What is it?
The 70mai 4K T800 is the latest, most feature-rich product from dash cam specialist 70mai. You pay for this richness, though - around £450 list price, which is obviously significant when you can pick up a decent dash cam for less than a hundred quid. The hardwire kit (which we recommend) costs an additional £50 too.
Having released the innovative 70mai Omni dash cam recently, which can usefully spin 360 degrees, the 70mai 4K T800 is a more conventional product from 70mai - but one that includes industry-first 4K recording for the front AND rear cameras. The interior camera records in 1080p. That leaves room for 70mai to launch another industry first triple 4K camera, surely?
For now though, this is (on paper, at least) the most advanced dash cam you can buy. It understands multiple voice commands, has infra-red night vision, collision detection, built-in GPS plus it understands multiple voice commands.
Basically, the cameras are excellent at capturing footage that includes extremes of light and shade - oncoming headlights in low light conditions, for instance.
Alongside this, the 70mai 4K T800 has an almost exhausting feature list, including MaiColour Vivid+, Night Owl Vision and Lumi Vision, which all assist in making the footage as clear as possible in all conditions.
Like the 70mai Omni it has Buffered Emergency Recording, which captures up to three minutes of footage prior to an impact and 30 seconds of post-collision footage. These are kept separately in a specific folder in the 70mai app (which you’ll need to access the footage), so that they’re never overwritten.
Its motion detection system allows the camera to act as parking surveillance, too, picking up movement outside the car (front or rear) and making a short recording. A bit like Tesla’s Sentry mode.
And as per most dash cams, you can mark and save footage manually at any point by pressing a button on the camera unit, meaning you’re only ever a click away from making that idiot driver YouTube famous.
The T800 Premium Set comes with a front camera incorporating the interior monitor, a rear camera, a mount plate (which is adhesive, rather than being a suction cup), a charging cable for both USB and 12V cigarette lighter power, and a 512GB SD card (good for an estimated 15-20 hours of continuous recording before the system will start overwriting old files). It retails at £450 but is currently available for £405 and you can buy it from Amazon or directly from the 70mai website.
What's it like?
It’s brilliant, albeit with a couple of frustrations and with the obvious issue of how much it costs. The quality of the footage is the most impressive thing about the 70mai 4K T800. Day or night - and regardless of conditions - you’ll see everything in vivid detail from both the front and rear cameras. Road signs, number plates, angry faces, wheelie bins… you name it. Even the interior camera is excellent quality, meaning this is a great choice for a taxi driver looking for that layer of personal security.
Camera quality is sensational, not just because of the 4K resolution, but because both the front and rear cameras feature Sony sensors including ‘Starvis’ imaging tech. Footage is captured in 3848x2160p front and rear, at up to 60 frames per second and with a 146-degree field of view.
The screen on the main front camera offers picture-in-picture so that you can quickly glance at what’s being recorded. It’s possible to turn off internal recording and internal sound capture using the screen, should you or your passengers be uncomfortable with the feature.
That said, the buttons on the unit that allow you to switch what the screen is displaying (and turn off the interior camera, and mute sound recording) are not very clear or easy to use on the move. Albeit you won’t use them very often once you’ve found a setup you like.
But the main issue is downloading footage using the app. The app itself is quite basic, which is actually useful because that means it’s easy to use, but downloading footage requires linking the camera to your phone’s WiFi, which you can’t if your car is connected to Apple CarPlay, which it probably will be. The upshot is, downloading footage requires untethering your phone from your car completely. It’s just not a smooth process, although - and like the button thing - it’s not something you’ll do frequently.
It’s worth mentioning hardwiring too, which we recommend you do because, well, wires are ugly, especially when they’re hanging at both ends of the car with a rear camera setup. Between the hardwire kit itself and paying someone to do the job (which we strongly suggest you do), you’ll be looking at the thick end of £200. It can cost a little more to plumb a dash cam into an EV, it transpires. It was something about recouping the cost of the fitting lads having to do a training course. Oh well.
But aside from removing unsightly wires, the hardwiring kit gives you the option of adding a sim card to the setup so that you can track the car and control your dash cam remotely, from anywhere in the world. You’ll get push notifications if the surveillance mode has picked anything up, or if the car has been dinged - and hook into a live footage if you like.
Surveillance mode does drain the battery, though. Our car (a BMW i3) now thinks there’s a problem with the 12V battery because it’s losing charge when the car is stationary. Tesla’s Sentry Mode will automatically disengage when the car’s battery drops below 20%, because it’s a baked-in feature.
Should you buy one?
The 70mai 4K T800's massive range of features are all aimed at making sure you and your car are protected, not least the fact that it supports a massive 512GB of storage. But if you’re just looking for a dash cam that gives you decent front and rear footage and ease of use, there are plenty of much cheaper options from the likes of Nextbase, Road Angel and Garmin.
We’ve spent a lot of time explaining little issues with the T800, but actually, it’s an extremely impressive dash cam that feels well worth its hefty price tag. There are of course cheaper options available, but nothing that feels quite as advanced as this - 70mai 4K Omni aside, perhaps.
