70mai's new Dash Cam Omni rotates to capture 360° views of your car (Updated with hands-on)

70mai's new Dash Cam Omni rotates to capture 360° views of your car (Updated with hands-on)

Note: This article was first published on 7 March 2023 and was updated on 17 March 2023 on hands-on impressions.

Dashcams are an absolute necessity for drivers these days, but one of their most glaring shortcomings is that they can only shoot what's ahead of them and that leaves a lot of blind spots.

70mai's newest dashcam is called the Dash Cam Omni and it's solution to this problem is to integrate the camera into a rotatable mount, not unlike a turret.

The Dash Cam Omni can swivel up to 340° and when coupled with the camera's 140° field of view, means that it can provide 360° coverage of your car.

The camera itself has a Full-HD sensor paired with a bright f/1.5 lens. It can therefore record Full-HD footage at up to 60fps.

Interestingly, unlike most other dash cams which rely on microSD cards, the Dash Cam Omni instead relies on built-in eMMC storage, which 70mai claims is more reliable.

To put its rotatable mount to full use, the Dash Cam Oni features "AI-powered motion detection." If it senses a hit, it can immediately swivel to the direction of impact to record.

It can also track people walking near cars, which can be handy if you happen to park your car in an area that sees a lot of traffic.

According to 70mai:

By calculating a nearby person's distance and intention, it activates recording once it identifies someone as a potential threat, keeping hard evidence of break-ins or other man-induced emergencies.

The Dash Cam Omni also supports voice control where users can issue it voice commands like "Shoot left" to swivel the camera left or "Take photo" to get it to take a photo. 

And if you get the camera with the handy 4G hardware kit, you can connect to the camera using your smartphone to monitor your car from anywhere in the world as long as you have a data connection (requires a working SIM card). The app can also notify you if it sense something suspicious or if it detects a collision.

The 4G hardware kit also doubles up as a tracker, allowing owners to instantly know the exact location of their car. 

While all of this certainly sounds quite exciting and promising, I wonder just how effective the swiveling mechanism is because it looks like your car's A pillar might be an obstruction. I suspect where and how you position the camera is going to be of utmost importance. I've made an appointment to check it out next week and will update this article with my impressions.

**Update on 17 March 2023 **

As you can see from the footage below, my fears about the A pillar being an obstruction were mostly unfounded. Obviously, your mileage will vary depending on your car, but in the test car (a Honda Stream), the Dash Cam Omni can still quite clearly pick up whatever was to the sides of the car.

I tried the voice commands too and it worked with a high success rate. In addition, the camera responds very quickly so it's unlikely to miss out on important moments.

The quality of the footage is decent too and I think on par with most other Full-HD dashcams that I've seen.

What impressed me most was the app. The 70mai app has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to review trips and look for footage. 

Availability and pricing

The 70mai Dash Cam Omni is available now in black and red and comes in 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB option. 

Prices are as follows:

• 70mai Dash Cam Omni 32G - S$349
• 70mai Dash Cam Omni 64G - S$369
• 70mai Dash Cam Omni 128G - S$399
• 70mai Hardware Kit Type-C 4G - S$99

Note that prices does not include installation which typically costs S$100 at 70mai authorised retailers.

However, from 3 March to 19 March, every purchase of the Dash Cam Omni will come with a free 4G Hardwire Kit and 50% off the S$100 installation price.

You can find the 70mai Dash Cam Omni on Lazada, Shopee, and the Eraspace Online Store.