Vantrue Element 2 Dual Dash Camera

Details: Category: Hardware; By Cheryl; 09.Dec; Hits: 1192

Game Info:

Vantrue Element 2 Dual Dash Camera
Manufactured by: Vantrue
Features: Front and rear 2.7K cameras, 5GHz Wi-Fi support, GPS, push button and voice controls
MSRP: $219.99
(Amazon Affiliate Link)

Thank you Vantrue for sending us a review sample!

Car accidents are never fun. Especially if you’re not the one who caused it. I have been in multiple car accidents that would have been resolved much quicker if I had a dash cam in place. The first accident happened before dash cameras were around though. I fought hard to remove a collision where I was rear-ended by an off duty police officer. Since I was ticketed, I lawyered up, but it wasn’t necessary as the other driver didn’t appear in court. I still had to contact the secretary of state to clear my driving record of this incident.

My most recent accident happened only a year ago and if I had a dash cam, it would have been resolved easily. In this instance, I was stopped at a red light and proceeded to cross the intersection after the light turned green. Half-way through the intersection my car’s bumper was struck from a car making a left turn. We both stopped at a nearby parking lot to contact the police and assess the damage. Both parties were driving alone and no witnesses stopped to report what they had seen. It was my word against theirs. Unfortunately, the other driver didn’t speak English which complicated collecting information for the police/insurance report. My rear bumper was slightly misaligned, but you would have to know to look for it to see it. It still was $1700 to repair. The other driver had a gaping hole in her front bumper. I was surprised to find that this was not an open and shut case despite my car’s rear bumper being damaged. The other driver’s insurance (State Farm) refused to pay for the damage at first claiming there was lack of evidence of who was at fault. The other driver was ticketed, but that wasn’t enough to persuade them. After Tweeting about it, they changed their tune and paid for the repairs to my vehicle.

Highlights:

Strong Points: Impressive feature set; nice video quality, even in the dark!; voice commands work well
Weak Points: The rear camera kept falling down in colder weather; the rear camera sometimes needs to be re-plugged in if it flashes random colors instead of displaying video

Having a dash cam is a good safety measure against some of the crazy drivers on the road. I highly recommend getting one if you commute to work often. My daily commute is over fifty miles a day. I should have gotten a dash cam a while ago!

The Vantrue Element 2 Dual Dash Camera comes with a front and a rear camera. A super long USB cable is supplied for the rear camera and it will take some tidying up and tucking in to look nice. Installation is pretty straightforward. The front camera mounts to a screen protector placed on your front windshield. The front camera has only fallen down a couple of times. The rear camera fell down more often which is surprising because it’s much lighter. The cooler winter-like temperatures in the 20s and 30s is not conducive to the adhesive used on the mounting mechanisms. I appreciate that they came with backup glue mounts, but they still didn’t work. The ultimate solution for the rear camera was supergluing Velcro to the rear camera and putting the other half of the Velcro above the rear window. Only then did the camera manage to stay in place for over twenty-four hours without falling down.

A phone app is required to get the camera configured and can be used to control the dash cam if desired. Once configured, the dash cams will turn on as you start your vehicle and will quickly connect to a satellite to determine your car’s coordinates and speed in real time. By default, the microphone will record your talking/singing/music, but you can disable the microphone with a push of a button if desired. If you find the screen too bright, you can adjust the brightness in the front dash camera's settings menu. Alternatively you can set a screen saver or use voice commands to turn on and off the screen.

A micro SD card is required for the dash cam to record videos. You don’t want to use a cheap one here as reading/writing speeds impact performance. I used a 200GB card. By default, captured videos are sixty seconds in length and have the front and rear camera footage files named similarly for easy access. If there is crucial footage, you can press a button to have the relevant videos stored in a separate folder for quick access. You can change the video length in the app to three or five minutes if preferred.

When it comes to playing back recorded video clips (I wanted to hear how my singing sounded), VLC played the files with no problems. The default Windows 11 media player needed a $0.99 codec in order to play the videos. My older version of Camtasia would not play the recordings at all.

Despite some minor hiccups, I still highly recommend the Vantrue Element 2 Dual Dash Camera. I wouldn’t be surprised if the included mounting mechanisms worked fine in warmer weather/climates. VLC is awesome software and plays all kinds of media files flawlessly. I love having the peace of mind of having video evidence to backup my claims if I’m involved in another rear-end collision. Just keep in mind that the videos are time stamped with your location and speed so the liability goes both ways. I have seen the Vantrue Element 2 Dual Dash Camera for as low as $159 on Amazon, but the normal price is around $220. It’s worth every penny if you’re involved in an accident that’s not your fault!