Nexar Beam GPS dash cam is simple and discreet
Nexar Beam GPS Dash Cam. Picture Nexar.
Dash cams have become an important part of motoring these days but there are so many to choose from. I’ve been testing the Nexar Beam dash cam which uses a unique method of getting your video files from the Beam to your smartphone or computer.
The mount also includes GPS electronics that connect to the main camera via a short built-in mini USB cable. The mount includes a mini-USB socket where the power from a long cable with mini-USB on one side and standard USB-A on the other. Also included is a dual USB-A 12V socket adaptor for power.
Since there’s no display or buttons to control the dash cam, you have to install the free Nexam app. On first opening the app it will guide you through the steps you need to take to get your phone connected with the Beam using direct WiFi. I was impressed at how well Nexar uses simple instructions to make the process easy.
There's also a parking mode that kicks in when the vehicle is shut off but the camera is still connected to power. This stops the camera from recording, however, it will start recording again if an incident is detected. This is an essential feature that will record someone hitting your vehicle while it’s parked and get their registration number.
For those with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, It's worth noting you won’t be able to connect to your car and use the Beam at the same time. However, like most other dash cams, you can still record to the microSD card. The video footage can then be transferred to your phone or copied to a computer or tablet. An hour of video will take up to 1TB of storage on your phone.
You can allow the Nexar app to use 20%, 50% or 70% of your phone's available storage and Nexar provides free unlimited cloud storage for footage taken by its dash cam which is a nice bonus not offered by other dash cam brands.
I did all my testing on an iPhone and the app also offers Siri shortcuts support where you can ask Siri to “start a drive” or “where did I park.”
Once set up and linked with your phone, each time you start your vehicle, Nexar will activate a notification on your phone that says “Tap to drive there with Nexar.” This will then launch the app and display a live view of the camera's video along with a map view. You can use this to navigate to a specific location. So rather than a small, low res dash cam display you get a large, high-resolution smartphone display with a live view and map navigation. The display will also display your ETA, distance left to travel and time-lapsed.
If you don’t want to stream video to your phone you can disable it and then the footage will be saved to the microSD card. With steaming enabled, the footage is temporarily saved to the card and then transferred to the phone's storage in the background. Again, Nexar simplifies all of these tasks to make them as seamless and easy as possible.
The Nexar shoots in 1080p Full HD resolution and at 30fps and while you can buy dash cams with up to 4K video including an upcoming offering from Nexar, the Beam captures footage with a balanced exposure and good detail. Audio recording is optional and is turned off by default.
Potential occurrences are automatically kept separately from recorded video, which can be edited and saved in portions. When the dash cam identifies a collision or an instance of hard braking, these are saved.
A really neat feature is the ability to save a recorded video of a journey as a timelapse movie.
The Nexar Beam is an amazingly simple system. You get a simple and discreet dash cam that seamlessly connects to your smartphone and automatically saves the footage for easy access. The video quality is good enough and the advantages and features far outweigh any disadvantages.
Priced €139 (RRP) at Nexar
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