Nextbase Piqo review: Testing a new small and mighty dash cam from one of the top brands
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Simplicity is often a virtue when it comes to in-car tech, and I've always considered this to be the case with dash cams.
I've tested dash cams with some staggeringly clever features, but I always find myself going back to basics, and just choosing something compact and discreet, without any smart features I'm not going to need.
Nextbase, arguably the biggest name in dash cams, has launched a new device that suits my brief perfectly. It's called the Piqo, and it follows hot on the heels of the super-smart iQ.
It's nowhere near as expensive as the feature-rich iQ, it's a lot smaller than the iQ, and it's a lot simpler to set up and use.
In fact, if you catch a deal on the Nextbase website, it's just £79 for the 1K version, and £119.99 for the 2K version.
Cards on the table, the image capture isn't as good as the iQ. But that's to be expected, because there's a price difference of nearly £300.
And obviously it doesn't pack in the same smart tech, but it's not as if it's just back-to-basics, either.
Despite the fact it has no on-board display, the Piqo starts recording straight out of the box. And if you link it up to Nextbase's superb app, you can unlock a plethora of features that really shouldn't be appearing on a quality dash cam at this price point.
It has a parking mode, for example. It has a guardian mode in case someone else is driving your car and you want to keep tabs, and you can activate a witness mode if you see something you need to capture. There's also a voice control system.
Sign up to a £2.99 per month plan, and you can extend the functionality to add 180 days of storage, an extended warranty, and a clever emergency SOS system.
So there's a lot packed into its diminutive frame. And its small size is probably its best feature. It tucks neatly away behind your rear view mirror, the cables are easy to hide, and then it can just plug into your cigarette lighter. It's at its best when hardwired, because then you'll benefit from the smart parking features, but that's quite easy to do too. You just need the optional kit.
I've been testing the 2K version, and its footage is every bit as good as you'd expect from a Nextbase dash cam. It lacks the overall definition of the footage from the much larger iQ, but it's easily as good as some of the cheaper dash cams I've tested that profess to offer 4K footage.
But one of the things I love about the Piqo is it doesn't pretend to be the best on the market either. It's deliberately pitched at people who don't want to spend hundreds of pounds on a dash cam, but they do want reliability, clear footage, and something that's easy to use.
The fact it's so small and discreet is just the icing on the cake.
This is a dash cam for people like me, who just like to keep things simple. I've been using it for several weeks now, and it's already becoming one of my favourite pieces of in-car tech.