IROAD X10 shows why spending more on a dash cam can be a worthy investment.

Updated 12 January 2022

There is a sea full of dashcams and you might think it’s the case that there’s a dime a dozen, but that’s not true. There are some truly exceptional dashcams compared to the norm (and particularly compared to cheap budget units) and the IROAD X10 claims to be one of them.

Headlining this dash cam are features such as an OBDII scanner tool, an external GPS unit for location monitoring, and a front and rear dashcam with 4K recording upfront (2160P) through glass lenses.

As for who IROAD is, if you haven’t heard of them, they are the world’s biggest seller of dashcams. Locally, the units and accessories are imported by Connected Audio Visual PTY LTD but are made in Korea. The local arm adds: “At IROAD Australia we offer premium customer service and back up support for our Australian customers. When you purchase a premium product you can expect premium service from us at IROAD Australia. Our office is located in Kiama NSW and we have reseller stores located in every state across Australia.” That’s a more comforting thought, to us, than an unknown cheapie off the internet that might not have any real backup if something goes wrong.

Disclaimer: IROAD provided the camera to Practical Motoring for review, however, we have not been paid and are not being sponsored to review this product, and in no way earn any money through affiliate sales.

What does it cost and what do you get?

For the better equipment on test here than we are used to seeing in a dashcam, you do have to pay more. Pricing for the IROAD X10 at the time of writing starts at $769 with a 32GB card from IROAD Australia’s official website. You can option larger micro SD cards which, naturally, costs more.

Our unit from IROAD arrived promptly and was very well packaged – it feels and looks much like the sort of packaging you would get from upmarket consumer technology products such as an Apple phone or DJI drone; black and white boxes with clear writing and nicely packed so nothing should get incidentally damaged.

In the box, you get the main (front of car) camera, the smaller rear camera, a micro SD card with SD card reader, plus a box of wires and sticky mounts for the cameras. The wires are for connecting the cameras together and powering the system.

Of note are accessories that can transform this camera – OBDII unit for car diagnostics and powering the dashcam unit, external GPS antenna, and a Wifi dongle. The OBDII can display current vehicle information including Engine RPM, Coolant Temperature, Fuel System Status, Vehicle Speed, DPF information, Gear Position, Battery Voltage, and Transmission Oil.

What’s the build quality like?

It’s a very nice feeling unit, and both cameras have a solid quality to them. Even the accessories are very good, with thick insulation on the wiring and solid connection to ports for accessories.

The sticky pads are really sticky and have a tight fit, plus there are spares included. If you’re planning on moving the camera from car to car occasionally this poses an issue, as they don’t like being pulled off and on again. There were no suction mounts available but would likely also provide a looser fit compared to the sticky pads.

The operating temperature range provided is from -30 to 70 degree Celsius (humidity range 10 to 95 per cent), which is better than most and shows where the research and development enhances this IROAD unit.

The image sensor for the front camera is a Sony Starvis 8M CMOS Sensor which is a step up over 4M sensors that provides mushy 4K and it has good low light capability. The rear camera which records 1080P full HD is a SONY Exmor 2M CMOS Sensor.

Full specs:

How do you install it?

The main unit is mounted at the top of the front windscreen pointing out, and the rear camera on the rear window looking back.

The front camera is powered by a cable that connects to the main voltage power, accessories power and is earthed. Alternatively, there is a 12v socket power adaptor or the OBDII unit powers the camera system.

As is, you can opt to only use the front camera and can connect the rear camera for recording vision out the back when driving.

To do this, there’s a long cable that connects the rear to the front unit. This is a pain of a job to do well (so it’s tucked away nicely) so leave a good amount of time to get this part right, as you don’t want it to pop out while driving and be a distraction. The cable provides power to the rear camera.

With automatic on and off, the camera turns on when you turn the car on, and off when the ignition is off. There is also shock detection and other settings to record footage when the car is parked. Essentially, the camera works in two different ways: the front camera only, and the front and rear camera together. In the latter, you have two video files, one of the front, and one of the rear.

No matter if you’re recording in single or front/rear camera mode, it records 4K footage for the front camera. The rear records 1080P – the video settings for this can be changed using the wifi app. Setting up the app is rather simple, and there are also clear voice commands and recognition given from the camera itself as there is no physical screen on it.

Once we had the app installed and linked to the Wifi dongle we were able to see both cameras in real time and make quick changes to settings.

How good is it?

The image quality is excellent for a dash cam and important details such as number plates can be made out in any quality setting for both front and rear cameras. The quality at 4k is certainly better than 1080p, as one would expect. The colours are a bit more vibrant and the sharpness and clarity better. For our testing we had the cameras side by side on the screen to compare the quality – obviously, the 4K is nicer to look at and clearer, but the rear camera does a very respectable job and you can rear small details – plus the colours remain punchy.

Comparison front and rear camera quality:

The recorded footage can be reviewed using the app which is comptabile with an Apple or Android phone. The microSD card pops out easily for loading it onto a computer, and with a Mac or Windows machine you can also look at the logs for GPS coordinates, including driving route, speed, longitude and latitude and location. The output file is H.264 MP4 at around 115MB for 45secs on the 4K camera and 40MB for 45sec on the rear camera. While that adds up quickly, the camera can record back over existing files and save any which are important when flagged or due to an impact being recorded. In fact, there are a lot of options in the settings to change how it records and when, so it is certainly worth playing around with what is best for you.

It also features a motion sensor that can detect objects and automatically start recording, and has sensitivity settings for the impact detection. Alongside this is a parking mode with sensitivity settings and post-impact recording time settings.

Night video quality is quite good too – considering the size of the camera – and again it is the 4K front camera that is best. But ultimately, both capture enough detail for seeing most details you need.

Anything else I need to know?

The maximum SD card size is 256GB, and you can buy it with a choice of 32GB to 256GB cards from IROAD’s official Australian retailer.

Finally, IROAD in Australia / New Zealand has a 3 Year Limited Warranty on all dash camera purchases and a 1 Year Warranty on accessory purchases, which begins from the date of purchase.

Conclusion

The IROAD X10 made a great impression in the box and the build quality is certainly above par. This is great for anyone who wants a better product than most cheap units, and you can really tell that extra resources have gone into making a solid, quality feeling system. The image quality continues the theme with what is very good footage and the flexible accessories and depth of settings mean it should do just about everything most will need.