70mai Omni Dash Cam review: a smart, rotating 360-degree dash cam

Two-minute review

The 70mai is an excellent dash cam at a great price point – its 360-degree coverage and AI-powered features are real highlights, and you'll be hard-pushed to find anything better at this price.

The 360-degree coverage is by far its biggest selling point. You can get better video resolution, such as 4K, on other dash cams, but there aren't many on the market that enable a full rotation for filming any angle of the car. This feature will be particularly appealing for vloggers who want car surveillance while also being able to capture vlogs while driving. It also has the added benefit of being able to capture security threats that are to the side of or behind the windscreen.

The dash cam also benefits from a number of AI-powered features, such as motion detection. The Omni will automatically rotate to track any potential threats, including someone trying to break into the car through one of the doors. The AI hardware is great at assessing incidents, and deciding whether they pose a threat to the safety of your vehicle. 

The design has a lot to commend it too. It's well engineered, and designed to have a human-feel. The human-like display graphics means it's a bit like having a Tamagotchi sitting in front of you while you're driving – it smiles and waves, which I personally thought was a nice touch.  

There are, however, other dash cams that can record better video, at a higher resolution, and contain some better features – check out our best dash cams guide if you're looking for other options.

So, what do you actually get alongside the Omni? As you'd expect, it ships with everything you need to mount it to your windscreen, which is done using an electrostatic sticker, of which there are two in the box. There's also a spare adhesive sticker, and if you manage to damage these you can buy replacement ones through the 70mai website. 

To help keep you powered on the go you get a USB-C power cord and a car charger adapter. It's also possible to purchase a separate UP03 Hardwire Kit that lets you connect the device directly into the car battery. This is required to enable the camera to work even when you're not in the car, which is essential for making use of the parking surveillance feature. 

The user manual is written in clear English, making it easy to follow the setup process and troubleshooting tips.

The device itself is really nice to look at and touch. It's well engineered, with a sturdy hinge that lets you mount the unit at any angle you want. The hinge feels slightly stiff, but this has the added benefit of ensuring that it stays at exactly the angle you set it at.

The camera head is distinguished from the main body by the use of two different materials. The shiny black top houses the camera, which protrudes only ever so slightly from its housing. This top 'head' rotates really nicely around 360 degrees with no sense of sharp or jerky movements. It is possible to rotate this part when the device is powered off, though, which could result in you accidentally damaging the gimbal.

The main body is also plastic, but has a slightly softer touch to it. This houses the power cable port and the set of buttons. The buttons are red, which makes them stand out and ensures you'll never miss them. There's an on/off button, which also acts as a 'select' button when navigating the menus, while the up and down button lets you move through the menus. When the camera is mounted, these buttons are on the left-hand side of the unit which is great if your car is left-hand drive, but not ideal if it's right-hand drive.

The compact design means that if you choose to tuck it behind the rear view mirror  it'll largely be out of sight while offering good visibility.

One of the most important elements of a dash cam is the video quality. If you're going to the expense of buying one of these cameras and installing it in your car, then you want to make sure it's going to give you the visual information you need. These cameras are primarily used for surveillance, which means a certain resolution and definition is required. 

There's only one video resolution, which is Full HD 1920 x 1080px, with the option to capture footage at either 30fps or 60fps; if high resolution is important to you then you may want to pick up a 4K dash cam like the Nextbase 622GW. The resolution can only be adjusted through the app, which somewhat hampers its usability.

The lens is f/1.8 which allows plenty of light to hit the sensor and enables excellent low-light performance. Don't expect incredible detail in the shadows, though, as you would need a much better sensor to achieve this.

That said, the camera has a HDR feature which, when enabled, helps to reduce noise and detail loss in the highlights and shadows.

The lens has a field of view of 140 degrees, and can rotate through 360 degrees, which allows for a significant amount of the road in front of the vehicle to be captured.

The biggest selling point of this dash cam is its 360-degree functionality, although this isn't a true 360-degree camera; as mentioned it has a field of view of 140 degrees, and the 360-degree coverage is made possible by the rotation capabilities of the camera head. The ability to film out of the front windscreen as well as back towards yourself driving is a great feature. There are a range of benefits to this, including being able to film someone trying to break into your car when you're not present, while content creators will appreciate the ability to record vlog-style videos inside the car.

The night vision mode ensures that the 1080p footage is captured no matter what time of day it is; this works surprisingly well, and is aided by the HDR feature.

As well as video capture, the Omni contains a number of other features that help take car video surveillance to a whole new level.

First up is the 24-hour parking surveillance. This is only possible with the additional hardware cable, but once installed will ensure that any potential threat to your car when you're not present is captured.

AI motion detection further helps to ensure that the camera picks up any threat, no matter where it is around the car's exterior. If you walk near the car or are acting suspiciously then the AI hardware will determine how suspicious the movement is and if deemed a threat will begin recording.

You can connect the dash cam to the 70mai app for a greater level of control, including more settings. It's through the app that video clips and photos are viewable. I was a little disappointed to find that there isn't an SD or microSD card slot, which would mean you wouldn't have to rely on the app to view footage. 

You aren't reliant upon the device, or even the app, to control this dash cam. Through a number of voice commands the user can record video or rotate the camera head, enabling you to safely operate the camera when driving. 

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The Omni dash cam is remarkably easy to set up. The whole process of setting up the camera, connecting it to the app and then installing the device in my car took no more than 10 minutes, and the electrostatic sticker was strong enough to hold the unit firmly in place.

App connectivity was reliable, and connected seamlessly every single time. The app doesn't have the best reviews on the Apple App store, but I had very few problems with it. My only issue with the app was that it did seem to disconnect from the device far too quickly after ceasing recording. The connection process is quick and easy, so it wasn't necessarily a big problem, but it did become a bit of an annoyance. 

The 70mai app is available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Should you buy the 70mai Omni?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How I tested the 70mai Omni

• I used it regularly across a number of journeys
• I used it during the daytime and at night
• I recorded video for extended periods

The 70mai Omni was a pleasure to test, providing a satisfying overall experience. After installing the device and setting up the app I proceeded to use the dash cam like any other security-conscious driver would.

I wasn't able to test the parking surveillance feature as I didn't hardwire the device into the battery, but I did record footage during multiple journeys, in different lighting conditions and with a range of potential security issues.

• First reviewed November 2023