The Navitel R980 4K is currently the highest model of car camera available for sale from this manufacturer. How does it perform in practice and is it worth buying? Today’s review will cover that.
I received the dashcam for testing directly from the manufacturer. It’s the highest model from Navitel, equipped with a Sony 415 optical sensor recording in 4K (3840×2160 pixels). The lens angle is 140 degrees, with a 7-layer glass lens featuring an IR infrared filter. The camera records TS format files. Available options include classic auto-start, GPS alerts, digital speedometer display, G-sensor, parking mode, sound recording, Wi-Fi module for connectivity with our smartphone and management through the Navitel DVR Center app, and a GPS module. The camera can be powered through both 12V and 24V sockets. The manufacturer has equipped the R980 4K with a supercapacitor, and power is supplied to the camera via a USB-C input. The device supports microSD cards up to a maximum capacity of 128 GB. I tested the dashcam with a SanDisk Extreme 64 GB card.
First Impressions
The manufacturer included a card reader (which broke quite quickly), a microfiber cloth, and a voucher for Navitel navigation with free access for 12 months. The dashcam is quite large and not very discreet. The side facing the street stands out with a large lens cover featuring a chromed decorative border. It is not centrally placed but on the edge of the casing. The display made a very positive impression on me. It’s large, touch-sensitive, and very responsive (854×480 IPS, 3 inches). It’s clear that someone thought this element through well. The touch buttons are of a good size, very legible, and respond immediately. The image itself is of high quality. I also liked the number of configuration options. Eventually, I decided to turn off the notification sound and set the screen saver to activate quite quickly. In this way, the dashcam turns on with the car, displays the camera image for just a few seconds, then switches to showing the speed and completely turns off the screen. I don’t like having something shining in my eyes at night, so this is a great solution.
The camera is mounted to the windshield using a suction cup, which ends with a magnetic mount. The power input is located at the suction cup itself, feeding power to the camera through the magnetic end. The Navitel R980 4K is the top model of this manufacturer’s dashcam, and I’m somewhat surprised by the use of a suction cup. In cheaper models, we already find mainly double-sided tape mounts.
Sound and Video Quality
The Navitel R980 4K is a device that records in high resolution. I was very curious to see how this image would be processed by the MSTAR SSC8629Q processor. In the case of smartphones in the past, it often turned out that 4K was only on paper, and the device simply couldn’t handle recording such large files and used quite a lot of compression. As a result, we got 4K resolution at a bitrate characteristic, for example, of 720p.
The Navitel R980 4K has a nice, fairly sharp, and clear image during the day. Details are quite visible, although the tonal range is not as wide as I would expect. As a result, the final recording has slightly distorted and faded colors. The file writing density is 15 mb/s, which is at least 3-4 times more compression than typical 4K material, more characteristic of 1080p. So, it could be better.
The night image is not bad. Driving around the city, we can calmly record what happens not only in the center of the frame but also along its edges. On the road, it’s also not bad.
It’s worth adding a few words about the microphone. Here too, it’s not bad, but the sound is slightly muffled. Compared to other cameras I’ve tested, even from this manufacturer, it could be better.
Problems with the Navitel R980 4K
However, the camera has two quite serious problems. The first is the emergency recording button. It works… completely opposite to all other cameras. This surprised me a lot. Until now, if something worth preserving happened on the road, you pressed the emergency recording button and the camera secured that entire file from being overwritten. Often, it also created an additional directory to make it easier to find the recording later. During several weeks of testing, I encountered several such actions that I wanted to show you. However, it turned out that the Navitel R980 4K, after pressing this button, only then starts recording the protected file. As a result, all my files saved this way show nothing, because they preserved recordings after the given situation, not the situation itself.
The second problem, which in my opinion disqualifies this camera, especially in the segment of flagship cameras, is the lack of any image stabilization. Even at a standstill, the camera can get such weird vibrations that it resembles driving on a grater or offroad, not standing in a parking lot. When I drove on a fast road at higher speeds, the recording is completely useless. The car doesn’t feel such vibrations as the camera later shows. It can cause seasickness. And the problem concerns not only high speeds but all speeds. Even the slightest vibration is amplified by the matrix, and miracles happen. As a result, license plates are often illegible both in the day and at night.
