Dashboard cameras are now becoming an essential part of driving especially with the Philippines being the world’s most traffic jammed country. Now you have to juggle around with more cars, pedestrians, motorcycles, bus and even sidewalk vendors.
Enter the Transcend DrivePro 520 Dual-Cam Dashboard Camera. Featuring a dual-camera setup to capture either both front or front and back setup.
Front Camera
It’s capable of shooting dual-1080p quality videos with wide-angle views, convenient for large based cars that needs views up to the back such as an Innova.
Rotateable camera with Matte Screen LED Screen
The screen has a matte finish for better outdoor visibility while the rotatable camera features an infrared feature perfect for night driving.
The LED screen has very visible angles and the interface is quite clean and neat. A bit confusing to use the menu at first but you will get the hang of it. As compared to entry level dashboard cameras out there, you won’t get angry with this one as there isn’t really a slow UI loading moment.
One thing that some disregards is the heat tolerance of dashcams, fortunately the DrivePro 520 can handle those under the sun parking slots for hours.
Assembly
The mount is quite easy to install and isn’t generically built. This is a good factor as most suction cups are weak to even last 2 months, here in our demo unit we even tried to pulling the cup with no success.
Safe and secure suction mount
The provided car-charger was very pleasant, it’s long enough to hide in your car’s wiring system to avoid any annoying wires showing up in the dashboard.
Very long cable provided
Camera Quality
Camera samples for most dashboard cameras still lack in the sharpness of detail, here are our samples from our drive tests.
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Tried on both a sedan (Altis) and MPV (Innova) the camera wide angles are very much appreciated to see everything. You might notice that the photos are bit grainy but the quality of the photos are still overall good enough for those much needed moments. Details of important items such as plate numbers, obstacles and even wide angle objects are seen clearly, perfect for sharing online just in case you captured a viral worthy video.
As per audio quality the audio is standard and focuses more on the cabin inside, you can still hear what’s happening outside but only loud noises such as horns and noisy vehicles.
Box and Packaging
Resolution of the camera in the front is up to 1080p while the rear can capture up to 720p. When both are recording, you have around 4 hours of driving data to capture on the free Class 10 32GB Transcend MicroSD card.
Emergency Driving
Emergency Button for those much needed recording
In an event of an impact the built-in sensor of the dashcam will prioritize to record the next events and protect it from being erased. Quite handy especially lately with videos about the Mitsubishi Montero sudden acceleration issue, the story could have been more clear if there was one installed inside.
Other Features
One thing to notice is that the DrivePro 520 is already Wi-Fi capable. Using a dedicated app via Google play store or Apple store you can view videos instantly and even track your movement with the built in GPS on the device. A much appreciated feature but something you won’t really use often, perhaps only in important occasions only.
Conclusion
The DrivePro 520 definitely is a great dashboard camera, considering its rotatable lens is useful in having to deliver additional evidence in times of emergency. Video quality isn’t really the best we have seen on a dashboard setup, but its still better than most generic dashcams in the market.
Having safety features like the emergency recording is a very nice feature, of course you won’t have the initiative to press record in times of emergency. That alone is a great advantage to consider the DrivePro 520 already. Priced at Php9,299 it’s currently one of the most expensive dashcams we have seen in the market even though it has a dual-camera setup. But considering the packaging, safety feature and the convenient 32GB Class 10 MicroSD makes it more understandable to get over some rebranded generic dashcams.
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