My first dash cam made me wonder why I waited so long

I have never been the first to use new technologies. Call me a dinosaur in an increasingly digital world, but I still like to do things the old-fashioned way: manual transmissions, gas-powered motorcycles that require an actual clutch, physical buttons instead of touchscreens, and the occasional mechanical noise.

Maybe that’s what kept me away from dash cams until now. But considering how chaotic daily driving has become, I couldn’t say no when DDPAI reached out to let me test drive their new Z90 Master.

Since this is my first dash cam, I don’t have a personal basis for comparison. That said, I knew DDPAI was a major player in the market. It’s a Chinese manufacturer that offers almost 20 models, at least according to its store listings. The Z90 Master is their latest flagship unit, priced at $299.

While I haven’t owned one before, I’ve seen plenty of dash cams in other vehicles, and the Z90 Master certainly isn’t the most discreet option available. It is quite thick and weighs 204.5 g (0.45 lb).

The main case features a 3-inch screen with four control buttons underneath. A microSD slot is located on one side, while the other contains the USB-C power input and rear camera connector. The lens module rotates, making it easy to dial in the correct angle for your windshield.

The rear camera is noticeably more compact. It also features an adjustable lens that runs through a single cable connected to the main unit. For my Jimny, the included wiring was long enough to run between both chambers and should offer enough clearance for most standard vehicles.

The overall package can be expanded with an optional 4G module, allowing you to check live video streams remotely from your phone while parked. There is also an optional third interior camera designed to monitor the cabin. Since I haven’t tested any of the add-ons, my review focuses strictly on the main setup: the front and rear cameras.

Video resolution is easily one of the Z90 Master’s strongest selling points. The main front camera captures up to native 4K or 3K at a smoother 60 frames per second. The rear camera handles secondary coverage, while the optional interior camera shoots at 3K (2880 x 1620).

Featuring an 8MP Sony STARVIS 2 IMX678 sensor and DDPAI’s RealCube AI image processing, the system automatically adjusts contrast and clarity for impressive low-light performance. You also get standard safety features like collision detection, which blocks HD clips in the event of an impact, and a forward vehicle start alert, which notifies you when traffic ahead of you starts to move.

It’s true that impact detection is much more practical than traffic alerts (if you need a chime to let you know that the car in front has moved, you may have bigger problems). However, even at its lowest sensitivity setting, the G-sensor activated too much and blocked emergency recordings every time I passed a basic speed bump.

A three-axis G-sensor takes care of this monitoring. You can even open the app to see live G-force data while you drive. The Z90 Master includes several additional features, including route planning, voice commands, GPS tracking, and a 5fps parking time lapse, although I suspect most drivers rarely touch them.

The highlight for me is the DDPAI companion app. It gives you full control right from your smartphone, allowing you to toggle camera feeds, stream live footage, review previous clips, and modify settings like resolution, exposure, timestamps, and alert toggling.

DDPAI provides three power options in the box: a standard 12V plug, a fuse box direct wiring kit, or an OBD connector. I opted for the OBD route. That made the electrical connection easy; the only real work was routing and hiding the cables behind the interior lining.

After a month of daily driving with the setup in place, this is where I landed.

The highlight of the Z90 Master is its image quality, which goes a long way to making it easy to live with. The front camera uses a 135-degree field of view, which introduces a little distortion at the edges, but that’s the price for capturing a wide swath of the road ahead. The rear camera is a little tighter at 126 degrees, but still offers plenty of coverage behind you.

The mobile app is smooth and most settings work as expected. My biggest issue, however, was a persistent glitch where the unit would randomly turn off while driving.

It happened regularly: the unit would shut down and then reboot twice before returning to normal mode. I reported this to the DDPAI team, who confirmed that this was a known bug affecting some review units and noted that a firmware patch is being developed to resolve it.

Beyond that quirk, the Z90 Master does its main job exceptionally well. The video quality is so sharp that it could double as an action camera to capture POV footage from road trips. Additional software tricks, however, remain a bit hit and miss.

There’s a lot to appreciate here: sharp images, ample coverage, solid rear video, and enough utility to be much more than just a windshield ornament. But some smart features lack polish, and a clean wiring installation requires a bit of effort. However, if you do a permanent installation, the setup eventually blends into the background, which is exactly what a good dash cam should do.

For $300, the Z90 Master does the most critical job: capturing clear, reliable images when something goes wrong on the road. It’s not perfect and some key features look better on paper than in practice, but if your main priority is clear visuals over endless software tricks, it makes a compelling argument on its own.

Source: DDPAI