It’s fair to say that the SQdeal Car Black Box DVR Dash cam lies fairly within the “budget” category when it comes to in car dash cams. It costs below $50 to buy and is very popular at it’s price point. But is it a good idea to invest in such a cheap camera when it comes to protecting you on the road? Read on to find out.
| SQdeal GS8000L at a glance | Price (at time of review) |
Our Rating | Awards |
 |
(Check Prices) | 4.2 |
N/A |
You may find a large number of conflicting reviews online when it comes to this device and often, that’s a warning in itself. When you have an incident that you expect to catch on camera, it’s devastating to find out that the technology you invested in has let you down and here at BestCarCamera.com, we always like to advise people to take this into consideration when it comes to looking at budget cameras.
SQdeal Car Black Box GS8000L Lens
One of the primary selling points of this camera besides the low price, is the fact that it can record at 1080p at fps and even records at a wide angled 120 degrees. Whilst it’s true that the video recorded is recorded at 1920×1080 pixels, the clarity is one of the poorest we have experienced on any 1080p camera. In broad daylight, it’s difficult to pick out the number plate of vehicles 2 car lengths in front of you. It’s also impossible to make out the number plates of parked cars as you pass them.
SQdeal Car Black Box GS8000L Hardware
The other main feature packed into this camera is the motion detection function that lets the device detect motion in front of your vehicle and record if any is detected. Although the feature works, it’s a little haphazard in how it records. It comes with a form of night vision that appears to improve the night time footage a little, but it’s still very grainy and unclear when trying to pick out individual cars in fast moving traffic or any number plates at all. The device is however a reasonable size and blends in well with your car interior
SQdeal Car Black Box GS8000L Gallery
SQdeal Car Black Box GS8000L Features
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Full HD 1080p Video recording
Th Lens allows you to record at resolutions up to 1920×1080 at 30 fps.
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2.7″ LCD Screen
The large 2.7″ screen lets you configure and angle the device correctly for use.
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Parking Mode
The motion detection based parking mode keeps your vehicles safe even when you are not physically there by activating it’s recording when it detects motion in front of your vehicle.
Common issues
As a budget cameras, there are a large number of somewhat common problems that have been reported:
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Faulty Units
A largish proportion of the units send our are either DOA or fail within the first few weeks. There have even been multiple people report what appears to be a 2nd hand already broken camera shipped to them;
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Screen Issues
There have been a number of reports of the screen turning white after a few days of use and no longer functioning. Again, this is due to a hardware fault and a replacement device is required.
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Date/Time Reset
There is an issue with fault batteries not maintaining enough charge to keep the date and time correct when the ignition is switched off. This seems to be a complete failure of the onboard battery and again, it’s best to get a replacement device.
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Chinese Lanugate
The device arrives set up with the language set to Chinese and this must be changed on first boot. The instructions are also not very clear and written in poor English.
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Failure to read memory card
There is a number of reports that the device fails to read any memory card and sees them all as “full”. Several SD cards have been tried but appears to be a hardware fault with the device.
Is the SQdeal Car Black Box GS8000L right for you?
With such a long list of faults and poor video quality, we can not recommend this even as an entry level camera. If you are looking to test the water with dash cams, picking this unit up will give you a poor idea of what a dash cam can offer as it’s so limited, if you are lucky enough to get a working unit in the first place.
As stated at the start of the review, buying cheap technology, particularly one that is designed to keep you safe and back you up in an emergency, is a bad idea. If you have a limited budget, the minimum we can recommend at BestCarCamera.com is the G1W. That offers a good quality and reliable device that will give you a good experience.
Where to Buy
Although we do not recommend it, this can be purchased at Amazon here:
It can also be picked up from eBay but it’s difficult to find a genuine product. Be sure to check the sellers rating:
SQdeal Car Black Box GS8000L Video Sample Day
SQdeal Car Black Box GS8000L Specs
SQdeal Car Black Box GS8000L |
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| Price | $21.99 (Check Prices) |
| Channels | 1 |
| Screen | 2.7″ Color LCD |
| GPS |  |
| G-Sensor/td> | |
| Wi-FI | |
| Parking Mode |  |
| File Lock | Manual Button |
| Max Resolution | 1080p @ 30F FPS |
| File Format | .mp4 |
| Viewing Angle | 120 |
| Memory Card Standard | Micro SD |
| Included Storage | Non Included |
| Max Card Supported | 32GB |
| Mount | Suction |
| Operating Temperature | N/A |
| Software Compatability | N/A |
Wrap Up
Car Black Box SQdeal GS8000L Dash Cam
Pros
- - Cheap 1080p
- - Good Size
Cons
- - Very Unreliable
- - Many DOA units
- - Issues with Screen
- - Issues with SD Card
- - Issues with Battery
