable items like pool toys and air mattresses. The tire inflator housing is made from a lightweight plastic and it measures 7.5"H x 11"L x 5"W. On the back is the dual power selector switch which lets you choose between A/C power or DC power. If using DC power, you'll find a built-in cigarette lighter power adapter cable neatly stowed in the bottom of the unit along with the nylon braided air hose. For A/C power, use the included 6' cable which can be found in the narrow pouch on the right-hand-side of the carrying case.
On the front of the unit, is an LED light which can be set to a bright flashlight mode or flashing red emergency SOS signal. On the top of the unit is an LCD display that is backlit with a bright blue LED for clear viewing even in dark conditions. The number to the left on the display is the pre-set shutoff pressure and the number to the right is the current pressure of the tire. The '+' and '-' keys allow you to select a pre-set pressure for inflation. Just press and hold either key until the display starts flashing and press up and down to increase or decrease the value in half PSI increments. The ‘M' key allows you to change the units from PSI to BAR or kPa.
The unit is easy to attach to your tires and use and pumps air quickly. Using the sports pin, you can inflate balls quickly too. When the pressure of the tire exceeds the pre-set shutoff value, the unit automatically stops pumping air. In practice, you will always end up 1 PSI higher than your shutoff value. When checked with a tire gauge, the pressure reading of the unit appears to be accurate. If your tires are over inflated, you can let the air out of your tire easily by pressing and holding the bleeder button next to the air hose nozzle.
Overall, the tire inflator was able to quickly and accurately fill my tires. It's compact, portable, and simple to use.
Takeaway: Quick installation and setup, stable connection, simple voice/app controls You'll receive the WiFi outlet and a brief instruction manual. The outlet has a plastic housing and measures 2" in diameter and 1" thick. It has a three prong grounded plug and a single power button on the left hand side with an embedded status LED. To set up the socket on your home WiFi network and control it, you'll need to download and install the Tuya Smart app (or other IoT control app) to a mobile device. Just plug the device into any outlet and the LED light should start flashing quickly indicating it's ready to be paired. Note that with the socket plugged into the top of a dual outlet panel (US), while the bottom outlet is still accessible, it may me partially blocked. Setup took less than 5 minutes. With the Tuya Smart app enabled in my Amazon Alexa app, I was able to easily control the power of the outlet via voice commands. The app also lets you add timers (count and daily/weekly schedules) and control the outlet remotely from anywhere you have an internet connection. the outlet works great, but keep in mind the load capacity maximums are 10A and 1100 Watts.
Takeaway: Easy to install and use, accurate readings, durable w/changeable batteries. You'll receive the LCD display, four tire valve sensors, a windshield mount with ball joint, a 13' charging cable cigarette lighter adapter, a ball joint cigarette lighter adapter, two plastic gear wrenches, a metal nut wrench, 5 retaining nuts, and an instruction manual.
The sensors have a brass threaded side for screwing onto your car's tires. The LCD display panel shows you information about your tires like current pressure, temperature, and sensor battery life. The visible screen diagonal is 2" and the unit measurements overall are 1.75" x 2.5" x 0.5". On the right hand side are two USB ports (1A output) for charging your devices. There's a short barrel style plug that comes off the back for attaching to either power adapter. If you'll be using the ball joint adapter, the display will sit right above the cigarette lighter, but if you use the windshield mount ball joint, it adheres via a Velcro sticky pad to your windshield and you need to run the long power cable to your cigarette lighter; it's long enough for you to hide the wire underneath the trim in your car.
The plastic gear nuts are for disassembling the sensors so you can change their batteries. Unlike the TPMS sensors that came with my car, these sensors don't have to be replaced when the batteries run out and you don't need a tech to do it for you. The batteries used are CR1225 coin cells, and I'll update this review when one runs out so you have an idea of how long they last..
Installing the sensors took only a couple minutes. When I started up my car, the sensors took a few minutes to pair with the LCD display. I had to take off and reinstall two sensors before they would show an accurate tire pressure reading, but all the measures from temp to PSI appeared to be accurate when checked with a gauge and thermometer. Pay attention to the letters on the sensors when installing as they tell you which tire they go on e.g. RF = right, front (passenger side) and LR = left, rear (driver's side) etc. The sensors don't screw in all the way, so when finger tight, loosen the retaining nut back up to the sensor and then tighten with the metal nut wrench until the sensor is secured.
The display beeps and flashes when trigger thresholds are passed for high temperature and low/high pressure. You can change the settings be pressing and holding the 'Menu' button below the LCD and using the left/right arrow keys to navigate and modify values. You can also use the arrow keys to change the brightness of the display: low/medium/high. The only drawback to using this external system is that I need to use the wrench tool to loosen the retaining nut and remove the sensor in order to inflate my tires. However, it's pretty quick and the convenience of having the tire data live is worth the extra 5 seconds it takes to do this. When I take my car in for a tune up, I remove the sensors and put the regular valve caps back on.
Overall, the TPMS is able to show me important data related to my tires, so I can keep them well maintained and operating safely, for example, if I have a leak in one. It also shows the voltage level of the car battery as a bonus, and the sensor batteries can be easily replaced. It's easy to install and simple to use.
Takeaway: Quick and simple to install, allows full view of blind spots at a glance You'll receive 2 glass convex mirror rounds and 2 optional plastic mounting arms. The mounting arms sit on small ball joints so you can adjust and swivel the mirrors after they are installed. These 2" diameter mirrors have double-sided foam tape on the back to attac them to your side view mirrors. I installed the mirrors with the mounting arms because you can adjust them if you have multiple drivers for the car. The only caveat is that you see a reflection of the rear side of the mirror because it sits about 3/4" away from the side mirror surface. The typical placement for the mirror is on the far outside corner of the side view mirror. Now when I look in the small mirrors I can see what is in the blind spot whereas that field of view was not visible in the side view mirror alone. Overall, these mirrors were a breeze to install and took less than a minute. They let me see clearly what's in my blind spot without having to look over my shoulder or turn my head. I simply have to glance at the side view mirrors and I can see any oncming traffic in the blindspot in the smaller mirrors.
Takeaway: HD front video res, rear camera doesn't record but works great at night, easy setup/use. UPDATE: There's a firmware update to enable rear recording, but you have to request it from the manufacturer here: http://www.auto-vox.com/index.php/Contact/index.html
The Autovox M6 rearview mirror camera comes with an instruction manual, microfiber cleaning cloth, cigarette lighter power adapter w/11' cord, two sets of mirror attachment bands (one normal, and one extra strength for thicker mirrors), a backup camera with license plate mount, and 30' rear video input cable. Note that a microSD card is required for operation but not included, which for the price you pay is disappointing.
The mirror measures 12"x 3". The LCD screen on the left hand side has a 4-3/8" diagonal and has a dark silver tint to it. The front camera is on the windshield side and sits on a ball joint which allows you to orient the camera. There's an external speaker for listening to audio during video playback.
Installing the mirror unit only took a minute, though installing the rear camera to the license plate and hooking it into the reverse light took about 15 minutes.
Because my outlets are off when the car is off, when I start the car the camera comes on automatically. I found the touchscreen controls to be fairly intuitive and easy to use but you do end up with a lot of fingerprints on the mirror. When I put the car in reverse, it automatically switches the LCD display to show the back camera and puts up the reverse guides. The guides are pretty straight on and help with parallel parking and give me 6-8" of clearance when the line overlaps the curb.
Note that this unit only records footage from the front facing camera. The three resolution modes are all HD from 720p to 1296p at 30 fps. In general, the video is clear and detailed with natural looking colors, good saturation, and decent white balance that doesn't change abruptly too often. The audio captured isn't great though and is sort of muffled with plenty of road noise. However, it's clear enough to make out conversation if there's not loud radio blasting. At night, everything is pretty dark but still clear and detailed. You don't exactly get night vision, but lights are bright and you can even read the license plate of the car in front of you.
Overall, the video quality is good for a relatively inexpensive dashboard camera though the audio could be improved.
Takeaway: Clear and crisp HD video, wide angle, decent features, okay night footage. The dashboard camera comes with a suction cup mount with integrated GPS, cigarette lighter adapter w/12 ft cable, 40" USB cable, CPL filter, 32GB microSD card, and a user manual. The camera is compact measuring 3.75"W x 1.75"L x 1.25"D including the lens. It is powered via miniUSB and has mini HDMI output. The screen on the back has a 2.5" diagonal. The CPL filter is optional and can be installed on the lens to help reduce glare, darken bright skies, and cut down on reflections.
The camera setup is simple and straightforward. There are plenty of settings and options in the menus that aren't explained too fully in the manual but could be useful if you play with them a bit. I particularly like the time lapse parking mode and different HD resolution sizes. On the back of the suction cup is the GPS receiver which is integrated and cannot be removed. The GPS will still be on if the cable is plugged directly into the camera body, so if you don't want to use the GPS features like location and speed tracking, turn it off in the settings.
The camera has a number of different resolutions and all of them are HD. The highest resolution is 2560x1080P which is super wide angle at 170 degrees. The lower resolutions have tighter fields of view. I like the 60 fps 1080p resolution because for me the video looks smoother and clearer. During the day the video quality is high def and captures a lot of detail; you can read license plates off the car in front and in adjacent lanes within 1-2 car lengths. At night the video is a bit harder to see, perhaps even somewhat blurry depending how much ambient light there is. But the quality is not bad, and you can see enough detail that the footage could be helpful in the event of an accident.
The player downloaded from Seydi's website shows a map of the trip (per clip), speed, and direction of travel when using the GPS. It'll also show you G-sensor info. Overall, the camera is easy to install and use. It has some of the highest video quality that I've seen for a unit this size in this price range and has a decent feature set.
Takeaway: Okay video, good interior/exterior view, lacks some functions, good viewer app. This unit comes with the dual camera DVR, a holder bracket, 3-axis suction cup mount, 11.5' cigarette lighter microUSB power cable, a 4-pin GPS antenna with 5 ft cable, and 3 extra adhesive sticky pads. Note that it does NOT come with a microSD card, which you must supply in order to record any video. The manual recommends Class 6 card or higher up to 32 GB. You won't be able to enter menu settings or view the live video feed without a card installed.
The unit measures 5"W x 2"H x 1.25" D. It is made of a plastic shell with a thin powdered aluminum finished front. While I like how it looks, the finish scratches easily, especially from the plastic mounting bracket when you put it in or take it out. On the side of the device that faces the windshield you have a 140 degree wide angle forward lens that can pitch up and down 20 degrees and a speaker. On the side facing into the car you have the 2.7" LCD, power button, menu navigation and mode buttons, the inside facing camera, the OK button, and a microphone. The ports are o nthe right hand side under a rubber door and includes: 4-pin port for the GPS, microSD card slot, and microUSB charging port.
Assembling the unit and mount was straightforward. Make sure to insert the microSD card with the contacts facing toward you. The suction cup is pretty firma dn I haven't had it fall off my windshield yet. The one thing I didn't like about this design is that with all the cables plugged in, the rubber door just kind of hangs there in the way. I would prefer exposed but flush with the surface ports over that.
With a new card inserted into the unit, the camera will need to format it first. This step is required since the camera loads some software on the card called X2Player, that you run on your computer to view the video files. When the camera starts up, it will begin recording automatically by default and I didn't see a way to switch this to manual only. You can, of course, always stop recording manually and start it again when you want. For whatever reason, my unit was not in English when I first powered it on. If this happens to you, to change the language, press the menu button then scroll down to the icon with the person and speech bubble; click 'OK', then select English and click 'OK' again.
In the menu you can set the various options like date and time, audio recording, and g-sensor sensitivity to lock videos from being recorded over in case of an accident. You cannot set the loop length for the videos which is about 90 seconds long per video clip. Each clip on dual camera recording takes up about 125 megabytes but you can choose to record only one camera at a time instead of both.
On the LCD screen when the camera is running, you'll see the live feed from the recording, the date and time, the current speed, and the direction of travel. If the GPS is not hooked up, you will not see speed or direction. Note also that GPS location, speed, and direction will not appear in the video during playback, but you'll be able to see that information when using the software to view the video. The program for viewing the videos, X2Player, is pretty cool. You'll see all the aforementioned data, can choose to view side-by-side dual feeds or only one feed at a time. You can even toggle on a map that tracks your trip based on the recorded GPS location data points, though in general, the path is not exact and tends to misplace you a lot. Each trip is logged as a single line in the bottom left quadrant of the window, but is then broken out into the smaller 90 second clips on the bottom right quadrant. The software also allows you to save the video clips off the card piecemeal or all at once.
The video quality is decent but not high definition. There's definitely some graininess to the video and even within one car length, the license plate of the car in front of you will be unreadable. Despite the low resolution and relative darkness of the videos, they're still useful in case of an accident and the inside facing camera may be useful for car share drivers like Uber and Lyft. This is overall a fairly nice dashboard DVR but it lacks some features like motion detection, parking monitor, loop length, and a still camera mode.
Takeaway: The base is magnetic so I can stick it to my dash where there's metal underneath vs typical suction cup or sticky mounts. The unit on a whole was smaller than I anticipated, about the size of a tic-tac container. There are only 3 buttons but they allow you to power on, pair, change the volume, skip tracks in a playlist, answer calls, mute, and redial the last phone number. The drawback here is that you have to remember how to do all those things when you want to use them, but it makes the interface a lot simpler allowing the unit to look minimalist, clean, and stylish.
The paired quickly to my phone using bluetooth discovery mode and NFC connection. The connection and sound quality was clear and smooth. I had no problem with stuttering, digital noise or dropped connections when in range of the receiver. Like most bluetooth devices, once paired, the receiver remembers the last device it was paired with. You can store up to two devices in its memory so it will pair automatically when it detects those devices again. You can also pair two devices with the unit at the same time which is interesting. Not sure how useful that is since only one person can stream audio at the same time, but I guess it'll make for some interesting playlist battles. I appreciate the fact that the power adapter that came with it has two USB ports, so that you can charge your phone at the same time the receiver is operating.
The main drawback to this product is that with older cars, you probably won't have an audio-in AUX jack, so you cannot use this product... at least not in your car. However, since the USB cable can be plugged into any standard 1000 mAh USB power adapter, you could still use this as a bluetooth receiver with any speaker system that DOES have an audio-in jack or combine it with an appropriate adapter.
