It seems like a lot of your reasons against it concerning practicality were assuming that you would be using your main phone and have to mount and unmount it all the time. Obviously there are still the technical issues such as overheating, but I think a lot of the practicality issues could be overcome by just having another phone to dedicate to dashcam use.

We need to demand better quality from these dashcam manufacturers. The high end dashcams cost way more than a phone that has superior video quality and optics.

Yes, you shouldn’t use your main device but there are some old used flagship phones out there that would be perfect for this job and you can find them for around the same price as most dash cams.

I'm sorry, but I don't agree.... I ran two different android phones (Galaxy S6 and Note 10+) as a dashcam, in two different setups, for over a year, testing to see if its a viable option. The short answer is yes, it is a viable option, but like 'actual' dashcams, there is room for improvement. Regarding point 1, yes, overheating can POTENTIALLY be a concern, though I found with both phones I tried, WHERE you mount it can have a huge impact. I'd also mention that a way to mitigate some of the risk of overheating is to take advantage of some of the systems you give the appearance of being resistant to, like onboard navigation. I ran DailyRoads Voyager for over a year, and while I did experience overheating consistently AT FIRST, when I started using more of the onboard systems that were already present in my vehicle, that issue became the exception, rather than the rule. Now, part of that process came from experiencing that Google Maps can cause overheating by itself, without anything else running on the device, whereas I've never had the onboard navigation overheat, ever. Regarding issue 2, is it possible, sure. But do you forget to put on your seatbelt? Do you forget to open your garage door when you come home? It's like everything else. You have to be intentional about it for the first bit, until it becomes habitual, then you don't have to think about it again because you do it by default. In my vehicle, I have a specific wireless charger setup for when my current phone was being used as a dashcam, and it was simply just a matter of clipping my phone into the wireless charger whenever I'd get into the car. At first it was a bit odd, but then I got so used to it, that with my current vehicle, even after a year, it STILL bugs me a bit. The other phone was permanently mounted into the vehicle, and only charged while the vehicle was running. Because of the huge battery in that device, standby recording was a solid 24hrs (or more, depending on usage). I do agree that it could be a theft risk, however a higher end dashcam could potentially be just as risky. Sure, Cloud services could potentially provide a picture of who MAY have broken in, if you have an interior facing camera. But its not a guarantee. Now, regarding the third point about video quality. I would lean more towards modern phones being equal or better than some of the lower end dashcams. Take the Galaxy S6 (seven year old device), it was capable of 4k30, 1080p60, or 720p120. But more modern phones have also incorporated better low light performance, higher framerates, and improved motion blur reduction. What I would like to see though, would be for Android/Apple to natively allow multiple camera sensors to be used at the same time. As we saw on one of the previous videos, pairing a high resolution, high framerate camera with a decent Telephoto camera, nets you effectively an ALPR level dashcam. Unfortunately, even modern phones only utilize one "camera" at a time (yes, I'm aware they use depth cameras and ToF camera sensors simultaneously, along with whatever "visual" camera you are viewing) and that is a base limitation of the entire system, as I understand it.

Always place my phone into the holder and remove it when exiting the car for GPS/charging, so it's not too much of a hassle to start/stop a dashcam app on top of that. Also the blower fan or AC is always on to keep the battery cool since it's charging. A full review of the available apps will be great video.

I've been using Droid Dashcam for a long time, since my dashcam died, and it works amazing. I use an old phone that's only function is to be the dashcam. I've never had an overheating problem or anything else. It takes me all of 5 seconds to put the phone on the mount and open the app. Another 5 seconds to take it down when I'm done. I've also left it in my car plenty of times and have also never had a problem. Everyone has a smart phone these days so theft really isn't a big concern depending on where you're parking. When I view the footage, I can pause it and read signs and license plates better than I could with my dashcam. It's also way more convenient to offload files since as soon as my phone connects to my wifi, it starts uploading the videos via Onedrive and they pop up on my computer a few minutes later. I can also easily watch back the footage right on the phone without having to pull out an SD card and mess around with that. I'd recommend this to anyone since Dashcams are all overpriced and many have questionable quality. This is such a biased video since you only point out your perceived cons and didn't bother with any of the potential pros.

I did this for a while before I had a dash cam (like7 years ago or so) I was using my samsung Galaxy s4 for it, and after doing it for a while (in CT and in the fall) I noticed one day the case on the phone was kinda falling off while in the mount and wouldn't go back on. The heat had swelled the battery so much it literally peeled the screen off the frame. So I bought a dash cam. These days with dash cams being pretty cheap, it's not worth the risk of battery or other damage to a several hundred or even thousand dollar phone to do this when they make a dash cam that does it better for way less. I could see maybe if you were in a rental car or such and didn't have a dash cam with you it could be covered for a short trip here or there though.

It’s unfortunate you wouldn’t even give consideration to phone dash cams. Would have been great to get some recommendations on mounts and software capabilities. Not for you does not mean it’s not for your audience. I know you didn’t mean that, but …

My interest in using a phone as a dashcam would be as an ADDITION to the dashcam. Scenic routes, cool things that happen on the road, not when hot or further back, hopefully license plate capture thanks to high res and/or telephoto. No need to transfer anything, just available there. You could use an old iPhone like an iPhone 6, wouldn't be a target at all where I live, though in my usecase that's not really what I want from it. Still very low priority for me. However, the video quality comparison I would love to see, I've been so curious to see the results and all that. I think it would be great content and very interesting, would love to see it climb up in the list of priorities, as the interest is high right now after the response of the LTT video etc

I use Phone as dashcam last 7 years, and I have none of the issues described, Camera is recording in the background, display is turned off, no overheating. I use old Samsung S9 phone now and speaking of video quality its not comparable with dash cams, I have GPS , speed, speed limit , traffic sign recognition, excellent low light performance. And I don't need dashcam as an alarm. Also thief will steal dashcam, what stops him? Its like having seatbelt, when You used to do something regularly, its not problem, takes no time.

You are spot on! I attempted to use my iPhone 12 as a dash cam and I repeatedly experienced video shut down because of overheating.

Phones could potentially make a great dedicated telephoto dash cam though where it wouldn’t over heat because you’re not too concerned with running the highest resolution or FPS, and you wouldn’t need it when it’s parked as much. But I’d still want it to have IR lights ideally and this iPhone hardware in a dedicated dashcam made by Them is what we really deserve

I find using my older phones as front and rear dedicated dash cams. works great. still have to go in the phones once a week and manage storage. battery life was solved with power bank by Anker and 6ft cord. prefer it over any dashcam.

The last 3 times I've needed to get a plate to report agressive and dangerous drivers my blackvue 750 has not gotten a legible plate once.

I have a magnetic plate type of holder for my iPhone 13 promax. Therefore the camera is never hindered and it sits on my dash. It works wonderful as a dash cam. And I take it off of the dash mount every time I get out of the car anyway, so it might as well be doing something while it’s sitting up there during my drive time. Overheating could be an issue sure, but not really.

If you have an old phone sitting in a box or in the garage, it can be used as a dashcam, plus you get better video quality.

Using a dedicated phone for this would give you the freedom of choosing the software or better write your own recording application where you can use computer vision and AI. You don't need the most expensive phone. You need a phone with a good camera like some older Samsung phones. When you get into your car, what do you do with your phone?

I have removed a dedicated VAVA 2k Dashcam and I'm now using my S22 Ultra with the android app called Autoboy. The phone mounts using a magnet easy on and off, and the quality beats any regular dashcam

I live in CA, I had an older phone, and installed a dash cam app. It was set to loop record, and only record when it is plugged in to power. I pluged it into a cigarette plug witch only has power when the car is on. I mounted it under the mirror in my car by screwing it through the case into the plastic mirror housing. It worked great for the 1st few months. Videos were extremely easy to share, and the quality was very decent. But then summer came. It over heated way to often. It recorded my morning trip, but for the afternoon I had to wait for the phone to cool off, power it on, put in the password, and open the app. Basically half my trip wasn't recorded. Really cool consept, but someone has to come out with an accessorie to prevent it from overheating. Maybe a large heat sync with a fan, or an external phone camera and you can store the phone in a cooler place like the glove compartment.

Most dash cams don’t have the quality needed to read name plates or perform in low light. And that is why I was looking into doing this. Thanks for pointing at the draw backs. 😮

i have been using a phone for a dash cam and you talk about the time, i loose about 12 seconds of my life a day dealing with it

Another problem that using a phone as a dash cam is that at certain angles where lighting reflects the dashboard, or drops of rain fall upon the windshield, the phone camera will begin to focus on the reflections/windshield. Even worse, sometimes the camera will rapidly alternate focusing on distant and near objects simultaneously and make the footage nauseating and unwatchable

Using a spare phone as dashcam can be a good idea?

As a delivery driver driving in shared vans, thus possibly driving a different van every day, I always use my phone as a dashcam. The entire setup takes less than a minute and I sometimes drive up to 14hrs so definitely worth it. I also don't have to worry about my phone getting stolen during a delivery since I deliver to hospitals and doctors. Those are secure locations and whenever I'm at an insecure location I just lock the van during the delivery

I used one of my extra smart phones as a dashcam and map navigation for 10 hours and honestly it worked fine.

It's just a pity that almost every single dash cam has such poor quality video.

I noticed a big difference in image stability with suction-mounted phone/dashcam vs. permanent adhesive dashcam, usually gives a slight floating appearance.

For me it works fine since I have 2 phones doing nothing. Even with a dash cam I still be worried leaving it behind.

Solution for the heat: Make a sun shield for it.

I have had my dash cam stolen 3 times. Never thought about using my phone. I mount my phone every time I get in the car anyway. Turning the camera on wouldn’t be a problem and since it would be in my pocket when I left the car theft wouldn’t be a problem.

We’ve been using our personal iPhones as dash cams mounted under the rear view mirror for a couple of yrs now. It only overheated one, when we forgot to direct one of the vents to it. I’m talking about hours of driving… Crossing states… It’s definitely not ideal, but we won’t waste money on dashcams with equal or worse quality. I must say tho out priority is to have proof we didn’t cause the accidents (we’re very cautions even w/o the kids inside) and to record interactions w/ police if we get stopped (only happened once, before we started using the phone as dashcams). Capturing license plates isn’t a priority for now.

It's odd to use your day to day phone as a dash cam. We all have tons of old phones lying around.

I run a Thinkware dashcam in my car. I guess it works. I've never downloaded anything. The power to it is off with the ignition so parking sentry isn't a thing. Now...I run an old Galaxy S5 on a Ram mount on my motorcycle using Droid Dashcam software. It works great! The camera is behind the touring bike's windshield and gets plenty of airflow so heat is not an issue. I've run in light rain with it and it stays dry enough. Audio at speeds above 60 kms/hour is mainly wind noise but below 50 kms/hour it works. Vibration can be an issue at high speeds as the old camera does not have stabilization software, but I can run that on my video editor. I can also use downloaded regional map data for GPS navigation as well and can poach open WIFI parked outside a lot of businesses. It takes 10 seconds to pull it off and drop it in a locker in the fairing. Overall, it's a great use for an old phone. If I lose it from theft or hitting a pothole, I'll upgrade my daily phone and use the old one on the bike. Win Win.

You brought up some interesting points. The 1st thing that popped in my head was the security issue and having to uninstall and reinstall your phone each time you get in-and-out of the car. I hadn't even thought about the phone heating-up issue. Another point would be, trying to use your phone for whatever purpose, maps, phone calls (although, cars do have connectivity functionality automation). Another issue would be where long video files would be Uploaded to or stored.

I mount my phone to a climate-control vent and turn the A/C on to its lowest setting. This keeps the phone relatively cold and luckily the CC vents in my car are high enough for my phone to peek over the dash with a clear view of the road. Alternatively, I would just purchase a used Garmin/etc. GPS with a built in dash camera and purchase a mount/stand with a non-slip base for it if I didn't want to mount it to the windshield using a suction cup.

I have multiple old Android phones I'm going to be using my s10 plus as a dash cam now. And it's this simple if nothing happens during your drive just remember to delete the video so that you don't waste a bunch of storage space. The cool thing about using your phone as a dash camera is it has the ultra wide angle and the other angle so if you really need to for whatever reason you can switch between the two.

The best protection is to use a smartphone like a dash cam -- a dash cam that you always take with you from the car.

I had my phone run on lower quality and it could not handle the heat. The sun was out but it certainly wasn’t blazing hot. 15 minute drive was too much with my phone exposed to the sun rays (got the overheat warning). The problem with a permanently installed dash cam is that I don’t think they can handle being left in a car when there’s extreme weather.

I always have a old spare phone in the window anyways for maps, so having an extra app running in the background isn't an issue.

Thanks for your kind consideration. However, I am UNCONVINCED. A little bit more thought and testing of the video quality are hinted here to all the supernerds genius's that may have developed a cell phone app features to support at use case scenario that overcomes the limitations you mention. For example, I could use a live rear view of my trailer going down the road. Properly secured and waterproofed, the 4G and better camera features that are inherent in a cell phone APPEAR to compel me to think more about this as a feasible solution. Heat issues are overcome because it is externally cooled by the wind of the road.

All that talking to simply say using a phone can be inconvenient. You also forgot to mention that current dash cams, and I mean ALL OF THEM, are so poor in image quality that they're unable to properly do what they're supposed to, which is capture clear and detailed video. Try making out a license plate or a street name or a face on a dash cam video and you'll see what I mean. There's a golden opportunity for someone to make a Turn-Your-Phone-Into-A-Dashcam kit which could address some of the inconveniences you mentioned but drastically outcompete current dash cams.

I wish there was a dashcam app that would let you record through the front and back camera on the phone at the same time and it would run in the background. Seems like a way for Uber drivers to get into the dash cam game before they purchase a stand alone unit

a mobile phone dashcam could be a very good insurance for the end users in case of car rentals. you can't install a dashcam in a rental car, but a mobilephone could be a good solution.

I have an Iphone 14 Pro Max and I thought the same thing. Hey, I can use this as a dash cam - NOT. First of all, it does get very hot and it did freeze and I had to let it cool off before I could use it again. Second, According to Apple, you're allowed only 5 gig of storage on the cloud and you definitely get more than 5 gig of video using it as a dash cam, so that doesn't work either. So actually, it's not a good idea to use the phone as a cam. You're right it's better to get an actual cam that functions as a dash cam should than use your phone.

I used to use a 5th gen iPod touch as a dash cam in a hot sunny climate. As long as the dash vents were blowing AC on it, it was fine. But unless your car can blow both at the dash and at you, it can be an issue. Being as though an iPod touch is a more lucrative target to steal than a dash cam, I always put it in the glove box. And yes deleting the old videos did take some time. So it was nice getting a proper dash cam.

@Vortex Radar Have you tried using an Android Phone with a PD (power delivery) fast charger and the bypass configuration on the battery charge for gaming? As the battery wont be charged while connected to the charger, maybe the phone wont overheat. Connect the phone to the fast charger -> Open Game launcher (should be latest release) -> open & close a game -> back to Game Launcher -> tap the More with the 3 bar on botton right -> tap Game Booster -> Pause USB Power Delivery (This video shows how: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/la5de9imut_Zhac.html)

I've been using an old S7 as a dash cam for a few years at least driving around town.

I use a old iPhone SE as a dash and mount it near parts where the sun doesn’t reach (near mirror) so it doesnt overheat and I have a shortcut that opens the app when the cars on and closes the app when the cars off

Only issue I could find is the heating issue, which is fixed long ago by many manufacturers.. Second is Hessle to fix it then remove it... I believe leaving an old phone is not an issue.

I live in the desert, so yeah overheating can be a serious issue for my phone. Heck, it gets so hot that even a lot of dashcams end up shutting down.

the only valid point you got is overheat issue. I personally have no idea how my iPhone 8 would perform against a decent quality dash cam in 40-45c, so yeah this could be a concern, but I seriously doubt any low cost dash cam can work that well under this kind of heat. No one is arguing if we should use our main phone as dash cam, that’s simply stupid. What we want to know is if our old smartphone, which are just sitting in the dust, could do better than a stupid dash cam, especially after installing a dash cam app. The other issue I could think of is as smartphone cam are not made for dash cam situations, during low light, it could have issue recording useful info. While dash cam video would have worse quality, it is tune to at least give you somewhat usable info in the video. However, I still believe this can be solve by developing better dash cam app.

If you have a newer car if it’s not built in then I would say have a front and rear dash cam just to deter and protect your car better or if you carry a lot of valuable items around.

The use case is getting dashcam protection for your rental car while on vacation overseas.

I live in the tropics. When my phone overheats I jump in the pool so we both can cool off. Done it since the iPhone 7 and never had an issue. While I'm at it, I pour a nice cold one to cool down my internals also.

I think another point against using smartphones as dashcams is the increased wear on the memory from the high volume of writes, especially in an era where very few models have a MicroSD slot.

Here's my predicament - I recently bought a wonderful vehicle, a 300 HP Cupra Ateca SUV. For some reason, they have disabled road traffic sign recognition in the Australian model, even though it works perfectly in the UK/EU. I suspect it's just a software update to detect our signs, that will alas never come (since the model has been out for a year already here). I do a LOT of long distance driving. Australia is notorious for perpetual roadworks, school zones, and flash low speed limits that come out of nowhere - the cherry on top is overzealous traffic cops that will do almost anything to ruin your day. It's that bad. I just want the comfort of a camera recognizing speed limits that I may not be aware of and warning me. I believe the iPhone 14 camera is good enough quality to do this, and am now investigating apps and mounts. What do you think? I just want this one function. Yes, there are dash cams that offer this now, but unlike a phone, one does not remove their dash cam from the mount every time they park their car and put it in their pocket. Thieves WILL ruin my car and smash the windows to pieces to steal a dash cam in my steadily crime worsening country. I doubt anyone would bother to steal a phone stand, they know it's a phone stand and they know the driver takes the phone with them when they leave their vehicle. If I wasn't driving ALL over the country, and in *many* places I have never been to before, I wouldn't be worried about it, as I know my own state back to front. But for the next 2 years I will rarely ever be home! I will be all over the place in lands I have never been to. It's such a shame that such a nice car with every other feature known to man (well, besides a HUD) decided to make such a poor omission, but it is what it is. I almost cancelled the sale because of it, simply due to my situation where I will be doing so much driving. If anyone else reading this has any other ideas for me to get simple traffic sign recognition, please let me know. I do know there's a nav app that has it and is highly rated, but again, I would have to use the phone to use this app. Maybe there's a car play compatible app that would allow it to display on the car's own screen? Or perhaps a dash cam app that also includes traffic sign recognition? Any ideas?

Good feedback on pointing out the differences between dashccams and smartphones and their primary purpose. Hopefully there is enough consumer input to push dashcam manufacturers to improve the camera sensors for license plate capture and up to 5 cameras (front, rear, left, right in interior). I am positive there are many vehicle based campers, RV'ers, overlanders and off-road enthusiast that will embrace this type of dashcam.

5 years ago, I used an old phone as a last minute dash cam from Houston to orlando... it would stop recording every hour. And than 1 year later homedepot came with blackfriday $39 dashcameras sale and I bought 3 (1 for each vehicle) 4 years later they slowly gave out. Now (2022) I switched to viofo a119 v3. I am slowly catching up :)

Tried my samsung a52s as a dashcam today. Not a great result. Licence plate numbers were all blurred. Tried uhd and fhd at 30fps and 60fps not much difference.

mostly good points but what about if you're using an old phone in a cold climate

Never had a issue with my iPhone over heating when using my dash cam app an it literally takes seconds to mount an unmount

one of the most important limitations is wasting the amount of read/write on the internal SSD which by then = throw the device in trash...

The overheating problem is EASILY fixable using a TEC cooler. Theres many, many on the market, even razer does them now too.

Gee, I live in AZ and it's really hot here but I have never had a heat issue with any of the iPhones I have had in the past. Obviously you can't leave a phone in a closed up car when it's 118 degrees out. First somebody will break the window and take it and I doubt even a real video cam could take that kind of heat. I have a couple of old iPhones and I plan on checking them out as a car video cam. In August (HOT and HUMID in AZ) I used my phone extensively when having to travel to see my sister. I never had the phone overheat even though it was 110 degrees and I was using the Maps application. Don't people have A/C in their vehicles?

I used to use my Ipad mini as a dash cam, and it worked to a point, as I added a GPS module to have a date/time stamp to validate the video. As I didn't keep the Ipad in the car when parked, it didn't overheat, or tempt thieves to break in. The only problem with dash cams, if they are not very expensive, the video is crap, and you can't make out the plate numbers. A phone may have a better camera, but it is debatable.

Very valid points all of them. Including that I am also curious about what differences there would be in video quality. Could possibly be a hint on what video quality we might see in future dashcams. Or not 😁

So thieves might break in and steal your phone. Couldn't they do the same thing with your dashcam or is there something stopping them?

I use my phone as a dash cam but problem is overheating!. Good for a 30/45 min drive but for longer drives, it’s a problem!

This guy is seriously reaching with his reasons not to do it, “ you know your phone has all your contacts and maybe you hit a hard bump and the phone calls your crazy ex-girlfriend and now she is back to stalking you, that wouldn’t happen with a dash cam” 😂

A month and a half ago I decided to livestream on tik tok as a trucker and invite family to watch. It was fun using a samsung 20 note ultra for it. Had a small fan mounted and pointed air to blow at the phone. Most vehicles the main issue is none of the air in the vehicle is blown towards the windshield. So there is no cooling being done so the heat just builds up hotter and hotter unless it is cold and no sun light hitting the windshield and rising heat. Anyways the last time I livestreamed I came back and everything is blurry. Accidently left it in light and now whenever I try to use 1x to 5x on that phone everything is blurry unless I shake the phone than it will stop being blurry for a few seconds for a photo. I haven't sent it to anyone to check it and other users have complained about the same issue. Had the phone since a couple months after it released and never had prior issues. Now I have issues with auto focus and sometimes it overexposes more than it should after manually setting settings. The phone has a laser af that is used for autofocus so i believe it got damaged after I left it too long in direct sunlight on accident. Already getting a replacement soon because of my line of work I need the phone working as best as possible. No idea if that's what actually damaged it but it is something to think about especially with 1k phones.

IMO, a modded GoPro session or naked GoPro is actually a great solution. It’s just not an out the box solution for consumers

I love your wallpaper. I like how the new iPhones have crash detection and I'm getting a pro. I don't like how some next base dashcams have stabilization and makes it look wonk

I was using my phone as dashcam some years ago and after that i don't using any more because as i connect the phone cable to charger and later the battery got swollen also as i was using the ac vent to cool the phone and the only problem is getting difficult to cool me and the passenger

Did your try if it's overheating in an air conditioned car or are you just assuming the worst case scanario? Makes a big difference.

Great video, thanks Vortex.

Z problem is when it is sunny “temperature too hot” and turnoff automatically

Seemed like you were trying to be more discouraging about a phone, gps has always made your phone hot when using it but not the camera function, and for most people, they still have to disconnect the dashcam anyway for fear of getting windows broken to take it, so whether or not it’s practical is at the user’s scenario, dashcams do not offer protection, they only offer evidence of fault, it’s still a chance getting rear ended gets you carjacked because you forgot about criminals are driving too

What about if you have a second iPhone. My iPhone is turn on all day. It never over heats.

I have heard in Virginia it is illegal to have video viewable by a driver so it would be necessary to make sure any dashcam had a display which could be turned off.

i tried using mine as a dashcam. worked ok but cant save just a short section of video. have to remember to keep deleting the video if i dont need it. dashcam would just be more convenient.

I'm thinking about doing this with an old galaxy S8+ I replaced with an S21+. It won't be a functioning phone anymore as it has no SIM card. I think I just need an adaptor to go from mini USB to USB-C as I already have a power cable run in both cars, and a phone mount.

I am a retired woman and have a question which may sound stupid. I have a Nexar Dash Cam and every month I run out of data because my Dash Cam uses it up. Is there anyway to keep a Dash Cam going without using up my data? Thanks for any replies

Option 1: How about using an old-er phone, Option 2, How about using an Android-based car stereo as a dash-cam?

What about duration of recording, do these downloadable apps have loop overwrite recording? What if you have a small onboard recording space for your phone, what is required 16 GB if it loops? Or of not, is a good sd card 64 GB, what if you can't loop it for some reason, maybe because the downloadable app such as drive recording, can't loop, how would you offload the video card footage once it got full and how would you be alerted when it did?

I have a Samsung Galaxy Note4 running with the camera on for over two weeks, it gets warm, but not hot. It is not recording though, just streaming.

I wouldn't leave even an unused old phone in view in my car. Nasty people will assume it's valuable and smash your window just to find out.

I have 20+ androids sitting on a drawer

If you're wealthier than 3 out of 5 Americans and have $100-150 for a dash cam, get the cam. It makes an easier life easier, and you don't have to worry about the heating issues and such like the poors.

Nonsense.. if you have an old android phone screw the battery AND the convenience. It’s for safety.. not convenience. Lithium batteries are AWFUL and they’ll soon be replaced anyways. Personally I use two old phones for cameras (front and rear facing) and one really old one for audio recordings inside of the car. I keep all of the devices plugged up and I have it set so that whenever power is delivered to the devices they all begin recording simultaneously. Whenever power is disconnected; all devices seize to record. I do delivery so trust me when I say; this is my daily setup and it works very well. Just remember to dedicate the phones’ software to ONE APPLICATION ONLY. Even when the phone begins to overheat it continues to record.. but unfortunately if it’s blistering hot then you should always remove the devices, including in the extreme cold; whenever you leave your vehicle for a long time. Honestly.. if I spent $500 on a dash-cam.. I would probably take the dash camera in with me. Lol. First of all; RESET THE PHONE. Second of all; INSTALL DROID DASHCAM Third of all; FIGURE OUT YOUR SOFTWARE & ELECTRICAL CONFIGS. Fourth and finally; INSTALL AN INVERTER. Then you can have 24/7 recording AND overwriting AND G-Force detection.. Jesus.. the list goes on. Don’t buy a dash camera!!!! They’re awful! Customizable is always better. Just be sure to crank your car everyday. With this software (Droid Dashcam); I’m able to record my time, GPS speed, coordinates, address, custom text, sound AND I’m able to customize settings for ALL OF THIS. Must I REALLY mention the AWFUL video quality of most fairly priced modern dash cameras? Droid Dashcam completely eradicates this issue. The video settings are entirely customizable so the quality of the video is dependent on the device and software configurations. I am in NO WAY affiliated with the development, marketing, or any other team of the affiliates of “Droid Dashcam”; I’ve been using it for like two years. It’s great. P.S. No.. you can’t use it on iPhone.

using my 2 gen older phone as a dash cam, it virtually cost me nothing, albeit a dedicated dash cam works better and more convenient

I don't buy the overheating dangers. The phone will simply thermal throttle to keep the components at safe temperatures. Any modern phone will do this.

Relatively safe to say that everyone has an old cellphone.

I use a visor mount no over heating

Time to get 3 cameras and a raspberry pi to make an actually good dashcam.

you talked way too much about you not wanting to do it because it would get stolen. I have an old pos phone that otherwise would be great for this I thought I was going to get an actual critique of doing it.

I thought about getting a rear view mirror that is a dash cam. The intimidating part for me in dash cam is all the potential wires and installation. I could pay to have it installed but they charge about $150 or more no?

It doesn't overheat if you position it right. These reasons are not practical and some are silly.

Yeah it's not for everybody and even for me I still use a traditional dash cam. But I just had a failure less than 6 months on one of my dash cams a dash cam that cost over $100 so I always have a backup and the cell phone is really good I'm using an older Garmin for my dash cam but it doesn't do audio recording and I need in dash recording as I do Uber and my cell phone fits the bill for a second channel and it has the ability to upload to the cloud which I like I do have to pay $5 a month for the service but in my mind it's security so that way I don't lose footage like I do with my other dash cams granted it it does have its downsides and for the average Joe out there who just needs to get in the car to drive to work and stuff it's not perfect solution

A friend of mine has the Nexar pro and he got into a minor accident, but he could not find just that one event footage! It recorded everything else but that event. It recorded AFTER the event so we can't figure out what happened and are talking to Nexar right now. Very frustrating.

IF I never accidentally forgot something in a car, then the questions would still be relatively simple. Do I want to use a $100 to 300 dashcam or a $1100 phone ? If my $200 dashcam fails, I go buy another. Do I want to go buy another $1100 smart phone ? Is there anything else I like to use my smartphone for while driving down the road ? But alas, I also want to record the person that is following me, because road rage, rear ending, and negligence is more of a concern coming from the back of the vehicle than it is from the front. Actually, I'm FAR more interested in recording the rear than the front.