Thank you Vantrue for sending us a review unit!

A couple of years ago I reviewed Vantrue’s Element 2 dual dash cam system (https://www.christcenteredgamer.com/rev ... ash-camera). While the setup was nice, it was a hassle dealing with the rear dash camera constantly falling down or locking up. The dangling cable was a nuisance as well. The Vantrue E1 Pro 4K Mini Dash Cam is more convenient with the single camera mount and this works better for our other car which is a convertible. It’s a better camera all around with 4K video and PlatePix technology that enhances the clarity of license plates in case you need evidence for disputes.

My most recent accident happened three years ago and if I had a dash cam, it would have been resolved easily. In this instance, I was stopped at a red light and proceeded to cross the intersection after the light turned green. Half-way through the intersection my car’s bumper was struck from a car making a left turn. We both stopped at a nearby parking lot to contact the police and assess the damage. Both parties were driving alone and no witnesses stopped to report what they had seen. It was my word against theirs. Unfortunately, the other driver didn’t speak English which complicated collecting information for the police/insurance report. My rear bumper was slightly misaligned, but you would have to know to look for it to see it. It still was $1700 to repair. The other driver had a gaping hole in her front bumper. I was surprised to find that this was not an open and shut case despite my car’s rear bumper being damaged. The other driver’s insurance (State Farm) refused to pay for the damage at first claiming there was lack of evidence of who was at fault. The other driver was ticketed, but that wasn’t enough to persuade them. After Tweeting about it, they changed their tune and paid for the repairs to my vehicle.

We were sent a complete bundle which included a kit to connect the dash cam to our car’s fuse box. Instead of using that or the included cigarette lighter USB charger, I plugged it directly into our 160W cigarette lighter USB hub with a USB- C to USB-C connector cable. This was by far the easiest option and only requires one cable to dangle down to my center console. Vantrue offers an optional LTE module for $149 that allows you to remotely locate and monitor your car through their app. Our previous dash cam came with a remote controller that is now sold separately for $20.

When supplied power for the first time, the Vantrue E1 Pro 4K Mini Dash Cam will prompt you to configure the language, time zone, time and date formatting. I live in the central time zone so I had to set my GMT to -05:00 but in the fall I’ll have to change it to -06:00. Once the dash cam’s settings are in place it will prompt you to format the SD card. Pairing the dash cam to Vantrue’s app is easy and it connects via the device’s Wi-Fi. Through the app I was able to download and install a firmware update and after doing so I had to reconfigure the camera and format the SD card again. After the SD card is formatted the device will prompt you to set up an auto formatting schedule or disabling it altogether. I set mine to delete everything after a month.

When starting up my car the camera was on and actively recording within thirty seconds. The dash cam also automatically turns off when exiting the car. While in use, the Vantrue E1 Pro 4K Mini Dash Cam will display the speed the car is going and its coordinates in the 1.54” LCD screen. The normal videos are automatically capped at a minute long apiece.

If the dash cam does not detect movement for five minutes, it will go into a parking mode for low bit rate recording that will trigger if there is motion detected. The Vantrue E1 Pro 4K Mini Dash Cam will save the video fifteen seconds before the event and thirty seconds after it occurs.

The Vantrue E1 Pro 4K Mini Dash Cam has a collision detection system that will activate the dash cam if an impact is detected. These recordings are stored in an Event folder that does not have its content automatically purged. This event trigger would often engage when driving on poorly maintained roads.

To ensure safe driving, the Vantrue E1 Pro 4K Mini Dash Cam can be controlled using voice commands for taking pictures, disabling/enabling the video screen, muting/unmuting the microphone, and enabling/disabling the Wi-Fi. Multiple languages are supported including English, Japanese, Russian, Chinese, and French. The voice command for turning on and off the screen works well. The other ones are hit or miss.
We were sent a 64GB micro SD card, but the Vantrue E1 Pro 4K Mini Dash Cam supports micro SD cards up to 1TB. The E1 and E1 Lite models only support 512GB micro SD cards.

On the product’s website it boasts about a super capacitor that can handle temperatures between -4 and 158 degrees Fahrenheit. We're in the midst of summer and I have had to pull the USB-C cable from the dash cam to get it to power back on again on multiple occasions. Unplugging the cigarette lighter USB hub wasn’t enough to bring it back to life. Outside of that snafu it’s been running fine.

Overall I’m pretty happy with the Vantrue E1 Pro 4K Mini Dash Cam. It brings peace of mind when driving and since I’ve had some negative experiences in regards to accident disputes, I can’t recommend this enough!