KDLINKS X3 2.7K Super HD 2688x1520 Wide Angle Dashboard Car DVR Vehicle Dash Cam with G-Sensor & WDR Night Mode & Loop Recording, Support 64/128GB

The media could not be loaded.  KDLINKS X3 DASH CAM REVIEWI had previously owned a Popago GoSafe 520 Dash Cam which I really enjoyed primarily for its high resolution and 146° field of view. It used an Ambarella A7L chip that can record in 2K and 21:9 ultra-wide video. However that Dash Cam died after an extremely hot day in Oregon where I should have removed it from the windshield. You need to pay attention to the operating temperatures for these devices and take the necessary precautions.In the market for a new Dash Cam, I decided to take a serious look at what I considered some of the better Dash Cams available on Amazon.I created a spreadsheet listing key features and considerations when purchasing a Dash Cam through Amazon and selected 9 Dash Cams to evaluate. I was not primarily interested in purchasing a dual camera Dash Cam nor was I interested in Dash Cams with low Star ratings.Below are my reasons for choosing the KDLINKS X3 Dash Cam followed by the criteria I used to evaluate Dash Cams leading to choosing the X3.MY RECOMMENDATIONAfter completing my comparison of what I thought were the nine best single camera Dash Cams based on their features and reviews, I chose the KDLINKS X3 Dash Cam. My second runner-up was the Vantrue X3 Dash Cam.The KDLINKS X3 had the highest resolution, 2688x1520, of all the Dash Cams I considered. The Vantrue X3 had a resolution of 2560x1440 and appeared to have the best video quality based on numerous YouTube videos I reviewed. The KDLINKS X3 Dash Cam is a newer 2018 product and so there were fewer YouTube videos on which to base a decision. After taking a chance and purchasing the KDLINKS X3 and viewing videos taken from that unit, I have to say it is clearly competitive with the Vantrue X3 video quality. Street names and traffic signs were clearly readable, but license plates remained a challenge. The KDLINKS X3 performed as good or better than any product I considered - license plates were readable when driving at slow speeds, but at higher speeds with your car and the car you’re observing both moving, readability was a challenge. With tools to pause and zoom-in on a Dash Cam video, this readability challenge could likely be overcome. Dash Cams with a lesser resolution would certainly be a challenge.The KDLINKS X3 has a view angle of 165° (highest seen was 170°) and a lens aperture of F1.8 which is good for low light conditions.The KDLINKS X3 has a very nice user interface, probably one of the best. It utilizes only a few buttons and their functionality is straightforward and not confusing. When in the settings mode, each setting is clearly spelled out and the process to change each setting is simple. A description of what the setting does is not displayed on the screen, requiring the user to consult the product manual. In my view, this as a negative, but fortunately you seldom change settings. Regarding the manual, unlike many other vendors, KDLINKS does not provide a downloadable copy of their manual online. Offered only with the shipping product, the manual was somewhat hard to read – unfortunately, very light gray, not black text is generally used and is tough to read by the visually challenged. I was also disappointed by specifications, summarizing all the features of the unit and hardware specs, like photo resolution, not being included in the manual, Many specifications cannot be found online either.The KDLINKS X3 comes with a 3M adhesive mount which works fine. However, if you want a suction mount, you need to contact customer service at KDLINKS. The suction cup mount provided appears to works fine - I saw no complaints about it online, unlike the Vantrue X3 suction cup which many customers complained about. This issue, along with Vantrue X3 customer complaints regarding reliability, was the final determining factor for why I bought the KDLINKS unit.The X3 supports the ignition start and stop feature and has a settings option for how long you want to record after you turn off your engine. Regarding stealthy design, the KDLINKS X3 is a small unit with a screen size of 2.4 inches. It fits fine in front of my rearview mirror and does not block two sensors that I have on my rear view mirror.The KDLINKS X3 supports a parking mode if you have continuous power to your cigarette lighter. You can turn off the unit manually, or you can have it automatically shut down after a few minutes.The X3 supports Loop Recording and users can set a recording interval of one, two, or three minutes. The X3 does not support GPS nor Wi-Fi, but does offer an optional external rear camera unit that connects with the main unit.The X3 supports six, high quality lenses for great video and supports G–sensor, meaning it will capture and protect a video recording in progress should an accident occur. Like many Dash Cams, the X3 supports the .MOV file format and uses H.264 video codec recording format.Finally, at the time of my review, the KDLINKS X3 had a rating of 4.5 stars and 91% of them were either four or five stars. It was also an Amazon choice. They offer a one-year warranty on their product. Customer service was excellent. I contacted them more than once by email and generally received a response within hours.Their website is highly product oriented, but surprisingly did not display options or accessories for their products, like the X3, and although an overview of features was provided, there was not a succinct summary of specifications for each product. Also, there was no Support tab where I would’ve liked to have had access to a product manual for download, or an opportunity to contact customer service directly, versus via email.The bottom line is I would highly recommend the KDLINKS X3 Dash Cam to anyone, despite a couple of nitpicks regarding their product or their website. It is a high-quality product with excellent customer support and offers most of the features generally desired for a Dash Cam.CITERIA YOU SHOULD CONSIDER WHEN BUYING A DASH CAMRECORDING QUALITYOne of my main reasons for buying a Dash Cam is to have a video record of either an accident occurring involving me for insurance purposes, or erratic or dangerous driving behavior by others that I might choose to report. I therefore want a Dash Cam that offers high resolution so I can clearly identify license plates of vehicles in front of me as well as street signs, in daylight or night driving conditions. That means a Dash Cam of at least 2K resolution. 1920x1080 resolution, or 1080P as it is often referred to, I have found to be insufficient. The highest Dash Cam resolution I found was 2688x1520 at 30 frames per second. Go look at some of the YouTube Dash Cam videos available for various products on Amazon and judge for yourself. There is some quality degradation due to how videos are posted on YouTube, but generally everyone who posts are subject to the same limitations. If you can’t clearly make out license plates and street signs under various conditions, consider a different product. Sensors used by the various Dash Cams affect the recording quality. I noticed a number of Dash Cams used Ambarella, Sony, or Omnivision sensors. My Popago GoSafe 520 Dash Cam used an Ambarella chip, which made me pay attention to the sensors used. Identifying what sensor chips are used, and which is best, is often difficult based on limited information provided. But there is some correlation between the sensors and higher resolutions offered, as well as the quality of videos I’ve seen on YouTube. Look also for support for HDR (High Dynamic Range) and WDR (Wide Dynamic Range) /Night Vision (ability to see in low light conditions) which improve video recording quality.FIELD OF VIEW ANGLEThe higher the field of view angle, the more lanes of traffic that can be viewed and the more road signs along the sides of the roads that can be viewed. Dash Cams offer a view angle between 140 and 170°. Obviously, the higher field of view is better.LENS APERTUREThe lens aperture of a Dash Cam is important because it affects the amount of light a Dash Cam camera lens can gather. Generally, the smaller the F stop number, the higher the light gathering capability of the lens. For example, an F1.8 lens is better than say an F2.8 lens, especially at night.USER INTERFACEPersonally, the user interface should be the next highest priority when selecting a Dash Cam. The user interface for a Dash Cam is a combination of a device’s physical buttons and the software interface showing on the Dash Cam display. Simpler is better. My Papago GoSafe 520 Dash Cam had a poor user interface, similar to what I’ve seen on other Dash Cams. Multiple key presses on an individual button resulted in a different mode - video mode, photo mode or playback mode. Other common buttons took on different functions depending on what mode you were in – quite confusing. Symbols used on the display can be confusing as well, rather than full descriptive words of what mode or function you’re accessing.DASH CAM MOUNTHow your Dash Cam is mounted to your windshield is important. If your Dash Cam is continually falling down, it’s obviously not capable of doing its job. Dash Cams typically come with either an Adhesive Mount, or a Suction Cup Mount. Better vendors provide both. Suction cup mounts are convenient if you want to move your Dash Cam from one vehicle to another. However, all suction cup mounts are not created equally. Some perform much better than others. Your best guide is to review the 1* ratings on Amazon and check for how many suction cup mount complaints you find.IGNITION START AND STOPIdeally, you want your Dash Cam to start and stop recording based on when your car is in use. Power to a Dash Cam typically comes from the cigarette lighter, powered by whether or not the ignition is on or off. A Dash Cam that can sense the power being on or off, and acting accordingly, makes it very convenient.STEALTHY DESIGNStealthy design refers to the size of the Dash Cam – how much space on your windshield does it take up. This is important for three reasons. 1) you do not want it to interfere with your view; 2) you do not want it to be highly visible, making it attractive for a thief to steal; and 3) if the Dash Cam is too large it might interfere with one or more sensors in your rearview mirror used by new cars for driver assistance, like lane keeping warnings.PARKING MODEContinuous cigarette lighter power makes it convenient for Dash Cams to implement Parking Mode. In Parking Mode, if your vehicle is hit by another vehicle while you’re away from your car, the Dash Cam will start recording. This feature can usually be turned on or off, along with how long a recording you want to make when this incident happens. These Dash Cams require you to turn the Dash Cam on or off to control recording, otherwise they would record continuously. If you forget to turn your Dash Cam on, you might miss a traffic incident that you had wished you had recorded.RECORDING INTERVALEvery Dash Cam supports Loop Recording. As video is recorded, it is stored in a file located on the MicroSD card supported by the Dash Cam. When your MicroSD card runs out of storage, the Dash Cam will begin overwriting existing files, starting with the oldest. The number of files that result is a function of the recording interval used by the Dash Cam. The smaller the recording interval, the more files you will have on your Dash Cam. Personally, I prefer a larger recording interval to reduce the number of files I have to deal with when viewing them on my PC. That said, a larger recording interval produces larger files, especially with higher resolution Dash Cams. Choose the recording interval that feels right for you.OPTIONAL FEATURES TO CONSIDERGPSDash Cams offering GPS will record your location as part of your video recording, generally displaying that information on the screen. GPS data is also used to measure your vehicle speed, also shown on the display. You may or may not want this information included with your videos - a personal preference. Some Dash Cams offer GPS built-in, charging a little bit more, while others offer external GPS modules that can be plugged into your standard Dash Cam.WIFIA number of Dash Cams offer Wi-Fi support so you can view and save videos on your smart phone using an application provided by the vendor. These Wi-Fi-based applications often allow you to also change the settings for your Dash Cam – often more convenient than using the buttons on the Dash Cam itself (if the smartphone user interface is good). In reviewing units that offered Wi-Fi one of the common complaints found was that the Dash Cam would not connect with the smart phone, or would disconnect without warning. Something to consider...DUAL CAMERA LENSSome Dash Cams offer dual cameras to monitor both the front and the rear of your car. They might include dual cameras in the main unit, or separate cameras - one camera that attaches to your front windshield while another attaches to inside of your rear windshield, or externally mounted on your license plate or some other location. Some manufacturers sell a dual camera configuration as a single product while others offer an option to add a rear camera module later.MICROSD CARDSome vendors provide a free MicroSD card, typically 16GB or 32GB, while others provide nothing. Regardless of this fact, I prefer to buy my own card, one specifically suited for Dash Cams offering high resolution recording. You should purchase a High Endurance, Class 10 or higher, preferably speed class U3, MicroSD/SDHC/SDXC memory card. Class 10 cards work for all lower resolution Dash Cams, but when recording UHD, high resolution video, the higher speed U3 cards are a must. Also, if a memory card advertises as High Endurance, look for MLC not TLC technology. MLC-based cards last longer than TLC cards especially for Dash Cams which write data all the time. MLC cards can cost twice as much as TLC. All flash data memory cards will eventually wear out, MLC will last longer. I purchased the Transcend 64 GB MicroSDXC Class 10 UHS-I/U3 Memory Card with Adapter 95 Mb/s (TS64GUSDU3) from Amazon.COMMON FEATURES TO LESS WORRY ABOUTThese are features generally offered on all of the better Dash Cams - pretty much required to be competitive. If not offered, this is a red flag – seek out another Dash Cam.SCREEN SIZEThe screen size for the various Dash Cams I looked at varied between 2.4 inches and 3 inches. All were LCD screens. In any case, you’re not going to spend a lot of time looking at the screen. You will use the screen to set up the Dash Cam initially, but rarely will you use it to preview the recorded videos. You will likely do this via your PC.# OF LENSESMost of the units I considered had either 6 or 7 lenses, of similar quality, with not much differentiation between them.G-SENSORThis is a feature found on most Dash Cams. It is one of the key reasons why you purchase a Dash Cam. The G-sensor detects when an accident occurs with your automobile, much like an airbag. It causes the Dash Cam to save and protect the current video recording from erasure. You then have a recording of the accident for insurance purposes.FILE FORMAT AND VIDEO CODECThis generally does not vary between Dash Cam vendors. Most vendors support the commonly used .MOV or .MP4 file format and they record using the H.264 video codec. MOV is a popular video format developed by Apple computers for use with its QuickTime movie player, but also viewable on Windows PCs. MP4 is mostly interchangeable with MOV, but as an industry standard has a larger support for operating systems other than Apple. The H.264 video codec produces high-quality video with minimal storage space. H.265 is more advanced than H.264 and enables smaller file sizes and therefore reduced required bandwidth for live video streams.NON-PRODUCT FEATURE RELATED CONSIDERATIONSAMAZON RATINGSI generally look for products rated at least 4 stars. I might look at a 3.5 star product if it has a robust set of features. For my comparison roughly half had a four star rating and the other half a 4.5 star rating. I also look at the number of raters, more is obviously better. Newer products have fewer raters so you sometimes have to make a judgment call. I then look at what percentage of customers rated a product either four or five stars, comparing that to other products. If a product has 10% or higher one star reviews, I read those reviews to determine common problems with the product. If a product is rated as an Amazon Choice or a Best Seller that is a good thing – although I don’t take it for granted. I still review the ratings as discussed above.CUSTOMER SERVICE AND PRODUCT WARRANTIESThis is extremely important if you have a defective product and either want to return it, exchange it, or get answers to your technical questions. I expect timely email responses, and an informative website that contains answers to my questions, either directly through the website itself or through blogs or customer discussion groups.Product Warranties vary, with many companies offering a one year warranty. The highest warranty I saw was for the Vantrue X3 product - 18 months.

I bought this to replace a 3 or 4 year old X1 that gave up the ghost. The X1 was very reliable until the end and I figured X3 must be an improved version.I think I am right. Only used this X3 for one day but there are many things to like about this right out of the box.First, the menus and the menu control button are much more logical and user friendly. No more scrolling through menus with side buttons you could not see and confused. The control buttons are right on the front bezel. Each button is marked on the button and also identified on the screen menu. The extended battery life is also a big improvement.I never had an issue with the suction cup mount, but this new unit uses 3M outdoor double sided tape. Probably because of complaints from hot regions.Another plus is that this unit uses the stronger USB mini connector in place of the USB micro connector which is less substantial and not well suited for portable devices.The recordings are good; will have to see about reliability over time. But my expectations are that it will be as reliable as my X1.The loss of the GPS sensor is not a big deal to me. I never used it anyway (just in case I needed the video but the speed sensor revealed something I did not want).My main criticism concerns the fonts in the manual. The manual is apple-esque; nice for presentation but the print is too small and it does not have enough contrast with the paper color for 64 year old eyes.They left out the player software since any video player will play the clips. The elimination of that and the GPS sensor probably allowed improvements while lowering the retail cost.One inconvenience. The old suction cup mounts will not work with this unit; the mounting slot and key are different between the X1 and the X3. This means you have to use the new windshield mount which does not allow the same adjustments as the suction cup mount. Be sure to mount the camera on the mount and look at how you want to position the unit before you remove the backing tape from the adhesive.I purchased a USB micro to USB mini adapter so I could use my old hardwired power cable.I presume the issue reported by some users of file corruption have been addressed. Suspect this may be one reason behind the choice of the USB mini connector. If those USB micro connectors get damaged, I can see power being lost and restored resulting in file damage.Three weeks later. I ordered a second unit to replace an X1. Very good unit. I am using video produced with this camera to use as evidence of feeder roads in a Zoning case.