The impressive F790 is the latest dash cam from Thinkware. The F790 has so many must-have features you’ll wonder how you ever lived without them.
I really like trying out Thinkware’s line of dash cams because the onboard features of the cameras surpass those of almost any other dash cam brand I’ve tried so far.
The F790 camera consists of two parts. There’s a mounting cradle that attaches to the windshield with a USB Type-C charger, and the camera itself. Slide the release mechanism and pull the camera out of the cradle to detach it.
Lots of options
The connection between the two elements is incredibly tight. I had to use my paper cutter to help disconnect the Type-C slot — it was too stiff for my broken fingernails — even though the slider was unlocked. However, once mounted there are no trailing charging cables and the camera is very unobtrusive.
As soon as you connect the camera to the car’s power supply, you’ll get a voice message that continuous recording has started, and it asks you to connect to Wi-Fi.
Then you need to insert a memory card to connect to Wi-Fi. Download the Thinkware dash cam link app from your app store and follow the instructions to connect the dash cam to the smartphone.
There are helpful instructions on the live camera view so you can align the camera correctly with the front of the car to get the best possible picture.
You must then activate the camera’s Wi-Fi by clicking on the button on the F790, and wait for the camera to connect. The connection is quite quick and easy. Download any firmware updates and configure the settings you need.
Inside the F790 is a quad-core Ambrarella Cortex-A53 processor clocked at 1 GHz and commonly used in drones and portable sports cameras. The built-in GPS quickly announces when it has located your vehicle.
The front and rear cameras are full HD, with night vision capability. The videos are encoded using HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding). The compression rate is higher than that of AVC and therefore less memory space is used.
The F790 has “dewarping” video technology
The F790 also features “dewarping” video technology. This means that the camera adjusts incoming video frames to display minimal distortion and reduce the lens flare that often appears on other dash cams.
The F790 works on 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi networks and allows you to specify the video to be recorded. You can adjust sensitivity, specify how night vision is used (continuous, parking, off, or both), and set private recording levels.
You can also set impact sensitivity and motion detection sensitivity. Other settings you can adjust are continuous incident recording, motion detection and parking incident recording, and manual recording. You can adjust the brightness of the front and rear cameras.
The F790 detects impacts when the car is parked
The F790 can detect impacts when the car is parked. Connected to your car battery, the camera can stay on standby for up to 17.5 days. If an impact is detected, the F790 wakes up and starts recording 20 seconds after the impact.
The camera also uses time-lapse mode, which records at two frames per second to reduce video file size.
When the F790 is installed and configured, it truly acts as your eyes on the road. It warns you if you are entering the wrong lane and beeps if you get too close to the vehicle in front of you.
It also warns you if the car in front of you drives away from you from a red light. It also informs you of the presence of red light cameras and average speed camera zones.
Overall, the Thinkware F790 is a superb dash cam that discreetly monitors the road and alerts you if you lose concentration while driving. Its price is 239 euros for the pack with the front camera, and 319 euros for the pack with the front and rear cameras.
Set it, forget it and thank your lucky stars for having it in case of impact or other problems.
Source: ZDNet.com