Miofive Mirror 1 review: Smart 4K mirror dashcam with GPS now £229

Mirror-mounted dashcams are a clever idea - but this Miofive Mirror 1 bundles in some serious tech, too | Miofive

Mirror-mounted dashcams have been around for a little while now, but very few of the genuinely premium brands have launched one of their own... Until now.

Miofive is a brand I've become quite familiar with after testing several of their products, and it's great to see some of their best tech mounted into a mirror. It's called the Mirror 1, and I've lived with it for a little while in my own car.

Firstly, a mirror camera usually clamps over your existing rear view mirror, and its reflective surface gives you a view behind. Then, if you turn on the display, you've got an even better view, piped to you through a rear camera.

Mounted on the rear of this mirror is a forward-facing camera, which gives you a conventional dashcam recording, and the whole setup is in a nice, neat package.

Watching your rear view on a screen takes some getting used to - but it's actually a really good way to monitor your surroundings | Miofive

In some ways it seems the obvious way to use a dashcam. The front-facing camera is in the perfect position and the rear-facing camera can give you a detailed, digital view of the road behind you.

There are downsides, though. Firstly, they're quite cumbersome. Because they're designed to fit universally, they clamp on to your existing mirror, in Miofive's case using robust straps. It's fine in a big car, but in small cars the mirror will seem very large. You do get used to it though. There is a way to screw it on, but I wasn't quite brave enough.

Another issue is that using a digital mirror takes some getting used to. I can remember the first time I encountered one in a Subaru. It's a weird perspective, ever-so-slightly distracting, but once you get used to it, it's actually very beneficial. There's a bigger field of view and no obstructions from inside the car, like rear headrests, or gubbins in the boot.

If you really can't get on with it, you can just switch back to the reflective surface, but it's worth using, because it's a better system in the long run.

But I digress. Miofive has thrown all of their toys at the Mirror 1. The spec sheet sounds like the precursor to a dashcam aficionado's wet dream. It's all there; 4K footage, 5G, HDR, speed camera alerts, external GPS, a driver assistance system, 24-hour parking monitor and an IPS display.

It even has a Sony IMX415 sensor for the 4K front camera, which is about as good as it gets, and a 2K Sony Starvis 2 sensor for the rear camera. Each camera runs at 30FPS.

The package is definitely comprehensive - but get ready for a big project hiding all the wires | Miofive

All these goodies mean it's a bit of a wiring nightmare at first, and routing the cables is best done by a professional, but no major issue for a competent DIY-er.

Once it's in, though, it's seriously impressive. There's a dual display so you can watch front and rear footage at the same time, and the touch controls are a tad fiddly, but easy enough to understand.

The Miofive app remains one of the best on the market, and I love the fact it comes with a 128GB memory card installed.

There's some useful information on the screen, and the audible alerts are plentiful and borderline annoying - but mostly they're useful, and they can be customised. Keep them updated and they're usually quite handy.

Providing you can get the multitude of wires tucked away neatly, this is actually a really neat way to have a dashcam installed. And a digital rear view really does have lots of advantages, especially if your car has a poor rear view, as they often do nowadays.

But unlike cheaper mirror dashcams this has some seriously impressive tech built in, and it offers some of the best footage you'll find in a dashcam.

And that's why it's a bit pricey. Its recommended retail price is £299, but the good news is there's a deal on Amazon at the moment. You'd get one for £259.99 normally, but if you're quick you'll catch a £30 launch voucher, and that brings it down to £229.99.

And it's a serious consideration at that price, because dashcams don't come much cleverer than this.