Viofo WM-1 Quad HD Dash Cam Review

Car security, accident and insurance claims, plus the added bonus of blow-by-blow recording of all your epic car journeys, can make having a dash cam a necessity. If you are realizing the necessity but can’t see your way to spending a lot of money on one, the Viofo WM-1 Quad HD WiFi Dash Cam could be the answer. Find out more in this review.

This is a sponsored article and was made possible by Viofo. The actual contents and opinions are the sole views of the author, who maintains editorial independence even when a post is sponsored.

Cutting a Dash

The Viofo WM-1 Quad HD Wifi Dash Cam is an entry-level automotive CCTV camera with all the features you’d want. It has a Sony sensor and GPS to measure your whereabouts and speed. On the front of the unit there’s the wide-angle lens and the mounting bracket to attach it to your windshield with a 3M sticky pad. On the back facing you are the controls for recording, the mic and Wi-Fi. Once stuck to your screen, the unit easily slides off the mount for storage in your glove compartment or pocket.

The build quality is excellent: mostly metal, with tough plastic on the front and back.

The reported resolution of the camera is described as Quad HD, which is an uncommon description of this resolution but growing in popularity with manufacturers. This translates to a video resolution of 2560 x 1440, or 1440p. As it’s 2K, you can optionally set it lower to 1920 x 1080, which you may do to conserve card space.

The sensor in the camera is a Sony Starvis IMX335, the type favored by other dash cams and action cameras. The USB-C you use to power your cam is right angled at the end, which makes training the lead away from the unit that much easier.

Putting It All Together

As with most dash cams, the setup is really easy, as they are pretty much plug and play. Before use, I just applied it to the windshield, put the card in, buried the cable in the trim of the interior, plugged the power in and started the car, and it began recording. It doesn’t get more simple than that.

Included inside the box, you’ll find:

• The WM-1 base unit
• Adhesive stickers for attaching the cam to the windshield
• Good quality metal USB accessory plug terminating in a right angle USB-C plug
• Cute Z-shaped pry bar for burying the cables in the trim of your interior (also handy for removing the adhesive pads)

Optional items I was provided for the purposes of review are:

• HK3-C Hardwire Kit
• Wireless Bluetooth remote control button
• 64GB micro SD card

Placement of the unit on your screen is very easy. Put a section of the provided transparent sticker on your windshield where you want the device. You can just stick the 3M pad directly on the screen if you’re feeling bold, but the clear sticker gives you a bit of leeway with placement. You have two of the stickers, and these can be cut up into smaller sizes if you think you’ll have to try it multiple times.

My advice on placement is to put it right behind the mirror, as this means it’s not getting in the way of either you or your passenger’s line of sight.

Once the cam is placed, you can begin burying the lead. Using the tool provided, you can lift up and tuck the cable under the rubber strip that runs around your doors and windows. Then, find a way to trail the remaining lead from the window to the accessory socket so that you can plug it in. (Alternatively, have a mechanic fit the hardwire kit, and the plug will come out neatly next to the camera.)

Once you have the cam plugged in, all you have to do is turn the car on with the ignition, and the camera automatically starts and begins recording to the SD card. All that remains is to set up the Wi-Fi, which involves downloading the app via the QR code in the instruction manual, then pairing it with your phone by selecting the Wi-Fi address of the camera.

Getting the app installed and pairing it with Wi-Fi took a short while, but once connected, it worked perfectly the first time. I find that mostly when you have to pair apps with devices, it takes on average two to three tries, but this worked the first time, which was refreshing. Once up and running, you get a live feed from the camera that shows on the app, which you can then play back and download, if stored.

Out for a Drive

When you start the car, you hear a chime (which you can change to a beep if it gets on your nerves) and voice prompts telling you the camera is recording and Wi-Fi enabled.

There are controls on the back of the camera, but once you have those set, it’s unlikely you’ll need to touch them. Camera recording, interior mic and Wi-Fi are all toggled from these controls. If you have the optional remote, you don’t ever need to touch it, and that’s great, considering the usual placement behind the mirror. You’ll crash if you try to look under the mirror at the camera while driving. It works anyway, so you don’t have to fiddle with it.

The loop recording mode defaults to one-minute clips, but you can set this to a variety of durations, up to 10 minutes per clip. It helps to find an event if the clips are short. When you fill up the card, it starts overwriting the clips, hence “looping mode.”

Along with loop recording, you can use time-lapse recording, taking videos composed of snapshots every minute, or more or less frequently. This also saves card space.

The quality of the image is great, if, as I say, a little oversharpened for my taste. The frame rate is nice with no motion blur, meaning faces and number plates are easily readable when stepping through clips. This high image quality is due in part to the wide dynamic range (or WDR) available on HD cameras like the Sony Starvis. There is also what they call a G-Sensor for taking pictures when a jolt is sensed, which you can activate in Auto mode.

If you have the camera wired in with the hardware kit, you have access to parking mode, as the cam is still powered when the ignition is off. This means your car is covered by CCTV even when you are not in it and driving. The modes for parking mode are the same as driving mode: looping, timelapse or auto (G-Sensor activated).

No Roadside Drama

A few minor irritations: there is a delay of several seconds before the camera is actually recording. There were several times I thought it had captured something when I just turned the camera on, but several seconds later the voice prompt stated that the camera had just begun recording. Sure enough, the camera missed the event. I’m not sure why it takes so long to boot up.

The file storage system caused some confusion. On the disk, you see files 01 and 02, then 11 and 12. Is it because it’s storing them alphabetically rather than numerically? That seems wrong somehow, but the company has reported that this could be a GPS issue. Nevertheless, it’s not a very pressing issue.

I like that it remembers my preferences, though. I turned the interior mic off most of the time, as I talk to myself and berate other drivers while driving. It’s kind of embarrassing to hear that played back.

It was a very sunny day when I tested the unit, and although it wasn’t included with my kit, there is an optional polarizing lens you can push onto the regular lens, which cuts down glare and reflections on your recordings. This is a great option, as I found there was much reflection and glare from the sun in the lens. It did cope with it rather well. Fortunately for me here in the UK, it’s usually overcast and grey.

Final Thoughts

The Viofo WM-1 Quad HD dash cam is a great little entry-level cam for your car that delivers great images when everything is clear and sharp. Installation is a breeze, and in use, you almost forget it’s there, until it chimes or talks to you.

All things considered, the pricing is very reasonable for this build quality of camera, which at the moment is $85.99, after a discount of $34. For the money, it’s a good quality device and certainly worth a look in this price range.