KAWA Dash Cam Front 1296P, Mini Dash Cam for Cars with APP
KAWA Dash Cam Front 1296P, Mini Dash Cam for Cars with APP, Voice Control, WiFi Dash Cam with WDR Night Vision, 360° Rotating Body, 145°Wide, 24H Parking Monitoring, G-sensor, D5
Do you have to reconnect the dash cam to your phone every time I get in the car?
After you finished the first connection, the dash cam will continue to record just by turning on the car without connecting through the app every time. it will record on your Micro SD card.
What if I keep getting low speed card alerts?
Our products detect a low-speed card and prompt you to replace the micro sd card to prevent video loss or reduced frame rate. We kindly recommend Kingston, SanDisk. You can buy it on Amazon. Or our KAWA micro SD card. ASIN: B0BPWZ9726.
How to activate this dash cam’s parking monitoring?
KAWA D5 supports 24H recording when connected to the parking monitoring cable (not included in the package). If parking monitoring function is required, please purchase another parking cable and connect the hardwire kit to your fuse box. B0BPWXD2PY
At the time of writing this review, the price for this car dash cam is 39.99.
The KAWA Dash Cam is an innovative and compact solution for drivers looking to enhance their vehicle’s safety and document their journeys. Offering a high-resolution 1296P front camera, this mini dash cam captures clear and detailed footage, making it an indispensable tool for any car owner. Here’s a detailed review of its key features:
**High-Quality Video**: With its 1296P resolution, the KAWA Dash Cam delivers sharper, more detailed images than standard 1080P dash cams. This higher resolution can be crucial in capturing vital details such as license plates and road signs, especially in the event of an incident.
**Voice Control**: One of the standout features of this dash cam is its voice control capability, which allows for hands-free operation. This is particularly useful for maintaining focus on the road while still being able to control the camera, enhancing overall driving safety.
**WiFi Connectivity & APP Integration**: The inclusion of WiFi connectivity and a dedicated app adds a layer of convenience to the KAWA Dash Cam. Users can effortlessly download, save, and share videos directly from their smartphones, making it easier to manage footage without the need for removing the SD card.
**WDR Night Vision**: The Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) technology ensures that the dash cam can capture clear footage in various lighting conditions, including low-light environments. This feature is crucial for night-time driving, as it significantly improves the visibility of details in the dark.
**360 Rotating Body**: The camera’s 360 rotating body offers unparalleled flexibility in terms of angles and perspectives. This feature is particularly useful for adjusting the camera to capture interactions at the driver’s window or even cabin footage if needed.
**145 Wide Angle**: With a 145 wide-angle lens, the KAWA Dash Cam provides a broad view of the road, encompassing multiple lanes and the surrounding area. This wide field of view ensures comprehensive coverage of the road ahead.
**24H Parking Monitoring**: The 24-hour parking monitoring feature offers peace of mind when the vehicle is left unattended. By automatically activating and recording when it detects vibrations or collisions, this feature provides added security against vandalism or hit-and-run incidents.
**G-sensor**: The built-in G-sensor detects sudden shakes or collisions and automatically locks the current video, preventing it from being overwritten. This ensures that crucial moments are preserved and can be used as evidence if necessary.
In summary, the KAWA Dash Cam is a feature-packed device that offers high-resolution recording, user-friendly voice control, and versatile connectivity options. Its advanced night vision, wide-angle lens, and reliable parking monitoring make it an excellent choice for drivers seeking a comprehensive dash cam solution. With its compact design and easy installation, it’s suited for any vehicle, providing drivers with an extra layer of security and convenience.
So far, I have been fairly pleased with this KAWA dashcam. The front camera records at 1296p. It does an excellent job during the daylight, but as the light levels drop the image quality is not as sharp and sometimes a little grainy. Even though the front dash cam does produce good image quality, it still match don’t much the sharpness and image quality of my 2K Garmin although that is a more expensive dash cam.
There is no micro-SD card supplied with kit, which means this needs to be ordered at the same time, it’s a good job these are relatively cheap now. The kit does have all the necessary cables and the mount is self-adhesive.
I found the KAWA app for android easy to use, and downloading videos via hotspot reasonable quick and reliable, in fact this is probably the easy dashcam I have tested for downloading video footage. I have hard wired this dash cam, but not to permanent live but to switched live as this camera only has a G-sensor and no external human motion detection. If you need to monitor crash detection when parked it would need a permanent live, most wiring kits will cut the supply if the car battery voltage is getting low, but this is still not ideal. There are better but more expensive dash cams with 24-hour monitoring.
The voice commands work flawlessly, which is a good job as there’s only one button on the dashcam, and as being small it will probably be tucked out of the way.
Overall, this dash cam does a really good job for this price bracket, but it will require micro-SD card.
I hope you find my review helpful
Very happy with this dash cam. Picture quality is very sharp and crisp. Night vision is good as well! I found it a little tricky to install but instructions given were good! Very pleased
If you want a battery powered camera then please move along as this needs constant connected power.
This isn’t a show stopper for us but your mileage might vary.
Yes – you can tidily wire the cable but depending on where your 12v connection is this could mean a slightly untidy cable setup.
Good quality video given the relatively low price compared to other more well known brands. Is it the best quality we’ve tried? No, but it is functional and for the average user likely more than good enough.
Removeable sd card and it’s a shame that one wasn’t provided. Given the price these days a 64GB card would have been a good addition.
Endless looping for recording so a full card won’t cause any issues and prevent recording – just make sure you preserve content that you need!
Small and unobtrusive which means that it won’t obscure vision etc.
G sensor recording is automatic when it detects an issue and locks recorded content so that it can’t be overwritten.
Please also note that 24 hour overnight parking cable for security recording is not included.
Good value for basic recording function.
I was surprised how good this is for the price and size. There is a comprehensive manual and the app is helpful alongside this in setting it up. It is only within the apps ‘Beginners Guide’ that it gives you the voice commands, (see photo).
It is easy to fit but you need to find a suitable means to get the wire to stay where you want to, on the car interior as it needs to be connected to the cigarette lighter socket to work.
Being smaller and without a screen fixed to it, it is more discreet than some. For people who don’t like large pieces of kit on their wind screen it is ideal. It has a number of aspects that may appeal to some people more than others.
– Fairly comprehensive user manual
– It is relatively small
– Easyish to fit
– Easy to load app
– Built in Wifi (can share to social media if that is your thing)
– Choice of voice control / commands with some feedback
– Choice of sound recording with built in microphone
– Key coloured lights to identify cameras actions
– It offers good, clear images. The photo / recording covers a wide area and the dash cam itself can be rotated all the way around for different angles
You do need to buy an appropriate micro SD card and have access to a phone to see the live images. Alternatively you can take the SD card out and connect it to your laptop or PC. I initially had an issue with the SD card to start when setting it up. But the camera ‘spoke’ the problem out loud. I tried another card and this worked without issue.
There are pro and cons with all these features. Notably, its size, your phone is your screen or if the SD card gets reviewed later on a PC. The latter option means that you may not be certain what it’s doing at the time. If you want to do ‘parking monitoring’ it appears to need purchase of another cable. Don’t think it will take long to become more proficient – learning the commands, recognising the lights and how it works, but it is a learning curve.
Overall we personally like the relatively unobtrusive camera. It seems good for the price and like any dash cam can provide valuable information if an accident should happen.
On opening, this camera is much better than I was expecting. I like this type of camera with no rear screen as I find those distracting, and I want an inconspicuous camera. I found this super easy to set up on the app, and like the layout. It is brilliant how you can actually use the app for live footage if you wanted. I didn’t fit the wires myself, but it looked straightforward (watching). This is my first camera so beginner experience here.
I already have one of the brand leading dashcams in my car. However, I’m not totally happy with it, so as my son has recently started driving I thought I’d give this a go as it was less than 1/4 of the price of my dashcam.
It’s very simple to both install as long as you don’t mind a cable running to your 12v socket. If you want to spend a little more effort you can route it around the edge of your windscreen and down the pillars to get a neater finish.
Operation wise, its even simpler, just stick the dashcam in place with the included pad and plug in. I liked the voice control for saving video and taking photos etc, but I’d also have preferred to have a physical button too.
The most important aspect is the clarity and reliability of the recordings. This will need a decent microSD card as constant writing will eventually cause issues on the card. Also, you’ll need to take it out to take the recordings off or format the card etc. This is where the lock button release for the cam really comes into its own. Simply press the lock buttom and the whole cam comes out, it really is a neat idea, certainly better than my current cam!!
Camera quality was also good, if not very good for the price of the cam. It still struggles to pock up fine detail at night, and some fast moving passing cars can be hard to read, but again, I found this on my current cam too, it has to be expected that there are limits.
Overall its a good camera for the money, it’s not perfect and it doesn’t feel or look premium,.but who cares, it does the job amd it does it well. Why pay more for the same?
The D5 dash cam from Kawa is a pretty decent all-round camera. The camera does not have an internal battery which means you’ll need it plugged into a 5v power supply in order to test / setup the camera indoors. Setup is straight forward & simple; download the Kawa app (thankfully no personal details need to be provided and no accounts need to be created), power on the camera, connect your phone to the WiFi network being broadcast from the camera, then open the app.
Once connected and the app recognises the camera, you can adjust the settings as required. Things like Time, Date, Length of video recording, Internal mic, voice volume, card formatting and lots more can be set, turned on/off and adjusted to suit your needs. There are also some handy guides to help position the camera when installing it into the car too.
The app also allows you to view what the camera is recording in ‘real time’. That said there appears to be around a 2 second delay between what the camera sees to what the app displays. This isn’t an issue as the footage is being captured to an internal Micro SD card (not included) so the slight delay in the feed to your phone causes no issues. The app can also allow you to view photos and video footage stored on the SD card without the need to remove the card from the camera.
The footage in general is good but finer details like road signs and other cars registration details can only be read clearly if they are within 4 meters or so of your own vehicle. Aside from that the camera does a good job of capturing your journey and has a wide enough camera angle to also capture pavements and side roads etc too.
All in all it’s a decent camera but I was hoping it would be able to capture more of the finer detail than it does, especially being a 2K camera.
This dashcam was really easy to fit. It came with a clear sticker thing to place on the windscreen to I’m guessing remove it easier. It did come with a cable for the 12v socket but it was just a bit short and couldn’t be hidden (I will assume it’s an issue for my car only as the socket is in the centre armrest at the bottom). Sadly it didn’t come with an SD card but for this price I would prefer to buy a good quality one anyway. The app works really well – it gives you the name of the app on the box and the manual has a QR code to go straight to the app in the app store. It gives the option to download the footage to your phone. There are apps for iPhone and android, and has plenty of options to set emergency recording, quality, and clip length from 1 minute clips to 3 minute clips. For image quality it’s okay I’ll use number plates as an example they become unreadable about 1.5 to 2 car lengths maybe a little more. Night quality is okay for this price – certainly good enough for insurance reasons in my opinion.
So overall I think that for the money this is a really good budget option. Easy to fit and most importantly it has decent image quality.
Having had the opportunity to review the KAWA Dash Cam Front D5, I am very impressed with it, considering the features that are included for a very budget camera. Here’s what I thought of it in more detail:
One of the things I am most happy about is that dash cam delivers good clarity with (1296P resolution), which means you get sharp and clear images during the day and better than expected at night. It has advanced night vision, WDR, and 3DNR technology, which having tested it out during a few night time drives, gives you very decent footage, which surprised me given the cameras price point (I thought there would be a catch somewhere, but not so!)
Another aspect I liked was its discreet design — it isn’t overly obvious and isn’t bulky which I like.
The voice control functionality is a highlight — you can use voice commands for various functions like taking pictures, recording, and video locking. This makes it simple to operate without stopping and messing around with it.
Probably the most important feature is the built-in G-Sensor which does automatic emergency recording in the event of an accident. Luckily, I haven’t had to use this feature, yet, but it does give piece of mind that it is there (and hopefully works!)
There is also an app that you can download so you can review images — a must really to use this product to the best of its features. This is easy to download and get started with.
Overall, a very good, discreet dash cam. 5/5
This arrived just days after my daughters dash cam stopped recording so it was perfect timing.
You have to download the app, which was easy to do, and then it should connect to your car whenever you get in, as long as you have your phone, one good way of making sure you don’t forget your phone!
It was easy enough to install – the reason I gave it 4 and not 5, was because it requires a micro SD card that is not included, I think it would be better to charge a little more and include a card because if you bought this in preparation for a particular journey, and were not aware of the SD on purchasing, it could delay use.
It records in a continuous loop, but will save items if involved in an accident, and the voice controls are a real bonus.
It is reasonably priced at 49.99 and offers a replacement warranty for the first year, so you have nothing to lose with this purchase.
This review is for the KAWA Dash Cam Front 1296P, Mini Dash Cam
Key points
* Well made
* Easy to fit
* Easy to remove
* Good quality 2k daytime footage
* Overexposed but usable night time footage
* Easy to connect to phone for download
* Poor translations in app, difficult to navigate
* Micro-USB to Car lighter port only
I have been using the KAWA dash cam for two weeks now. It is a good upgrade over my previous dash cam which shot inferior footage both day and night in comparison to this.
The camera was easy to fit and comes with a film to place over your screen to prevent damage and allow easy removal when you no longer need it. Routing the cable to my lighter port was relatively straight forward, stuffing it in gaps and seals.
The cable was long enough to reach my dashboard, but is not long enough to reach rear ports. I wish the camera used a USB-C interface and that the was a USB to USB cable rather than the Micro -USB to cigarette lighter version it came with.
The interface on the camera is simple and not distracting. I am glad that the wireless functionality means this does not need a screen. In operation, the only button you would need to press is the one on the bottom to instruct the camera to retain a particular piece of footage.
The camera does have voice control. I have tested some of this feature, and it does work – but I am not using it as I often have music on too loud.
The application is easy to find on the app store and there were no concerning security requirements when installing it. Setting up the app, pairing with the camera was not an issue, but when I came back to download photos for this review, I did find the translations and navigation of the app needing some improvement.
Overall, footage from the camera is far superior to my old camera. Day time footage is crisp and it is easy to see licence plates at all angles when close to the car.
Night time footage gets a little overwhelmed by bright lights, although overall it is still good. Due to lights on licence plates etc, the plates themselves have to be a bit closer than in daytime to be legible – probably within about 5 feet.
In the two weeks of owning it, the camera also tagged 6 recordings as ‘events’, which I assume were saved to to the g-sensor being triggered. These are shown in a separate folder on the app for easy access.
While there are improvements that could be made, I am overall very happy with this camera and am happy I made the switch.
Kawa Mini Dashcam
The first thing to say is that this a very neat little dash cam. Its is fairly small and compact and very unobtrusive which is nice. You do need to purchase an Micro SD card to use this camera as they don’t provide one and I would definitely recommend getting a 128G card as the camera records on a continuous loop deleting the older images when the card is full. Installation is pretty straightforward as it just plugs into the cigarette lighter but you do need to run the cables under the dashboard and around the window surround unless you want them hanging down the windscreen which wouldn’t look great! Of course if you use this it does mean that you can’t use the cigarette lighter for anything else. I still have an old style Sat Nav which plugs into the cigarette lighter so I am going to have to get a splitter so that I can use them both at the same time. There is an option to hard wire the camera and doing this gives the advantage of camera coverage when you are not using your car but you need to buy a separate cable for this and as I will soon be replacing my car I decided not to go that route for now. Once everything is plugged in and you have downloaded the app to your phone then you are ready to go! Its very easy to use and I love that it uses voice commands, that makes it so much easier. The quality of the video is really good and easy to play back. Overall I think this is a tidy dashcam, easy to set up, easy to use. No complaints here 🙂
Worth every penny for peace of mind. Ive yet to ever have a collision with another motorist but having this protects me and my wife when driving around town you never know when someone might try a pull a fast one and blame you!
The camera is lovely a simple, light and takes up very little room on the windscreen. Set up is pretty simple using your phone to see what it sees. It does require a Micro memory card which must be purchased separately but thats the norm with any camera like this.
Having no screen on the device is one of its positives and one of its negatives With a screen, with a glance you know it recording and can see exactly what its viewing. Having to whip out your phone is an extra step to the usual built in screen camera but it also means its a lot lighter (should mean it doesn’t fall down in a hot car) and takes up less windscreen space. I also sometimes worry its not recording.
The cable included is of excellent length and allowed me to tuck it away neatly around the window and under the passenger seat. I do wish I could utilise the USB port I have on my car instead of its cigarette lighter but thats only a small gripe.
Sticky pad that goes on first seems strong and then the camera go onto that avoiding super sticky directly onto the window only time will tell just how sticky this is! Lets hope it doesn’t keep falling down like my old one did.
Great capture quality more than enough for its purpose and low light is impressive too!
Overall its a great camera to have to protect yourself. Easy to setup and looks great. Brilliant!
This front dash cam has great video and night vision and besides all these it has also voice control which is a significant update and comparison to the previous dashcam that I had.
I have noticed that the night vision feature is quite impressive and it provides crisp footage even when I drive on very dark roads and this adds a layer of safety when I drive.
It what’s easy to install this dashcam even though I would probably like for the head of it to move 360 degrees because it took quite a long time to find the right position for it.
What I also appreciate is the voice command because it allows me to control the camera hands free I like this I can focus better on the road.
It offers really good video quality especially daytime and so far it has prove to be available dashcam which has a wide angle coverage and this allows me to see properly the whole road.
I got this to see how easy it would be to use with the intention of giving it to my mum but am seriously thinking about keeping it for myself!! It’s so easy to set up and use – the instructions are easy to follow and once you’ve bought and fitted a micro SD card and attached the camera to the windscreen, you are good to go. It’s really that simple. I like that you can use voice commands as well – I tend to tell it to turn audio off so it can’t record me singing!!! When connected to the camera via WIFI, you can also go into the settings via the app on your phone to change certain things to suit and access the videos and photos.
Overall, it seems like a really good basic dash cam that I am happy to recommend at this moment in time. However, it will only come into it’s own if there is an incident so if that happens, and fingers crossed it doesn’t, and I have any problems or issues, I will update my review.
I’m very familiar with many types of dash cams, including those mirror types that allow rear view but you can turn off to use the reflection, as well as these types which sit just on the windscreen and record for insurance purposes without its own screen at all. These types of perfect for those cars that have vertical windscreens and you just want to stick something on for future safety should anything happen. The best things about these is that they are small a lack of a screen means that they are not taking up loads of space when you don’t really need the screen. The screen that I used most often through the day is my phone, so why wouldn’t I of course want to use the same screen if I want to review something?
So they provided an in-built Wi-Fi, and the app that you download lets you see life footage t how’s compressed resolution, as well as take a photo and amend the settings
All of this is perfect, and I have no complaints of how that works.
What I’m unhappy about is the design of the base, and the way the power plug fits.
The base is diagonal, which means that when you are installing it, any pressure at the wrong angle will make it pull off the sticker. They provide this oval transparent static adhesive that is meant to provide better adhesion than the glue, however it completely did not work on my windscreen, perhaps because of the black dots, and this meant that I would have to places somewhere in my vision where I did not want it. Therefore I avoided this adhesive sticker, and just used its own square adhesive sticker on the plastic base. This worked fine. How ever base is at an angle, so when you push, it tries to pull the adhesive off. I would rather they had just made a triangular base where the circle where the camera attaches is centred, not off centre.
Secondly the wires go into the main grey camera, but the main grey camera then has to go through the black circle of the base, so if you wanted to remove the camera, you also have to unplug it from the camera
I find the silly, because the plug could easily have slotted into the base, and the base could then have a port that the camera plugs into, so in one swift movement the camera would unplug and remove itself from the base, instead of having a two-step process where you unplug the cable, and then you remove it from there base.
Alternatively, it could have been two contact probes, so on sliding away from the base, it disconnects anyway, just like a charger for a smartwatch.
However it does the trick, and the quality is pretty good, and if those problems aren’t relevant to you, then this will be perfec
We ordered this dash camera as a replacement for our very old one that was no longer working. When it arrived I was pleased to see that it’s not overly bulky, and it doesn’t take up much room on the windscreen, It’s not only compact, but also extremely lightweight. It comes with a long (roughly 5m) lead with a car cigarette lighter type connection which powers the camera, and some very easy to understand instructions. You do need to install a micro SD card of class 10 or above which isn’t included, as the camera doesnt work without one installed.
It is very simple to operate, most of the operating is done via the app on your phone. You can also do simple operations via the power button, the instructions tell you how many times to press it to make it do the function you require. I am not very technically minded at all, but I managed to install the app, format the card, record and watch videos without any issue at all, so I would defintely say its easy to operate.
We are getting a new car in the next few weeks, so I havent fixed the camera to the window with the sticky pad yet, but that also seems pretty simple to do as the sticky pad attaches the holder to the window, the camera releases from the holder via a lock/unlock button when you want to remove it.
The still pictures don’t seem terribly clear, but they were clear enough to identify what the subject was, but not see fine details, the videos were much better quality. I think other than the photos not being as clear as I would like, the only other downside is that there is no screen, so all the videos must be accessed from the app, but that isnt a major issue to me, as we always have our phones with us anyway.
Overall though I’m pretty pleased with it, it was very easy to set up, and is easy to operate, for a basic dash camera I think it does all you would expect, so I’m happy to recommend it.