Rove R2-4K Dash Cam Built in WiFi GPS Car Dashboard Camera Recorder with UHD 2160P, 2.4″ LCD, 150° Wide Angle, WDR, Night Vision

Fast delivery great dashcam.

Worst part about this product is that no matter how good a SD card from a reputable / market leading company, the camera will eventually stop recording saying “memory card speed is too slow”.
Rove’s troubleshooting response to this…? “Buy OUR SD card” Why isn’t this included in the original purchase package if this is a know issue, and your own hardware is the only solution? Unethical business practice.
Clearly something (intentionally) wrong with the camera’s firmware.

Update 4/23/23: So after a month of flawless use of this dash cam, I suddenly get an error message that my SD card is “too slow.” It is a major brand SD card with the same specs as the more expensive ROVE SD card. Rove has a YouTube video out that says essentially all non-ROVE brands are unreliable and we should use only ROVE Cards. They blame this on bad sectors on the card, but I could find none. ROVE keeps repeating: “Trust us.” In all fairness, I put in new card of exactly the same type as the old card and did not get the error message–at least when the camera started up. I’ll re-evaluate in another month. Someone is going to have to convince me with solid proof that this is not a deliberate and programmed response by the camera to claim the card is bad when it is not.

Prior evaluation: I bought this dash camera to replace my old, other brand camera that finally died. The Rove came well packaged with everything needed and a good instruction booklet. It was very readable and reasonably clear. The installation was effortless, and everything worked as expected. Rather than use their own brand brand of SD card. I bought a major manufacture’s SD card with the same specs, and it works fine. Camera takes up very little real estate on the windshield, and the suction mount has worked very well, which is nice because I can take it down easily if needed. My only complaint is that it does not allow me to view videos on my cell phone effectively, despite their advertising to the contrary. This is because the camera’s Wi-Fi is extremely slow which results in very choppy video viewing on the cell phone and slow downloads to the cell phone. However, when viewing the videos by placing the SD card in my computer, everything works fine and their free viewing software also works well. I’m disappointed that I can’t use my phone to see clear dash cam recordings because this was one reason I chose this particular brand. However, I’m very happy with all the other features and the customer support has been excellent. If you don’t mind having to take your SD card to your computer to view your recordings, this is an excellent dash camera at a very reasonable price.

*** 2 year update – Well, here we are 2 years after purchasing this camera. It’s scary how fast time flies! I don’t have a lot to add to my original review. The camera still functions perfectly and I’m still very satisfied with my purchase. I download a short video to my phone every few months just to make sure the camera, memory card, app, and wifi still function properly, and I glance up at the camera when I start the vehicle just to make sure it’s recording for each trip. I still use the original app available for the camera, and the Samsung memory card that was recommended and purchased with the camera at the time of my original review. I notice now that Rove is recommending other types of memory card, and there have been app upgrades since, but I’m not going to mess with a good thing so I’ll keep everything as it is. Overall I have been more then satisfied with my Rove experience. If/when this one eventually fails I will not hesitate to purchase another one, so Rove, please don’t stop making this camera! ***

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Original unedited review….

I purchased this camera at an Amazon “Prime Day” price. I also purchased a Samsung Evo Select (Class 10-U3) 168gb micro sd card at the same time as one isn’t supplied with the camera.

I have been using the camera for about 4 weeks at the time of this review.

This is a nice, small, unobtrusive, dashcam. It appears, and feels, to be built from quality materials. It comes with a couple of different brackets for mounting. The double sided tape mounting bracket was the best option for my ’07 Jeep Wrangler due to the near vertical windshield. The suction mount, when mounted nearly vertical, held the lens almost right on the glass. I mounted mine to the plastic trim above the windshield with the supplied tape mount where it’s perfectly stable and holds the lens a couple of inches from the windshield.

The instruction booklet supplied with the camera is well written and easy to follow. There are also several “how to” video tutorials available on the Rove website which go into detail of the operation, setup, and button shortcuts available on this camera. The camera’s onboard menu’s are easy to follow and navigate. There is even voice guidance with each button press which is in clear english, in a female voice. That’s just plain cool at this price point! With even basic knowledge of electronic gadgets, setup is straight forward and can be completed in about 10 minutes or less. If after reading the included instruction booklet, and viewing the video tutorials, you still have questions, concerns, or problems, a text or an email sent to Rove is quickly answered in a kind, informative, and professional manner. My own initial questions (via text) were answered in less than 3 minutes, and it was on a Sunday. It’s also refreshing that the technicians are based right here in the USA in Chicago!

This camera’s video quality is outstanding! Although you can view the videos on the screen of the camera just be aware that the screen is very small and pixelated. It’s not a fault, it’s there if you need it, or want to use it, and it functions as it should, but don’t expect full HD video results on a 2 inch screen. Pulling the sd card and viewing on a computer, or a quick download to my Android phone (after installing the free app) using the built in wifi results in a high quality HD video that can be viewed by, or shared with anyone. At 1080p@60fps, with the 168gb Samsung Evo Select micro sd card that I chose, a 1 minute video (157mb) can be downloaded via wifi to my old Samsung Galaxy S8 in under a minute, and a 3 minute video (464mb) in roughly 2.5 minutes. I haven’t found a need to operate my camera above 1080p@60fps yet but at that resolution videos, when viewed on my phone, are sharp and clear with bright natural colors, and without glitches or twitches. I am more than satisfied with the video quality and camera performance on bright sunny days, nighttime, and on rainy or overcast days. It has been used in all of those conditions already and performed above my expectations.

Although nothing new, this camera has a very sensitive built in microphone that records audio to the video. Thankfully It can be permanently disabled in the settings menu if you wish. Again, it is VERY sensitive. I’ve left mine on but am mindful of what I say outloud these days. All I hear in the videos unless I’m on the phone, conversing with a passenger, or accidentally muttering an obscenity at another driver, is the radio when it’s on, the hum of my offroad tires, and large bugs smacking the windshield. A simple button push, the up button (^) on mine, enables a quick toggle on or off of the mic, or as mentioned before you can disable it completely in the settings menu. The mic is very useful during traffic stops, or road rage incidents, where people are close enough to the vehicle to be heard so I leave mine on and only toggle it off if I don’t want audio recorded at that moment.

I can’t report on longevity or lifespan of the camera yet as I’ve only had it for a month, but so far I have experienced zero issues. The camera comes with a 12 month factory warranty, and I purchased a 3 year protection plan through Amazon (Asurion) at the same time I purchased the camera. The protection plan rides on the back of the factory warranty for the first twelve months, then acts as a true extended warranty for the remaining two years. I’m covered for any unforeseen mechanical issues, or faults, for 3 years so I’m happy.

Having this camera provides peace of mind, and an added sense of security, in the event something does happen in future while driving and I need an unbiased, honest, witness to the event.

I have already recommended this camera to friends and family members. There are better cameras out there I’m sure, but at this price point you are getting a lot of camera for your money!

I have attached a couple of photos of the camera mounted in my vehicle, and two screen shots grabbed from video to give an idea of nighttime and heavy rain camera ability.

Initially I had significant issues with this dashcam (stopped recording, rebooting continuously) but this turned out to be due to the dodgy spare USB cable I was using. When I replaced it with the short USB cable that was included in the box, these issues went away.

I also found that when running at lower resolution (1080P) and high frame rate (60 fps) there was quite a lot of vibration recorded in the image. This was only marginally improved when I switched from the suction cup to the self adhesive mount. Rove support suggested switching to a lower frame rate recording mode (e.g. 24 fps) and this helped a lot, although some vibration still remains in the recordings.

I found the technical support team to be very responsive and helping in resolving both these issues. They responded within a day with detailed steps to diagnose and resolve the problems.

Please note that this is not a full 4k resolution dashcam, contrary to the vendor’s claims. The SONY IMX335 sensor used in this dashcam has a maximum resolution of 5.1 megapixels. True 4k resolution is 3840 × 2160p or 8.3 megapixels. While the dashcam offers a maximum resolution of 2880 x 2160p @ 24fps, the additional pixels are interpolated. The best effective resolution available from this device is 2560 x 1440p – any higher resolution modes won’t add any greater clarity.

With the caveats above, the image quality in daytime was pretty good. The camera takes a couple of seconds to adjust the exposure when moving from a bright to dimmer setting (e.g. going into a tunnel). The image quality a nighttime wasn’t so great – I found it to be a bit blurry.

Overall I’m happy with the purchase.

I found this very easy to mount in my car and to use. Great picture quality and easy playback. The app is also easy to use. Great value for money I highly recommend. I will be purchasing a second one for my husband’s car.

Great camera you can get $70 cheaper from actual sellers site also don’t like that you have to reconnect to wifi every time you start the car other than that perfect cam