- Baseus Primetrip VD1 Pro has a small solar panel that drives recording while you are parked
- There is also a battery for continuous shooting on the road
- Complete with front 4K and rear 1080p cameras
I look after Techradar’s dash cam cover and have gone through lots of the best dash cams from Nextbase and Garmin. Fortunately, there is still room for innovation in this room as this week I came across the surprising Baseus Primetrip VD1 Pro.
The VD1 Pro has a unique trick up the sleeve: a small solar panel. Let’s be clear, it’s not enough to drive dash-cam to continuous, on the road recording-there is an internal battery for it. No, what the solar panel can do is run a parking mode for up to two weeks.
Parking modes are a relatively recent thing in dash cams. They sparks to life to detect the evidence when movement and threats around your parked vehicle are detected, such as dents or burglaries. Typically, they are driven by hardwiring to your vehicle’s battery.
You don’t want to leave a Dash cam that is attached to your parked vehicle for too long – eventually it will drain the battery completely. However, the VD1 Pro potentially removes the need for hardwiring, giving what its manufacturer says is up to 14 days of power to parking mode, storing up to 20 recordings through the front and rear cameras.
I cannot believe that a feature like this has not used before, especially considering the position that most Dash -Cams are located – on a windshield with exposure to daylight.
I personally prefer the simpler plug-and-play-dash-cams instead of fucking with the mechanics and hardwiring for permanent installation, so points go to the VD1 Pro for it. But how does it manage in other areas?
It is also surprisingly cheap
Baseus is better known for making power banks and security cameras, so it makes sense that it can combine these worlds in an dashboard with an innovative power supply design.
In addition to its solar skills, the VD1 Pro is a double channel dash-cam, which means there are front and rear cameras. The front camera shoots 4K video with a particularly wide 170-degree field of view (most dash cams are 140 degrees), while the rear camera peaks at only 1080p.
Sensor technology is actually a bit basic compared to today’s best dash cams, so I don’t have super high hopes for video quality. However, the VD1 Pro is on the cheaper side and costs $ 139.99 at Amazon US at the time of writing. I can’t see VD1 Pro at Amazon UK yet, but it appears on other discount sites at a much lower price – buy at your own risk.
Elsewhere, Baseus Primetrip VD1 Pro is filled with features, including voice control, 5GHz Wi-Fi 6 for quick file uploads and a companion app for streaming, stored recordings, viewing GPS data and receiving OTA updates-all by car, not distant, which is a shame.
I’m not yet testing the VD1 Pro, so I can’t comment on how well it holds up in the real world, but it’s got my interest enough to check it out.
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