We all use the car for various reasons from the travel to work to taking the kids out for a day out. However, you might be a very good driver but there are drivers who let’s face it should not have a licence. 

For these drivers, you need protection so that why a dash cam is essential for safety and also proving proof of what has happened if an accident did happen. In this review, we got sent the Thinkware F200 Pro which is an upgrade of the Original F200 which I actually have in my own car.  

The F200 Pro offers both front & rear-facing cameras and offers some of the following features: 

  • Super Night Vision
  • Time-Lapse photography in Parking Mode
  • Full HD rear Camera
  • Road Safety Warning System
  • Lane Departure Warning System
  • 1080P Full HD Resolution
  • Built-In Wi-Fi via your Smartphone app

As you may have noticed Thinkware is one of the leading dashcam brands in the UK. The front camera is effectively just an upgraded F200 dashcam. This camera designed to fit near your rearview mirror and the rear camera sits top centre at the back of your car. 

 

The F200 Pro is powered by a 24V connection and you can either fit it yourself or if you’re like me and do not want cables showing you can get it fitted professionally which will cost about £50 depending on where you take the car. If you just run from the cigarette lighter you will get about 3 days charge from the point you turn the car on. You will get longer from the hard wiring setup. 

Everything that you get in the box.

Design

Design-wise the front camera has got a simple black exterior with a smartly placed lens and landing platform intended to be fixed up to your windscreen. The F200 Pro comes with 1080P full HD resolution while the rear camera comes with 720P resolution and both cameras offer a 140-degree field of view which shows the full road nor just directly in front of you. The video footage is recorded at 30 frames per second which is very impressive. The lens is constructed with a 2.12 megapixel CMOS sensor while the rear camera has a 1-megapixel sensor.

Front Camera

Rear Camera

The dashcam does come with thermal protection thanks to the use of super capacitors working alongside thermal sensors meaning it can be used between 14°F – 140°F meaning when we had that heatwave this summer the camera will be safe on a hot day.

Special Features

The Thinkware F200 Pro is packed with features to make sure your driving is as safe as possible. It offers a special parking surveillance mode and its paired with the energy-saving mode. The parking surveillance mode starts recording when motion is detected like someone driving into the front of the car. Once the impact is detected the G-Sensor kicks in recording for the next 20 seconds and this is vital as you will get that number plate if the other driver was to drive off.

The F200 Pro also comes super night vision which when your driving at night it offers a super clear and visible image even in low light just like what is shown below.

Another features the F200 Pro has just like the F200 before is its time-lapse mode which takes recordings on a regular interval to create a time-lapsed video which is stored on an SD card with this dash cam able use a card up to 128GB. (You will have to buy these separately). The time-lapse mode offers 7x longer recording then compared to the motion detection recording. I used a 128GB SD card and it provides up to 500 hours of recording. 

The F200 Pro also comes with enhancement sensors which increases brightness and reduces noise cancellation when driving at night.  

Enhancement sensors make the images more sharp and clear.

Driving Alerts

The F200 Pro needs to be paired using the Thinkware App and this allows you to use the built-in app which is compatible with both IOS or Android phones. 

The App allows you to view, download and change settings. Connecting the Dashcam was very easy due to the in-built Wi-Fi and this allows you to get notifications with the use of GPS it offers the following alerts: 

Lane Departure Warning– You get an alert if the driver is distracted or tried and your car moves lanes. This is a very good function to have as it could prevent an accident.  (If tired just do not drive!) 

High-Speed Collision Warning– If the danger of a collision the dash cam will provide 3 early warning alerts to prevent the collision from happening.

Front Vehicle Departure Warning– We have all done it your in traffic and start looking at a shop or a pretty lady go by and you’re not taking notice of the car in front. This warning notifies the driver when the car ahead starts to move. 

Safety  Camera Alert –  Instead of the bleep alerts the other warnings give you. The Safety camera alert provides a vocal alert if you are going towards a speed camera or police mobile camera. You also get speed zone warnings. This is very useful if your driving in a new area you have not been to before. 

Viewing your footage

If you are looking to view footage of an accident or you were a witness to an accident and you wanted to share the footage. You can do this via the Thinkware App on your mobile phone. You can also view the footage on your PC or MAC and you have the software you can download to view the footage. 

If you are viewing the footage on a PC or Mac you can download the clips along with route history and speed. You cant get this level of detail when using mobile for downloading footage. 

Verdict 

If you’re looking to protect your car when driving especially with more of us taking up the options of staycations. The F200 Pro offers an excellent tool for the prevention of accidents and also if someone was to damage your car when parked.  The F200 Pro with the front and rear camera 32GB with GPS is the most expensive at £209 compared to the front only 16GB dashcam of the same name. 

Having a front and back camera is very useful as it provides a view in both key directions for the car. I found the Super night vision a really useful is offering a much better view in low light conditions. I also found the time-lapse photography in parking mode as it records important pictures if someone hit the car when parked. I also found the warning systems built into this dash cam very useful such as the lane departure warning could actually save a life. 

So if your looking for a dashcam that offers both front and back footage when driving and is packed with lots of useful functions this dash cam is a wise investment.

 

Product Rating: 

Design: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0

features: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0

Performance: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0

Value for Money: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0

 

The Thinkware F200 Pro 2x Channel 32GB with GPS £209 from the Thinkware website. 

Overall Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0

 

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