Roav A1 Review

The Roav A1 is a decent dash cam that falls just a bit short in the video quality and visual profile arenas. If you can find it on sale it might be a good buy, but otherwise you can get better performance for the same price elsewhere.

Performance Comparison

Across the board the Roav A1 turned in at or above average performances in our tests, earning it a relatively high overall score.

Video Quality

Overall the Roav A1's video quality is good, but not exceptional. It is about what you might expect from a fairly small and inexpensive camera in this day and age. However, some other small and inexpensive cameras were able to exceed those expectations in our testing.

In our testing the Roav A1's 1080p resolution didn't fully come through. The footage looked clear enough, but other models of a 1080p resolution (namely the AUKEY DR02) were able to get much closer to that full high-definition pedigree. Apart from some slight pixelation and blurriness, the A1's footage generally has 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 like the AUKEY DR02 and the YI Dash.

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. Bothe the AUKEY DR02 and the YI Dash were able to better handle those challenging lighting conditions in our testing.

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 Roav 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 the Roav A1 inclusion in our review.

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. For example, the AUKEY DR02 lacks the 1-minute option, and the YI Dash only has a 3-minute setting.

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

On top of loop recording adjustability, the Roav 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 other 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. This feature is present in the YI Dash as well, but is something the AUKEY DR02 noticeably lacks.

Interface

The Roav A1 is one of the few dash cams we've tested that offers both intuitive controls/buttons and easy to navigate menus, and a fairly large screen. We never had any trouble finding and changing the A1's settings, 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. Both of the A1's main competitors, the SUKEY DR02 and the YI Dash, have similarly well-designed interfaces, but have much smaller screens (1.5" and 2", respectively).

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

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 sit a bit back from the windshield by necessity. It also uses a relatively large suction cup mount, which adds to its visual footprint. Finally, most models that use larger suction mounts instead of adhesive one 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 A1's presence in a windshield probably won't annoy most drivers, but the AUKEY DR02 does 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.

Value

At $60 the Roav A1 is definitely at the cheaper end of the spectrum, and it performs fairly well considering that low price. However, both the YI Dash and the AUKEY DR02 are similarly priced and offer better video quality, making both of those cameras a better value in our book.

Conclusion

The Roav A1 is a fairly well performing and inexpensive dash cam, but it falls a bit short of the bar set by other similarly priced cameras.