Mio MiVue 518 review

The MiVue 518 is the only sub-£100 dashcam we’ve seen to date that offers Full HD recording. You’ll have to supply your own memory card to store that high-definition footage, though, as the 518 only comes with the bare essentials: the dashcam, the suction cup, the charger and a printed manual. There’s not even a USB cable to help you transfer footage, so you’ll need to provide your own Mini USB lead.

Unlike its sub-£100 rivals from RAC and Nextbase, the MiVue 518 does come with software to help you manage those recordings; it’s not in the box, but you can download the MiVue Manager application from the company’s website. We found the MiVue software to be the pick of the bunch, even beating the applications supplied with the premium cameras.

A month-view calendar in the top-right corner of the software lets you quickly flick to recordings from the relevant day, and the videos can be quickly filtered down so that you can list only accident recordings, for example, saving you from wading through dozens of clips.

The car’s location is tracked on a Google Map in the bottom of the screen, and sensors reveal the direction of impact in an accident.  You can even use the software to quickly upload videos to a YouTube account, which could be handy for sending evidence to insurance companies or the police.

Daytime footage

The MiVue 518’s video is decent enough. It doesn’t quite hit the super-smooth heights of the Roadhawk DC-2 or the GoPro’s footage, and there’s some notable distortion in the bottom of the frame when the car’s moving at speed, but the video is still plenty good enough for you to make out the number plates of adjacent cars on the motorway. Night-time footage is grainier, but still gives plenty of

Night-time footage

Night-time footage is grainier, but still gives plenty of detail, and there’s none of the problems with over-exposure of details such as number plates that mars the after-dark footage on some other models. We also really like the way Mio embeds the device name, speed and GPS co-ordinates into the video file itself, so that you don’t have to install the accompanying software if you don’t want to. Continues on Page 2.