THINKWARE CLOUD

I bought the Thinkware q800 pro and I like the quality and design. It does not have a display on the camera itself (which I prefer) so most of the camera settings and viewing must be done through this app. This is where things start to get glitchy and aggravating. Thinkware cameras are not cheap and I feel the company should back those prices up with premium build quality, well designed software, and customer support. First, this app looks like it was slapped together and nothing was well thought out. The WiFi connection to the camera is hit and miss. The video player is terrible due to freezing and skipping when trying to play the video without downloading it first. If you download it, it will play much better but it is also slow. You are also supposed to be able to connect the camera to your phone’s hotspot and upload videos to the cloud. I attempted this several times and could not get this to work even after enabling network communication. The app does get the job done (eventually) and since I do not need to use it often I will learn to live with it. However, Thinkware needs to invest in some good application development. I do like the camera and will be keeping it but if software doesn’t improve over time I will look elsewhere next time I’m looking to buy one.

Once you get everything to connect, most of the program works. It took multiple tries to make the first connection with the camera, but seems to be working now. Attempting the change the password on the camera’s WiFi locked me out, forcing me to reset the camera (deleting everything). There are also some camera settings that cannot be adjusted from the app (like audio recording) that you have to do on the camera itself. And, if you click off the app on your phone for more than a couple seconds, you lose the connection for some reason. There are no preview images for the recordings, but it does mark the time they were taken and if it was a front or rear camera. I tried making a Thinkware account through the app to see how it worked and if it added functionality, but it turns out there are password restrictions (very limited special characters) that it 1) doesn’t inform you of and 2) doesn’t reject your new password if it contains those characters - instead it just blocks you from being able to log in. Try choosing reset password? Nope. Doesn’t work. In the end, it works to change some settings and get the videos off the camera wirelessly. However, there are bugs and limitations.

This camera system is too expensive not to have an actual “cloud” functionality when the camera is in “parking mode”. I brought the camera on the premise that you would be able to view “in the comfort of your living room” as you falsely advertised...even went as far as buying an external battery only to find out this is not the case...your competitor Blackvue does offer this functionality and I’m honestly feeling like I ripped off. The camera quality is great, rear camera as well(which I have installed in the interior) work amazing at night. The fact that you cannot view what’s going on with the camera “on demand” is VERY disappointing...so now I am stuck with a $700 camera system that I can only see AFTER something occurs...really thinking I should have brought the Blackvue but it is too late for that...and what is the new “function” that has been added in the new update because I do not see it