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I believe there’s two things we can all agree on with dashcams: First, is that they are absolutely necessary if you’ve ever been in, or witnessed an accident, which, statistically speaking is everyone. Second, is that regardless of the price, most look pretty terrible.
Enter the Vantrue Nexus N5S, with 4 IR-LED’s for night vision, 4-channel recording capturing front, front cabin, rear cabin, and rear views in up to 1944P + 1080P + 1080P +1440P at 40fps, which Vantrue claims will “deliver sharp, detailed footage from every angle, to confidently document every moment of your journey.”
Now, dashcam technology (and camera tech in general) has advanced tremendously over the past few years alone. So I was eager to take a look.
But, just how good is the Vantrue Nexus N5S? And is it worth upgrading from your current dashcam?
Vantrue Nexus N5S Pricing and Key Features
The Vantrue isn’t cheap. The Dashcam alone is AUD$589.56 (although they currently have a sale on the website) while a package including a hardwire kit, 512GB microSD card, and remote controller is AUD$891.65. That pricing may put a few people off, however, it comes with a few handy features that justify the price.
For starters, it’s 4-Channel. This means both the front and rear camera units film both inside, and outside the vehicle. This is advantageous because it shows what each and every passenger (including the driver) was doing before a crash – and provides you with valuable evidence to fight incorrectly issued fines for using your mobile phone, or not wearing a seatbelt. It’s also useful for taxi or ride-share drivers wanting to protect their safety, as both interior cameras have a wide 160-degree field of view. (In comparison, the rearward facing camera has a 165 degree view, while the front facing camera has a 158 degree coverage.)
An ambient light sensor positioned in the front camera automatically switches both cabin cameras to infra-red mode when it detects low ambient light.
Second, it contains a super capacitor. This means that it operates in temperature bands from -20°C to 70°C, making it extremely useful in Australian conditions, and means that if you lose power it will have enough power to safely save the last video clip.
It’s got a built-in GPS logger, voice control, buffered parking mode, and 5Ghz Wi-fi, so you can easily view your captured video on your smartphone, and receive event notification messages to enable timely viewing of incidents recorded while you were absent
Vantrue also provide a 12-month warranty on the Nexus N5S, and provide regular updates to their app and the device firmware. So you’re not going to be left with an unsupported device a month or two after purchasing the product.
Unboxing the Nexus N5S: First Impressions
I’ve said it before repeatedly, but I am a HUGE fan of crisp, clean boxes. And Vantrue have delivered in that regard. A simple white box (with orange highlights) has a picture of the camera units and only essential information on the top, while the sides of the box continue the minimalist trend, presenting only the device name and brand, with a single side containing the marketing statement “truly driven.”
It looks good, it stands out, and I like it.
Inside the box are the two camera units, a car charger that slots into your cigarette lighter (which also helpfully has a USB A port on the top so you can plug in another device) and a 20ft cable that runs between the front and rear camera units. It also has the manual, and a quick reference card with VERY clear instructions on how to connect the cables (and what NOT to do), and QR codes to download the Vantrue app to your iPhone or Android.
In addition to the quick reference card, Vantrue have smaller quick reference cards attached to the cables. This makes any accidental mis-wiring entirely user error. I have to say, it is one of THE best quick reference cards I have ever seen.
The review unit Vantrue provided me also contained a hard-wiring kit which was boxed separately, and a microHD card. I won’t be reviewing these other than to say I have not yet used the hard wiring kit, and the SD card does its job well.
Installation and Real-World Performance
Installation was relatively straight forward. The connectors and units themselves are relatively sturdy, and Vantrue have (really helpfully) included adhesive hooks for cable management, and additional sticky pads, though thankfully I didn’t need to use them… honest.
But it’s nice to know they’re there. Especially if you later want to move the unit from one vehicle to another (after a crash perhaps?)
There’s also a trim tool to help conceal the cables under your roof trim, which I can imagine would be super helpful if you’re doing it yourself, and hard wiring the device in permanently.
One REALLY nice fact that I must point out, is that the cables are NOT proprietary. They’re all USB-C, meaning if they need replacing, or if you have a SUPER long vehicle and need a longer cable, you can easily source them.
The hardwire kit contains everything you’d need, including an array of piggyback fuse taps. If you know what you’re doing (or have a mechanic do it for you) you will need to tap two fuses – one that comes alive when you turn your vehicle on, and a second that has a constant 12-volt power (for sentry / parking mode).
I did not do this, instead opting for the trusty 12-volt cigarette lighter socket, simply because I later want to move the unit into my partner’s brand-new vehicle, as opposed to my own. Unfortunately this DID mean that I had to forgo the passive parking monitoring feature – which starts recording from 10 seconds prior to any detected motion or impact, and continues recording for 30 seconds after, protecting your vehicle from potential vandalism or theft, as well as car park collisions.
The most difficult part of my setup was choosing a mounting point for the front-facing camera. My car’s rear-view mirror location is bulky. Thankfully my vehicle doesn’t have a large tint strip, so I was able to mount it to the side of the rear-view mirror. But I can imagine that it might be difficult for some – without the camera becoming a distraction, or blocking the rear-mounted cabin camera’s view.
It took about 15 minutes to set up the camera, and tweak the settings before I connected to it with the app via the 5Ghz Wi-Fi internal network. It (of course) immediately prompted me to update to the latest firmware. One point of note – do NOT do your settings before updating, as the firmware update causes the device to apparently reset to factory settings.
Upon starting the vehicle, the dashcam will boot up the screen. You can set this to turn off automatically after a minute – which was my preference. Regardless, the unit will continue to discretely record everything – including after you’ve switched the vehicle off if you’ve set it to motion detection.
A super helpful feature – the Nexus N5S separates motion detection files into their own folder on the microSD card. That means you don’t have to scroll through 200 identical (or near enough) thumbnails
Because the dashcam has a screen, you can review footage directly on the unit itself. You can also easily pop out the microSD card (if you have a reader on your computer) or connect your phone to the app and watch the footage that way. Via the app, it took about 25 seconds to download a 3 and a half minute video.
Vantrue markets the Nexus N5S as having “True 360 degree coverage.” With the field of view (FOV) overlap between all four cameras, it could be considered true, but it’s a bit of a stretch. That said, visibility will drastically depend on the vehicle you’re mounting it in. In a vehicle with smaller pillars, you’ll get better visibility, but in an SUV – especially one with a 3rd row of seating – the cabin mounted cameras won’t see much on the outside.
That said, the quality of the footage is some of the best I’ve ever seen from a dashcam.
All four of the Nexus N5S cameras use Sony’s latest Starvis 2 image sensors. These were specifically designed for surveillance and dash cam implementation, and promise excellent low light video quality. Plus, they’re HDR-capable, so cope better with the harsh, high-contrast lighting often encountered while driving.
The sensor in the front-facing camera has a maximum 2592 x 1944 resolution, while the rear-facing camera operates at QHD (2560 x 1440) resolution, and both cabin cameras are 1080p.
The video is crisp, even at night, with most number plates clearly legible.
To be more specific, in daylight, footage from the main front-facing camera is very good, with plenty of dynamic range and providing decent highlight and shadow clarity. Number plate definition is good for cars directly ahead, and if you freeze a car driving towards you, most of the time its plate will also be readable.
There’s little to no frame interpolating, but I noticed that street signs or smaller text – and occasionally with vehicles moving quickly and turning across the path of my vehicle – that there was sometimes a little blur caused by the 30fps, but still not enough to flag this as an deal-breaker.
The Sony IMX675 sensor performs fairly well in the dark, with minimal image noise. Detail is well resolved, but this is where the blur on passing number plates is more noticeable.
The rear camera isn’t a token effort either. The Nexus N5S uses the exact same type of sensor as the front camera. Consequently, image quality is equally good, so even for a collision to your rear at night, the number plate of the offending vehicle should be easily visible.
Thankfully while I didn’t experience the need for this, the Vantrue Nexus N5S automatically locks recordings so they can’t be over-written if it detects a higher than normal G-load (such as a crash or emergency braking). The entire left side of the dash cam is one big button as well, providing a second method for indicating you want to save a file (if you witness a crash as an example.)
The audio quality is passable – you won’t be replacing your webcam and microphone for making your influencer videos – but it’s good enough to pick up everything you say, and will necessitate censoring of your language (And potentially music choices) before uploading videos to the Youtube dashcam channels.
One thing to note here is that every camera angle (all four of them) gets its own audio track, so you can hear everything in every clip. No syncing of camera feeds required to see who said what, when.
The Nexus N5S responds to voice commands like “take photo” or “start video.” This is perhaps one area where I feel Vantrue could improve, as it is not always responsive, and sometimes doesn’t understand what you’re saying unless you’re very clear, and loud.
The Vantrue Mobile App: Connectivity and Control
The Vantrue Mobile App allows you to connect to the camera via fast 5Ghz Wi-fi, enabling smooth video playback and downloads should you need a recording immediately after a collision. The app can also display driving data over a customised time period, including distance travelled, elevation change, and speed statistics.
It also includes average AND maximum speed – perfect for concerned parents who have a child with a lead foot.
The app itself is nicely set out, with everything intuitively nestled under logical headings or titles (No digging through a dozen settings to find the thing you’re after) and even allows you to rotate the display so footage isn’t a tiny box within your smart phone display.
Final Verdict: Is the Vantrue Nexus N5S Worth It?
Given there are a trillion different alternatives on Amazon and Ebay, a lot of which are far cheaper, you have to ask, is the Vantrue Nexus N5S worth it? After all, it IS a lot of money, and I would have a hard time forking over that much for something I hope to never need.
And to answer that, I believe it is. Having video proof with time & date stamp, GPS location and speed reading on the video / screenshot is invaluable. Having that video also be of high enough quality to see the number plate and facial features of the scammer that reversed into you is even more invaluable.
Overall, the Nexus N5S is a good quality, sturdy piece of equipment. And it has the benefit of four separate and potentially important angles that could save you tens of thousands of dollars (and criminal charges) in the future.
I’ve been impressed by the Vantrue Nexus N5S. The cameras capture exceptional quality video (for a dashcam) in all lighting conditions, and it has an equally on-par rear mounted camera – something not often the case with a lot of the competition products.
It is available from their website for A$579.68, DRN readers can use the code DIGITAL26 for an extra discount. This code applies for all dashcams on the Vantrue website.
And sometimes, it’s worth spending that little bit extra, for the advantages it offers.
I’d like to thank Vantrue for providing me with the Nexus N5S for review. I will definitely be putting it permanently into my partner’s car for peace of mind.
