Thinkware U3000 4K UHD Dual-Channel Dash Cam | In-Depth Review | BlackboxMyCar

hey guys Joseph from lockbox my car well the thinkware u3000 is finally here we've had a ton of pre-orders from you guys so it's obvious you're all super excited and you can't wait to get your hands out of this new dash cam but for those of you who are still wondering if thinkware's latest Flagship dash cam is a good buy we're gonna go in depth on it today now before we dive in I do want to take some time to address one question from Easton Jackson is the 2.8 millimeter coaxial cable for the rear camera the same cable as the blackview dr900 series my blackview dr900x died and I'd like to switch to a vofo so it'd be really nice to use the same cable and not have to fish a new one now unfortunately the connector pins of blackvue dash cams are standard coaxial pins which means they're not compatible with the vo4 a139 pro as it supports many coaxial pins so if you do want to switch to a vehicle unfortunately you can't use any of blackview's cables we hope this answer your question Easton now let's move on to the star of the show The thinkware u3000 so here it is guys this is the thinkware youth 3000 this is the much awaited successor of our thinkware favorite the u1000 we voted this the best of the best since 2019. let's unbox the thinkware u3000 first [Music] in the Box you're going to find all the standard stuff thinkware u3000 front camera dash cam Mount 12 volt car charger a trim tool adhesive cable holder a free 64 gig micro SD memory card and then if you have the two Channel version a rear camera plus rear camera cable CPL filter and an OBD2 power cable you might be wondering what an OBD cable that's right think we're switched out the standard hardwiring kit with an OBD cable instead it's got a pretty solid build quality just like the other thinkware dash cams and it looks pretty Sleek with smooth matte black finish now compared to the u1000 the front lens area is much bigger and it's got the radar label beside the lens which we're going to explain a little bit later the front lens itself doesn't rotate but the plate with the lens can be rotated about 60 degrees up and down pretty good for the vast majority of vehicles but it's a bit short for vertical windshield it's got a new ventilation system underneath it's got these crossed ventilation Grille design for better cooling thinkware has replaced the standard hardwiring kit with this cable right here and it's meant to be a universal fit and it's going to work with a majority of gas hybrid and electric vehicles so this OBD cable right here is fairly easy to install all you got to do is plug it into your OBD Port which is typically underneath your steering wheel and then you mount your front camera on your windshield and then literally run that cable from that OBD Port from your a-pillar across your headliner directly into your front Cam and you're literally good to go it brings these same features as hard wiring but you don't need to connect it to your vehicle's fuse box here's the kicker though if you want to use a dedicated battery pack like the black box my car Power Cell 8 you will still have to hardwire it because you can't use it with an OBD cable a couple other things I'll point out thinkware has included a heat blocking film for direct sunlight protection and a free CPL filter to reduce those glares one thing we did notice which left us kind of puzzled is that it doesn't have a user manual but that said the manual is available online and we're going to include a link to the user manual below this video for your reference too similar to the u1000 this one records 4K 30 frames per second video resolution for the front camera the difference is in the details here as the u3000 uses the latest 8.24 megapixel Sony starvis 2 IMX 678 image sensor technology you've probably seen this in other places but this is the first premium 4K dash cam brand using the Sony starvis 2 sensor quite the trendsetter we're definitely putting a lot of emphasis on this because this is the industry's most advanced image sensor technology that highly improves low light performance and contrast provides high resolution and Clarity while also lowering the power consumption in parking mode so the Sony starvis 2 technology is responsible for super night vision 4.0 we actually went ahead and tested super night vision 4.0 and for me personally I really like both the daytime and nighttime footage these upgrades are mainly from the umbrella H22 a77 processor and a DDR3 4 gig ram so performance Wise It's a total upgrade from the u1000 in terms of field of view they've been quite generous with 158 degrees wide angle lens which enables you to see more Lanes of the roads ahead just a couple of other things the u3000 also got the warping technology so it makes sure that all front footage is recorded with minimal Distortion let's move on to the rear camera now this secondary camera it doesn't have Sony starvis 2 but what it does have is 5 megapixel Sony starvis IMX 335 it's got 2K at 30 frames per second covering 128 degrees now check out the rear camera and how it rotates now if you look at the side it's designed in a way that it can only be rotated with a coin slot or or with a key but try not to scratch it and the rear camera cable itself it now uses a USB a type so it's not compatible with other thinkware models in case you're wondering now I'm sure some of you guys have noticed the rear camera itself is quite large look how big it is while still a pretty slim unit itself it's wider in size due to a built-in radar sensor something brand new which we're going to cover in our next section something new in regards to security the u3000 is the first dash cam to have built-in radar sensor now in this case with the u3000 the radar sensor feature is built in right into the unit not only on the front cam but also the rear camera as well what this means is when a person or vehicle is detected in a low power recording situation the u3000 immediately wakes up and start recording this sensitivity can be set to a one meter minimum or 5 meter Max here's a Nifty chart to explain more of how much power this radar sensor consumes for both the single and dual Channel system now standard to thinkware dash cam you get motion detection impact detection time lapse and energy saving mode 2.0 so let's dive deeper into energy saving mode 2.0 when you've activated it it saves a 20 second video clip only after an impact hasn't been detected now compare that with the new thinkware u3000 it can last for 535.7 hours for 22.3 days for one channel or 489.1 hours or 20.4 days for a two Channel version note that both of these are based on using a 4 500 milliamp battery pack aside from this the u3000 also has smart parking mode this one is designed to protect your vehicle and prevent heat related damages similar to that AI heat monitoring feature in the fineview gx1000 that I personally thought was extremely Innovative and useful so the temperature inside your car becomes too high or too low during parking mode the u3000 and automatically switches to this low power mode it's only going to record incidents triggered by impacts until the temperature is safe to resume motion detection or time-lapse parking mode thinkware has always been at the top of the game when it comes to parking mode and now when it comes to heat resistance it shows that their unit are smart enough to maneuver around the temperature and it really shows how much they care we haven't had a whole lot of time with this unit but what we did do when we got the u3000 was we let it sit idle for a couple of days straight recording to our surprise after a couple of days we found that it only got slightly warmer in temperature so I think that the heat dissipation on this model is actually doing quite well for its efficiency but let's talk about Advanced Driver assistance system Adas this feature has always been more advanced compared to the other dash cam brands that we've worked with it's got safety camera alert features so you're going to get a ton of audio warnings for a whole bunch of things [Music] what we discovered was that the volume of the audio notifications can be adjusted separately so if you want it louder specifically for the Adas and safety camera alerts you can adjust it separately from the system's notifications volume so now the u3000 makes connecting easier because it's got built-in Bluetooth connectivity what this allows for is similar to say the thinkware q1000 it's got the same seamless pairing using the thinkware dash cam link app but what thinkware has done is they've improved their Bluetooth connection so it alone can be used to perform simple in-app actions like changing settings overviewing parking mode events and other basic functions that said though Wi-Fi is still needed for certain heavier task like streaming that 4K footage to your phone but the dash cam itself is equipped with 2.4 gigahertz and 5 gigahertz Dual Band Wi-Fi capabilities now with the new thinkware connected that sync were introduced with the q1000 there's been some drastic improvements here it's highly recommended for fleets parents of young drivers and anyone who wants to keep track of their car and driver even when they're awake all you need is a thinkware connected account which is now free to use forever let's dive into some of the thinkware connected features so you get the standard impact notification when you're parked and driving you can send emergency messages remote live view vehicle status and geofencing there are some recent additions that we thought were particularly interesting like the ability to monitor life voltage of your vehicle and also the ability to remotely turn off your camera through the app couple other things you can have a full driving history map too so it's going to provide you with multiple months worth of driving data if you need it you're also going to need to have the unit in one of the more Standard Parking modes because if you use energy saving mode 2.0 with the radar it's going to disable the cloud while you're parked to conserve power and in terms of storing your videos offline on the device thinkware included a free 64 gig micro SD card with every purchase now if you want more storage it supports up to 256 gigs so guys that ends our thinkware new 3000 review personally I think it's a very solid upgrade from the u1000 and it's got everything that you'll ever need while you're driving down a road you can learn more about the u3000 on our website but if you have any questions drop them in the comments below or you can always find us on live chat give us a call or shoot us an email thanks for watching we've included all the links in the comments below and if you're interested in making a purchase of the u3000 you can use exclusive YouTube code bbmc tube at checkout to take five percent off support us by Smashing that like And subscribe button on your way out thanks

Channel: BlackboxMyCar Dash Cams | North America

Views: 39,967

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Id: 8HoB0yOX5JE

Length: 12min 15sec (735 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 17 2023