Blueskysea are a well-known Chinese vendor of dashboard cameras that have been around for a number of years. In December of 2017 they released the first camera of their own design. The B1W’s video quality is good at day time, and average at night.
One thing we really like about this camera is its form factor: It’s small, elegant, and extremely stealthy. At this size, it doesn’t even have room for a screen. You can watch videos either over Wi-Fi (relatively slow), or by transferring the memory card to a phone or computer. Configuration of the camera is also done by Wi-Fi, using a relatively simple smart phone app.
A feature that not many other dash cams have is that you can rotate the B1W 360 degrees around its lateral axis, so it’s easy to just turn it around if at some point you wish to record the interior of the car.
In case of an accident, the camera will detect it with its G-sensor and lock the relevant video files automatically. Should you wish to manually lock a video sequence, there’s also a large lock file button situated on the side. A longer press of the button serves to toggle Wi-Fi.
A LED on the back of the camera indicates when the camera is recording. When Wi-Fi is off, the LED glows red; when Wi-Fi is on, the LED turns green. A solid light means the B1W is in stand-by mode, and a flashing light indicates that it is recording.
Like all dash cams, the B1W supports loop recording and auto on/off. A date and time stamp is located in the upper left corner of the screen, however as the stamp is all white, it can be difficult to read against a bright sky in the background.
UPDATE: In newer firmware versions, the white stamp has been moved to the bottom of the screen, making it easier to read.
A simple, G-sensor-triggered parking mode is supported, however you’ll need to install a hard-wiring kit for this to work (available separately).
The B1W has voice notifications to inform you about events like “memory card detected”, “start recording”, “Wi-Fi on/off”, and so on. Of course, you can turn the voice notifications off in the camera’s settings if you don’t like them.
In summary, this is a stealthy, low-cost dash cam that’s relatively easy to set up and use. Unfortunately, its video quality isn’t the best, and while you can see what’s happening on the road, the picture is a bit blurry and you can’t always read all the license plates. For a similarly priced device that records better video, you may want to also consider the Yi Dash Cam, which doesn’t share the B1W’s elegant form factor though.
At day, video quality is good. While the picture isn’t the sharpest, most nearby license plates can be read by pausing the video.
Night video quality is average. You can see what’s going on, but it’s not possible to read any license plates of other cars.