Cowon AW1 (Single Camera)

Cowon AW1 keeps failing – I purchased this unit new with my car and after 8 months it died. Had it replaced under warranty and now my second unit has died. Even when they were working they were somewhat unreliable. I would not recommend spending your money on this unit. I am now looking for alternative brands.

Overheats every day – Had this installed with a new vehicle purchased. Ideally to record a vehicle hitting my vehicle and leaving. Sadly the Cowon overheats almsot every single day in Australia. When I return to my car after work it will take 10 to 15 minutes for it to sufficiently cool down to begin working again. Often I have returned home before it is recording.

The Quality of the video when it is recording is good and sound is captured.

For the price we paid there are better options.

Battery problem – Hi, we bought a AW1 through the dealership, brand new Mitsubishi Outlander may 2016. 2nd week September, my battery was flat, had to get nrma. Happened again 3 weeks later, nrma for jump again, took it back to dealership and was told voltage had been set too high at instal, the technician adjusted volts. All good till 3 weeks later, flat again.

This time the dealership told me too bad, not their problem so I contacted the installers direct.

John came out and replaced the unit, ensured all settings were correct and we haven't (so far) had a flat battery.

The dvr is sometimes slow to start, 2km up the road before it kicks in.

It's good points are the vision on AutoCapsule, small size and motion detection while parked.

The battery problem was always after the vehicle was not driven for 3 days.. I haven't had this situation yet so am still not sure if this problem is fixed.

Definitely not worth paying all that money for something that doesn't work properly, and replaced tw – I decided to have a COWON AW1 dash cam installed on my brand new car, for peace of mind, and also knowing that the footage could be used in the future for investigations, etc. well, was I wrong!!!! Having the device for two weeks only, I had to have it replaced as it was faulty, not recording or talking to mobile, then yesterday on way to work, a truck ran a red light, almost taking me with him, but I thought, that's okay, I have the evidence on the dash cam which with all good intentions I was going to download and take it to the Police this morning, but oh well, the dash cam had stopped recording ten minutes prior to the almost 'accident', no reason, and no indication that it was going to switch off, so I have since purchased another dash cam through Repco, and considering the price difference, most expensive doesn't mean it will definitely work!!!!! If I had known then what I know now, I would not have purchased this dash cam, especially the price of it!!!!

AW1 COWON AUTOCAPSULE – This is an exciting dashcam with great quality images. Placement on the windscreen was good for my vehicle as most of the unit is hidden by a "blacked out area" behind the rear vision mirror.The optional GPS has a long lead which needs to be folded up so that it can stay out of sight. The power cord is of adequate length but there was insufficient supplied stick on cord holders to hold the cord in position. Hard wiring will fix this.

Setup is relatively simple but due to the length of my trips I still need to adjust the sensitivity so that I do not record so many "events" Even getting over the dip between the driveway and the road made the AW1 record an event ! I could not adjust this when driving by myself with the mobile phone, one needs to park to abide by the law.

Images both day and night are excellent and number plates are easily read if close but need to be magnified when at a distance. This is possible on most computers and probably on a mobile phone.

The GPS speed and location works well and corresponds to my checked speedo.

Due to the mild weather in April I was not able to check how it performed in a Perth Summer exposed to a 40 degree day exposed to the Sun.

Overall worth considering a quality product at the top end of the market. size , Images, ease of control of xyz axis movement from wifi mobile phone I think that the price may deter some buyers