Hey, what's up guys?
In this video, we're going to be taking a look at the new BlackVue DR750X Plus.
This is a new dash cam from BlackVue that replaces the DR750X.
Now, down in the video description, I'm going to have purchase links to where you can pick
up the DR750X Plus and if you use those links, it's going to automatically save you 5% off
the purchase of your dash cam.
In this video, we're going to be going over all the new improvements here with the DR750X
Plus.
The biggest improvement really at the end of the day is going to be the new image sensor
inside the Plus.
This upgraded Sony Starvis sensor is going to give you things like improved dynamic range
to do a better job of capturing details in the bright highlights, as well as in the dark
shadows, and it's also going to do a little better job of capturing things like license
plates at night, especially if maybe your bright headlights are shining on them.
You're also going to see improved color from the video, as well as a few small hardware
improvements to the dash cam itself.
The original DR750X was only released about eight months ago back in September of 2020.
And so why is there a new model version of this already?
Well, really at the end of the day, it comes down to the fact that there's been a semiconductor
shortage recently, and the way it's affected Blackvue is they're unable to get some of
the components that they need to continue making the DR750X and so they've had to actually
start swapping and replacing some of the components inside the dash cam.
Legally, because of these component changes, they're actually required to call it something
new altogether.
Hence, the DR750X Plus.
They also figured, "Well, if we're coming out with a new dash cam, there's also this
new sensor that's available."
Very convenient.
We can go ahead and pop in an upgraded sensor into the dash cam and so the plus now has
some improvements above and beyond just some little component changes.
And then of course, because the 750X itself is no longer able to be produced, so the 750X
Plus is going to be fully replacing the 750X.
Taking a closer look here at the DR750X Plus there's a lot of things that are going to
be the same as the original 750X.
For example, you've got the same X series case designed for the dash cam itself.
The front camera is still going to record at 1080p and 60fps.
The rear camera still records a 1080p and 30fps.
It's got the same X series, three wire ignition triggered parking cable.
And that's also going to give you the built-in voltage monitoring capabilities built directly
into the dash cam.
You've got your cm100lte support that makes it really easy to get your dash cam connected
to the cloud.
And then finally, you've also got the same blend mount compatibility.
If you'd like to attach the dash cam under your rear view mirror, instead of attaching
it directly to the windshield.
And then there's also going to be some things that are new here with the 750X Plus.
Now the biggest change is actually going to be the new sensor inside the dash cam.
Now the previous lineup of 750 series dash cams all use the Sony Starvis IMX291 image
sensor.
The new 750X Plus uses the IMX327.
So it's a newer better sensor.
And it's used in both the front and the rear dash cam here in the 750X Plus.
Now, as far as the benefits of this new image sensor, the biggest improvement that I'm seeing
here is going to be the dynamic range and dynamic range is just how good of a job the
dash cam can record both the dark shadows as well as the bright highlights.
And you'll see that here, for example, in this clip of driving through a parking garage
to where the 750X Plus is able to better record what's going on in the bright sunshine outside,
you can see the person walking by outside, for example, plus you can also see detail
in the shadows like the gray Honda Civic over on the right.
So the newer dash cam has better dynamic range.
It's going to be doing a better job of recording both in the highlights as well as in the shadows.
Now, something I've noticed here with the 750X Plus is it seems to expose a little darker
than previous BlackVues, but again, it still has better dynamic range overall.
Now, when it comes to the rear camera, I find that the default settings here again are going
to be darker still, but I really liked the fact that with the 750X Plus you can independently
control the brightness for both the front and rear dash cams if you like.
Now, in terms of colors, BlackVue is saying the DR750X has more vivid colors.
And I am able to notice that in my testing, it looks like basically the saturation has
been turned up a little bit here with a 750X Plus.
And so the colors do look better here with the new dash cam in terms of detail and resolving
capabilities that 750X Plus it's still a 1080p dash cam.
And for that reason, the results are going to be comparable to what I see with maybe
previous models of BlackVues.
It's still able to record license plates if the vehicle is very close for example, but
then it's going to start to struggle if the vehicles are a little bit farther away, such
as those vehicles just ahead of me up here in the parking lot.
4K dash cams of course are going to do a better job of actually capturing details a little
bit farther away, but this is going to be a 1080p dash cam, so it's going to be best
optimized to capture details that are closer up to the dash cam.
Now moving on to nighttime footage next, this is something that the Sony Starvis sensors
have traditionally always done a good job with, and it looks like this is the case here
with the 750X Plus as well.
Overall, it's going to do a good job of capturing what's going on around you.
I find that with the 750X Plus' new sensor, you're going to be getting a little bit better
clarity out of your dash cam footage.
And again, you're going to be getting some better dynamic range.
Now, BlackVue, when they first announced this dash cam, they actually had a clip posted
on their YouTube channel showing the 750X Plus doing a better job than the older 750X
and actually capturing license plates when your bright headlights were shining on them.
And that's a pretty good example of the benefits of the increased dynamic range.
Now, in my testing, I found this isn't always the case.
There's going to be some situations of course, to where the license plates are still blown
out.
But then in other situations, you're going to be able to capture the details.
For example, you can see the shopping carts here with the 750X Plus, it does a better
job of actually capturing the bright information when your headlights are shining on that.
And so the new dash cam, it's not going to completely eliminate the issue, but it definitely
does seem to be an improvement.
Now that said, there is this weird issue that I'm seeing with the nighttime recording and
specifically, it's this sparkly looking video effect that you'll see in the dash cam footage.
For example, you can see it here with the buildings over on the right side of the screen.
I've noticed in testing, this seems to happen if you have the enhanced night vision feature
turned off, if you turn it on, that seems to go away.
That's really strange.
I actually talked to BlackboxMyCar about this because they recently posted their video review
of the DR750X.
A link to their video down in the video description.
And I noticed in their sample footage, they didn't seem to have the same issues.
So I talked to them about this and they were kind enough to actually send me some more
sample footage from their DR750X Plus, and looking through it, I don't see the same issue
going on in their copy of the dash cam.
So I don't know if it's maybe something unique and specific to my review sample that I've
been testing here, but it doesn't seem to affect all of the DR750X Pluses, but it's
something that I've been experiencing none the less.
Now coming back to the enhanced night vision feature, that's a pretty cool feature to help
the dash cam do a better job of seeing into the dark shadows without actually blowing
your highlights.
The main benefit of it is when you have it enabled, it's going to allow you to better
see what's going on in the dark areas of the video footage.
Now, something that I've noticed when testing is, if it's maybe really dark, let's say you're
parked and there's not a lot of streetlights, with enhanced night vision turned on, you're
going to better be able to see the dark areas.
But I'm also noticing that for whatever reason, the video footage seems to get quite a bit
softer when I have that feature enabled.
And so I'm seeing some quirks here with this dash cam, especially at night.
I don't know if it's something with respect to this new image sensor, maybe BlackVue needs
to do a little bit more tweaking here.
I'm sure they will.
I've already reported this information and sent sample footage over to BlackVue, and
we've been talking, I don't know if it's something maybe specific to my particular dash cam,
because I know some other people are seeing different things, so I don't know exactly
what's going on, but just reporting it nonetheless.
And I'm sure if it's an issue with the BlackVue dash cams overall, it's something that they're
going to continue tweaking and refining.
If it's something specific to maybe this new image sensor.
Speaking of which there's also a bug I came across that should be fixed at an upcoming
update.
What I found is sometimes when you're driving and then you finished driving and you park
by the dash camera switching to parking mode, but then the next time you get back in your
car and start driving again, the rear dash cam will be almost completely blacked out.
It's not totally black.
You can still see some bright point sources of light like people's headlights, or maybe
the reflections of the sun off different windshields and whatnot.
But either way, you're not going to be able to record out the rear properly.
This doesn't seem to happen every time.
It only seems to happen sometimes.
Plus next time you power cycle the dash cam, like you turn your car off and back on.
Then the dash cam will work properly again.
But either way, this is a known issue now and BlackVue says that they're going to be
addressing this in a future update.
And so it looks like there's still some refinement that needs to be done on the firmware side.
But overall I think this new image sensor and the DR750X Plus in general, I think it's
a nice update here for the DR750X.
This new image sensor, as I mentioned before, it's used in both the front and the rear dash
cam.
If you opt for the two channel version, besides the new image sensor, there's a couple other
changes to the dash cam as well.
For example, if you take a look here at the side of the dash cam where you plug everything
in, you'll notice one of the ports is where you actually plug in the rear dash cam.
And what's interesting is this port is available now, even if you get the single channel dash
cam that only records up front, this is nice.
So that if you ever want to later pick up the rear dash cam and add it on at another
time, you now have that option.
That wasn't available with the previous single channel versions of BlackVue's dash cams.
Now that said, if you're upgrading from a previous generation of a BlackVue two channel
dash cams, you're not going to be able to reuse your old rear camera with the new DR750X.
So in this case, you can't purchase just a single channel version and plug in your old
rear camera.
And the reason that's the case is, the DR750X, because it uses the new image sensor.
It needs a new rear dash cam as well.
So if you're upgrading from a previous two channel one, in this case, you're still going
to need to get a two channel version as well and upgrade both the front and the rear dash
cams.
But I'll talk more about upgrading from previous BlackVue dash cams here in just a second.
The last change with the DR750X Plus is a change to the high-heat cutoff threshold.
If it's really hot, it's really hot in the car here, you can see me starting to sweat.
The previous DR750X had a high temperature cutoff of 85 degrees Celsius.
The new DR750X Plus has been dropped from 85 degrees to just 80 degrees.
Now, there weren't any issues reported with the DR750X, you know it was released and then
in Australia, people have been using it there in the summertime, and there haven't been
any issues reported at least as far as I'm aware of down in Australia, but just for the
sake of safety, BlackVue is actually dropping the high temperature cutoff from 85 degrees
down to 80 degrees with the new DR750X Plus.
Now coming back to the upgrade process, if you're wanting to upgrade from a previous
generation BlackVue dash cam, let's go ahead and talk about that.
Now, BlackVue has a whole page dedicated to this, that goes over things in more detail
and I'll link to that down in the video description as well.
And here let's go ahead and just quickly run through some of the highlights.
So first off, as far as the front camera dash cam mount, if you have another BlackVue dash
cam, you're going to be able to just pop out your old dash cam and pop in the new one in
its place with the exception of the DR750LTE, which is a bigger dash cam.
The DR750X Plus can pop into the same mount as your previous BlackVue dash cams.
Additionally, the co-aux cable that connects the front and rear dash cams, that cable can
be reused as well.
So you don't have to run a new, a front to rear dash cam cable.
And then if you're also running the BlackVue circular polarizer for a previous 750 series
dash cam, that can also be reused here for the 750X Plus.
Now, as far as things that are different, obviously the front and the rear dash cams
themselves are going to be different because of the fact that you have a new image sensor.
And so, you're going to want to upgrade both the front and the rear dash cams.
The power cable for the 750X is also going to be different than most other BlackVues.
It's the X series power cable.
The three wire ignition triggered a parking mode cable.
Most other BlackVue dash cams had a two wire cable.
The new one has a three-wire power cable, and because of that, the old power cable is
not actually compatible with the new dash cam.
So you are going to have to upgrade your power cable as well if you have one of the older
BlackVue dash cams, and then finally the rear dash cam, I've noticed the dash cam itself
is slightly smaller in circumference.
So if you try popping it into the mount from the older dash cam, it's going to be a little
bit loose and spin a little bit in the Mount.
And so if you want to upgrade the rear dash cam, I would also recommend swapping out the
rear dash cam mounts.
Now, what about future models of BlackVue dash cams?
I'm sure this new sensor is eventually going to start making its way into other BlackVue
dash cams as well, it would make sense, but a BlackVue right now doesn't really want to
talk too much about future models of dash cams, which is totally understandable.
Now I know a lot of people have asked about, what about a DR900X Plus?
I'm curious about that as well.
And again, BlackVue wasn't going to saying anything.
So I'm just going to give you my own thoughts and speculations on that subject.
So I guess two things, number one, the new components that they've had to put into the
DR750X.
I don't know if it's the same components that they used in the DR900X, if that's the case,
then sure, they would have to ups switch out the same components for the DR900X and so
we would then have a DR900X Plus.
But what about a new image sensor?
BlackVue was the first company to come out with a proper 4k dash cam.
And since then there's been newer dash cams that have been using newer image sensors that
have better video quality and better detail.
I know the Viofo A129 Pro for example, that dash cam uses the newer Sony Starvis IMX317,
and it's got better video quality, better detail and better low-light sensitivity.
And I would honestly love to see BlackVue come out with a DR900X Plus that has a new
image sensor a lot like the competition has now that just boost overall limits equality.
Now, will they actually do it?
I have no idea.
I hope so.
Of course, that's a long been one of my biggest complaints with BlackVue is the image quality,
and I really hope that they improve the sensor and come out with a DR900X Plus.
But I have no idea if they actually are, if it's in the works or anything like that.
But coming back here finally to the DR750X Plus again, it's now available for purchase
online, the front only version of the dash cam the single channel version retails for
$259, the two channel version that records both front and rear retails for $369.
And again you'll find links to both of them down in the video description and if you use
those links, it's going to automatically save you 5% off the purchase of your DR750X Plus.
Now here at launch, they've got the single channel and two channel version, two channel
again, records both front and rear.
They're also eventually going to be coming out with the IR version of the dash cam that
has an interior facing dash cam with infrared LEDs, which really nice for a recording inside
the cabin useful for Uber and Lyft drivers, for example.
And they're also going to be releasing a version with the waterproof exterior truck version
of the dash cam.
That's going to be in the pipeline as well, but again, here at launch, it's just the standard
of front only version as well as the two channel one that records front and rear.
And other than that, that's just a quick summary of my overall take.
As far as the changes and improvements here with the new DR750X Plus.
New image sensor is the main change, plus a few small hardware things.
And overall, I think with the new image sensor, it's a nice improvement to the DR750X lineup.
It may need a little bit of tweaking here.
I'm not still sure yet.
Maybe again, some of the issues I've been seeing are just my specific dash cam, I'm
not totally sure.
But either way, I think the new image sensor is a welcome upgrade for the DR750X dash cam.
Awesome.
That's it for now.
Thanks so much for watching.
I hope you guys are all doing well.
Stay safe out there and I'll see you in the next video.
Bye.