Garmin Dash Cam™ Mini 3, Ultracompact 1080p HD Dash Cam with a 140-degree Field of View, Built in Clarity™ Polarizer, Voice C

4 4 out of 5 stars | 4,333 ratings

Price: 129.99

Last update: 12-21-2024


About this item

Ultracompact, key-sized dash camera goes virtually unnoticed on your windshield; automatically records and saves video of incidents with date and time (some jurisdictions regulate or prohibit use of this device)
Easy-to-use dash camera records crisp 1080p HD video, and a wide 140-degree field of view captures details in bright and low light; automatically saves video of detected incidents (some jurisdictions regulate or prohibit use of this device)
Built-in Garmin Clarity polarizer lens reduces windshield glare to clearly show important video details
Save time, and avoid downloading or editing large video files with the online Vault, which automatically stores important saved video clips so you can view and share with the Garmin Drive smartphone app; you can even access high-end features, such as dash cam live view (requires a paid Vault subscription and active Wi-Fi network connection; nonpaid users can only view and download files when near the dash cam)
Voice control lets you use spoken commands to save video and start or stop audio recording (available in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Swedish)
Gain peace of mind when away from your vehicle; the parking guard feature sends a notification to your phone if an incident is detected (requires a paid Vault subscription, active Wi-Fi connection, constant power and use of the Garmin Drive app on your compatible smartphone)
Access the dash cam remotely for live view on your compatible smartphone when you’re away from your parked car (requires a paid Vault subscription, constant power and an active Wi-Fi network connection while using the Garmin Drive smartphone app)
View synchronized video clips from up to four dash cams (each sold separately) by using the Garmin Drive smartphone app for increased driver awareness and extra camera viewpoints
Designed to withstand harsh vehicle environments, including direct sunlight and hot car interior temperatures Wi-Fi is a registered trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance.

Product information


Top reviews from the United States

Scott
5.0 out of 5 stars Small, good quality images.
Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2024
I got this just to have in the case of an accident that was disputed. I don't need a screen on the dashcam as I will only be looking at it after an incident.
This fits the bill perfectly. It is so small it almost disappears on the windshield. Connecting to it with my cell phone can be a bit cumbersome, but I do not expect to do it ofterìn.
But, if I DO need footage from it, I can either grab it with my phone and send a link to my computer OR I can just pop the chip out and download the footage.
The video quality is very good. Not like a high quality movie, but clear, crisp and with the details obvious.
Price also was a plus.
Installation was a breeze. Just ran the cord across the top of the windshield, down by the door, under the dashboard and to the USB adapter. Took all of 15 minutes.
Lloyd E. Peterson
5.0 out of 5 stars Camera Excellent: Easy To Get Going With This
Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2024
I liked: easy setup, quality of video, control with voice commands is solid, video files saved to SD card with separate directories for saved and unprotected (easy to find the saved files … see last paragraph to understand importance), compact size easy to position where mirror obscures my view of it

Disappointing: seems like a subscription (vault) is required to transmit videos easily, settings change requires connecting to it with your smartphone ( iPhone for me ) and sometimes it just won’t connect).

This added as an edit. “ I have found that CarPlay prevents me from linking my iPhone to the Mini-3. Turning off CarPlay allows linking to Mini-3, but it isn’t typically quick. “

Once I fixed my settings I didn’t need to connect with the device. I’ll extract video I want by extracting the SD card and accessing it with my computer (and saved videos are easy to find in the directory labeled saved).
A Customer
1.0 out of 5 stars Save functions ruin main video record
Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2022
UPDATE 4: Throughout several phones and app updates, this thing continues to have problems. Updates don't fix things, and Garmin does not seem to care if updates break stuff. My current phone is a Samsung A54, hardly an obscure thing, and it has the endless "connecting" problem when trying to see the live view or access videos.

UPDATE 3: I reinstalled the app, and now it won't connect until I go to my wifi settings and "forget" the camera "DC Mini2". Problem: there is no such thing in my wifi list. So I can't remove a thing that isn't there, and the camera refuses to do anything until I do an impossible thing. This. Is. Junk. Do not buy it.

UPDATE 2: I took the risk of updating the app to see if they fixed the constant logging-out problem. Now it disconnects from the wifi every 5 seconds, so I can never get any videos off of it. It loads all the thumbnails, and then connects to wifi when selecting one (because it's still too stupid to connect when you open the app), starts loading the video, and then says wifi connection lost. This thing is a useless brick now.

UPDATE: In addition to everything below, the app periodically logs you out of your "session", so if you have an accident and want to manually save a clip, you might open the app and be told you need to log in again, so you have to dig around to find your password. AND you need to receive a verification text message code.

Overall, it doesn't seem like a good deal for the hardware you get. I kept this camera mostly because I had to. The dash cam market is a mess. I don't want the kind where the display and camera are both hanging down in the middle of my view of the road. I don't know why the standard dash cam design isn't a separate camera you mount to the window and the wire runs to a display/setting device you can mount under the dash.

I am going to use the next few paragraphs describing what I think it the worst thing if you plan to use the auto-save features. It seems like an absolute failure from a data-preservation point of view.

Marking video to be saved (done by save button, voice command, or crash detection) saves a separate 30-second video file, centered on the time the save was triggered. So if you have a crash at 1:00:15pm, you get a saved clip covering from 1h:00m:00s-1:00:30.

BUT!...

...there is now a period of 7 seconds missing from the main video recording, right from the point the save was triggered. If 15 seconds on either side of a point in time is not enough and you want to manually select a larger clip to save, there will be 7 seconds of reality missing from that new clip. It's like the camera can't handle copying the previous 15 seconds to the new file and also continuing to record new video to the main string of video, so it just gives up on one of its jobs for 7 seconds. There is a clock displayed on the video, and you will see the video skip ahead and the clock will jump forward.

Everything is still recorded SOMEWHERE, but 7 seconds of critical time will exist ONLY in the auto-saved clip... which the manual trimming feature of the phone app can't splice in. If you try to manually cut a longer clip, in the middle of playback the video will jump ahead 7 seconds. It will not be possible to save a new continuous clip which includes more time before or after the auto saved 30s clip.

Suggestion to Garmin: Why not just have the save function mark the current file as protected (along with either the previous or next file, if the current time is too close to the beginning or end)?

The camera also includes a handy voice command to "take a picture". This saves one frame of the video as a separate picture, which is much easier to transfer to your phone if that's all you need. BUT!... this ALSO interrupts the recording process, though for only about half a second. While this is much less than the 7 second skip from saving a video, you now have a fraction of video fully missing which does not exist anywhere!

OK, now some various comments:

I like having display and controls separate from the camera. It's ridiculous how most dash cameras force you to have the camera and the controls in the same location. I don't know why there aren't loads of dash cams made which have the main good camera on the end of a wire and a display/button unit mounded on your actual dash (or under it, etc).

App instructions are unclear. To connect to the camera, you need to turn on 3 things on your phone:
1. Wifi (NOT your phone's hotspot feature, wifi like you don't have Internet service, but used to transfer videos)
2. Bluetooth (uses for basic commands)
3. Location (I have no idea why, but it won't connect if you don't)

The app is mysteriously slow at establishing the wifi connection to the camera, but it does not bother trying to connect when you open it. It waits until you do something which NEEDS it. Why not start working on that in the background as soon as I open it?

Initial setup was confusing because by default, it was set to only use a wifi connection (not cellular data) to upload to the vault. If I am in a crash, what are the odds I happen to be connected to an existing wifi spot? I was not prompted to choose this when starting it the first time, it was just set to this absurd option in one of the menus.

Video quality is medium. Not great for night, OK for day. Expected for a midrange 1080p sensor.

The included USB cable is for power ONLY. Annoyingly, you can't unplug it from the power block and connect it to a laptop or USB OTG adapter to transfer stuff to your phone without wifi. To do that, you will need to disconnect the cable at the camera end and use another USB cable.

When saving a video clip, it is not always clear what is happening. FYI, the export screen's status bar means loading to phone. Upload to cloud status is not shown and happens in the background.

The clip-cutting setup of the app is great (as long as you haven't lost 7 seconds of time from an auto save). Videos are all grouped with a single icon per day. A day is then displayed as a single timeline, and there are sliders you can use to select start/stop points for a clip to export. Tapping and holding the sliders will zoom in on the timeline so you can be precise.

Something which makes up for the terrible auto save feature (which I disabled) is that this camera supports HUGE 512GB SD cards. Buy as much memory as you don't mind paying for, and you don't have to worry about critical footage being overwritten any time soon. A 64gb card holds about a week worth of driving for me.

Accessory note: Garmin sells a separate polarizing filter which reduces glare. For what Garmin wants for this camera, they should have included it for free.

Cloud storage: If you upload a clip to Garmin's cloud storage, they save it for free for 24 hours. You can generate a shareable link to the file and email it to people. They have a monthly subscription option if you want to store videos on their server longer, otherwise there is no fee for any features.

App warning: You need to be logged into the app to connect to the camera (yikes). Save the password somewhere on your phone.

App warning 2: There is an option in the app to set the camera to delete video after only 3 minutes! Make sure this is not turned on. I have no idea what kind of wannabe secret agent is using a phone/web-connected dash cam but also thinks their driving history is so secret it must vanish after 3 minutes.
Garden100
4.0 out of 5 stars Discrete dash cam that does the job, but the app could be better
Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2024
The camera is easy to install and works as advertised. The app is ok, but sometimes has connection issues. I have 3 of these, using in 2 cars.

One complaint -- I wish the camera would send a warning when the memory card fails. I'm using SanDisk 256GB High Endurance microSDXC card on all. But one of the card had died after about 2 years of usage. I did not reformat the card every 6 months as instructed, so perhaps this was the problem. The camera stops working and doesn't connect to the app when the card fails, so it was hard to troubleshoot the issue. I wish the app would also prompt me to reformat every 6 month if this is a critical maintenance. Or at least send a clear message if the card had failed.

Best Sellers in

 
 

Dash Cam Front Rear 4K/1080P, Dash Camera for Cars Build in WiFi, Full HD Dash Cam with APP Control, 3.94‘’ IPS Screen Dash C

4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 372
59.48
 
 

4K 3 Channel Dash Cam with 64GB Card, 4K+1080P+1440P Dash Cam Front and Rear Inside, Dash Camera for Cars with Super Night Vi

5 5 out of 5 stars 11
59.99
 
 

Wireless Carplay Screen for Car 7" HD Portable Car Stereo Touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with Mirror Link/Ba

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 137
74.99
 
 

Dash Cam WiFi 2K, Car Camera with APP, Front Dash Camera for Cars, Mini Dashcams with WDR Night Vision, 24 Hours Parking Moni

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 1374
49.98
 
 

COOLCRAZY Dash Cam Front and Rear, 4K Full HD Dual Dash Camera for Cars Built-in 5G WiFi GPS, 64GB Card, Car Camera with 3" I

4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 469
109.99
 
 

3M VHB Double-Sided Sticker Adhesive Pad and Car Windshield Electrostatic Film for Mounting Dash Cam

4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 409
12.9
 
 

Cobra HHRT50 Road Trip CB Radio - 2-Way Handheld Emergency Radio with Access to Full 40 Channels & NOAA Alerts, Rooftop Magne

4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 4922
99.95
 
 

Dash Cam Front and Rear, 8K UHD/2.5K FHD Dash Cam, Dash Camera for Cars, Free 32GB Card, Build in GPS & WiFi,3.16" IPS Screen

5 5 out of 5 stars 28
89.99