Nextbase 222

Nextbase’s 222 is only £20 or so more than the entry-level 122, but the gulf in video quality couldn’t be more clear. This is a basic dash cam, notably having no GPS support, but produces sharp, detailed videos even in very challenging conditions. It might not provide all the proof you need in certain accidents, but it does a great job of capturing what happens on the road ahead.

Introduction

The Nextbase 222 dash cam is a relatively basic forward-facing device. It looks much like a compact camera, with a long lens assembly, and a small colour screen at the back. While it misses out on GPS and advanced driver aids, its 1080p resolution ought to be plenty to capture detailed driving footage.

Design and features

• Simple setup, with a great windscreen mount
• No GPS info
• Decent screen

The Nextbase 222 may be a budget dash cam, but it offers a fair amount for the money. At the back, its 6.4cm colour screen offers reasonable image quality and wide viewing angles, even if it’s navigated via buttons rather than touch.

I can’t help but wonder if this camera’s huge lens mount is strictly functional, but its /1.6 aperture should certainly help let a good deal of light in during dingy conditions. There’s also a useful 140° field of view, giving a bit more coverage to the sides near your vehicle. While the sensor’s 1920×1080 resolution isn’t huge, it’s enough to capture a detailed picture of everything going on in front.

This camera comes with NextBase’s excellent Click&Go PRO mount, to which the USB power cable connects. The camera itself simply clicks magnetically into place, making it easy to remove from the car when you need to. I found it less easy to remove the MicroSD card; however: it’s a fiddle to push it in far enough in to release it.

This camera doesn’t offer any driver safety features. More significantly, it’s also missing GPS, so it can’t stamp videos with speed, coordinates or an authoritative time. While that’s not an issue for cut-and-dried cases, such as showing somebody jumped a light, it might make it harder to prove you weren’t speeding. It’s worth mentioning that the 222 also doesn’t support Nextbase’s range of rear and cabin-view cameras.

The 222 does have a g-sensor, used to control a parking mode where it’ll wake up and start filming if your car is bumped or moved. There’s also a big button just underneath the screen to press if you want to protect a video – stopping the camera from overwriting important footage.

Performance and video quality

• Excellent video quality
• Easy to live with

Like other Nextbase cameras, the 222 arrives with its parking mode turned off and its screen set to remain on, which can be quite distracting. It’s easy to toggle both features using the menu buttons, after which you probably won’t need to touch the camera settings again. With a big batch of cameras to test, I really appreciated the ease with which you can fit and remove Nextbase dash cams from their magnetic mount, but most users will probably just fit one and forget it.

The good news is that, should you ever need it, the Nextbase 222 is likely to deliver. While the entry-level 122 had been a disappointment even in daylight, the 222 excelled in low sun, torrid rain, heavy cloud and pitch darkness. In each case it delivered crisp and detailed footage to rival much more expensive cameras.

In daylight videos it was generally easy to resolve number plates provided the speed differential wasn’t too great. As with most dash cams, reading plates at night is much harder, and it tended to depend on my luck with the lighting. Regardless, I was impressed with the way the 222 resolved detail in all but the most dimly lit parts of the road at night.

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