Rove R2-4K dash cam review: Good captures, GPS, and an app

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On the back of the Rove R2-4K is a 2.4-inch color display, with five buttons below it for navigation: Menu, up/mute, emergency lock/Wi-Fi, down/LCD off, and OK. On the right is the Type-C power jack, while on the left are the MicroSD card slot and power button.

The power to said Type-C jack comes from the auxiliary connector. Rove supplies an auxiliary adapter with a single Type-A port

On top of the camera are the TV/video-out and GPS module. Yes, there’s integrated GPS and it connects very quickly — unlike some. Note that the time zone and time must be set manually regardless.

Rove of course provides an app to connect via the Wi-Fi. The app offers a live view and allows you to adjust the rather copious number of settings. You can even switch between h.264 and h.265 video (space-saving). The onscreen interface is nicely rendered, and logically laid out.

As with all dash cams, I recommend that you spend a few minutes with the interface before you start driving. That way, you can find the button or setting you need before the light turns green and everyone behind you starts honking. Just sayin’.

What I didn’t care for with the R2-4K is that you must create a Rove account to use the app. No one should be forced online in order to use one of a product’s main features. Of course, you can configure the dash cam using the display, but… Note that Rove is not the only vendor that does this, though that doesn’t make it any easier to swallow.

            <div class="lightbox-image-container foundry-lightbox"><div class="extendedBlock-wrapper block-coreImage undefined"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large enlarged-image"><img decoding="async" data-wp-bind--src="selectors.core.image.enlargedImgSrc" data-wp-style--object-fit="selectors.core.image.lightboxObjectFit" src="" alt="" class="wp-image-2308456" width="1200" height="885" loading="lazy" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The Rove camera app is extensive and provides a live view as well as access to recorded files.</figcaption></figure></div>

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How much does the Rove R2-4K cost?

On Rove’s site, the R2-4K is available for $129.99, marked down from a stated MSRP of $199.99. It seems unlikely the product will ever actual retail for that higher price, since Amazon has the R2-4K currently listed at $119.99, and marked down to $79.99. That’s a pretty darn good bargain.

How are the Rove R2-4K’s captures?

I assumed the Rove R2-4K would default to 2160p (4K UHD), but instead it came set to 2K (1440p), so my initial testing was at that lesser resolution. I suppose this is to save space. Oddly, though, the 2K was set to h.264 compression, while the 4K I reset it to for further testing (that’s what it’s billed as, after all!) defaulted to HEVC/h.265.

As a result, there was only a difference of about 30MB per minute (225MB/h.264/1440p, 250MB/h.265/2160p). This would make h.265 seem like a no-brainer. It’s when it comes to saving storage, however, that h.265 playback also requires more processing power. Not all CPUs offer h.265 acceleration and as a result, h.265 playback on some low-power and older devices can be jerky.

The R2-4K’s captures at 4K are quite good, while the 2K captures are middling at best and suffered some minor stabilization issues. As you can see below, the daytime captures are more than passable, though I’d like to see just a bit sharper detail.