Capture Every Moment: The Best Dash Cams of 2024, Reviewed (2024)

The Vantrue N4 3 is an exceptional value, offering a dash cam, cabin-facing camera, and rearview camera. It attaches to the windshield with a suction mount, and its cameras can be adjusted for optimal coverage. The front dash cam records at 2560 by 2160 pixels but drops to 2560 by 1440 when all three cameras are used. The cabin and rear cameras have 1920 by 1080 resolution. The cameras have wide fields of view with minimal distortion, and the cabin camera includes infrared lighting for low-light conditions.

The N4's integrated screen features a picture-in-picture mode that displays all three cameras' feeds simultaneously, along with settings and recording modes. It offers low-frame-rate and low-bit-rate recording modes, but we found these can drain the car battery. The device also includes collision and motion detection, automatically saving relevant footage. A 128 GB micro SD card holds about 6.7 hours of footage.

We picked the Vantrue N4 as our Best Overall dash cam mainly because of its value. It's a strong competitor at a great price, with three cameras and lots of features, and it came in only slightly behind our top pick in image quality. Video quality was impressive across various light conditions, with good dynamic range and minimal noise reduction.

As far as pure visual performance, the Cobra SC 400D was the best dash cam we tested thanks to its 4K resolution. We agreed that its video footage genuinely looked the best too. We found the touchscreen to be easy to operate and responsive, and the Cobra uses its proprietary DriveSmarter app to provide police alerts and other driver reports. If we had one minor grumble, it would be that the mount only swivels forward and backward, not side to side. However, the wide angle of the lens practically eliminates the need to do so. The Cobra secures to the windshield via a large sticky pad for the mount and a very strong magnet for the camera itself.

Of course, this kind of quality and sheer amount of features add up in cost, but if you're serious about purchasing a dash cam, we loved this one.

We appreciate that we'll probably get some flak for including this model in this test when there are so many dash cams out there. But we were determined to evaluate our (licensed) namesake unit on its own merits—and darned if it didn't step up as the best budget option we tested.

The Car and Driver Dual View model has front and rear cameras and a touchscreen interface for easy driver control. The unit has standard features like parking mode, collision detection, and a G sensor to keep one eye open after you've left the vehicle.

One thing we really liked about this model is its dual tripod option that allows different mounting iterations from the top or bottom of the camera. This feature made it easy to adjust the dash cam according to the angle of the windshield. During our driving test, we detected a faint magenta hue on the screen, which we could not adjust for. But when we uploaded the data, the magenta hue did not affect the footage.

This budget-friendly dual camera covers all the essential features and has adjustable orientations. It's an excellent choice for dash-cam beginners.

The Garmin Mini 2 is an excellent choice for someone looking to keep their dash cam discreet and out of the way. It's compact enough to tuck behind your rearview mirror if so desired. The app functionality is quite nice as well, and the 1080p matched up well against the competition despite its diminutive size.

While it's a nice set-and-forget dash cam, we found that it's a bit tricky to determine whether everything is set up correctly without checking it via the app. The lack of a screen makes it difficult to see if the camera is lined up properly. Additionally, there are a few different lights that blink on the cam, and it's confusing at first to know what they all mean. But once you get that all set, the Garmin Mini 2 is a solid choice for a tiny dash cam.

The MAXcam 360c primarily serves as a radar detector with a secondary dash-cam function. It isn't ideal for those seeking only a dash cam. But for anyone wanting a radar detector with a competent camera to boot, it's a great choice.

The dash cam boasts a 2560 by 1440 resolution with a Sony Starvis image sensor that captures 30 frames per second and offers a 143-degree field of view. The video quality is contrasty, with noticeable noise reduction and compression that significantly impacts image quality. We found the MAXcam 360c performed well in low-light conditions, although finer details became blurry. It clearly captured license plates up to ten feet away under ideal conditions, but beyond that, its clarity is a miss, even in the most ideal conditions.

This product isn't suitable for everyone due to its high cost and the complexity of using a radar scanner. But if you're looking for a radar detector as well as a dash cam and want to kill both birds with one stone, this Escort fits the bill.

If the thought of juggling micro SD cards keeps you awake at night, the Ring Car Cam might be the dash cam for you. Powered by your vehicle's OBD-II port, the Car Cam features forward and cabin cameras. The cabin camera can be disabled easily with a physical cover, if desired.

We do recommend purchasing the Ring Protect Go subscription ($6 a month/$60 a year), as it unlocks some really useful tools. Without the subscription, the camera is fully functional, but you'll only be able to use certain functions, like live view on Wi-Fi only. Ring Protect Go unlocks LTE capability, along with other helpful perks. Videos are stored on the Car Cam's internal storage for viewing, but you'll need to upload them to the cloud for downloading privileges—which also requires the subscription. For a full breakdown of the Ring Protect Go, check out the details here.

It's definitely funky and unconventional, but we like the sleek design despite its relatively imposing size. The Ring app integrates the Car Cam's footage well too. We don't love that it uses the OBD-II port while driving, as that prevents the use of other OBD-II devices such as Progressive's Snapshot and certain GPS trackers. But for an easy footage-viewing process, the Ring Car Cam takes the cake.

Ring Car Cam, Reviewed

The Nexar Beam is an excellent entry-level dash cam. With a reasonable price tag, it boasts the standard features you'd expect to find, like parking guardian and G-sensor collision detection, and advanced features like GPS connectivity for data overlay. Another unique option is that the app can generate an insurance incident report aligning with footage and handy GPS coordinates.

Different models of the Beam come with different SD card sizes; in our case, we purchased the 32 GB option. However, one nice feature of the Nexar is that it offers unlimited cloud storage for all G-sensor-locked data, meaning all collisions will always be stored and accessible on the cloud, which can be particularly crucial after an incident or even months after the fact.