INTRODUCTION

   Three years ago while i was driving on the far right lane of the interstate a car with half erased license plates pulled up from the center lane and onto the far right side of the road and although i managed to avoid hitting him dead on i couldn't control the rear end of my car so the rear right wing ended up getting severely damaged. Unfortunately by the time i pulled over and got out of my car the guy had already gotten into his car and left and although i did try to chase him i lost him in traffic. So i ended up having to pay for the damage from my own pocket (actually my insurance covered 70% and that's pretty much the only good thing about all this). Looking back i now know that this entire incident could had been avoided had i used an dash camera like i do now since i would have recorded the car and the visible part of its license plate. Today’s review is about one such product and more specifically the latest P2Pro Drive Recorder by PAPAGO.

   PAPAGO! Inc. was established in Taipei, Taiwan in 2001; with more than 10 years GPS related background both in software and hardware. PAPAGO! Inc. has become the leading brand in Taiwan, China, Russia, South East Asia, Japan, Australia, and now America. To provide a more localized product and service, PAPAGO! Inc. has set up branch offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Tokyo, Los Angeles, and has plans to extend to new countries worldwide. In 2011, PAPAGO! Inc. became an IPO in Taiwan and has begun to invest more in the car safety arena. Being a pioneer in the car dashcam market, PAPAGO! Inc. for years has dedicated itself to promising drivers the most comfortable and safest journeys when driving on the road. PAPAGO! Inc. tries various advanced technologies to fulfill this goal. PAPAGO! strives to develop products that are user-friendly and promote safety as a key component. When creating our products our goal is to ensure that the consumer will enjoy all the benefits that our research and design team have created at an affordable price. Safety meets technology to provide drivers and sports enthusiasts a high-tech experience when capturing their life in HD.

   PAPAGO is a name we've only heard of roughly 5 months ago but they seem to be quite popular in the United States and since there's always a good reason behind something like that we just had to take a look at their products. The first one to reach us is the P2Pro Drive Recorder and although not their latest product it does sport a very rich list of features including Full HD 1080p@30fps video recording with WDR (Wide Dynamic Range), built-in GPS, built-in G-Sensor, mini HDMI v1.3 output and an 2.4" LCD screen. The P2Pro however is also equipped with several software-based drive assistance features designed purely for the safety of the driver and the passengers such as the advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), lane departure warning system (LDWS), front collision warning system (FCWS) and the driver fatigue alarm system. So at first glance the P2Pro Driver Recorder seems to be the complete dash camera we've all been waiting for so let's dig a little bit deeper.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

A small product image and the main product features are listed at the front of the box.

On the left side of the box PAPAGO has placed a short product description in 4 languages.

The product serial number, 2D barcode and the normal barcode are placed on the other side.

At the top we see several drawings representing the contents of the box.

The two possible ways you can mount the P2Pro in your car are showcased at the base of the box.

All of the product features are printed at the rear of the box.

The bundle is nicely placed inside the box so no problems here.

Well i can't say that i was surprised with the bundle contents since PAPAGO just offers the suction mount, power adapter, registration paper and the quickstart guide along with the P2Pro but I’ve seen much worse.

THE P2PRO

The very first thing you will notice with the P2Pro is that the design and size of its hard plastic housing are not similar to that of other dash cameras.

To see what we mean we placed it right next to the Pittasoft DR550GW-2CH.

One of the things i like about the P2Pro is that the lens is placed further inside the housing so it's very hard to scratch. Thanks to the aptina 3.5Mp 1/3 CMOS sensor the P2Pro can record video at Full HD 1080p30 with a wide angle of 130 degrees.

The on/off power switch and the SD card slot (32GB max) are placed on the left side of the device while on the right side we see the miniUSB and HDMI 1.3 ports.

Another great feature of the P2Pro is the 2.4" LCD screen placed at the rear (320x240p). Right beneath the screen we see the activity LED and the navigation buttons.

The microphone is placed at the bottom of the device right next to the speaker.

Mounting the P2Pro to your dashboard is very easy so you just need to remove the two wheels placed on the sides, install the suction mount and then place them back in.

USING THE P2PRO

The P2Pro may not have Wi-Fi like for example the Pittasoft DR550GW-2CH but thanks to the rear LCD screen not only can you check various information screens (GPS/G-Sensor) but you can also adjust every setting possible from the image and video quality and up to the drive assistance features (check the screens for more details).

You can also download the GoLife player from PAPAGO to see exactly where you've been via Google maps as seen above.

AUDIO/VIDEO QUALITY

As always to test this dash camera i used my car both in day and night conditions with very good results which we uploaded on our own server and not YouTube in order to preserve the exact same quality. To download the two rather short clips (still almost 43MB were required for both) directly just click on the above images and then save as.

CONCLUSION

   When we first took out the P2Pro Drive Recorder from the box we did find it a bit bulky but we understand that comes with the territory when you have an 2.4" LCD screen at the rear so that was the least of our concerns. After that our main focus turned on its recording capabilities since we were quite curious to see just what kind of image quality the aptiva CMOS sensor along with the 7 piece lens system would offer and as you can see from our clips it did very good in that area. The DR550GW-2CH by Pittasoft still holds the number one place in terms of image quality for us but the P2Pro offers many more features and although some of them like the Radar Warning System are not available outside from the USA (we can only hope that will change soon) still no one can deny that they can be of tremendous use to some people (especially the lane departure warning system).

   The PAPAGO P2Pro Drive Recorder has another thing going for it and that's its rather tempting price tag which is currently set at USD199 inside the USA (Amazon.com) making it one of the cheapest dash cameras with very good image quality and such a wide range of features. Now you all know that we come down hard to any product that doesn't deliver as advertised but the P2Pro Drive Recorder by PAPAGO is the jack of all trades and in the end we think that matters a bit more than being best in a single area. Of course we would like to see a new model with better image quality and perhaps the upcoming P3 will be capable of that but until then the P2Pro is our favorite in their product line and we are happy to award it with our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Design
- Image Quality (Sharpness/Color Reproduction)
- Audio Quality
- Built-In GPS/G-Sensor
- Driver Assistance Features (ADAS/LDWS/FCWS/Radar Warning/Driver Fatigue Alarm System)
- 2.4" LCD Screen
- PC Software
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- Size (For Some)