What is it?
This is the ultimate dashcam as far as Nextbase is concerned – the 612GW is the best equipped and most expensive model the company makes.
It offers ultra HD 4K resolution, polarising filter to reduce glare, a 150-degree wide-angle lens, a high-quality metal body, a touchscreen and even the ability to connect to your smartphone to view or download the footage. This technology comes at a price though, it is more expensive than many other more basic cameras on the market.
What is it like?
The high-quality video footage is what will be the top of many buyers’ list of reasons for picking the 612GW, despite its many other tricks and gadgets.
And for those that don’t have time to explore everything that the camera can do, it’s fairly simple to get it up, running and recording. The box comes with a quick start guide, but it really is a case of doing what you imagine you need to – plug it into the 12V socket, insert an SD card, attach it to the windscreen and get going.
Usefully, the charging cable goes into a socket on the clamp, rather than the camera, so you can unclip it without fiddling around with the cable. Annoyingly it is on the right side of the camera, though, which is less convenient for right-hand drive cars where the cable goes around the left of the cabin.
As well as recording high-quality videos, the Nextbase also creates a lower resolution version that you can download without taking up huge amounts of space on your computer or tablet. However, doubling up on the recordings means that you will burn through space on the micro SD card.
Nextbase doesn’t include one but recommends that you need a 64GB card as a minimum and that will be filled within only a few hours of driving so you’ll need to act swiftly or save clips that you might need later before they get wiped. It needs to be a U3 class card too.
Saving those clips is made relatively easy by the fact that you can review everything on the three-inch screen, although to see it in proper HD you will need to download it. The sample clip above gives you an idea of the quality - you can change the settings to view it in 4K - although be aware that YouTube does compress the footage.
This can be done by an app on your phone or tablet, or more conventionally, by either attaching the USB cable to the camera and your computer, or taking the SD card out. The latter options are simple – and give you the option to treat the camera as a mass storage device allowing you to drag files off.
The app is a more complicated process, as it requires you to connect your phone or tablet and the camera via WiFi. It allows you to view and save videos while you are away from a computer, but it is debatable whether it saves any time or effort over simply plugging the camera in or taking the SD card out.
Once you have got the clips off, you will be rewarded with excellent video quality in low light, wet and bright conditions thanks in part to polarising filter that reduces glare and cuts through the gloom and wet.
With all the other tricks, it is easy to overlook the fact that the Nextbase camera does an excellent job at capturing footage in high-quality format. In our time testing it, we've had one case of it freezing and needing a press of the reset button, but fitted with a Samsung micro SD card, it has proved faultless since.
Should I buy one?
As they have become more popular, dash cams have also become more affordable, making the high retail price of the Nextbase 612GW seem a comparatively high outlay. After all, if you can buy a camera that takes basic video for much less, then why shell out for the top of the range?
The video quality – Ultra HD 4K video is a rarity still – will be the clincher for many. It should mean that the footage captures even the small details that could prove crucial for an insurance claim. We think the Z-Edge Z3 Plus is excellent for image quality - and considerably cheaper - but if you want an all singing and dancing dashcam with superb footage, this is it.
