What is it?
The 70mai 4K Omni is the latest dash cam from 70mai. This top of the range model is priced at around £300 and promises superior 4K image quality thanks to a Sony sensor. It also includes a rear camera that records in 1080P.
The unusual cylindrical design is down to the fact this has a lens that can rotate through 360 degrees - as you'll see when it turns on. The 70mai also has enhanced night vision - called Night Owl Vision - for better footage in the dark as well as parking surveillance mode, although the hard wire kit is needed for this to work. There's no suction mount, instead the 70mai uses an adhesive pad.
It has buffered emergency recording which captures footage before, during and after an incident. Plus there is built-in GPS to track speed and location. It supports up to 512GB of external storage.
It even has an ADAS system that provides lane departure and forward collision warnings. While the screen is pretty small, you can view the camera through the 70mai app, where you can also set-up the rear camera and download footage. You can see what's included in the box below.
You can buy accessories such as a hardwire kit (£42) and polarising filter (£25) separately from 70mai. It's available on Amazon or you can buy it directly from the 70mai website.
What's it like?
There's a bewildering array of dash cams available right now - a quick search on Amazon shows plenty of makes you have probably never heard of while prices range from £25 up to several hundred pounds.
The 70mai 4K Omni dash cam is in the latter camp here - priced at £300 this is a high end and feature-laden dash cam. The package does include a rear camera but you'll need a micro SD card. You can get a 128MB one from 70mai for £21 or pick one up from Amazon for about £12.
Setting the camera up is pretty straightforward but the first thing you'll notice is that rather than a suction mount (our preferred method) the 70mai 4K Omni has an adhesive mount. It means this isn't a dashcam that can be moved between cars but it's not going to be an issue if you're hardwiring it in. The camera does twist off the mount if you want to hide it away. Usefully, in the box you do get spare adhesive pads for both the front and rear camera.
The display screen is on the small side so it's easier to use the 70mai app to check the view when deciding where to fit it. Fortunately, the 70mai app is easy to use and connecting is straightforward. One thing to note is that you'll want to disconnect Apple CarPlay or Android Auto if you're using either, as they will interfere with the WiFi connection to the dash cam. You'll also need the app to work out where to fit the rear cam (which is powered from the main camera) as it isn't displayed on the front camera screen.
We're testing the 70mai 4K Omni in an Audi A6 e-tron Avant, powering it via the supplied 12v socket charger. Thanks to the USB lead you can power it from a USB port if you have one fitted. If not, the 12v socket has two USB ports, leaving you one free.
Once installed, it feels secure and as our footage below shows, there's no shake or bounce through the mount. Like all good dash cams, the 70mai 4K Omni is one you can simply forget about once installed. During our testing we didn't experience any technical issues and there was no need to restart or reset the unit.
The 70mai 4K Omni features an upgraded pre-recording feature which extends the buffer to 3 minutes before an incident, along with footage during and 30 seconds after. These videos are stored in a special 'Event Video' folder, so no vital footage is lost.
And as for the footage itself, it's some of the best we've seen from a dashcam. The 4K image quality means it's crystal clear and you can easily pick out signs, registration plates and faces. Remember that YouTube compresses videos, so the actual raw footage is better quality.
This quality is helped by the 70mai's MaiColor Vivid+ Solution intelligent auto-exposure. This is designed to simulate the human eye. By selectively processing image information, it highlights key elements and suppresses noise, resulting in a significant improvement in image quality.
The rear camera isn't quite as good, recording in 1080p, but it's still impressive and more than sharp enough. If you are installing the rear camera, we'd suggest getting a professional to fit that at the same time as hardwiring, unless you're particularly handy at hiding wires under bits of trim.
One excellent feature is the 24 hour parking mode which uses AI motion detection. This requires hardwiring to work and will automatically trigger a 30 second video if there's a collision or any suspicious human activity. This is where the rotating lens design comes into its own, giving you a full 360 degree surveillance view.
On top of that, the dash cam records 1FPS footage in parking mode (to save memory card space) and this includes the rear camera, so you can always review any footage, even if it doesn't necessarily involve damage to your car.
Oh - and one nice touch is the screensaver. It's a little face that emotes as you drive along and our three year-old son spent most journeys chatting to it and waiting for it to give him a thumbs up...
Should you buy one?
The 70mai 4K Omni dash cam is not cheap, but given the technology it features, the fact it has a rear facing camera, plus the superb footage, we think it's good value for money. It's easy to set up and straightforward to use, thanks to the simple 70mai app. We're particularly impressed by the parking mode with its time lapse recording function.
What really shines through is the quality of the footage. The 4K images captured are excellent and show all the detail you'll need. Footage at night is equally as impressive thanks to the enhanced Night Owl Vision. Our only small gripe is that there's no suction mount, but if you don't plan on moving this between cars, that won't be an issue.
If you want a top quality 4K dash cam that's easy to use and delivers superb footage, look no further than the 70mai 4K Omni dash cam. It's one of the best on the market right now and a sound buy.
