Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After purchasing a new expansive car last month I started looking for a quality dash cam that would offer the latest in cutting edge technology. Initially I purchased the BlackVue DR750LW-2CH Kit and I was extremely disappointed by the quality of videos it produced. (I'll be writing a review about it as well). I returned the BlackVue and kept looking for a better alternative. I came across the Thinkware product line and became very interested in their flagship models, the F750 and the X500. Although they were more expensive, I thought they offered exactly what I was looking for in a dash cam. I ordered the X500 along with the rear camera as well instead of the F750 because the mobile app that controls the F750 didn't have the option to stream the recorded files directly from the camera. It only offers to download the file to your mobile phone instead of steaming directly to the phone. That's besides that at the time of purchasing the camera, the app also had really bad reviews on the iOS. The product came nicely packaged and I had both cameras installed and connected. I was happy to see that the camera offered better video quality then the BlackVue but that came at a price, the 64GB micro SD card can only hold 4 hours of video. But that's not the reason why I decided to return it and give it a 2 star review. I noticed that all videos had audio static/noise. I thought it may be a defective camera or bad cables so I placed an order for another X500. To my surprise, the second camera produced the same exact static/noise in the audio part of the video files. Even after trying it with different cables, different cars and even indoors. It was the same annoying sounds. I contacted the customer service hotline and they were pleasant to talk to and asked to send them the RAW video files for their tech team to examine. I posted some files on dropbox and sent them the shared links. They got back to me a day later saying that their team suspects that the camera is a defective camera. I explained to them that it's the second camera with the same issue. They asked if I had any 3rd party codecs and if I had tried to play the videos on another system and I replied back assuring them that I don't have any 3rd party audio or video codecs installed on any of my systems other than my iMac. I also explained to them that all my Macs and PCs play the videos with the same sound issue. A day later, I was even more surprised by a lame response from them telling me that their team suggested that it's bad audio codec and that I need to download some 3rd party software to get rid of the noise/static sounds in the videos. A day later while doing further testings, I discovered that the camera started developing some kind of purple and blue horizontal lines across the video. Again, I tested the videos in different systems and they all had the same results. I was already turned off and ready to return it because after spending all that money, time and efforts. I couldn't accept the fact that a premium product like the X500 needs to rely on a 3rd party codec to function correctly. In my book, that is absolutely ridiculous and completely unacceptable for a product with this price tag. Here are some pros and cons. Pros: - Feel and looks like a quality cam - Decent video quality - Dual save mode - LDWS worked great Cons: - Users can't turn off continuous mode - Thick wires (Makes hiding wires in tight spaces a very difficult task) - Record time limited to 4 hours/64GB - Can't maximize the Mac viewer app to take advantage of full screen viewing! (Sometimes I just wonder, what goes through an app designer or a product manager's mind to opt out of giving the end-user the option to take advantage of a full size desktop!!!!) - The feature of "Traffic Enforcement Warning" must of had really old database because the camera never gave a warning for some of the cameras near my house or by my job that have been there for years.!!!!! The concept of the X500 as a dash cam is great but I believe it was prematurely rushed to the market. I hope my review helps you make a wise decision. Thanks for reading.