The E1 dashcam, while it is small and compact, feels solid and is loaded with many features. It comes well packaged in a box which contains all you need to get up and running except for an SD card which must be purchased separately. I assume the reason for this is to keep the cost of the dashcam lower and it enables you to purchase an SD of the size that suits your particular recording storage needs.
The E1 has an adhesive GPS mount which I was a bit apprehensive about as I am used to Suction mounts. I found however, if planned correctly, it is easy to attach to the windscreen in an optimum and unobtrusive position. The dashcam is so small that in my case, I have it almost hidden behind the rear-view mirror and it therefore does not clutter my drivers view. Before I attached the mount to the windscreen, I downloaded the Vantrue App from the play store to my phone, powered on the dashcam in the car and connected my phone to it via Wi-Fi. I was then able to see “live” on my phone exactly what the dashcam was viewing in various windscreen positions. While I could have used the 1.54-inch screen on the dashcam itself, the bigger screen on my phone was easier to use. Using this method, I was able to select the best windscreen position to mount the camera. I then marked the position on the outside of the windscreen with paper stickers and thoroughly cleaned the inside of the windscreen. Using the external markings as a positioning guide, I attached the supplied electrostatic sticker (which is similar to a screen protector you may fit on a mobile phone), onto which I then stuck the adhesive mount. The dashcam easily slides into and out of the mount and is held solidly in place by a magnet. The car charger, which has a USB port built in for charging your mobile etc., plugs directly into the mount itself so the dashcam can be easily detached at any time to connect directly to a PC. The charger cable is 3.5 meters long, enough in my case (Kuga) to route from the mount to the power socket and be easily hidden.
The dashcam has three small buttons which allow you to set it up, or in my case, I found setting up the dashcam to my preferences was easy using the app. There are many settings that can be changed, some of which are: Recording resolution, Loop recording duration, G-Sensor sensitivity, Collision detection, Motion detection, speed in KMH or MPH, Time and date stamp, Speed stamp, GPS location stamp, Voice control sensitivity, Parking mode and Auto LCD off.
As I mentioned earlier, the dashcam does not come with an SD card so you will have to purchase one separately. It supports an SD card from 32Gb up to 512Gb in size and must be of high quality such as U3 Class 10. Vantrue recommend that you format the SD card at least once a month. This can be done via the app or the dashcam itself, and I was able to set a monthly reminder on the dashcam to do this. Be sure you download any important recordings before formatting as once formatted, all recordings on the SD card are lost.
The E1 also has voice recognition. Some of the commands you can use are “take photo”, “Turn on/off Wi-Fi”, “Turn on/off audio”, and “Lock the Video”. I was driving with the car radio on when I said, “take photo” and it was successful. I tested a few of the other voice commands too and while I mostly listen to chat shows and not loud music, the commands worked which impressed me. If however you do listen to loud radio or if there is a lot of road noise, it may not be as reliable. I also found the “Wi-Fi” commands great as I did not have to go pressing buttons on the dashcam to connect my phone. A two-button small wireless remote is also supplied with the E1. One button allows you to turn on and off audio recording and the other is used to lock the current video and take a photo. This may suit someone in noisy environments or who may not want to use the voice commands. The remote which uses a replaceable CR2032 battery, can be attached with the supplied 3M sticker to the steering wheel, the dashboard or wherever suits best.
There are quite a few resolution settings that can be set for recording quality and while I didn’t test all resolution settings, I found that the quality of recording was very good on those I did test. I live on the edge of a city so I would be doing both city and countryside driving. This would have an impact on recording during darkness as you would not always have street lighting and therefore you may be relying totally on your headlights for recordings. While the recordings are clear, the ability to read number plates, depends greatly on the environment. Things such as speed, day / night-time, sun glare, headlights, streetlights etc. but in the event of an accident, the dashcam footage even if it did not capture the car reg number, will clearly prove who is in the wrong. The Sony sensor and 160-degree lens has a very wide field of view both left and right of the car so it will pick up what’s happening over multiple lanes of traffic.
The E1 can be set for loop recording with file lengths of 1, 3 or 5-minute duration and when the SD card is full, it will continue to record, overwriting the oldest recordings. When the SD card is formatted, three folders are automatically created, “Event”, “Normal” and “Photo”. The inbuilt G-Sensor has different sensitivity settings for the automatic locking and saving of a recording so that if car is hit or shaken, the recording will be locked and saved to the “event” folder and will not be overwritten by normal recordings which continue to be stored in the “Normal” folder. Setting sensitivity too high however may cause the “event” folder to fill up as going over rough road etc. may cause the dashcam to think an “event” has happened. According to the manual, thirty percent of the SD card is allocated to the “event” folder and if the “event” folder becomes full, then new events will overwrite the oldest events. It is therefore good practice to review and download any important events ASAP. The same applies to the “normal” folder.
Recordings can be viewed on the dashcam or within the app on your phone. They can also be downloaded to your phone, or you can connect the dashcam to a PC and download the recordings in this way which is much faster. If viewing recordings on a PC, most compatible MP4 media players will work. I tested this with Windows media player, VLC media player and Films & TV. I also tested it with the Vantrue player that I downloaded from the Vantrue website which utilises the inbuilt GPS information in the recording. This shows your speed, time and date, car reg number (I put in ABC123 for the photos) and will also show your car position and the route of your journey on google maps as you play back the recording.
Like most technology providers these days, new firmware may be released at times for the dashcam which can be downloaded from the Vantrue website. I found it quite an easy process to upgrade the dashcam but make sure you copy any important recordings before you attempt the upgrade. You simply use a PC to copy the new firmware file to the SD card in the dashcam, disconnect from the PC, power up the dashcam on its charger, and wait a minute or so while it updates. Other than a flashing green light, the camera will appear to do nothing during this process so wait, and it will power itself up once finished. You must also format the SD card after the upgrade. I did find that all my settings were lost after this process however it only took a couple of minutes to re-enter them via the app.

In conclusion, I think that this is a great feature rich, good quality dashcam in a small compact size with the bonus of being so easy to set up. While you may not use all its features, I think you won’t go far wrong in selecting the E1. Note: Some of my photos have information blanked out for privacy.