Dashcam Besta CR-530 & Yi Dashcam review with video comparison
Car dashcam users are growing rapidly during these few years as many of my friends have started to fix one on their front windscreen.
The dashcam unit can be seen easily when following behind someone's car and some people did not bother to turn off the bright display when driving at night.
Nowadays dashcam is extremely cheap and while it is cheap, I could have wondering their quality and reliability when one of my friend bought the cheapest but it went kaput in less than a year.
Some expensive dashcam have two camera, one for the front with LCD screen for playback and one installed at the rear and connected to the front unit.
Few others even come with additional safety features to alert driver when abnormal occasion occur or during emergency situation such as Lane Departure Warning "LDW" or Front Collision Warning "FCW".
Anyhow, the main purpose of having a dashcam is to record down any accident as a prove of evidence so we are not get to be blamed guilty.
Dashcam unit require external power source in order to function and is commonly supplied with a car adapter to plug in to the power socket inside our car.
Then the 3 meters long cable will connect from the car adapter to the dashcam attach to the windscreen by suction cup holder also supplied in the package.
Refer back to my previous article for the guide on how to conceal and route the dashcam power supply cable in case if you have missed it, HERE.
In this article, I will be reviewing 2 types of different dashcam that I bought myself.
The first dashcam is by Besta, a Taiwan company focusing on electronics dictionary product and the model that I bought is CR-530 installed in my Proton Persona.
This is the most expensive dashcam in their product line up and selling price for this dashcam is RM499 excluding memory card.
Promotion is available at that time with 12% discount or RM60 off from original price but including a 32GB memory card cost all these cost a total RM489 at the end.
Items in the package includes:
Below is the whole unit attached together with car adapter cable and a Toshiba Exceria 32GB Ultra High Speed Class-1 memory card.
I did not install this dashcam myself as I insisted to tap the power from the cabin fuse box instead of using the existing 12V power socket as I am using it to charge my mobile phone.
The seller recommend to one of their appointed installer at Jalan Tembikai, Bukit Mertajam and to my experience this installer is very professional but poor customer service due to his attitude treating my car badly.
The second dashcam is the infamous Yi Dashcam from XiaoMi bought from authorised XiaoMi dealer to install in my Perodua Axia.
No discount is given for this Yi Dashcam due to the seller only provide original international version at the price of RM269.
While Yi Dashcam package is not bundle with memory card, this seller also failed to communicate to me regarding this and after providing their free installation, the price had jacked up to RM349.
I get a sudden heart attack seeing the final invoice and requested some explanation from them pertaining to the Samsung Evo Plus 32GB UHS Class-1 memory card sold to me discreetly that cost RM80.
At the end also, I had to modified myself the power supply socket by tapping into the car cabin fuse box and reserving the existing 12V power socket for other purposes.
Again, refer back to my previous article for the guide on how to conceal and route the dashcam power supply cable in case if you have missed it, here.
Items in the package includes:
Please consider completing your windscreen tinted because this Yi Dashcam mount bracket is paste on using 3M adhesive and it will be a hassle to remove in the future.
See below for all the specification between these 2 dashcams compiled by myself.
If you need clarification and have anything to say kindly leave it down in the comment section below.
Car dashcam users are growing rapidly during these few years as many of my friends have started to fix one on their front windscreen.
The dashcam unit can be seen easily when following behind someone's car and some people did not bother to turn off the bright display when driving at night.
Nowadays dashcam is extremely cheap and while it is cheap, I could have wondering their quality and reliability when one of my friend bought the cheapest but it went kaput in less than a year.
Some expensive dashcam have two camera, one for the front with LCD screen for playback and one installed at the rear and connected to the front unit.
Few others even come with additional safety features to alert driver when abnormal occasion occur or during emergency situation such as Lane Departure Warning "LDW" or Front Collision Warning "FCW".
Anyhow, the main purpose of having a dashcam is to record down any accident as a prove of evidence so we are not get to be blamed guilty.
Dashcam unit require external power source in order to function and is commonly supplied with a car adapter to plug in to the power socket inside our car.
Then the 3 meters long cable will connect from the car adapter to the dashcam attach to the windscreen by suction cup holder also supplied in the package.
Refer back to my previous article for the guide on how to conceal and route the dashcam power supply cable in case if you have missed it, HERE.
In this article, I will be reviewing 2 types of different dashcam that I bought myself.
The first dashcam is by Besta, a Taiwan company focusing on electronics dictionary product and the model that I bought is CR-530 installed in my Proton Persona.
This is the most expensive dashcam in their product line up and selling price for this dashcam is RM499 excluding memory card.
Promotion is available at that time with 12% discount or RM60 off from original price but including a 32GB memory card cost all these cost a total RM489 at the end.
"Quite pricey though..."
Items in the package includes:
- Dashcam unit
- Suction cup mount with T-buckle bracket
- Car adapter to mini USB power supply cable
- USB to mini USB cable
- User's manual booklet
Below is the whole unit attached together with car adapter cable and a Toshiba Exceria 32GB Ultra High Speed Class-1 memory card.
I did not install this dashcam myself as I insisted to tap the power from the cabin fuse box instead of using the existing 12V power socket as I am using it to charge my mobile phone.
The seller recommend to one of their appointed installer at Jalan Tembikai, Bukit Mertajam and to my experience this installer is very professional but poor customer service due to his attitude treating my car badly.
The second dashcam is the infamous Yi Dashcam from XiaoMi bought from authorised XiaoMi dealer to install in my Perodua Axia.
No discount is given for this Yi Dashcam due to the seller only provide original international version at the price of RM269.
While Yi Dashcam package is not bundle with memory card, this seller also failed to communicate to me regarding this and after providing their free installation, the price had jacked up to RM349.
I get a sudden heart attack seeing the final invoice and requested some explanation from them pertaining to the Samsung Evo Plus 32GB UHS Class-1 memory card sold to me discreetly that cost RM80.
At the end also, I had to modified myself the power supply socket by tapping into the car cabin fuse box and reserving the existing 12V power socket for other purposes.
Again, refer back to my previous article for the guide on how to conceal and route the dashcam power supply cable in case if you have missed it, here.
"Doing business nowadays..."
Items in the package includes:
- Dashcam unit
- 3M adhesive mountwith clip-on bracket
- USB to micro USB cable
- USB car adapter
- User's guide leaflet
- Warranty card
Please consider completing your windscreen tinted because this Yi Dashcam mount bracket is paste on using 3M adhesive and it will be a hassle to remove in the future.
See below for all the specification between these 2 dashcams compiled by myself.
From here, I will be doing video comparison by picture quality recorded in 1920x1080p full HD resolution with the highest frame rate per second or FPS available for these 2 dashcams.
Besta CR-530 in 30fps in daytime
*file size extremely large, please press pause to observe picture quality
Yi Dashcam in 60fps in daytime
*file size extremely large, please press pause to observe picture quality
Things I observed from both the video:
- Yi dashcam color is warmer than Besta CR-530
- YI dashcam image quality in daytime is better than CR-530 as I can see all vehicles number plate coming from front
- Besta CR-530 is brighter
- Besta CR-530 unable to see the motorcycle Honda EX5 number plate
- Yi Dashcam capture video more clarity than Besta CR-530 in daytime
Next, video will also be recording at night in 1920x1080p full HD resolution to compare the low light condition of these 2 dashcams.
Besta CR-530 in 30fps at night
Yi Dashcam in 60fps at night
Things I observed from the video:
- Yi Dashcam have clear picture quality at night
- Yi Dashcam able to see majority number plate coming from behind
- Besta CR-530 have noticeable image noise (unprocessed video have even more noise)
- Besta CR-530 unable to see all the vehicles number plate while in motion
- Yi Dashcam capture video more clarity than Besta CR-530 at night
Another test here was conducted facing an LCD TV in both 1920x1080p and also 1280x720p to compare how these 2 dashcam is utilising the photo sensor in different settings.
1920x1080p Full HD resolution
1280x720p HD resolution
Differences:
- Besta CR-530 have more image noise than Yi Dashcam
- Besta CR-530 picture is brighter than Yi Dashcam
- Yi Dashcam have wider view angle than Besta CR-530 despite the latter claim to have 170 degrees wide angle than the former 165 degrees
- Yi Dashcam utilise its full sensor area and down scale the video to 1280x720p while Besta is cropping the sensor resolution and thus reducing the image coverage
That is all about the comparison of the picture quality between the 2 dashcams and with them we can judge our self which of them win hands down in capturing the best video.
Other than that, the Yi Dashcam also comes with it's own mobile apps to change setting, update firmware and to download videos from the device to our handphone.
This method save us from the need to take out the memory card and insert it into our handphone to do file transfer which create a lot of hassle and difficulty jobs such as the Besta CR-530.
The Yi Dashcam also comes with additional safety features like Lane Departure Warning (LDW) and Forward Collision Warning (FCW) to assist driver when the vehicle is acting abnormally which the Besta CR-530 did not have.
While the Besta did have the function of auto-lock files during high G-force impact detected which this kind of features is normal for nowadays dashcam but the Besta CR-530 also suffer from a lot of problems.
Issues that I faced is the device keep turning on-off due to the loosen mini USB connector slot and I need to add in some paper as spacer to tighten the connector.
Sometimes the device totally unable to start up and need to perform unplug and plug back the mini USB connector to the slot several times.
What most annoyingly is the second button for the Besta CR-530 device will suddenly broken and it dropped onto the carpet and wasted me times searching for the broken button and having to bring back the device to the authorised dealer for repair since it is still under warranty.
They even promise to send back the device to factory for inspection and will call me back afterwards the rectification but at last the factory personal inform me that they will charge the repair button at the cost of RM55 which I declined for a low quality product.
Finally they send back to me the device and I DIY the button myself by using tape to hold it on its position.
Other than that, the Yi Dashcam also comes with it's own mobile apps to change setting, update firmware and to download videos from the device to our handphone.
This method save us from the need to take out the memory card and insert it into our handphone to do file transfer which create a lot of hassle and difficulty jobs such as the Besta CR-530.
The Yi Dashcam also comes with additional safety features like Lane Departure Warning (LDW) and Forward Collision Warning (FCW) to assist driver when the vehicle is acting abnormally which the Besta CR-530 did not have.
While the Besta did have the function of auto-lock files during high G-force impact detected which this kind of features is normal for nowadays dashcam but the Besta CR-530 also suffer from a lot of problems.
Issues that I faced is the device keep turning on-off due to the loosen mini USB connector slot and I need to add in some paper as spacer to tighten the connector.
Sometimes the device totally unable to start up and need to perform unplug and plug back the mini USB connector to the slot several times.
What most annoyingly is the second button for the Besta CR-530 device will suddenly broken and it dropped onto the carpet and wasted me times searching for the broken button and having to bring back the device to the authorised dealer for repair since it is still under warranty.
They even promise to send back the device to factory for inspection and will call me back afterwards the rectification but at last the factory personal inform me that they will charge the repair button at the cost of RM55 which I declined for a low quality product.
Finally they send back to me the device and I DIY the button myself by using tape to hold it on its position.
Thats about it all of my review and conclusion given for these 2 dashcams Besta CR-530 and Yi Dashcam and rated based on below criteria:
Besta CR-530
- Build quality: ★★
- Picture quality: ★★
- Low light condition: ★★★
- Practicality: ★
- User friendly: ★
- Features: ★
- Price: ★
- Overall: ★ and half star
Yi Dashcam
- Build quality: ★★★
- Picture quality: ★★★
- Low light condition: ★★★
- Practicality: ★★★★
- User friendly: ★★★★★
- Features: ★★★
- Price: ★★★
- Overall: ★★★ and half star
If you need clarification and have anything to say kindly leave it down in the comment section below.
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