INTRODUCTION

   I don't know how most of you use YouTube but aside watching some of my favorite music clips from the 80's and 90's (which i obviously can't find anywhere else) i also enjoy watching high speed chases and car accidents through dashboard cameras since because of their POV and detail it's almost like i was there myself. This however is the last reason of having a good dashboard camera since many people use them not only to get the discounts offered by some insurance companies but also to have solid evidence in case of accidents and/or malicious acts towards their vehicles. Mio is a name that most people recognize because of their many years in GPS navigation (more like a pioneer in this field) but what many people don't know is that they've been manufacturing car dash cameras for quite a while now and today with us we have their latest model to hit the EU market, the MiVue 568 Touch.

   Mio develops and markets products that enable users to take advantage of the latest developments in mobile services. The brand was established in May 2002 and today has operations in Taiwan, mainland China, Europe, North America, Australia, Japan and South Korea. Mio currently employs more than 900 individuals worldwide, and sells and markets its products in over 38 countries and territories. It is Mio’s belief that mobile life and mobile business will remain an integral part of life into our future. Mio’s brand tagline, “Explore More,” focuses on changing the way people experience the world while letting users know that they can explore the world easily and freely with Mio products.

   As far as specifications go Mio has done a very good job with the MiVue 568 Touch since aside the very useful 2.5 inch touch screen at the rear (clearly revealed by the name of the product) it also features Full HD 1080p recording with an angle of 130 degrees, F1.8 lens (should help in low light conditions), integrated GPS receiver, lifetime safety camera updates (a very convenient feature i must add), G-sensor (3-axis), HDR (High Dynamic Range) mode, parking mode (motion detection recording for when the car is parked), HDMI output and two different power modes (auto on and continuous). Now although it's nice knowing that a company has given many useful features to a product we can only be certain about its performance after we've used it so let's see how our first encounter with a car dashboard camera by Mio went after almost 1 full month of testing.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The box has two product pictures at the front, the Mio logo and two of the main product features.

Another product picture is placed at the left side above 4 images showcasing the bundle contents.

The main product features are also listed at the rear in 12 languages.

Printed at the base of the box is the system requirements list again in 12 languages.

The box contains the MiVue 568 Touch car dashboard camera, suction mount, cigar power adapter, warranty information paper and a quickstart guide.

THE MIVUE 568 TOUCH

The MiVue 568 Touch is actually quite small and measures 62mm in height, 63mm in width and 32mm in depth and weighs just 93g.

Mio has placed their logo right above the lens of the camera.

We don't have specific details for the lens used at hand but we do know that they can record FullHD 1080p video at a horizontal angle of 130 degrees (the integrated speaker is placed on its left).

The miniUSB charging/PC access port and the HDMI output are placed on the right side of the device while on the left we see the microSD slot and the on/off power button.

At the rear we see the 2.5" touch screen which is quite easier to use compared to other similar solutions that have buttons (hard to press sometimes especially when the device is mounted).

The car suction mount the MiVue 568 Touch comes with is not the easiest to use but it's very sturdy.

USING THE MIVUE 568 TOUCH

Prior to using the MiVue 568 Touch i recommend checking the support page for new software/firmware updates.

The screen menu offers a wide range of settings you can adjust so from here you can playback recorded video, mute/enable audio recording, adjust the safety cam and parking mode settings, choose the preferred video recording duration (up to 5m each time), enable/disable HDR, enable/disable the GPS feature, adjust the G-sensor sensitivity, setup the date/time on the device, choose the preferred distant measurement unit, format the microSD card and finally you can also change the menu language.

The Mio MiVue Manager is basically the same PC software we've seen used by other manufacturers so from here you can playback recorded clips and at the same time see where you were on the map (via Google maps) and you can also check the G-sensor logs.

AUDIO/VIDEO QUALITY

As always to test this dash camera i used two cars both in day and night conditions (the top night clip is with HDR off while the bottom one is with HDR turned on - the difference is very small) which as always we uploaded on our own server and not YouTube in order to preserve the exact same quality. To download the three rather short clips (still roughly 80MB were required for all) directly just right click on the above images and then save target as.

CONCLUSION

   Mio is one of the two brands I’ve always admired in GPS navigation since their products offered slightly more in terms of quality, features and map accuracy compared to those of their competitors so when i learned that they were also in the car dash camera market i couldn't wait to test one of their offerings and since they decided to send us their latest model in the MiVue line i was even more intrigued. Now i don't know if testing only the best car dashboard cameras in the market currently has made me extremely "picky" but as much as i like PNDs by Mio (we will have some such reviews up soon) i can't say that i was really impressed with the MiVue 568 Touch. The reason is that although it offers overall good image quality especially at night during the day everything is a bit darker than it should and although you can partially fix this by tweaking the settings of the device it almost feels like there's something wrong with the firmware. The good news is that Mio may fix this in the future so this "drawback" may not apply after a few weeks or months but for now it is what it is. On the other hand i have to admit that the touch screen, the available settings and the MiVue Manager software left us with the best possible impressions so Mio really has only the brightness issue to worry about with the 568 Touch.

   When i first started using Mio GPS navigation devices a few years back i can't say that they were the most cost-effective ones in the market but lately that has changed and so Mio is now very competitive when it comes to prices and with a current price tag set at 181.12Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de – not currently available in the USA) it seems that the same applies for their car dash cameras as well. Certainly you can find many models at around the same price range and for even less but not many brands offer the features and the support a name like Mio can so in the end you just need to weigh everything. Personally i did expect slightly more from the MiVue 568 Touch but even so it's still a very good car dash camera and for that it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Size
- 2.5" Touch Screen
- Good Audio & Video Quality
- HDMI Output
- Integrated GPS & G-Sensor
- Available Settings
- MiVue Manager
- Lifetime Safety Camera Updates

CONS

- Video Brightness (Daylight Recording)
- Price (For Some)