Best In Class Thinkware F800 Pro Dash Cam - REVIEWED
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May 29, 2025
If you're shopping for the best dash cam in the market, you'll want to have a close look at the Thinkware F800 Pro. With its 140-degree wide angle lens, crisp 1080p resolution and support for a (separate) rear camera, it's terrific. Tech expert Dave Taylor of https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ mounted it on his car windshield and tried it out for a week. His conclusion: great optics, great camera, quirky software. Watch to see examples of what makes the F800 Pro really cool and what you need to know before you buy one for yourself too. Pick one up at Amazon: https://amzn.to/2mRniKo
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is this the best dashcam on the market
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let's have a look Dave Taylor here and
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I'm looking at dash cams turns out there
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are a lot of choices for dash cams and
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there's a lot of variation in
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functionality so this is the think we're
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f 800 with a hundred and forty degree
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1080p camera and does a really nice job
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you can also plug in an optional rear
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camera and it will record both video
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channels simultaneously I only worked
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with the front Channel now one of the
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things to notice with this is that
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there's no display so it uses a voice
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feedback system here's what it says when
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you start the car up so lots to chat
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about they work through the Wi-Fi
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connection on your phone and that takes
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a little bit of putzing around to get it
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to work properly but you can do it and
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it does work pretty well so the first
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thing you then want to do is align your
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camera by using your phone as the
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display as I've done here pretty
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straightforward so it includes a micro
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SD card and it comes with a 16 gig which
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gives you about two hours of single
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channel recording you can obviously put
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in a bigger card if you want to have
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more storage but let's go ahead and let
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me show you some examples of the footage
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we're gonna start with this which is
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just straight daytime driving and look
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at how bright and crisp the images
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where the f 800 really shines however is
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nighttime driving and check out this
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nighttime driving snippet now a free
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download off the think we're site is
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something called dashcam viewer and it's
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Mac or PC it's kind of a PC design not
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the most glorious looking a pieces of
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software but it does let you actually
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view your video and it has a built in
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GPS data so as you can see in this
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example it's actually showing me on a
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map where I am even as I'm driving and
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you notice all the like little lines
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just below the video viewer that shows
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you X Y & Z differentiation or something
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like that
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and what it basically shows you is the
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terrain so if you saw on like
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FlightAware you can see turbulence on a
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plane flight this is sort of the
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equivalent you can see I was on a kind
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of bumpy road here so the optional rear
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camera will kind of run you an
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additional 99 bucks and there's a lot of
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wiring involved you can see here it
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comes with a you know obviously a
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lighter adapter and then a really long
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wire which you can just have the camera
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mounted on the center of your windshield
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and then you can just have the wire
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sitting down but if you really want it
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to look nice you're gonna probably end
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up with a professional or semi-pro
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install cuz you're gonna want to run it
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all the way around the edge of your
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windshield so that can get a little
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complicated same with the rear camera
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that's a lot of wire to have running
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through your vehicle but it's solvable
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now back to this unit it has an adhesive
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mount that you use on the windshield and
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that's all it has I really wish it
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included a suction cup mount but think
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where it doesn't do that in fact for the
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F 800 that's not even an option from the
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company which it was a little surprising
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to me the adhesive is crazy strong so
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take your time and make sure you've
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mounted it exactly right before you
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could do anything because once you get
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this thing on it is not easy to take it
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off but the mount stays on the
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windshield and this has little clips so
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you can just put it in slide and it's
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locked into place and then you can take
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it off and then
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you want to take it out of your
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windshield because you don't want bad
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guys to be saying well that's an
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interesting piece of electronics let's
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go and check this vehicle out a little
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more closely on the device itself
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because it has that Wi-Fi control system
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and all the settings and everything are
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not only accessible in the app on your
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smart phone but when you're using
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dashcam viewer you could actually change
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the settings to I thought that was
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pretty cool because the settings are all
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saved in a data file on the SD card so
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that's very convenient
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sorry micro SD card but that makes it
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really convenient for you to experiment
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with different settings for a day or
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something so the buttons on the device
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as you can see in this close-up they're
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pretty darn limited the really you're
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not gonna be doing much with this itself
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it's just sort of a static device that's
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recording video and everything else
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you'll do on your phone I found it a lot
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more convenient to actually pop the card
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out put it in the SD card adapter
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included and then put that in my
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computer and then use the dash cam
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viewer to go through all my footage
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that's much easier than using the smart
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phone app your experience might vary but
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I just found it to be far faster
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especially if I was looking through
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dozens or hundreds of clips and they're
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really short like just a couple of
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minute clips this also includes all
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sorts of fancy features like lane
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departure and collision warning red
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light red light camera speed zones all
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of that stuff I don't even know if it
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was turned on I didn't use any of that
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so you might find those to be really
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important safety options but generally I
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think that for something like this
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your real focus is gonna be on getting a
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really clean and crisp image of what
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you're seeing in front of you and
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obviously for things like if you get
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into an accident or if you're an uber or
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lyft driver or something these kind of
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things are great it's really nice to be
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able to have data that you can go back
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and it does record the audio from inside
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the car because of course this device is
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inside the windshield so you'll notice
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on all of the clips I showed you I
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didn't have any audio because frankly
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it's just the car radio or an audio book
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or me talking to someone in the vehicle
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so in all of those cases for my usage
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that's not important for you that might
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be also additionally valuable
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information so that's really all I have
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really curious tell me do you use a
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dashcam and what do you find valuable
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about it go ahead and leave a comment
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and while you're actually interacting
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then go ahead if you don't mind click on
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that subscribe really appreciate that
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and why not give me a thumbs up if you
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think this was valuable appreciate that
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too so only thing left to talk about is
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the price and I gotta say this is kind
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of on the spendy end of dashcams there
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are some really interesting options at
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the low end but this think we're f 800
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140 degree 1080p camera will set you
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back three hundred and twenty seven
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ninety-nine
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at amazon.com and you go go and look at
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all the reviews people have left people
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really liked the device but they're
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really not thrilled with the software I
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had no problems with any of the software
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on the smartphone or on the computer so
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your experience may vary but I'm a big
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fan I think think where makes some of
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the very best dash cams in the market
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and the F 800 particularly with its
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excellent night imagery that's a really
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good job so so Dave Taylor I'm getting
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back in my car because I'll catch you in
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my next video
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[Music]
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