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Image: Kingslim
At a glance
Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Good exterior 2160p detail and color
- Good day and night interior captures
- Handsome compact design
- Auxiliary power and GPS cable
- Exceptional battery life
Cons
- Doesn’t automatically start recording at power on
- No GPS when using alternate power source
- Night exterior recordings suffer headlight flare
Our Verdict
The D6 is a stylish, workable unibody front/interior camera combo with decent captures. A nice step up from the previously reviewed D4, though still with some rough operational edges here and there.
Best Prices Today: Kingslim D6 dash cam
The Kingslim D6 offers better, more detailed captures than the company’s D4 (which we reviewed in January). There are still some of the rough edges you’d expect from a company new to the game, however in toto, it’s much more worthy of consideration than its D4 predecessor.
Note: See our roundup of the best dash cams to learn about competing products, what to look for in a dash cam, and buying recommendations.
Kingslim D6: Features and specs
The D6 melds both a 4K UHD (2160p), 140-degree field-of-view front camera and a 120-degree FOV 1080p interior camera with infrared into a single unit. It makes for a minimal footprint on your windshield—i.e., it doesn’t block your view much. The interior camera doesn’t swivel but captures enough of the cabin regardless. The D6 is attractively styled in black with red highlights and sports a sharp, colorful 2-inch display.
Four function buttons on the bottom correspond to the icons on the display and are used for navigating and selecting settings. The power adapter is an auxiliary port/Type-C cable with a GPS module inline. Our D6 shipped with a suction mount but the GPS adapter, which is meant to be mounted near the camera, uses semi-permanent adhesive.
One drawback to the GPS mounted inline on the power cord is that it’s not available when you use another power source such as a hardwire kit or OBDII power cord. My other power-related complaint is that the D6 defaults to not recording at power on. If you’re like me, you might not remember to turn this on every time.
On the left side of the D6 are the micro SD card slot and the Type-C connector. Other than that, there’s just ventilation grating.
Software features include parking mode and fatigue alerts. I do like that the screen saver doubles as a large, easy-to-read clock. You can also have the display simply turn off.
Kingslim D6: Usage and app
Using the D6 was easy enough outside of the pesky record issue. The buttons on the bottom are easy enough to reach, and the display is easy to read. The camera connects to your phone via Wi-Fi, so you’ll only have cellular internet while it’s in use.
One oddity: When connected via Wi-Fi to the app, changing the network on the phone left the D6 still powered on even without the power cable connected. I only noticed this after about 15 minutes—a testament to the D6’s tremendous battery life (280mAh), but not a great behavior.
The app features a live view, as well as access to some settings, saved videos, and the album where you can permanently store videos. Why Kingslim hasn’t implemented all the settings in the app, I can’t tell you, but things such as GPS can only be set on the camera. All in all, the D6 isn’t my favorite physical/app interface combo of all time, but it’s certainly workable.
It’s nice that the D6’s interior camera actually captures in color during the day. Many interior cameras default to monochrome under all circumstances.
Kingslim D6: Performance
The D6’s captures are vastly improved from the previously reviewed D4. While they aren’t the sharpest 4K UHD (2160p, 3840×2160) captures I’ve seen, there’s enough detail to distinguish the characters on a license plate, which is the bar any dash cam needs to clear.
Night captures weren’t as good. But, while lacking detail in the surrounding areas, the D6 cleared the “readable license plate” bar. Alas, flare from headlights was not dealt with well (as shown below), blowing out the area around them and helping to kill detail in darker areas.
It’s nice that the D6’s interior camera actually captures in color during the day. Many interior cameras default to monochrome under all circumstances. Detail is good, though the color is a bit cold in temperature (I don’t have yellow fever!). Overall, however, very nice interior day captures.
Night captures switch to monochrome, but still offer decent detail. Note that even the action out the rear window is captured in some detail. And yes, that’s me standing outside to avoid having my mug on display in every image.
I already marveled at the run time of the 280mAh battery, but that wasn’t while recording, which Kingslim claims can proceed for a full 10 minutes. I believe it, and that’s more than enough to capture most post-event action should power be interrupted due to the event.
Overall, I’d rate the D6’s exterior captures as very good during the day but merely passable at night. Interior captures are very good in any lighting condition. Again, the captures are a vast improvement over the D4.
Should you buy the Kingslim D6?
Kingslim improved capture quality for the D6, so it’s worth considering. If you can live with the cons listed at the top of the article, you’ll get decent bang for the buck, especially if you can find it at a discount on Amazon.
Best Prices Today: Kingslim D6 dash cam
Author: Jon L. Jacobi, Freelance contributor
Jon Jacobi is a musician, former x86/6800 programmer, and long-time computer enthusiast. He writes reviews on TVs, SSDs, dash cams, remote access software, Bluetooth speakers, and sundry other consumer-tech hardware and software.
