This front and rear dash cam dispenses with the frills and concentrates on what’s important: recording good-quality video. This means it’s cheaper than most rival ‘dual-channel’ dash cams, but do watch out as some bundles don’t include the GPS mount and the polarising filter.

Both are worth having so you can prove where the video is recorded and to remove reflections 0in the video.

The wedge design of the front camera means you still get a screen but still tucks away behind your rear-view mirror. The rear camera, although small, has a thick cable which can be hard to fit behind trim neatly. The A229 Duo has a much thinner cable, and records in 2K front and rear – a higher resolution than the A129’s 1080p, but it costs significantly more.

At a similar price to a lot of front + rear dash cams, the T130 is good value as it has a third camera that records inside the vehicle. All three cameras deliver good video quality that – as long as it’s not night time – can usually be relied upon to show clearly what happened in an incident. Resolution is enough in most cases to read registration plates.

The interior camera uses infrared LEDs for decent night vision, but quality is still better during daylight.

The app could do with some interface improvements, but it generally works reliably and makes it easy to adjust the dash cam’s settings – there’s no screen on the T130 and only certain things can be controlled using the buttons.

One of the highlights is the versatile parking mode which can record time-lapse video, as well as full-motion video if it detection motion. You’ll need the hardwire kit to use this mode, but it doesn’t add much to the total cost.

The lowest-priced model in Nextbase’s new Series 2 range to have Alexa and Emergency Response, the 422GW also supports the range of rear cameras, records at 1440p and cost the same as the older 412GW did.

If you don’t need all the new features, then you can save money by opting for the 322GW.

Viofo understands what people want from a dash cam: good quality video recording, plus recording options when your car is parked. 

There are no extra features such as lane-departure, speed camera: even GPS is optional, so you can pay less if you don’t want it. This keeps the price down while still offering great quality. 

There are three parking modes to choose between, but you will need to buy and fit the hardwire kit to use them.

The M2 fits over your existing rear-view mirror and provides an ultra-wide display which can show the rear camera’s view – or you can turn off the display and it’s a mirror, albeit a little dimmer than a standard one.

If you’re a competent with car electrics, you can hook up the rear camera to your car’s reverse light and mount it externally so it doubles as a reversing camera: you’ll see the parking guidelines appear on the screen when reversing.

Video quality is good from both cameras and our only real complaints are the clunky menu system which is awkward to use, the lack of Wi-Fi and a companion app to download videos without a PC, and the fact recordings are in the incompatible .ts format rather than the much more common MP4.

If you want more detail than 1080p dash cams can produce, the next step up is 2K (1440p). Viofo’s A229 Duo has front and rear cameras which records at this resolution.

During the day, quality is great, but as with all dash cams – including the others here – you won’t get the same level of clarity at night.

We like that there’s a choice of three different parking modes for recording events or a time-lapse, so you can pick the mode that suits you best. To use any of them you’ll need the optional hard-wire kit that connects to your car’s fuse box.

Put simply, if you want the extra detail over the A129 Duo, the A229 is a good choice. The drawback is the price, but it’s a great dash cam overall.

The 622GW is the all-singing, all-dancing flagship from Nextbase. It may be expensive, but it has all the features you can think of, and even more than you can’t – plus comes in a new burnt orange Sienna Limited Edition with 5% of profits going to MS Society UK.

Core video quality is very good, partly thanks to the stabilisation which helps to sharpen details. At night, it’s still impressive, but don’t expect to be able to read registration plates.

Alexa could be handy if you stream music while driving, and the Emergency SOS and what3words integration is a nice extra (though it is a subscription service, not included as standard).

If you don’t want a rear camera, you might be able to justify spending this much on a front-facing camera, but there isn’t a huge trade-off in quality if you step down to the 522GW.

The Aivo View is the first dash cam from iOttie, a company better known for its phone accessories.

Though it isn’t the cheapest single-lens dash cam you can buy, it ticks the important boxes. It’s about as easy to install as dash cams get, delivers good quality video day and night at the default settings and comes with a remote control button for taking photos (or videos) on demand. 

There’s no screen, so you have to use the app to change settings, see the live view and review saved videos. They can be downloaded to your phone, but it’s a very slow process.

It can record while you’re parked, but you’ll have to provide your own power supply for this, such as a USB power bank, as iOttie doesn’t offer a hardwire kit. This is far from convenient, and you have to enable parking mode as well: it won’t automatically switch when you connect a different power source. 

The 122 is a very low-cost dash cam which uses the same handy magnetic quick-release mount as more expensive models in the range, so it’s really convenient to remove from the car to transfer video files.

It’s the only dash cam here which records at a lowly 1280×720 pixels, and there is certainly less detail. However, the 120-degree lens means it is much easier to read number plates of oncoming cars as they’re physically larger in the resulting video. Quality is acceptable during the day, with most registrations visible when you pause the video.

Like most dash cams, even those costing five times as much, it can’t often capture registrations at night as detail levels really drop off. However, you should still be able to prove what happened if an incident happens in front of you.

There are no frills, such as Wi-Fi or GPS, but the 122 is nice and compact and has easy-to-use buttons and menus.

We’d recommend paying more for a 1080p dash cam, but if you have a very limited budget, this is a good choice.