The Truth about owning a Nexar Beam - The Pros & Cons
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- čas přidán 2. 06. 2024
- Welcome to Metz Tech. In this video we will be taking a updated look at the pros and cons of the Nexar Beam Dash Camera!
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Amazon: amzn.to/2E1d3yN
Nexar Site: bit.ly/2zokNbM
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#NexarBeam
One of the reasons the dash cams don’t have built in batteries is that the inside of a car can get really hot while parked in direct sunlight. This can result in an explosion of the battery.
A capacitor would be a good alternative to having a battery.
Are you saying the Nexar Beam dashcam doesn't have a battery?
@@bobby1970 I just found the specifications - and the Nexar Beam DOES have a.480 mAh battery. A capacitor would be better however.
@@snake_eyes_garage , thanks, I really appreciate the info, and yes, I agree, a capacitor would have been preferred.
@@snake_eyes_garage a capacitor? Are you aware how capacitors function? They’re not long term energy storage components, at least on the consumer level. The size of capacitor needed to keep this running would be large in comparison to the cam.
I was considering buying this one...but now I've changed my mind.
Thanks for the honest review.
I would still recommend it over some of the others I’ve used. As long as you keep in mind those little quirks! Thanks for watching!
all you need to do is insert an SD card
Me too thanks to this guy
Same with me. This video just change my mind
Ok so is there a camera for cars that u would recommend?
Thank you for making each of your subjects so easy to understand!!
Thanks for the review. Has a few things that changed my mind in making this purchase
I am considering purchasing this and your tips are very helpful. Thanks!
Super helpful video! I just became a dad and I’m looking into purchasing a dash cam, because of all these dumb drivers out there and I want to be as safe as possible. Thank your doing this 🙏🏼
Glad I could help, Marlon!
You’re a nice new channel that does everything right keep it going bud!
Thanks so much, Isaac!
@@MetzTech youre welcome buddy I’ll subscribe on my main CZcams channel too West Coast Florida Fishing
Completely agree! Really great stuff here
Thanks so much, Sheldon!
I like these follow-up videos much better than unboxing/review videos that are made after only owning the product for a week or less! Question though, can you leave the camera recording to the SD card only (no WiFi or phone connected) and then later access the files through WiFi? Like say it's recording to the SD card and your phone is not connected but then you are involved in an accident where you need the footage to prove fault, can you then connect your phone and download the previous files to your phone while on scene, to show an officer, without removing the SD card or using a computer?
Thanks so much! Unfortunately, no. That’s the annoying part. They do that with the parking mode “incidents” I can’t see why they can’t do that with full drives. But it doesn’t 🤷🏻♂️
This video helped me a bit. I’m glad there isn’t a battery, as I live in AZ and our heat would make a battery explode! I do think other cameras have better features and functionality, but this one gives a lot of bang for the buck. I got one off of their site refurbished and saved a few $$$. I do think it’ll do what I want it to for a price that I can afford.
I appreciate you taking the time to record this update of what the dashcam is like to use over the course of months, I was considering buying this product as in actually has some really neat features like automatic clip saving and cloud storage, but needing to keep Wi-Fi on the phone on all the time and being forced to receive notifications every time you drive are actually deal breakers for me. Thank you for helping me to avoid buying a product that would just annoy me!
Just curious, do you turn your wifi toggle off everytime you leave the house? I have an iPhone and I never turn off my wifi, as I see no need/gain of doing so. Now for notifications, I stated I have an iPhone. I deny push notifications lol. Also I have wifi roaming off so it doesn’t search for wifi while out and about. I get where you are coming from, but those concerns are easily avoidable if you take the time to customize your settings. I have the NEXAR NEXS1 and love it. Also when I don’t have Service, I have a 256GB sd card in the unit, so it saves to the card and will upload to cloud once connection is reestablished. His review is sorta wrong when it comes to functionality lol.
@@BabaYaga.R1 I appreciate your reply and additional info. Some of these reviews complain about silly things.
@@BabaYaga.R1 yeah this entire cons video is immediately fixed with a $5 memory card as he put in this video in text at the bottom of the screen. The cable can be annoying but there’s not many cameras out there that work without a cable so it’s almost a nothing video seeing how a memory card fixed this videos issue and the cable can’t really be changed
Same for me.
Very detailed review, great job!
Thank you!
I'm contemplating getting my dad a dash cam...this (and the previous full review you did) is the exact type of review and feedback I was looking for. Thanks for being so thorough! I have a lot to consider 🤔
Also, just so I understand completely, in the instances you mention where the app doesn't capture the videos, such as when its not connected to wifi, your phone isn't there, etc...the SD card still captures and saves the videos, correct?
Yes that’s correct, as long as you have an SD card in there and the camera is powered, it will record! Thanks so much for checking out the video, Michelle!
Awesome! Thanks for the response, and you're welcome! 😊
Thanks for your insights.
I’m an iOS developer, they probably use the notifications to trigger the WiFi upload stream. They should be more transparent about “why” you need to enable notifications.
Luckily the latest iOS you can hide those notifications
I'm just here because I love watching you make videos 😂
Glad you’re here!
@@MetzTech Thanks keep up the good content by the way 👍
Thanks for the show.
FYI I’ve updated my 12 pro to 15.xx and had nothing but issues with major heat and battery life. After weeks of issues and troubleshooting I finally found out that NEXAR was to blame. If I enable location to “ always “ the app functions properly but my phone becomes a heater. I find myself leaving it off and now have a dash cam that doesn’t do anything
Thanks for the video, really helpful
Thanks for watching, Bob!
Great vid! Just ordered mine, but already experiencing "technical difficulties." First couple of rides it worked and synced to my phone fine. Now, it pairs, but won't auto-record when I start driving. I have to manually activate the "start ride." Any ideas? I've checked all the tutorials, unpaired, re-paired, etc. Help! LoL
Thank you ! You are doing a great job love your video
Thank you very much!
I live in northeast Alabama where the Appalachian mountains start, so even in a big town, we temporarily loose phone service for a few minutes. Especially between NE Talladega county and the Georgia state line. That would be a problem, for sure.
As long as you had a SD card in there your drives will save. You just mostly likely won’t get the drives saved to the cloud!
Great review .👍🏼
Just got the Black Friday deal... waited 3 weeks for the offer. I think I can tolerate the cons... looking forward to putting mine in. I’m ALWAYS on the road
I got mine from nonda 49&
First great review. Second, so does it come with an sd card you can save to instead of cloud upload? I’d prefer to do that. And do u recommend this cam over all others or is there a better more affordable one?
Great job!
Hey Metz Tech, I just ordered a 2021 version of this camera on Amazon for $69.95. Still no battery backup inside. What part of the power plug works loose, the USB part of the plug itself from the socket? There may be a way to rig some type of retention device to prevent this from happening. I'm a new subscriber.
To clarify with regard to turning WiFi off, as it has an SD card, it records to the card, correct? If that is the case, then the real issue of turning WiFi off is if you have no card installed. Secondly, you noted having lost clips on your phone. As it has an SD card, can one simply upload the drive from the SD Card, to the cloud, via the phone later? I work in IT/ID Forensics and I can see why there is no WiFi direct connect from the device to the cloud as what network would it be using? They'd have to install a network chip and then you'd have to join a network plan to make this happen, or they'd have to reach a deal with the carriers to allow you to add Nexar to your plan similar to having another phone on your phone plan. This is similar with Suunto watches and others. While hiking, they connect to overhead satellites to map your hike, but not to a network as there is no internal network chip. In the long run, you run into the same issue you note; your phone is in an area where there is no signal. Well, you'd run into the same issue if the Nexar was connected to a network that fell out of signal. I do like your reviews as you cover the good, the bad and the unfortunate. Ideally, the best system is a cam connected to a an SSD Digital recorder. I have one vehicle with (4) cams on it: front, back and sides. All cams are wired into a small 8 TB SSD DVR Recorder under the seat and it records everything. This is similar to what the 18-Wheeler guys use.
I know I’m late to the comments but hoping you still view these. My question is, I street park, does this camera record and save incidents such as someone bumping your car or smashing a window? Or does it just save everything and deletes in a loop?
Question... I just used this for the first time today. I went to my drive and it shows it started at 8:15 which is correct. But when I click on the drive either in the app or the cloud, the video starts at 8:47, so I am missing around 30 mins. Even though the trip shows start at 8:15 also. Any ideas? Thanks
Thanks for the video, the WiFi issue can be remedied with a hotspot which I have on my phone and Apple Watch. Notifications don’t bother me!
Nicely done, Guv'Na!
Thanks for the review, so basically it doesn’t record when you parked your car, the engine turned off and leave your car outside overnight or anytime during the day ?
Check this updated feature! czcams.com/video/a4c8BFkjfrg/video.html
TL;DR: Cons: Always needs Wi-Fi, no battery, notifications get annoying.
Actually it doesnt need wifi at all, you just connect it once through your phone, and it automatically joins rightt when you leave your house and you have a sd card if its not recorded to your phone so its alwahs being recorded
@@mrwhammer yeah I was kind of confused by the apparently WiFi “problem” he has lol seems like a him problem kind of thing haha
Again, the comment section doesn’t understand the Wifi concept. It’s not Wi-fi in the internet sense. There is no data being transferred from the camera to the internet. The “Wi-Fi “connection is between your phone and the camera using the WiFi protocols.... therefore if you disable your WiFi antenna on your phone, it will not be able to connect to the camera and therefore will not upload your drives to the cloud storage and you will not be able to access them on your phone. You will only be able to copy them off of the SD card. Which negates the entire purpose of a “smart” dash cam. I apologize that the concept wasn’t more clearly conveyed in this video!
@@MetzTech tbh, my comment still stands. Wi-Fi's sole purpose isn't just to connect a device wirelessly to the internet. It's a network connection. You can access files on your local network through Wi-Fi or to communicate protocols as you stated. The confusion lies in everyone else thinking Wi-Fi's sole function is to connect to the internet.
Alternatively, Wi-Fi can be a lossless solution to transmit audio vs over bluetooth.
For example, there's a drive in movie theater I went to last season that sends out audio over WiFi however, it doesn't have internet access. So if you wanted to hear the audio through your phone, you would lose access to your phones internet in the process.
I wanted to sit outside of my car (six feet away from everyone of course) and use my Bluetooth speaker however, the performance over WiFi was terrible, so now I bring a cheap pocket radio and plug that into my Bluetooth speaker so I can enjoy the audio without the latency which was significant, over 5 seconds off.
It's amazing how low-tech can still be relevant to make high tech solutions plausible.
Correct. But not everyone understands that. Thus confusion in the comment section lol
Good review. Is that a paddle shifter on your steering column?
Thanks for the knowledge witch nobody provided 😭😭💜
I've been using this cam since 2019 when i bought it on Black Friday for $60. I love the autonomous nature of just getting in the car, it turns on with the ignition power, connects to my phone and starts doing its thing. Yes, the constant notifications can be kind of annoying. The "leaving wifi on" complaint isn't really an issue though... your phone shouldnt be just auto connecting to any open wifi; that's not how that works. You have to request to connect to a wifi network, at most you could get notifications of an open wifi network nearby (my Pixel sometimes does), but you can disable that easily. I've also never once had an issue with a loose cable causing it to lose power, and i've hit some serious potholes in Indianapolis LOL.
I think my only complaint is no clear way to navigate in the app showing SD card stored footage. Like I have no way of knowing what is actually stored on it versus whats on my phone/cloud.
Thanks for your review. I've owned the camera for several months now too and have a few questions that I can't find answers to. For instance, iIf the App isn't launched, are drives recorded anyway? And, if the phone isn't connected or with you, do clips record to the card?
The clips will still record to the SD card even if no phone is connected!
Glad I came across this video. Was just about to invest in a camera.
I’m currently using a Smart mirror camera as my daily dash cam. Made a video on it here: czcams.com/video/a3VzC9BMjmA/video.html
Hey! Such a nice video, and convinced me to pick mine up for $75 and so far, I like it! However, I have one question about setting up the Auto Start-Stop Drives. How do you get it working, and how do you know it's working? I can't figure that out and that's like a big thing for me.
Theres instructions on the website
@@mrwhammer Yeah, I just realized that my phone wasn't auto-connecting to the WiFi, but all is good now.
Thank you man
Great video! Would the Nexar camera upload to a dummy or any old phone you have laying around as long as it's app compatible and does not require SIM card network (carrier) other than just the WIFI to store the footages? Please let me know, thanks!
Did you ever try this ? Curious if it worked.
Nexar needs to see this and comment on this video.
Very helpful
I won’t loose WiFi connection but my full drive section looks just like yours!
Also, say my drive was 1 hour. The full drive section will say my drive was 1 hour, but will only have recorded 13 minutes with the beginning and end missing. So annoying! I make sure to open the app before my drive to make sure I see the camera is recording through the app. Why is this happening and what’s the solution?
An updated solution video would be greatly appreciated!
In the app, when I play back my drives there is no sound. My “Camera Sound” and “Audio Recording” are all on. Am I missing something here? I thought my playbacks will have sound and audio if they are on.
Go into authorizations in the app settings and allow recording. There's a video to set up automatic recording and it will walk you through it.
I just saw a video where she installed to USB. Does it come with a USB connector? I'd hate to leave it in the lighter location especially having the wires hanging. With her USB she ran the wires under the carpet into the USB in the glove box. For me the most important is the ability to record while car is off and parked. Does it have a sensor to activate with movement, without batteries will it turn on while the car is off? Ive watched 3 of these videos and they all lack important details of the abilities.
so does the beam record your location as you are travelling? does it do this while on wifi only or does it also do it while using only the sd card and no wifi or bluetooth connections? what is it like to access the sd card videos on a laptop? does it capture low light situations ?
Yes it does!
Accessing on the computer is ok... it divides the clips up into 5 minute segments I think. The lowlight is surprising good for the price... I have a review on it too where I have some example clips:
czcams.com/video/6Ta6O1ueMLY/video.html
Thanks for watching!
My question is, if I have an sd card inside and it becomes full. Will it stop recording on the sd card or will it keep recording and start deleting/overwriting the oldest videos?
It’ll start overwriting the older stuff! Thanks for watching
The camera always records to the card inserted. If your Wi-Fi is off, you can STILL pull the sd card and download the footage. As far as the blanks you showed in between the saved clips, nexar told me it was because my phone "idn't compatible" with their app. It works but is "isn't optimal" per good ole nexar. Still have the best video quality for the money, they ARE worth the little annoyances.
You can double the vid quality for less money in other cams. Just sayin....
Hey I know this is a old video but I recently purchased one of these and I wanna know why I am not able to connect it to the application on my phone. I have an iPhone 11. Thanks
Question about wifi and cloud beam... if the car has a LTE connection itself, would it still require connection to the phone? Not sure if the cam needs connection to the app via wifi or if it just needs the data connection period.
It needs connection to the phone because it uses the Nexar app to upload to the cloud! The camera is merely using the WiFi connection standard to transfer data to the phone, which is then uploading to the Nexar cloud.
Question, so if someone borrows the car, the only way for you to see their drive is to download it from the sd being that your phone wouldn’t be around? Or would it upload once the phone gets back around camera
SD card would be your only
Solution there, unfortunately
Would having sync up and drive through T mobile make it more convenient? It makes you vehicle a wifi hot spot.
No, it doesn’t need actually wifi, it just uses the Wifi standard to connect to your phone
I didnt have my phone with me today and met with an accident. I tried retrieving videos frrom sdcard but it was not saved at all. It just had several months old videos thats it. Is there any way to retieve videos ?
Is there any way to use my home wifi to sync the videos with the cloud and not the App? For example, after I arrive home, the cam connects automatically to my home wifi and uploads the videos
I recorded my 1 hour commute and could only play back the last 5 minutes. Does it need to be connected to my phone to play back the entire drive?
Good stuff bro
Thank you, Juan!
Can you connect to the camera to view saved videos on the SD card?
I am having wifi disconnect issues on the Pro. I hate having to connect to the wifi. I think if you are in the car and it makes you connect Bluetooth it is over kill. Why can’t it be Bluetooth only. I got an external backup. Works well for the pro.
Mine keeps turning off. Ive unplugged the short cord going from the mount to the cam and put the plug going into the mount directly into the cam and it works....for a little while but then turns off again. Its done this FOUR times. I havent EVER removed the SD card so I KNOW its in there right. The cords dont look worn and the original adapter is in there so not sure whats going on or why it keeps turning off and Nexar's bot support tells me they wont replace it until i have PROVEN i did all their troubleshooting steps. Im at a loss and about to rip it out of my car and throw it away im so frustrated!!
I have the THINKWARE Q800 pro, the main issue I have with it takes awhile for Wifi to turn on so I can see the videos that were recorded, and having to retype the password of the THINKWARE it’s annoying always says password is wrong even when it’s the original password it comes with like Abcd1234 frustrating but when it’s working it’s great ha
I had mine for about 6 months and for some reason it will not power on? I unplugged and replugged everything and even checked to see if my outlet had power, which it does.. have no clue why it won't power on??
How well does it do in heat? My issue finding dashcams especially below the $100 is that most of them can’t survive the heat for very long.
As far as I can tell it’s been fine. I’m in KY so it’s not SUPER hot but it definitely gets up there in the summer
@@MetzTech yeah im in texas and it can hit mid 100s or even 110s in the car peak summers. I’ll give these a shot, thanks for the honest review!
Not just heat , but also cold
@@richieewinns hey how is it holding up? I’m in Texas too and it’s been beyond hot this past summer
Question please videos on my iPhone don’t work four days out. Can it record and store all videos on my phone thanks
And also there is an option park mode. But you said it doesn’t have a battery, how will it work if the engine is off?
Check this out: czcams.com/video/a4c8BFkjfrg/video.html
This is helpful. I almost purchased this, but my car disables wifi when I’m connected to car play. So this may not work for me 😔
Will leaving the camera plugged in to the cigarette outlet kill the battery? Or does the camera cut power when the car is turned off?
It won’t pull enough power to drain the battery
I feel like something no one touches on is how to save a video directly from the app or dashcam directly to your phones internal storage. Like to your phones gallery or downloads folder.
It’s dead simple. You can either go to clips and hit the share button to save straight to your photo gallery. Or under full drives you can select one then click create a clip, trim the portion you want, and click save clip. Easy as that
@@MetzTech when I've created a manual clip and hit the share button. There is no option to save to my phone or even open with the gallery app. There's an option to "save as link" but that does not save the video to my gallery. It's been like this with my Galaxy S10 and S21.
@@MetzTech also if I goto full drives and create and trim a clip then save the clip. It does not save to my Gallery app or anywhere I can access it other than the nexar app. Where it will be labeled as a manual clip.
Right! Then you click the little share button and then hit save video… it’ll be different on android though
I want to try this, so online there a choice of how much memory do you want, so if i pick the lowest can i put my own sd card? Or whats the downside of it ? There is 4 hrs up to 36 hours?
Yes you can pick what storage capacity you want on the Nexar site. But you can just as easily stick your own SD card in there!
ok, got it. thank you.
Like the review. Good stuff. Although a lot of people like the battery. I park my truck in direct sunlight and have lost 4 cameras (expensive ones) because they over heat or the batteries blow out. Currently I got the cheapest one from Walmart and although the picture quality is poor. The camera internals are good. The Mini sd saves all the video. Sadly it’s max is 32gb so it’s only day by day before looping.
THE BATTERY Will heat up in your car and may cause an explosion
Thank so much for this video, I really thought it was gonna be wireless but seeing this video help me realize I don’t really want it, but the video quality is good. I was thinking of just getting a go pro. Since I drive and bike I’ll just use it for both 🤷🏾♂️
If it doesn’t have a battery, how does the parking mode work? According to nexar’s website, parking mode will only work if the port it’s plugged into loses power with the ignition turned off. So if it doesn’t have a battery...then......?????
it has a battery it holds charge for parking mode my nexc1 turns on if i unplug it and it records if its not connected to the phone to the sd card you just take the card out and put it in the pc and its there
I just bought one and every time I shut off the external audio you know when it makes noises when you turn the car on and off a pass back on the app is there anyway to shut this off permanently it’s so annoying
For some reason my iPhone 11 does not automatically connect to the wifi of Nexar beam. I have to connect manually to the wifi every time I get in my car (which gets annoying). Not sure if you or anyone else is having this problem and can give me some advise?
maybe my beam is newer but it has a batter in it that last while unplugged all night in parking mode. I don’t leave plug into the cig lighter cause it will pull on the battery
Are there any dashcams that use usbc? Everything I use is usbs, a dashcam that uses that too would be nice.
Does it really need to be UP in the window can i put level on dash and hide wires better?
You can put it wherever you want. The view will be different but whatever works best!
Which dash cam do you recommend ? Any brand is okay.👍
Got mine for $69.95 and bought 3. So far, I like it. Wished it showed speed on the recording, but can't beat the price.
I noticed that it shows the spleen when you view the footage on a computer or laptop. But yea, I wished it did on the app. I have the Halo.
Why would you want speed shown ,the other person insurance will use ur speed to avoid paying out damage to ur car
@@Rewelsworld hey, I thought about that. But I also thought that not everyone is a speed demon and has anything to hide. I just want that added security of letting others know that I was doing my part of staying on the slow lane and not speed for the “just in case” moments.
@@Rewelsworld right 😭😭
@@HelloAgent47 Even if you are going 1-5 miles per hour over they will use it against you.
Thank you for this, I just canceled my order for the $479 Nexar dashcam. I'm going to do much more extensive research
Does not record full drives to cloud. Need subscription to upload to the cloud. No viewing screen. Aren't those blank "drives" on the SD card?
When you plug your SD card into the computer to view the clips, are your files only one minute each? Mine are
Yes, you can change that in the app settings I think
I Have several work trucks for my business so I wouldn't be able to physically be in all of them. Could I use this camera with the SD card only? No phones or the app. And just access the footage through my computer.
Yes you can, SD works as you would expect
Good video.. but my lord with those paddles on a CVT bro. Hahahah
Just for looks! Gotta have the red/black 😈
So overall, after several months of use, would you still recommend it? I bought a new car in February and have been on the market for a good dash cam since. Excellent review and follow up, btw.
Yes I would still recommend. For my situation, I don’t NEED a dash cam. I just want one and the simplest solution, so I pop an SD card in and as long as the camera is on it’ll capture. I hardly ever use the app functionality but it typically works really well too
I'm confused, you expect the device to send files to your phone without using a connection, such as WiFi to your phone?
The thing still records, you just can't see it on your phone without it being connected to your phone and obviously it won't go from device to phone to cloud without Internet?
So how did you expect it to get files to your phone?
Am I missing something?
I think my main point is that the Beam should have a function where if you choose to be disconnected from the WiFi connection it should save the drives to the SD card(which it already does) then whenever you do reconnect your phone to the device it will retroactively upload those missed Full drives to their cloud service. Currently it doesn’t do this
@@MetzTech ok, So basically if not connected, it records locally and to SD card. Upon connecting to the Internet is does not back up the recordings that happened while offline. But it should, I agree, that is stupid.
If it doesn't have connectivity will it still save to SD card? Sorry if that's a stupid question.
Not stupid at all. Yes, as long as you have the SD card inserted it will record.
But can you use a router for network instead of wifi on your device ???
Thanks for the info that notification thing is a deal breaker for me. I don’t get why these app developers don’t proof read for lack of better words. Like if a app feature sucks..fix it.
That is a deal breaker for me. Thx
Good shit thanks
Thanks for watching, Mike!
I just subscribed! What dash cam would you recommend then?
I still highly recommend the Beam! Nexar continues to add new features that make it well worth the price! Welcome to the Metz Tech family!
Does it automatically safe on the SD card if doesn’t save on the cloud?
Yes it does!
Since it has to be on WiFi will that affect me having my WiFi on ti use my Apple car play?
I would have to do more testing with that. I’m not positive
So it does record for me even with the notifications off. This only works for me b/c I turn the car off the I wait for the cam the turn off. Then I drive again and it turns on on its own and starts recording. Also it does have a built-in battery it it.
Can these products be shipped to Europe, Albania to be exact?
have you contacted nexar about any of these cons see if they have a fix for them?
What if car is parked you have phone with you ? And someone hit your car ? Does it record?
Does it loop record on the SD card?
Lol the cons sound like people personal issues and preferences. But in my opinion they are not deal breakers. I just got mine today and will be testing all of this out!
I have two different Nexars in both my cars no complaints, you’re issue with power disconnecting is probably your vehicles fault the socket is probably a tad to big