Aukey 1080p Dual Stealth Dash Cams DR02D Review

What is the Aukey 1080p Dual Stealth Dash Cams DR02D?

If ever a product name told you everything you needed to know about it, it’s the Aukey 1080p Dual Stealth Dash Cams DR02D. A dual-dash cam bundle, it lets you record from the front and rear at the same time – impressive, given the price.

The downside is that you don’t get any advanced features, such as safety camera warnings. But for basic features, the Aukey 1080p Dual Stealth Dash Cams DR02D do the job.

Related: Are dash cams legal?

Aukey 1080p Dual Stealth Dash Cams DR02D – Shooting specification

Things get off to a promising start with the core specification. Both dash cams use identical Sony Exmor IMX323 2.3-megapixel sensors. Each one is 1/2.9-inch, which is a reasonable size for this kind of application. The field of view is slightly different between the two units, however. The front camera has a wide, 170-degree angle, whilst the rear covers 152 degrees.

The rear camera shoots exclusively at Full HD: 1920 x 1080 at 30fps. However, the front camera can also run at 720p with 60 or 30fps, WVGA (848 x 480) and VGA.

The top resolution is recorded at 11Mbits/sec, which is the same for both cameras. As such, if you have both cameras connected and recording at 1080p then a 16GB microSD memory card will be sufficient for 97 minutes of footage before looping begins to overwrite the oldest files with newer ones.

Aukey 1080p Dual Stealth Dash Cams DR02D – Mounting options

The trend in dash cams seems to be towards permanent installation. The DR02D uses 3M adhesive pads for both front and rear units. However, it also includes spare mounts for both, with a couple of extra 3M pads each. The mounts don’t provide adjustment, because the cameras themselves can be tilted in their units.

A couple of lengthy cables are included in the box – one to power the main unit, and a second one to provide power and receive the signal from the rear dash cam. The power cable ends in a standard USB Type A connection, and the cigarette lighter adapter is a separate unit, so if your car has USB power then you could use that.

The adapter has two USB connections, so it’s possible to power a satnav or your phone at the same time. I found it had no trouble powering a TomTom satnav.

The online description on Aukey’s site and Amazon illustrates six clips to help you secure all the cabling around your car, but these didn’t appear to be in the box I was sent. This was a shame, because it would have completed the mounting bundle nicely.

Aukey 1080p Dual Stealth Dash Cams DR02D – Menu and configuration

Not surprisingly, the rear camera doesn’t feature any control buttons or a screen. It works entirely as a slave to the main unit. The main unit has a 1.5-inch display and some buttons to alter settings. There isn’t much to configure here, other than changing resolution and loop file size from the default three minutes to five or 10.

You can vary the exposure from -1 to +1 EV with seven steps to brighten or dim the final image. It’s also possible to choose between 50Hz and 60Hz frequency to counteract light flicker, depending on the AC electrical frequency of your region (in the UK, it should be 50Hz). The accelerometer/G Sensor has three sensitivity levels to help detect an impact automatically.

You can also enable motion detection and time lapse, to provide surveillance when your car is parked.

The DR02 doesn’t have a built-in GPS or other related premium dash cam features. So you don’t get safety camera warnings, general speed limit warnings, lane departure detection, collision detection, or alerts when the car in front of you starts moving in a stationary traffic jam. There’s no Wi-Fi either. These omissions have enabled Aukey to get the price so low.

Aukey Dual Dash Cameras DR02D – Image quality

Although Aukey focuses on the budget end of the market, it doesn’t skimp on image quality. The resolution of the DR02 is only Full HD, and the data rate isn’t massive – but the end results are very acceptable. There are clear signs of compression artefacts, but they tend to resolve so you can make out details and potentially pull out stills that would conclusively be able to identify people and vehicles involved in an incident.

My primary test was on a very bright autumn day, with the sun low on the horizon – a scenario that will prove troublesome for any camera. The biggest problem with these conditions is picking up reflections from the car interior on the windscreen, although the emergence of the sun was also making the exposure flash. This was only temporary, however, whilst the reflections would remain.

The footage above was selected because, for most of this clip’s duration, the sun was obscured behind buildings. As you can see, the colour reproduction is decent, and detail is good for Full HD.

Most dual-dash cams will use a lower resolution and/or data rate for the rear camera. However, whilst Aukey employs a narrower viewing angle, the resolution and data rate are essentially the same as the front camera, so the quality is just as good as you can see by the footage above.

Why buy the Aukey 1080p Dual Stealth Dash Cams DR02D?

Our first taste of Aukey’s dash cams was promising, with the DR-01 providing acceptable quality for a very keen price. The Aukey 1080p Dual Stealth Dash Cams DR02D is similarly excellent value. You miss out on additional dash cam features, particularly GPS for tracking your location as you drive and providing safety camera warnings.

But if all you want is reasonable video quality front and back without spending a fortune, the DR02 is a bargain. Don’t forget to read the constantly updated best dash cams guide for the latest recommendations.

Verdict

This dual dash cam delivers excellent video quality for the price – just don’t expect any extras.