With some 233 million licensed drivers and 1.3 million lawyers in the United States, there are plenty of good reasons to consider adding a dash camera to your work or personal vehicle. We added the 70Mai A810 dash camera to my Ram 1500 to see what kind of quality you should expect and to overcome a few missing features Ram doesn’t offer at that trim level.
70Mai A810 Dash Camera Quality
My number one concern in adding a dash camera to my truck was legal protection in the case of an accident. In order to make my case in court (which I hope I never have to do), I need high-quality camera footage.
The 70Mai A810 turns to the Sony Starvis 2 IMX678—a 4K UHD camera image sensor with outstanding daytime clarity aided by Maicolor Vivid+ to boost the color. It’s not an over-saturation that makes things look fake, though. It’s designed to ensure color accuracy and image realism. 70Mai combines that with its own Night Owl Vision to also create impressive low-light clarity using an HDR algorithm.
Even with 4K, you’re not going to be able to see every detail at 30 frames per second. Even dropping to 1080P at 60 FPS, you’re often moving too fast to clearly read every license plate. That said, you still pick up a lot of detail, including what you need to prove you’re not at fault in an accident. Many popular dash cams don’t even have a 4K option, and some only offer 30 FPS at 1080P, so your resolution is actually very good with the 70Mai A810.
The field of view on the camera is 150°, often picking up vehicles before they reach your peripheral vision. If there is an incident, it helps tell more of the story than you likely saw initially.
As you view the video, there’s additional information that automatically saves on the bottom: GPS coordinates, speed, date, and time. Using GPS, the camera can automatically track your route as well.
The camera supports Micro SD cards up to 256GB, and be sure to get one that has a rating of at least U3 so you have the write speed you need. As the camera records, it will automatically delete the oldest videos to make room for the newest.
Dash Camera Specifications
- Main Camera Resolution: 4K UHD (3840 x 2160P)
- Aperture: F1.8
- Frame Rate: 60 FPS or 30 FPS (required for HDR mode)
- Display: 3.0-inch IPS, 640 x 360P
70Mai A810 Dash Camera Key Features
Power Options
The two primary ways to run the camera are with the built-in 500mAh battery or with the hardwire kit. If you don’t want to worry about managing the battery life, you can also keep the USB-C charging cord plugged into the unit full time. It’s long enough to run along the edge of your trim and over, but definitely not as clean as a hardwire install.
If you’re combining one of 70Mai’s rear cameras with the A810 dash camera, you have to use a constant power source. It won’t run both cameras from the battery alone. Again, hardwiring is the cleanest way to go, and we recommend you let a professional installer do that, especially if your vehicle is still under warranty.
ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System)
I mentioned there were a few missing features on my truck that this camera allowed me to add. Specifically, Ram decided to forgo several sensor options with the shortage of computer chips required to operate them.
After just a few minutes of on-road calibration, the camera was able to accurately detect and audibly warn about lane departure, closing distance on the vehicle in front of me, and lwhen a stopped vehicle in front of me started moving. While there’s no blind spot detection, each of those features is a helpful addition and work accurately most of the time. You start to see a drop in accuracy is when it’s raining or you have a foggy haze on the windshield over the camera.
While those are the most common features that help me in daily driving, here are some others that can be very helpful as well:
- Collision Detection: Senses unexpected vibration and automatically records a 30-second clip from a few seconds prior to after the incident and stores it in a separate folder that is not overwritten as quickly (also operable by pressing the flag button on the camera)
- Smart Parking Guardian Mode: AI motion detection records automatically when a threat is identified (hardwire kit UP 03 required for use)
- Time Lapse Recording: Compresses at a 15:1 ratio while in parking mode to conserve memory card space
- Optional Dual Channel Recording: Combine a rear camera (professional installation recommended) and get a 1080P rear camera view recording simultaneously with the A810 dash camera (hardwire connection required)
Device Compatibility
The dash camera has a built-in Wi-Fi signal to connect to your phone or tablet. From there, you can use the 70Mai app to get a live view of what the camera sees on a larger screen. There’s a little bit of lag compared to viewing on the camera’s display, though.
Additionally, this is the easiest place to make settings adjustments, and you can also operate the camera, download footage, or share it directly to social media.
In order to use the connection, you need to be in range of the signal—it’s a direct connection to your device rather than to a network that would allow you to view from anywhere the way home security cameras do.
One thing to note is that because of the connection requirements, the camera, CarPlay, and your phone will not play nicely together. We had to adjust the settings on CarPlay to stop auto-connecting to keep a stable connection to the camera. What we end up doing on road trips is having my wife’s phone run the app while my phone stays connected to CarPlay.
70Mai A810 Dash Camera Price
The A810 dash camera is $149.99 on its own, and there are several kit configurations if you’d like some upgrades. Here’s the breakdown:
- Camera only: $149.99
- Camera and Hardwire Kit: $169.98
- Dash and RC11 Rear Camera: $165.99
- Dash and RC11 Rear Camera with Hardwire Kit: $185.98
- Dash and RC12 Rear Camera: $179.99
- Dash and RC12 Rear Camera with Hardwire Kit: $199.98
The Bottom Line
The 70Mai A810 is an affordable dash camera with excellent camera quality and useful features. There are some limitations and you may have some CarPlay conflict. However, if you’re looking to add a dash camera for legal protection or to add an interesting perspective to your drive, the A810 does the job nicely.
