Nexar Pro review
Editor's Note
• Original review date: March 2022
• Launch price: From $214.99 / £179.99 / AU$ n/a
• Official price now: From $184.95 / £129.95 / AU$ n/a
Update: March 2024. The Nexar Pro remains available to buy on the Nexar site despite the pricier Nexar One range taking center stage. And the original Nexar Pro arguably is better value, if you don't need 4K video capture. It remains in our best dash cams guide thanks to crisp full HD footage, unlimited cloud storage and easy installation. The Nexar One range might be smarter, but the Pro remains a great first dash cam, especially for those that clock up the miles.
The Nexar Pro dash cam is a step up from the slightly cheaper Nexar Beam and that’s because it’s mainly aimed at pro drivers. This includes people who drive for a living or who spend longer periods of time behind the wheel. It’s not actually that much more expensive than the Beam model, but there’s certainly more inside the box, including two cameras. The main one is your front-facing dash cam, while the smaller unit is for monitoring the interior.
A real bonus with the Nexar Pro system is that it combines this camera setup with the useful features seen in the rest of Nexar's range. This means you get free cloud storage for your growing collection of driving videos, GPS data capture for helping with insurance claims, plus some neat tools inside the camera and app combination. You’ll need to step up to the latest NexarOne model to gain the benefit of 4K video, but the 1080p full HD present here is perfectly serviceable.
You can also upgrade to a larger microSD card if needed, though the unit comes with a 32GB one to get you started. The cameras mount to your windshield using a suction cup mount for the front-facing one, which has the GPS data unit as part of the assembly. Meanwhile, the smaller interior unit fixes with a self-adhesive sticker.
Also included is a generous 3-meter cable, a USB charger plug, and installation tools for hiding the wiring away if needed. If you’re keeping the cameras in one vehicle this makes a lot of sense, though if you’re moving them from car to car there is the downside of having trailing cables hanging around.
The Nexar app is central to how the twin-camera setup works. It’s also the place where you can fine-tune settings, including how much space is allocated for video storage on your phone.
We’ve found that it’s best to funnel off content to your cloud storage to keep the phone storage down, and the software does this for you on a regular basis. The app also has some practical tools, including the ability to generate reports for your insurer in the event of an accident. This includes speed, location, impact force and, naturally, video to back it all up.
There are less vital, though suitably handy, additional tools, including one that tells you where your car is located if you can’t actually find it. That's handier than you might think in large car parks.
The same goes for the protection offered by the interior camera. This can issue break-in alerts if someone is tampering with your vehicle and begins recording automatically so you have video evidence if anything is stolen. Indeed, Nexar’s emergency alerts are a useful addition to your in-car security arsenal and provide reassurance for anyone who gets a little nervous on driving jaunts.
Once you’ve installed both cameras, added the app to your smartphone (for iOS or Android) and set up a Nexar Cloud account, you’re good to go. The small LEDs on the back of the unit indicate the status of the camera at any given time, and also highlight if its gone offline for any reason. This is also clearly explained in the literature that comes inside the box – full marks to Nexar for the clarity on display here.
A spare USB socket in the power plug is useful as having the required Wi-Fi and Bluetooth controls enabled can tend to drain your phone battery. However, with setup complete, the camera combo basically gets on with the job, recording drives and other activity. You can also use the app to keep selected clips or the video from an entire journey if needed. All recorded content handily comes with date and time shown at the foot of the shot.
A big benefit with the Nexar range is the cloud space you get as part of the deal. Content can be managed inside here, using a web browser from home for additional ease. This is very handy as you can dip back in if there’s an unforeseen event that comes to light after a journey. It’s a reassuring back-up system that adds a lot of value to the package as a whole. The other benefit with this is that it allows your phone to have its own storage freed up because video content can soon take its toll on any valuable spare space you might have.
Results-wise, we’ve found the 1080p video content to be very impressive, during both day and night-time use. Audio can be enabled too, if required.
The external-facing camera also fares well in less ideal shooting situations, including heavy rain and bright sunshine. For the money, though, the Nexar Pro combination is hard to beat in terms of overall value.
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