Anker’s new “Roav” line of products are designed to help make your car a little more safer and smarter. The new Roav Dash Cam takes impressive video recordings that can be a huge help in an accident.

[review]

Image Quality

With the Sony Exmor 1080p camera, this dash cam does an excellent job of capturing high definition video with a 145 degree viewing angle in virtually all lighting conditions, including driving into the sun, under bridges and at night time. Check out the video review below for an example recording. Please watch my YouTube review for a sample of the Roav’s recordings.

Features

The Roav Dash Cam includes “Parking Monitor” recordings, which is fairly standard on many newer dash cams. This will record a 30-second clip anytime it detects movement of your car while parked. However, in my experience, it will react anytime I open or close a car door, which makes sense since the car shakes. But this creates a new, locked clip on the memory card which I must later manually delete, otherwise the memory card will eventually fill up with locked clips.

There is also WiFi built-in to the dash cam that allows you to connect your smartphone and use the Roav app to download video recordings. This way, if you need a recording immediately, you can use your phone to retrieve it without needing to wait until you can get to a computer. While testing this out, I did notice that the dash cam needs to be receiving power from the car in order for the WiFi to stay on, so your car will likely need to be running in order to enable the WiFi. The WiFi does not stay on all the time and will automatically turn off the next time the camera is powered down. Since the video clips are large (>300MB), it does take a few minutes to download each clip.

This camera is missing some features you would find on a higher-end model, such as driver assisted technologies (for example, an alert when you drift from your lane) and GPS location mapping. And although the camera has built-in WiFi, it will not connect to the internet nor will it upload your clips to the cloud (the built-in WiFi is only for temporarily connecting the dash cam to your smartphone).

Mounting

Instead of a suction cup mount, the Anker Roav uses super-duty 3M double-sided tape. While this is more reliable than a suction cup (which - in my experience - tend to detach in the winter), it’s also more permanent. Therefore, be sure to you’re happy with the mounting location before you stick it to your windshield!

Ease of Use

Once you configure the Anker Roav using the built-in LCD, it’s pretty much a “set-it-and-forget-it” device. I found the menu to work well. I would have preferred physical buttons instead of the touch buttons, but I still found them to be responsive. Most settings can also be configured with the Roav app. Please note that when setting the time, the time is in 24-hour format (no AM/PM).

Some things you need to know

There’s no memory card included, but they’re fairly cheap on Amazon. Be sure to get a Micro SD card that’s 8GB, 16GB or 32GB and a “Class 10” or better.
When routing the charging cable behind your car’s trim and weather stripping, do so on the passenger’s side. That way, if the cable happens to fall loose while you’re driving, it won’t be in the driver’s way.
When mounting the camera, make sure you don’t obstruct your view or any cameras that are part of your car’s safety system.
To download the camera’s app, search for “Roav” in your phone’s app store.

Summary

Overall, the Anker Roav Dash Cam makes crystal clear recordings during both day and night, and can be a huge help if you’re ever involved in an accident. The additional “Parking Monitor” is appreciated and the built-in WiFi makes it easy to use the dash cam with your iPhone or Android phone.

Check out the Anker Roav Dash Cam on Amazon (and here’s a 32GB Micro SD Card that works with the Dash Cam)