As there were many comments on this new camera and their “bad specs” let me say: This camera serves a completely different purpose than the action camera. The Xiaomi Yi Dash Cam is the first dash camera released by the Chinese electronics manufacturer Xiaomi Inc. This camera has been released approximately 1 year after the very popular Xiaomi Yi Action Camera.
Surprisingly Xiaomi decided to use completely different internals for this camera. The processor is listed as a “Yi A12 dual core processor”. In actuality it appears to be a masked Novatek NT96660 processor (perhaps customized). The sensor might seem small, but it benefits low light recording. The small built-in battery was also discussed, but the camera is mainly operated during driving a car, so it is powered by the car.
It is not a new action camera or the successor of the YI action camera, but a new product line: the Xiaomi YI dash camera! For the use as dashboard camera it also got some pretty cool features. In this article I want to show you:
Specs of the YI Dash Camera
Special Features
Installation of the camera (to make all features work)
Body, Buttons & Ports
Menu Functions & Settings via Display
App Functions & Settings
Demo Footage
Conclusion
If you are looking for the Action Camera check out my Yi Action Camera Review & Manual or my post on the International Version of the Action Cam.
We are not sure why they tried to disguise the processor but perhaps they are trying to trick consumers into thinking this is an Ambarella A12 processor. The CMOS sensor is believed to be the On Semiconductor’s AR0230CS.
This is a departure from the Ambarella A7LS Processor in the Xiaomi Yi action camera which has allowed owners to “hack” the device with custom firmware and autoexec scripts. Part of the Xiaomi Yi Action Camera’s popularity was due to the ease of customization as evidenced by the thousands of posts in our forum . Since the Xiaomi Yi Dash Cam is based on a Novatek processor, we don’t expect custom firmware or hacks to be available for this camera. The Novatek NT96660 processor and AR0230CS CMOS sensor produce very good picture quality during the day and good quality at night in the Xiaomi Yi dash cam. The camera can record at 1080p 60fps and also claims to record at 1296p 30fps. There is some speculation that the 1296p is not true 1296p but interpolated from 1080p since the AR0230CS sensor does support 1296p. We are trying to confirm if this is true. Bit rate for the Xiaomi Yi Dash Cam is 20Mbps.
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