Hey, what's up guys? So in this video, we're going to be taking
a look at BlackVue's new DR900X-2CH dashcam. This is the successor to BlackVue's previous
flagship, the DR900S which is being discontinued in favor of the DR900X. Now the new DR900X, it's not a radically new
dashcam. This is more of an evolution of the previous
version. And in this video, I'd like to talk about
all the new changes and improvements, including the new improvements to the dashcams cloud
connectivity. We're going to take a look at the upgraded
parking mode capability and the new wiring that's involved to do that. As well as the improved heat tolerances, to
help the dashcam function in hotter weather. Now, full disclosure, this is not a paid or
sponsored review. I've never done those. And I never will. This DR900X was sent to me by BlackVue for
testing and review purposes. And I'm free to say whatever I want. And so as always, I'm going to go ahead and
share exactly what I think, both good and bad. And then if you like what you see, and you'd
like to pick up a dashcam, down in the video description, I'm going to have some affiliate
links to where you can go and purchase the dashcam and using those links does support
my channel. Plus, if you use the coupon code VORTEX20,
that will save you 5% off the price of the dashcam. Now, in terms of video quality, the DR900X
is going to be exactly the same as what we had with the DR900S, so everything, as far
as resolution viewing angle, codex, bit rate, everything like that, is going to be exactly
the same. The DR900X is going to record at 4K upfront,
as well as 1080P, if you get the optional rear dashcam. BlackVue was the first company to come out
with a true 4K dashcam. And since then, some of the competition has
come out with 4K dashcams. And I found in testing, that those ones actually
have better video quality than even the BlackVue. And for that reason, I really wish the BlackVue
had improved the video quality, even though it also records at 4K, to kind of keep up
with the competition. But again, here with the DR900X, it's exactly
the same as what we had with the DR900S. Now BlackVue's big focus is their cloud integration. They do the best connected dashcams, the best
cloud dashcams, out of anybody in the market. And this is what I really like about the BlackVue
dashcams. I like the fact, that in case maybe somebody
hits your car while you're parked, you can get a notification directly to your phone
letting you know that something happened. And then you're able to pull up the video
footage in real time and see exactly what happened. The dashcam is also able to take that video
clip and immediately upload it directly to the cloud, which is nice in case maybe somebody
breaks into your car and steals the dashcam, that way you still have that video evidence
to report to police. You're also able to remotely tap into the
dashcam to do things like change settings, as well as upgrade the firmware, when new
firmware updates are released to add new features or fix any bugs with the dashcam. And so having a connect dashcam is just going
to really add to the convenience of adding a lot of nice functionality, in addition to
just recording while you're driving, as well as when you're parked. Now, there's a couple different versions available
of this dashcam. BlackVue sells a single channel version of
the dashcam, which is designed to record just upfront. As well as a two channel dashcam, which is
designed to record both upfront, as well as in the rear. Additionally, they're not available yet, but
BlackVue's also going to be releasing some infrared versions, if you'd like a dashcam
to bound on your windshield to record in the cabin, which is nice for maybe Uber and Lyft
drivers. And they're also planning on releasing a truck
version of the dashcam, which replaces the normal rear dashcam with an external waterproof
version, so you can have it mounted externally on a truck. And in this video, I'm going to be taking
a look at the BlackVue DR900X two channel. This is the traditional one, with both the
front and rear dashcam, designed to be mounted inside your vehicle to record both in the
front and in the rear. Now BlackVue is also releasing a DR750X, which
is a lot like the DR750S, but it has all the same improvements here that we have with the
DR900X. So with all that said, what are the improvements
here with the new X series dashcam? Well, the first thing you'll notice when you
take a look at the dashcam, you'll notice that the case itself has been redesigned. It's the same size as the DR900S but it now
has some additional vents built in to help it cool off in hotter weather. And this is really nice because the DR900S
has previously had some issues with overheating in hotter weather and actually shutting off. Now, the temperature range of the previous
DR900S could go from negative 20 degrees Celsius up to 70 degrees Celsius. Now with the DR900X, it can go up to 80 degrees
Celsius. So 10 degrees hotter Celsius, or 18 degrees
hotter Fahrenheit. And this is specifically nice for those of
you guys who live in Arizona, Texas, Florida, basically hotter parts of the country. This dashcam is now able to manage at hotter
temperatures. Now, when you look at the rear of the dashcam,
you'll notice there's now a new LED available to let you know when you're connected to the
cloud via LTE or via wifi. And there's some changes to the buttons, like
how on the side of the dashcam the wifi on off button, is now smaller and has been reshaped. Now another big change with the dashcam is
improved cloud connectivity. This is really what BlackVue is focusing on,
especially because of the fact that there's a million different dashcams available in
the market. And everybody's looking for something unique
to make them special and different compared to everything else. Now, what BlackVue focuses on is having a
connected dashcam. And this is something that's been improved
here with DR900X. Now, the dashcam still has wifi built in,
if you've got a wifi hotspot in your car, so the dashcam can connect to the cloud that
way. But the new thing here is it now has a micro
USB port on the side of the dashcam, which is designed to connect to a new connectivity
module called the CM100 LTE. This is an optional $150 accessory. And it's basically a little box like this
that's designed to plug directly into the side of the dashcam. You take a SIM card and you pop it into this
CM100 LTE. And then it's going to go ahead and give an
LTE connection to your dashcam, so it can now connect directly out to the cloud. Now, having something like this plugged directly
into the dashcam is going to be way easier than trying to get maybe a separate wifi hotspot,
putting that in your car, making sure it automatically turns on when you start your car and especially
making sure that it's got power while you're parked, maybe hooking it up to batteries and
things like that. Again, this is just designed to be something
that you plugged directly into the dashcam and the dashcam itself powers this. So as long as the dashcam is turned on when
you're driving and as well as when you're parked, you're also now going to have all
of your cloud connectivity as well. Now this is going to be a different approach
from something like the BlackVue DR750 LTE that has the LTE antennas built directly into
the dashcam. The DR900X is going to be physically smaller
and it's not going to need the same level of cooling on the dashcam itself, which is
going to be one of the benefits. But it is going to require you to purchase
the optional LTE module, externally. Now, when you're using the CM100 LTE, this
does mean that you're now going to have a second cable that you're going to have to
run up and tuck away somewhere. And it also means you're going to have one
extra thing that you're going to have to unplug and plug back into the dashcam, every time
you want to pop out the memory card. So like the power cable itself, you're going
to have to unplug the CM100 LTE every time you want to grab the memory card out of the
dashcam, if you're not going to be accessing the video files directly over the cloud instead. However, the main benefit is the fact that
it's going to make it much, much easier to add LTE cloud support to your dashcam. Now, as far as which cell phone companies
are compatible here with a CM100 LTE, here in the US, officially we've got to AT&T and
T-Mobile. In Canada, we've got Bell, Telus, and Rogers. Now I have heard some success with people
using other providers like Verizon and a Google Fi, for example. Maybe taking those SIM cards and popping them
into their BlackVue dashcams and that does work, even though it's not officially supported. Now pricing to get a data plan here for your
CM100 LTE does vary, depending on your provider, as well as how much data you want. I find here in the US, the best option is
going to be going with T-Mobile and you don't have to even be a T-Mobile customer to do
this. And with T-Mobile, I pay $10 a month for my
data plan. And that gives me a 2 gigs of the faster 4G
LTE speeds. And then after I go through that, I've actually
got unlimited 3g speeds available. So a little bit slower after the two gigs,
but unlimited otherwise. Now, one nice thing here about the DR900X,
is unlike the DR900S because it has its own internet connection available, when you connect
a device to the dashcam, such as maybe your phone. Your phone is able to use the dashcams internet
connection. And so it's no longer going to break your
phone's internet connection when you connect it to the dashcam, if you want to run something
like Waze or Google maps, for example. Now the dashcam is only going to support one
device connected to it. If you try to connect a second device like
a second phone, for example, you're not going to be able to connect the second phone. And the dashcam will actually error out and
let you know that you can't connect a second device. Direct wi-fi connection already in use. So for that reason, if you want to connect
multiple devices, say you have multiple phones, or maybe your passengers or your kids also
want to connect to your wifi hotspot. If you want to connect maybe a radar detector,
or even if you want to run multiple dashcams that all need their own internet connections,
you're going to want a dedicated wifi hotspot, which is what I've done in my car. And that allows me to connect multiple devices
simultaneously. But with the BlackVue DR900X, the internet
connection that it's able to get, is going to be designed just for the dashcam itself,
as well as for one phone or device connected directly to the dashcam. Now, when it comes to adding things other
than phones to the dashcam, there are some things that are compatible. For example, I tried connecting the Escort
Redline 360C to the DR900X over wifi. And that did work, with the caveat of, you
do need to set the dashcam itself to run at 2.4 gigahertz wifi. Plus, you need to first have your phone connected
to the dashcam. And then when you tell the radar detector
to connect to the dashcam, because the phone is still connected, it's going to error out
on the dashcam. Direct wi-fi connection already in use. So you need to close out the app on Escort
Live, so that the radar detector can be the only device connected and then that is going
to work properly. I also tried hooking up a second, DR900X to
my first one with the CM100 LTE. And this can be nice if you want to have two
separate dashcams running 4K, both front and rear, or maybe you want to do a four channel
setup, which is similar to what I do, to have dashcams running front, rear, left and right. Unfortunately though, this did not work well. I did find that the second dashcam is able
to connect to the first one, however, it's then going to immediately disconnect. And it's not going to be able to maintain
a connection while you're driving and allow the second dashcam to stay connected to the
cloud when you need it. And so it can be a little hit or miss connecting
additional devices, but I do find that things like a phone or a radar detector works well. Either way, adding an LTE connection to the
dashcam itself should work great. And this again is designed to give you the
cloud capabilities for the dashcam when you're driving, as well as when you're parked. Assuming of course the dashcam has power while
you're parked. And speaking of which, let's talk about the
next improvement here with the DR900X, which is the voltage management and the cabling
here for parking mode. Now the new DR900X actually has voltage management
built directly into the dashcam itself that you can go in and configure through the app. And this is really nice because it means you're
no longer required to use an external voltage management device, such as the Power Magic
Pro. Instead, you now have a new three-wire power
cable, so the dashcam can now tell when the car is turning on and off. And that's going to be the indication of when
the dashcam switches between driving mode and parking mode. With the previous versions of the dashcams,
it didn't have that type of power cable. And so instead it was relying on maybe the
G sensor to tell when you're stationary and parked versus when you're moving and when
you're driving. Now, I wasn't necessarily a huge fan of this
implementation. I would find some times issues to where I
would pull into my garage and it wouldn't properly switch into parking mode, and it
would continue recording in driving mode and just start overriding a lot of my footage
that I actually wanted. And so I really like having the ignition triggered
parking mode instead. And I know some people really liked it if
you're maybe sitting in traffic or maybe sitting at a toll booth to cross a border or something,
it's nice that the dashcam knows, "Hey, you're stationary, you're not moving, but the car
is still on, so please continue recording." So I really liked this update. Now, one of the downsides though is they've
changed the connector on the dashcam and the connector is now a little bit smaller. And so if you want to run the DR900X, you're
now going to need to run all new wiring here for the power cable, if you're upgrading from
something like a DR900S or a previous dashcam. Something that's nice though, is the dashcam
still does support the older G sensor method. And this is something that I really like,
as maybe a fallback method. And for example, on the cross-country road
trip that I recently did. The moving truck, if I plug the dashcam into
the cigarette lighter for power, that power adapter was always hot, even when the vehicle
was off. And that made it really easy to run the dashcam,
not only when I'm driving, but also when I'm parked. And that way, if I had the moving truck parked
overnight, the dashcam would continue to record while parked. And it would just use the G sensor to know
to switch into the parking mode, even though I didn't have the newer, fancier power cable
with the ignition triggered power source. Now that said, one of the downsides here of
this new cable is BlackVue actually changed the connector here on the DR900X, it's a little
bit smaller. And so it's not going to be compatible with
any of the previous cabling from BlackVue's previous dashcams, like the DR750S or 900S. And so for that reason, if you're wanting
to upgrade from a previous, older BlackVue dashcam, you're unfortunately going to have
to run all new wiring here, if switching over to the X series dashcams. If you try plugging in the older power cables
into the DR900X, it unfortunately will not power on the newer dashcam. Now some of the older accessories for the
previous dashcams, like the Power Magic Pro and Power Magic Easy, those are now being
discontinued as well, as they switch over to the three-wire ignition power trigger source. Now, something to note, if you want to run
the B-124X battery pack, that normally comes with a cigarette lighter power adapter to
plug the dashcam in. And if you use that, that's also going to
rely on the older G sensor method. If you want to use instead, the ignition trigger
power source, there's a different cable that you need that doesn't come with the B-124X,
I'll link you to that down in the video description. It's the cable that's designed to actually
for the Cellink Neo, which is pretty much the same thing as the B-124X, they're the
same battery. And then if you use this cable with the three
wired ignition triggered power cable that comes with the DR900X. If you hook that up, then you're going to
be getting the ignition triggered power cable capability when you pair the DR900X with the
BlackVue B-124X battery pack. And again, down in the video description,
I'm going to have links to all the different cables and accessories and batteries and all
that kind of stuff, for both US and Canada. So you'll find a bunch of links down there. Now, besides the power cable, all the other
cables and mounts are going to be exactly the same. So if you're upgrading from maybe a previous
BlackVue dashcam, you can pop out your old dashcam and slide your new one in its place. It also uses the exact same 1080P rear dashcam,
as what we had in the DR650S and DR750S, so the same rear camera, the same rear camera
mount, and even the same front to rear cable itself, you can reuse that. You're just going to be putting in a different
front dashcam and a different power cable. Plus if you're using any accessories like
the Circular Polarizer or the Blend Mount to attach the DR900X under your rear view
mirror, instead of attaching it directly to the windshield, those accessories are going
to be compatible as well. It is kind of a bummer though that the power
cable itself does need to be rerun if you're upgrading from a previous BlackVue dashcam. I really wished that you could just plug and
play the power cable, but that's not the case here, for those of you who want to upgrade. Now, speaking of upgrading, if you're wanting
to upgrade from a previous two channel BlackVue dashcam, and you want to get the newer two
channel DR900X, make sure you get the DR900X two channel, not the single channel one. Even though you're going to be using the exact
same rear camera and cabling. The reason is if you get the single version
of the BlackVue dashcam, it's not going to have the port on the side to plug in the rear
dashcam. You have to get the two channel dashcam to
plug in the rear dashcamera. That's another thing that I wish BlackVue
had changed. I wish you could just buy the single channel
version of this dashcam and plug in your existing rear dashcam, but unfortunately that's not
the case. And you also don't have the ability to maybe
buy the single channel version initially and then later on, add the rear dashcam. You're going to have to basically buy the
two channel version of the dashcam right out of the gate, if you want the front and rear
recording. Now, coming back to the overheating thing
real quick, it's only 72 degrees out here right now, but it's starting to get hot in
here. I'm starting to overheat and sweat. And my GoPro that I'm recording this video
on just overheated and shut down on me. It's definitely a thing that it gets hot inside
a car. So I'm glad the BlackVue is working on the
overheating stuff. And then the last thing that I wanted to quickly
talk about here with the new DR900X is they've added Bluetooth here in the new dashcam. Now this isn't something that's activated
yet, even though the hardware is built into the dashcam. Now, as far as the first planned use for the
Bluetooth capabilities, BlackVue says that they're planning on adding an electronic logging
device to connect to the dashcam. And it sounds like this is going to be mostly
for corporate people and for fleet services, not really so much for just the everyday driver. And then as far as any capabilities for just
the average consumer, they don't say if they're planning on adding anything. I know when we first saw the dashcam back
at SEMA 2019, they mentioned maybe using the Bluetooth to simplify the pairing process,
but it doesn't look like currently there's any plans for that or for just anything for
the average consumer. And speaking of SEMA, when I first heard of
this dashcam, I was like, "This is awesome. I've been running the DR900S, ever since it
came out and there's a new version coming, "Awesome, as soon as it comes out, I'll swap
out the DR900S for the DR900X." But now that I'm learning about it, I'm not
totally sure I'm going to wind up doing that. And on that note, let's talk about maybe the
upgrade process. If you're wanting to just buy BlackVue's top
of the line flagship dashcam. Yeah, this is the replacement to the DR900S
so it totally makes sense to just grab the DR900X. It's a better dashcam than the DR900S with
the new improvements that it's adding. And so for that case, of course, get the top
of the line one. Now, as far as whether or not it makes sense
to upgrade, if you're upgrading from an older dashcam, like the DR650S or the DR750S and
you want the new 4K dashcam, totally get the DR900X, it's a nice bump to go to 4K. But what about for those of you who have the
DR900S already? And are like, "Well, should I upgrade to the
DR900X?" I think that maybe doesn't necessarily make
as much sense, unless you need some of the new features. Now, the biggest issue for me is there's not
really any huge upgrades here with the DR900S. And that combined with the fact that it's
going to be really tough to run the new cables that I need here. I'm like, I don't know if I necessarily want
to do the upgrade. When I had the cables run for the DR900S for
example, I had my car pretty much stripped apart because I was adding a ton of new equipment
to my vehicle. And when they were running the dashcam cables,
they tied everything up for additional protection. And for that reason, I don't really have a
good way of uninstalling the previous cables and rerunning the new ones easily. I just did an install last week on my mom's
Hyundai. And with that car, it was really easy to pop
the panels off and tuck all the cables back behind. On my Audi here, I mean, the tolerances are
all a lot tighter and it's not really easy to run the new cables. And so for that reason, I'm probably going
to have to take it back to a professional. And probably when I get the USB type C cable
run for Radenso Thea, at that point, when I get that cable run, maybe it would make
sense to go ahead and run the new cables for the DR900X. But until then, I think I'm going to be just
fine running the DR900S. If BlackVue had made it so that I could pop
out the old dashcam and pop in the new one and use all of the same wiring, including
the power cable. Sure, it would be a no-brainer to upgrade,
but just with the difficulty of rerunning the power cable, for me, it's just going to
be really difficult for me to do. And then if you look at all the advantages,
I mean, there's things like how I can get the new ignition triggered power cable stuff. I would love that, but the G sensor stuff
is still working for the most part. The overheating stuff would definitely be
nice, especially when it's hot like this. But BlackVue had previously released a firmware
update for the DR900S which raises the cutoff threshold with how hot the dashcam needs to
get before it turns off. Before that, I did have some issues with the
DR900S overheating and shutting off. But since then, I haven't had any overheating
issues. But then again, I live in Seattle, I don't
live in the Southern part of the US or a place where it gets super hot. There's also things like the CM100 LTE. It's not really a huge benefit for me. I've already taken the time to install a separate
wifi hotspot in my car. And for that reason, I don't need the CM100
LTE. And that's going to give me connections for
the four different dashcams I run at different angles. That lets me connect my radar detectors, it
allows me to connect multiple phones and I can't do all that stuff just with one CM100
LTE. So this is convenient just for a single dashcam,
but I want to run multiple devices, so I don't really need the improved LTE connections that's
available here on the new X series dashcams. I also find it kind of annoying to have to
unplug the CM100 LTE every time I want to pop out the memory card, just like I have
to do with the power cable. And so it's just extra headache and steps,
for something that I don't personally necessarily need. And so for that reason, I don't really see
a compelling reason to upgrade, especially considering all the hassle of having to rerun
the power cables. If you're though just installing from scratch,
you don't have to worry about upgrading. Of course, go for the DR900X, just go for
the flagship, 4K front, 1080P rear and all of the LTE stuff. Awesome, that totally makes sense. If you're upgrading from maybe an older dashcam
that records at 1080P and you want to step up to 4K. In that situation, totally makes sense. If you want some of the stuff like the improved
high heat tolerance stuff or the new LTE capability stuff, totally, upgrade. But it really kind of depends on your specific
situation. If it makes sense for you to upgrade, or you
want to get the dashcam, again, I'll put links in the video description to where you can
pick up the dashcams, both for the US and for Canada. To save some money, you can use the coupon
code VORTEX20, which will save you 5% off the price of the dashcam. And I'm also going to have links to different
accessories, such as the different battery packs, the different memory cards that I would
recommend to run with the dashcam, et cetera. You'll find all that information down in the
video description below. And with that said, that's my thoughts here
on BlackVue's new flagship, DR900X. Thanks so much for watching. I hope you've enjoyed this video. If you have any questions, please feel free
to ask down in the comment area below. Other than that, happy driving, stay safe
and I'll see you in the next video. Bye.
