If you’ve ever experienced the misfortune of a car accident or come frighteningly close, it’s likely you later found yourself wondering who was really at fault. Blame is cast easily on the road, but with a dash cam, the guesswork comes to an end. For the sake of monitoring driving skills or providing evidence in the event of a crash, many people keep dashcams installed in preparation for the worst.
Tech firm Thinkware has been supplying the hardware of smart car information technologies since 1997, and today boasts 13 products across its range. Included in its line-up is the U1000: a windscreen-mounted, wide-angle dashcam that shoots in ultra HD 4K.
Most of Thinkware’s dashcams are characterised by adhesives stuck directly onto the body of the unit, rather than with an extending arm. The U1000 continues this design language, but in a sleeker and more slender form for front-facing application without impeding the driver’s view.
While the U1000 does shoot in 4K, with intelligent smartphone correspondence for easy day-to-day use, this technology does come at a premium. Available for £299.00, this is an expensive item for its type, sitting at the top end of a saturated market with many dashcams available for less. Question is – is it worth the money?
THINKWARE U1000 4K Dash Cam
Price: £299.00 | VIEW OFFER
How does it feel?
Straight out of the box, the U1000 is a solid, quality-feeling item in the palm of your hand. While not heavy, its weight reflects the build quality and grade of materials used. The box is completed with all the utensils required for installation and file management, including an SD-compatible USB stick.
The U1000 can be powered in one of two ways: via an in-car charger insertable into the cigarette lighter, or by hardwiring the camera into the main electric power of the car. Thinkware’s manual advises to have the latter done by a professional, but as tested, the in-car charger proved very easy to install.
Once the adhesive mount was attached to the camera, it was easy to stick to my windscreen, albeit after a fiddly job to remove the 3M adhesive sticker with no peel tab. Once attached, however, the dash cam felt firmly secured and solidly held – without any indication it may fall.
Included in the pack is a helpful colour-coded guide to where the camera should be positioned. This is especially handy to have with you during the installation process, as it will keep your dashcam placement within the confines of the law– a nice touch to have in the box. The power cable is long to accommodate the lining distance of the car – intrusive, were it not for the adhesive cable clips included that were easily placed around the A-pillar.
Once secured and the power cable plugged in, the camera will switch on with the ignition of the engine followed by a directive voice from the unit instructing you on how to link the camera up with your phone. Again, this was a hassle-free process: simply download the Thinkware Cloud app and connect via the device’s own wifi signal.
When connected, the camera begins recording and saving footage to your phone in one-minute intervals, so long as the wifi connection is still active. Saving in one-minute intervals makes life easier when locating specific incidents as each minute is time-stamped, so you don’t have to trawl through hours of footage to find the part you need.
4K Livin’
There is no doubt that the footage shot by the U1000 is at the top of its class. The wide-angle camera covers the entirety of the windscreen for a comprehensive view, shot in pin-sharp 4K resolution at 30FPS. The frame rate can be bumped up to 60FPS in QHD if you want a smoother ride, but I personally preferred the higher resolution for picking out details on the road – especially at night, during which the camera excelled even further with its Super Night Vision image processing.
Complete with an onboard microphone recording constant audio (you can turn this off with a button), the U1000 was able to provide a thoroughly detailed account of my entire driving experience.
The camera footage was crisp and fluid without stuttering once in its playback – the ultra-sharp resolution benefitting number plate reading especially, as even in motion they were still perfectly easy to read.
The video content became available to view via the Thinkware app downloadable on IOS. This platform is user-friendly and easy to navigate, opening up camera settings, saved files and even a live few of the U1000 to turn it into a security camera. Notifications of impacts and other events were also sent to the app for convenience and peace of mind.
I did, however, find some difficulty in keeping the device connected to my smartphone and the cloud app. Once disconnected from the Wi-Fi signal, the phone no longer uploads to your cloud, camera settings are restricted, and the live view is turned off. Of course, the device will continue to save video footage to the SD card, but many of the benefits are lost. I often found myself pulling over to the side of the road to try to reconnect which sometimes took a few minutes. This process became less frequent over time, but it was still peeving when I really just wanted to finish my journey.
Any downsides?
Other than the cloud connectivity issues, there were very few downsides to this device. Some of the components are quite fiddly to manage – the SD card taking a particularly nimble fingernail to eject while some of the tape backings were stubborn to come off – but this item was largely faultless during my test.
The biggest issue with the U1000 is the price. There are far cheaper dashcams out there with many of the same mod cons, including phone connectivity and high-resolution footage.
For example, the BlackVue DR590X shoots in full 1080P HD at 60FPS with a 139-degree wide-angle yet costs £100 less than the U1000. As tested, the single, front-mounted U1000 unit was £299, which is a lot of money for an in-car camera. Given the competition on the market, the price posits an argument this unit is too expensive.
Verdict
I doubt anyone would be disappointed with the U1000. Its capabilities and build quality are top of its class, with the best dashcam video quality I’ve ever seen.
Installation is simple and easy, the unit and associated app are user-friendly and easy to manage. This is a device that anyone can get onboard with straight away, but the lingering connectivity issues under the weight of a looming price tag are difficult to ignore. I like the U1000 a lot, but it’s a dashcam for a niche market of those seeking only the highest quality footage, and willing to pay a lot of money for it.
Score: 4/5
THINKWARE U1000 4K Dash Cam
Price: £299.00 | VIEW OFFER
Pros:
• Fantastic camera quality
• Easy to set up
• Solid item with a quality feel
Cons:
• Some connectivity issues with the cloud
• Very expensive
Specifications:
Resolution: 4K at 30FPS or 2K at 60FPS
Field of view: 150 Degrees
Memory card size: Up to 128GB
Wifi: Yes
GPS: Yes
Screen size: No screen
Weight: 149g
Phone connectivity: Yes
More items to consider:
Nextbase Dashcam
Price: £239.00 | VIEW OFFER
Blackvue DashCam
Price: £350.00 | VIEW OFFER
Vantrue Dashcam
Price: £229.99 | VIEW OFFER
How the product was tested:
The U1000 was tested over the course of a two-week period. The dashcam was installed onto the windscreen of a Citroen C1 and was used across a number of different conditions, including daytime, night-time, in clear conditions and through the rain.
The U1000 was powered via the in-car charger – as opposed to hardwiring – and was turned on each time the engine ignited. The Thinkware Cloud app was downloaded onto IOS, connecting to the U1000 via an iPhone 11.
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