Nextbase 422GW

The Nextbase 422GW is an upper mid-range dash cam, offering QHD resolution and GPS positioning, with a couple of safety and convenience features thrown in. It’s a step up from the excellent 322GW, but despite its higher resolution and wider aperture, it doesn’t produce noticeably more detailed videos.

Introduction

The Nextbase 422GW dash cam is a mid-range device, aimed at drivers who want comprehensive and clear video of every drive.

It films in QHD (2,560×1,440) resolution, and has a wide /1.3 aperture lens, which ought to help it deliver strong low-light performance. Like other Nextbase cameras, the 422GW comes with an excellent magnetic mount and offers a g-sensor controlled parking mode.

Design and features

• A great windscreen mount and rear camera support
• GPS positioning, parking mode, an SOS feature and Alexa support
• QHD resolution

The Nextbase 422GW dash cam sits between the excellent 322GW and the 522GW in the range. It’s a small step up from the former, offering QHD (2560×1440) resolution rather than 1,080p, but only at 30 frames per second (fps).

If you prefer, you can switch it to 1080p at 60fps, which is what the 322GW offers. Like other Nextbase devices, it looks much like a compact camera with a protruding lens assembly. At the back there’s a decent 6.4cm colour touchscreen.

This camera uses Nextbase’s magnetic Click&Go PRO mounting system. The car power cable plugs into the mount, so you can just click the camera in and out without unplugging any leads. It comes with a spare sticky pad, so you can change your mind about where to fit it, or even fit it to two vehicles if you wanted. You can expand the 422GW with one of Nextbase’s rear and cabin view cameras, all of which we’ve reviewed separately.

The Nextbase 422GW can stamp every video with GPS data, including time, coordinates and speed. It’s also got a handy parking mode, where it turns on and starts recording if the built-in g-sensor detects a significant bump.

Although it’s not strictly necessary, you can connect this camera to the MyNextbase Connect smartphone app, which lets you change settings, browse videos and apply firmware updates. You can also configure the app to send emergency information if the camera detects an impact that leaves you unresponsive – it could be a handy feature in the event of an accident.

I’m much less convinced by the fact this dash cam is Alexa compatible. In theory, connecting your phone and enabling the feature lets you talk to Alexa via the camera, letting you request songs on the car stereo, for example. Enable the NextBase skill and you should also be able to control the camera, asking it to start and stop recording, or take a snapshot.

I had trouble getting Alexa to work, but regardless I can’t see a strong need for it if you already use Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. If you want to take a snapshot, it’s easy to just tap the camera touchscreen while it’s recording.

Performance and video quality

• Great video quality
• Easy to live with

As with other Nextbase dash cams, I found myself distracted by the screen when driving, as it doesn’t power off by default. Fortunately, it’s easy enough to switch on the screensaver.

You’ll probably also want to enable the parking mode while you’re in the menu. In theory this works best with the camera hardwired, but I found that in a car used every day, it worked fine without draining the camera battery.

Once set up, it’s easy to forget about the Nextbase 422GW, which just gets on with the job of filming every drive. But while its video quality was very good, I wasn’t convinced it offered any significant improvement over the cheaper 322GW. The extra resolution it offers isn’t strictly necessary to capture more detail from the road, and it comes at the cost of a halved framerate – leaving bigger gaps between individual frames of video.

In daylight, the camera coped well with slanting winter sunlight, and even being driven straight towards a powerful sunset.

However, night video was a bit disappointing, seeming to suffer from noise and a lack of crispness. This was particularly apparent when compared to similar footage from the 322GW, which seemed to produce slightly sharper and smoother results. The cheaper camera also did better at getting detail from darker areas of the street.

You can switch the Nextbase 422GW down to 1080p at 60fps, which I tried to see if it improved the video quality. It certainly led to smoother videos, but they seemed even darker, with the camera even less able to resolve detail from poorly lit pavements and buildings. Returning the camera to QHD and boosting the exposure a few stops improved the results markedly.

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