The E1 4K Pro's performance does not come without caveats, however. Vantrue's proprietary “PlatePix” tech can up the contrast on license plates, but this comes at the expense of darkening footage of everything that's not a license plate. And night recording is still a challenge.
Day and Night
The E1 Pro is a second-generation device, improving drastically on its predecessor, the Element 1. When my colleague Simon Hill tested the original E1 a couple years back, he found it had crisp video even at a significantly lower resolution (1440p) than the current model. But the app connection was janky, leaving some features out of reach.
Vantrue app via Matthew Korfhage
The Pro model, released last year, offers some much-needed upgrades—and yet costs the same or less than the Element did two years ago. The Wi-Fi signal on the E1 Pro has been upgraded to 5 GHz, which offers both faster data transfer and easier connection with your phone—obviating the difficulties connecting to the previous-generation device.
Note, however, that this Wi-Fi is an internal router, meaning you'll have to switch your phone's Wi-Fi to the Vantrue network. The next smart thing to do is to go into the app's settings and change the Vantrue's Wi-Fi password away from the default 12345678, lest any passerby or snooping ex-partner have access to all your footage whenever your camera's on.
As mentioned, the UHD 4K resolution is much better than on the Element 1. And the field of vision is 158 degrees, offering a very wide view of traffic. The camera supports micro-SD cards with a terabyte of data, which would cover more than a week of driving. Vantrue's lowest-cost 64-gig SD card ($40) is good for more like five hours of continuous 4K footage. While you don't have to pay for an app or cloud storage subscription, you do have to buy your SD cards separately. One way or the other, you always pay for data.
The biggest upgrade to the E1 Pro is the video processing, using Sony's top-line Starvis 2 IMX678 image sensor to aid in performance during low light. This works quite well in twilight conditions, and daytime footage is clear as, uh, day.