It doesn't matter what car you drive, or how often you do it, I always tell my fellow drivers that they need to install one of the best dash cams. They're not going to magically stop accidents from happening, but you need to think of it like an extra insurance policy. No matter what happens, you'll have a record of what went down to show your actual insurance company (and the cops) that it wasn't your fault.
It doesn't actually matter what dash cam you have, and there's certainly no need to spend hundreds of dollars on a top-of-the-range model. In my experience, any dash cam is better than no dash cam — just as long as it works. That said, better resolution and more powerful features certainly have their uses. As long as you have the money to pay for them.
My current favorite dash cam is the Nextbase iQ which, while expensive, has unique features you won't find in other dash cams — many of which focus on driver safety. If you're after something a little more compact and affordable, then the Nextbase Piqo is a solid feature-rich camera that won't destroy your bank balance. But if you'd rather something that can record multiple angles at once, you may want the Vantrue N4 Pro — which records the front, back and interior views of your car with pretty impressive clarity.
So what is the best dash cam you can buy right now? Here are my top picks, based on my, and my colleagues, hands-on testing.
The quick list
Here are the best dash cams you can buy right now, based on our own testing and real world usage. You can scroll further down to find our in-depth reviews, with more details about each model.
If money is no object and you want the smartest possible dash cam on the market, then look no further than the Nextbase iQ. It's expensive but it has just about everything you need to protect you and your car. You also get to choose between 1080p, 2K and 4K options.
Ideal for drivers who need to minimize the view of the road ahead, but maintain video quality — and enjoy some smarter features in the process. With voice control, 2K resolution and the ability to live-stream your trip to trusted contacts, there's plenty to like about the Nextbase Piqo
Not only does the Vantrue N4 Pro offer excellent video quality, it's also a 3-camera system. With views out of the front, back and inside the cabin, it's as close as you can get to a 360-degree dash cam in a single package.
Packing in great quality 4K video and a compact design, the real benefit to the Garmin X310 is the safety features it offers. This dash cam can warn you about lane departure warnings, when the lights change and if it looks like you're driving too close to the car ahead.
Aside from being ale to shoot excellent video, the Nexar beam2 also has a built in LTE connection for unparalleled connectivity compared to most of its rivals. No more having to connect to the dash cam's shaky Wi-Fi connection to access videos or change the settings. Provided you subscribe to the Nexar Connect service, that is.
If you're looking for a powerful 4K dash cam that doesn't cost a fortune, then the Nextbase 622GW has everything you want. It lacks the smarter features of the Nextbase iQ, but it still offers 4K/120fps video, image stabilization, an emergency SOS feature and Alexa voice controls.
The full list: Best dash cams you can buy right now
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If you're looking for a dash cam that's packed full of smart features and still manages to offer incredible video footage, look no further than the Nextbase iQ. this all-in-on solution has just about everything you'd need to protect yourself and your car from whatever happens when you're out on the road.
Advanced features include a proximity radar that powers advanced parking mode and is able to check for intrusions or people hanging around near your parked car. Witness Mode is also capable of contacting a nominated contact, so they can see a live video feed of whatever is happening after an incident. There are also voice commands, automatic incident recording, emergency SOS and a feature that watches out for obstructions in the road ahead.
The Nextbase iQ is expensive, and the optional subscriptions can push up that price even further. Thankfully you're not locked into a single model, since Nextbase offers 1080p, 2K and 4K options at various different price points.
Read our full Nextbase iQ dash cam review
Best affordable dash cam
The Nextbase Piqo isn't as feature-rich as the Nextbase iQ, but it certainly takes a lot of inspiration from the flagship dash cam — at a fraction of the cost. There's no LTE connection, but it does offer impressive features like live streaming incidents to trusted contacts and reporting accidents to emergency services if you're incapacitated.
Personally I was a little disappointed with the video quality at 1080p resolution, and the night vision is far from perfect. But the 2K models offers some impressive video quality that should prove more than enough to cover all the driving you do. Plus there are voice commands that help you can switch smarter features on and off with a single command
But really the biggest strength is its design. The Nextbase Piqo is small and sleek enough you probably won't even notice it on your windscreen. Which means you can forget about it and focus on what really matters — driving.
Read our full Nextbase Piqo review
Best multi-view dash cam
If you're looking for a dash cam that can cover just about every angle imaginable, the Vantrue N4 Pro is the one for you. Far from the single-lens dash cams you'd normally see, this unit features 3-separate cameras that record the front, back and cabin simultaneously. It's not quite a 360-degree view, but it's pretty close.
While the main camera unit is a little larger than my colleague Brain Nadel would have liked, he admitted this is a dash cam that can do it all. The best part about the 3-view recording is that Vantrue hasn't scrimped on the quality. In fact Brian likened the video quality to the best camera phones, with lifelike capturing of the world around his car — regardless of whether he was moving or not.
Read our full Vantrue N4 Pro review
Best dash cam for safety
The Garmin X310 dash cam makes a name for itself with its compact design and the ability to record high quality video without the usual lens glare that can affect some of its rivals. However it's also capable of offering some incredibly useful safety features, which may be useful for those of you that don't have modern cars.
Like many Garmin dash cams, the X310 offers lane departure warnings, early collision alerts, plus an alert for upcoming red lights. and safety cameras. The downside is that a lot of the X310's power comes from the Garmin Drive app, which requires a $10 a month subscription to get the most out of your camera. But this does come with cloud video storage and a live view mode, which a lot of less dash cams lack.
But subscription of not, the X310 proved easy to install, and produced some excellent videos — aided by the built-in polarizing filter to reduce glare. Our reviewer Brian Nadel found the video he recorded was excellent, with sharp clear video that lacked irrigating pixelization. Not to mention the lifelike colors, which is impressive for such a small camera.
Read our full Garmin X310 Dash Cam review
Best Connected Dash Cam
The Nexar beam2 is not a small dash cam, and you may find it's a little too big for your liking. My colleague Brian Nadel certainly wasn't that thrilled during his time with the camera, especially since the size wasn't also able to accommodate a display. Nor did it have a microSD card slot for expandable storage.
That said, everything else the Nexar beam2 did was able to win Brian over. The LTE was a big part of that, and it proved its worth right away during the set-up process. The system automatically connecting the camera without having to mess about with direct Wi-Fi connections if you don't want to. Wi-Fi is still available, since the beam2 won't connect to LTE if you don't have a subscription — and the first month is free.
Brian was also a big fan of the OBD constant power cable, and the quality of the vidoes the beam2 recorded. While it could have been better with a polarizer, the fact this camera doesn't offer 4K resolution certainly hasn't worked against it. better still, that camera isn't fixed in place. So if you want to record the cabin, just spin it round and get the camera pointed in the opposite direction.
Read our full Nexar beam2 review
Best mid-priced dash cam
Once the flagship of Nextbase's dash cam lineup, and with a hefty price tag to match, the Nextbase 622GW is considerably more affordable these days. But the impressive featureset hasn't changed, so if you want a powerful dash with best-in-class video quality, then this one isn't going to break the bank.
My colleague Matt Ng found the 622GW's video quality to be superb during his time with the dash cam. The 4K/120fps recording capabilities mean the video is crisp and smooth, while built-in stabilization can steady the footage no matter how many potholes are on the local roads. Better still this also applies to night time video, something other dash cams can struggle with, and the footage Matt recorded was clean and free of the usual low-light noise.
But on top of that the 622GW also packs in Alexa voice controls, a parking mode that senses collisions when you're parked up, and an emergency SOS service that contacts first responders in the event that the driver is unable to do it themselves. What3Words integration also ensures they know exactly where you are, down to a three meter area. Just in case Google Maps isn't working properly.
Like other Nextbase dash cams, the 622GW doesn't come with its own rear-view camera. Instead it wirelessly connects to Nextbase's dedicated rear camera module to see what's going on behind you. Unfortunately this doesn't have nearly as impressive recording capabilities, and is limited to 1080p resolution
Read our full Nextbase 622GW review
Other dash cams we've reviewed
What to look for in a dash cam
Dash cams come in countless different shapes and sizes, with each model offering different hardware specs, features and price tags. Before you commit to buying a specific dash cam, you should first figure out what you want it for.
At their most basic level, dash cams record everything that happens while you're driving. But at the other end of that spectrum dash cams also offer useful driver safety features. Those aren't necessary, but they could potentially be very useful.
Camera & video quality
By far the most important thing to consider when buying a dash cam is the camera quality. This goes way beyond picking up a model with the best resolution, it's about that camera being able to pick up important details in a variety of conditions.
It's no good having a dash cam that only picks up license plate numbers in conditions you may only get for an hour or so each day. Your dash cam needs to be able to pick up and record those details no matter what, day or night, rain or shine.
Better resolution can help, but it isn't guaranteed, so you also want to be on the lookout for dash cams that support features like HDR and offer better low-light performance. A higher field of view is also beneficial if it's on offer, since it allows the camera to see more. But generally speaking most dash cams are designed to cover everything that happens on the other side of your windshield.
Storage
Something you probably didn't really think about, storage is especially important for dash cams. Continuously recording footage takes up a lot of space, and the 32GB microSD card that came with that cheap dash cam isn't going to last long. Assuming it even came with one.
There are two things you need to know first. Dash cams will overwrite old footage as new stuff is recorded, and that means you need to be aware that those saved recordings are not permanent. However a lot of dash cams do have features that automatically preserve recordings whenever it thinks there's been an accident. These features aren't foolproof, though.
So you need to make sure that any dash cam you buy either has high storage capacity or microSD expansion. That way you don't need to worry about preserving every last bit of important footage. Just remember that you will need a higher-end card with faster read/write speeds.
Features
You'll be hard-pressed to find a dash cam that doesn't include GPS these days. The benefit of this is that the camera can record exactly where a piece of video was recorded, and in many instances how fast you were going at the time.
Some dash cams also feature parking features, designed to record what happens if someone hits your car when the engine is switched off. These generally mean hardwiring your camera into the car, either though the fuse box of OBD port, and that requires a little more effort than simply plugging into your cigarette lighter.
Other notable features available include additional reversible camera lenses, the ability to connect to other cameras, cloud storage and, of course, voice controls. These can typically be found on a variety of dash cams at different price points.
Safety & connectivity
The most high-end dash cams also come with features you won't find elsewhere — relating to safety and connectivity. These are especially useful in older cars that don't offer these kinds of features.
In some cases these features include low-level advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) like lane departure warnings and alerts if there's a stationary vehicle ahead. Other companies offer emergency SOS systems, livestreaming capabilities, or geolocation options that alert you if your car leaves a specific areas.
How we test dash cams
Every dash cam you see in this list has been tested and reviewed to ensure that the best dash cams really are the best. We look at every step involved in owning a dash cam, from setup all the way to actually having to pull your footage from the memory card.
The testing begins by setting up the camera, and judging it depending on how easy or difficult the whole process is. We also spend extensive time on the road, day and night, to collect footage and make an informed judgement on how each camera performs in a variety of real world conditions.
We also assess each camera's design and companion software (if it has any) throughout this process, and asses what impact it has on day to day use. Finally we collect the footage from the camera, which can be via a companion app or by manually transferring the microSD card to a different machine. The ease or difficulty in which this happens also factors into our final score, as do any additional features the camera may or may not have.
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