THINKWARE F800 Pro Dashcam Review

Reviewed by Melody Floyde

Recently I was asked to review the Thinkware F800 Pro Dashcam and jumped at the chance. I’ve been considering getting a dashcam for the car for a while as they seem to be the new “must have” gadget and are really useful to have installed from both a safety and security point of view whilst driving. As I also like playing with new gadgets this seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out a new one.

I’ve previously looked at the dash cams available on the market and felt slightly baffled by the vast array of different makes and models to choose from, accompanied by a range of prices and features, making it very hard to know where to start having never owned a dash cam before. So being asked to review the Thinkware F800 Pro has taken the decision out of my hands, and from a bit of preliminary research the Thinkware F800 Pro seems to cover most bases with a wide range of functions.

The F800 Pro that I received contained both front and rear cameras (there are other options with just one camera) along with all the items needed to install and use the cameras in the car. The box was fairly compact and inside there was a front camera (which is the main unit where everything happens), rear camera, mount, hardwiring cable, adhesive cable holder, USB microSD card and reader along with a quick start guide and a couple of other handy pieces of information, such as a diagram of where to legally install the dash cam in the car so as not to obscure the windscreen. One negative I did note was that there was a very large amount of plastic packaging as every item was individually wrapped. This didn’t seem very sustainable and I’m sure could be reduced in the future.

Upon opening the box, I realised that I had been sent the version of the dash cam containing wires for hardwiring to the vehicle, which requires professional installation. As this wasn’t a possibility within the timeframe of undertaking the review, I was subsequently sent a Car Charger which is an optional extra accessory costing £22. This means that the dash cam can be powered from the cigarette lighter of the car. From reading a bit further, I’ve discovered there are two different versions of the F800 Pro on sale, one with hardwiring and one with a car charger so it’s important to choose the right one.

My initial impression was that the camera looked and felt good quality. There was a handy checklist in the quick start guide to ensure that all the pieces were present and correct before trying to install the camera (they were). There were also some basic instructions and images to help with installation, however as I like to know all the details before I try to install or work anything new, I was relieved to find that there was a full user manual available to download from the Thinkware website. This had full details of how to use all the different functions of the camera as well as installation instructions and has been very useful.

There was also a QR code to scan which took me to details of how to connect the dash cam to my phone via wifi using the Thinkware cloud app. I have an iPhone but the dash cam will also connect to android phones. This provides a lot of options such as viewing the live view from the dash cam, looking at the recorded files as well as changing settings on the dash cam. I found that until the dash cam was installed in the car and powered up, it was not possible to connect to it as it needs to be switched on to pair with the phone.

I found it very easy to plug the dash cam in to the car cigarette lighter using the car charger cable. I was pleasantly surprised when I turned the dash cam on and it spoke to me, giving me really clear instructions of how to pair it with my phone via wifi. This was a very helpful feature. I haven’t yet discovered if I can turn off the voice but I’m sure I can! I was really impressed with the quality of the image captured by the dash cam, it was very clear and the lens covers a wide angle which means that it captures a lot. The lighting was also good.

It was easy to find a good location to fix the dash cam to the windscreen, my phone clearly showed what the dash cam was filming, along with guidelines to align with certain parts of the windscreen. It was very easy to fix the sticky mount to the windscreen to secure dash cam into position. I would recommend being 100% certain where you want to place the dash cam before doing this, as I don’t think it would stick so well a second time if it had to be moved. There were also sticky cable mounts to hold the cable in place, I followed the image in the user guide of where these should be stuck and how the cable should be configured, but I did find it very difficult, due to the location of the cigarette lighter and other items on our dashboard, to put the cables in a position that didn’t get in the way of trying to access buttons etc. I think maybe more than three cable holders would be advantageous to avoid gaping bits of cable. However, for this reason I have decided to get the dash cam fixed professionally using the hardwire cables so that I know it is installed correctly, the cables will be in the correct positions and I can use the full range of features which aren’t possible when using the car charger (i.e. the energy saving parking recording).

I have been really impressed with the Thinkware F800 Pro Dash Cam so far, and can’t wait to get it professionally installed so I can try out all of the features properly. It has a large number of functions including vehicle tracking, geo fencing, night time mode, driving impact notification and incident recording (hopefully I won’t need to try these out) to name a few.

From what I have seen so far I would highly recommend this as a good all round dash cam option. It also has enough features to keep any fellow tech lover happy!

Rating: 4/5

RRP: £329 (on offer for £269 at the time of writing) and £22 for the car charger

This product can be purchased from Amazon here: https://amzn.eu/d/j4hEyoO
The Car charger can also be purchased from Amazon here: https://amzn.eu/d/dHin5kq