Roav A1 Review

The Roav A1 offers good-enough video quality, a large screen, clear interface, and a low price. Across the board it turned in at or above average performances in our tests, earning it a relatively high overall score.

Performance Comparison

The Roav A1 offers pretty average footage.

Credit: Jenna Ammerman

Video Quality

Overall the video quality on the A1 is good, but not exceptional. It is about what you might expect from a fairly small and inexpensive camera in this day and age. In general, it is good enough for most dash cam applications, but spending not much more can generally get you noticeably better video quality.

In our testing, the 1080p resolution didn't fully come through. The footage looked clear enough, but other models of a 1080p resolution were able to get much closer to that full high-definition pedigree. Apart from some slight pixelation and blurriness, the footage from the A1 generally had vibrant and accurate colors. The 140˚ field of view is on the narrower side, which isn't a bad thing as this can often mean things at further distances are better in focus. However, in practice, we didn't feel that distant objects locked any clearer with the A1 than with wider 170˚ models.

When it comes to reading license plates, the A1 works quite well but does run into issues more quickly than other cameras. In most clips, we were able to easily read other cars' license plates, but bright sun during the day or bright lights at night quickly left every plate farther than 20 feet from the camera washed out.

Video Capture

When it comes to capturing video and offering options for managing that footage, the Roav A1 has pretty much everything most people are going to want.

Like all of the cameras we tested, the A1 automatically starts recording when you turn the car on, and we thoroughly vetted the ability of the G-sensor to detect crashes by reading a copious amount of user reviews. Clearing these minimum hurdles won this camera inclusion in our review, as these are basic prerequisites to be part of our lineup.

As we've mentioned before, dash cameras use loop recording, saving video in discrete chunks with the oldest being deleted to make way for the new. When a G-sensor senses a crash it protects the current chunk of video from being overwritten. The Roav A1 lets you set those loop recording video chunks to be 1, 3, 5, or 10 minutes. We like this adjustability, as those concerned with filling up their memory cards with footage from every time they brake hard at a stoplight can opt for shorter clips, and those that don't mind a little extra video management if it provides a better chance the camera will protect all the meaningful footage from a crash can opt for longer clips. This is more adjustability than most cameras offer.

The A1's video looked a bit more pixelated than many of its competitors.

Credit: Steven Tata

On top of loop recording adjustability, the A1 has a built-in Wi-Fi network. With the corresponding (and free) Roav app, you can wirelessly send videos from the camera straight to your phone (or another Wi-Fi-enabled mobile device). This is probably most useful for those that want to be able to quickly share clips from their dash cam on social media, but it can also be nice for those that want to save clips for safekeeping without having to remove the memory card and plug it into their computer.

Interface

The Roav A1 is one of the few dash cams we've tested that offers both intuitive controls/buttons, easy-to-navigate menus, and a fairly large screen.

We never had any trouble finding and changing the settings on the A1, and pretty much never had to consult the manual to find what we were looking for. The 2.7-inch screen also made everything easy to see and read without squinting.

The A1 has a nice display and well-designed buttons.

Credit: Jenna Ammerman

Visual Footprint

This is one area where the Roav A1 isn't terrible, but it's definitely less than ideal. The camera itself isn't huge, its largest dimension is 3.3 inches, but it does have quite a boxy shape that must be set a bit back from the windshield by necessity.

On top of this, the A1 uses a relatively large suction cup mount, which adds to its visual footprint. Most models that use larger suction mounts instead of adhesive route the power cable through the mount itself. The A1 doesn't, instead having the cable stick straight out from the top of the camera. Overall, the presence in a windshield probably won't annoy most drivers, but there are other options that have a noticeably smaller profile for those who just can't stand seeing objects in their peripheral vision while driving.

The A1's boxy shape makes it a bit more noticeable than some other cameras, but it doesn't take up too much spaced tucked into a corner.

Credit: Jenna Ammerman

Value

The Roav A1 is certainly at the cheaper end of the price spectrum, and it performs quite well considering that fact. Though there are some cameras that cost just a little bit more and perform better, we think this one is a great shoestring budget option.

Conclusion