70mai Dash Cam Omni Review: Useful A.I. car safety, but a challenging install

Automobile safety is a priority for most. The Omni combines all the convenient bells and whistles someone would want in a car camera and puts it in a relatively small package. With a small screen on the front, the Omni interacts with the user through an animated face or by showing what it's recording.

To understand the 360-degree POV, the Omni technically has a 340-degree swivel with a 140-degree field of vision, making it very effective for shooting video and pictures of the road, what's next to the car, and the passengers.

To do this, several English voice commands are available on the Omni, including "take a selfie", "shoot left/right", "vlog", and most importantly, "emergency video". All videos and photos are stored on the dash cam, accessible through hotspot via the 70mai app.

The app is easy to use. All users have to do is set up the Omni 360 as their dash cam and connect to it wirelessly through a few guided steps. The camera can be connected to it's on while you're away — which depends on whether you hardwire it or not — to save footage, take pictures, download updates, and control it manually.

If you need to access the camera directly, a power button and an up/down button are available to navigate the menus onboard. We'd also like to mention that voice commands aren't perfect, as some song lyrics or similar words will often trigger voice commands accidentally, which can use up more storage on the Omni. However, plenty of storage is available at 32, 64, and 128 GB.

The small, pill-shaped camera is not very distracting other than the AI face, which will occasionally wave at the passengers, which is a cute feature in concept but can potentially damage the driver's focus for a second. The camera itself records at 1080p at 60 FPS, and the built-in image processing does a good job of reducing motion blur.

As for night vision, the F1.5 Large Aperture and HDR technology on board make evening and night footage more distinct, making the road and surrounding area clearer and making vehicles and buildings stand out the most.

70mai Dash Cam Omni - Setup & hardwiring

The setup of the dashboard camera is simple and provided in the manual: clean the windshield interior, apply static shield, stick the dash cam in the marked spot, and hold for 30 seconds.

Due to the age and make of our car, we were unable to hardwire the Omni reliably. However, in our attempts, we can give the following advice:

• Find the fuse box diagram of your vehicle on a website like startmycar.com
• Follow the installation video on the Amazon product page, utilize other guides if needed
• Purchase fuse taps and/or ground wire if needed

Hardwire-required features include the previously mentioned app-live streaming, instant alert notices in case of emergencies or theft, GPS/Find My Car feature, and route-tracking. No hardwiring does away with most of the A.I.-centric features, essentially.

70mai Dash Cam Omni - A good driving assistant

Even without hardwiring, the Omni is a good day-to-day driving assistant, letting you record your surroundings without reaching for your phone and issuing "collision detection" alerts, which occur most often when you hit a bump or pothole, which is quite frequent in New England.

In addition, in times of worry, we could use voice commands to record vehicles backing up too far, reckless driving, and other situations that could result in an accident that would be useful in case of evidence.

One of the best features of the dash camera is the advanced driver assistance system (ADAS). Once calibrated, the dash camera will call out pedestrians, vehicles stopping suddenly, vehicles suddenly starting, and lane changes to keep you aware at all times. We found this to be very useful for both town and highway traffic situations, helping us brake early and have a faster reaction time in different situations.

So not only does the Omni help you out in the case of an accident like most other dash cams, but it also helps you avoid one in the first place with the ADAS, which helps justify the cost.

One polarizing feature is the "take a rest" notice the Omni issues if you've been driving for more than two to three hours, which is issued incrementally until you stop the car.

This is a valuable feature for those with low driving stamina, but for more long-distance drivers, this can be quite a nuisance if you're trying to save time getting to your location. This can be disabled by muting the Omni, navigating the main menu through the buttons on the side of the camera, which also mutes all other sounds, including the ADAS and warnings.

High budget security and usability

A dashboard camera is a utility, not a luxury, and the Omni keeps utility as the priority, even with all its bells and whistles. It's a reliable solution for those with a sizable budget for dash cams who want to utilize additional smart features.

However, hardwiring is essential to make the most of the product.

Without hardwiring the unit into place, the camera is effectively crippled. We encourage users to ensure they're confident in compatibility and in the installation process before ordering.

70mai Dash Cam Omni — Pros

• Collision detection alerts, voice commands
• ADAS is useful, potentially life-saving
• 360-degree view is excellent for safety and emergency video
• High quality video in day and night conditions

70mai Dash Cam Omni - Cons

• Voice commands easily triggered by music, etc.
• May be difficult to hardwire
• Polarizing "take a rest" notice

score: 3.5 out of 5

Where to buy the 70mai Dash Cam Omni

The 70mai Dash Cam Omni is available on Amazon and the 70mai store in black and red, costing $199.99 without the hardwire kit, and 218.98 with hardwire. On the 70mai store, the 32 ($169.99), 64 ($184.99), and 128 ($199.99) GB options are available, while Amazon defaults to the 128 GB option. The accessories kit with the additional installation stickers is $6.00.