By Gareth Butterfield

Copyright scotsman

It might feel like triple, or three-channel dashcams cater for something of a niche market. One camera for the front is fine, a camera facing the rear has obvious benefits, but a camera recording the interior seems less useful.

However, for professional drivers, especially taxi drivers, it’s a no-brainer. It’s useful for fleet managers who want to ensure their drivers are behaving themselves, and for general drivers, it’s a third layer of evidence that could prove invaluable.

So they’re something to be taken seriously. And I’ve tested plenty of them, which is why I was keen to put the latest launch from Vantrue through its paces the Vantrue N4 Pro S.

It’s the new hero product in Vantrue’s top-tier Nexus range, and it’s a stylish little cylindrical 4K camera up front, with a tiny little 2.5K rear camera, and a 1080p camera for the interior.

These aren’t earth-shattering specs on the face of it, but each sensor is a Sony Starvis 2 unit, which is a huge bonus, and each has HDR and wide angles.

The whole setup also has parking monitoring, collision detection, a GPS logger, IP67 water resistance, and trick “PlatePix” technology.

And the best bit? There’s a coupon code on the Vantrue website, which brings the price down to around £250 when you get to the checkout. And that is an absolute bargain for a high-end, feature-rich three-channel dashcam.

But is it any good? In short, yes. Very.

The front cameras are not part of a small unit. With its big IPS screen, it takes up a fair bit of space in your windscreen, although it’s not hard to tuck away – and it’s actually good to make it obvious you’re using a dashcam.

That screen makes setting it up easy, as does the accompanying app, and the Sony Starvis sensors packed in to the unit are superb – the 4K recording system is just about as good as it gets, at least for the front camera.

The rear camera does a great job of capturing clear images and, while the interior camera is a little lacking in resolution, you won’t have a hard time picking out detail from the footage. It’s adequate.

Vantrue’s PlatePix technology is included, of course, and it’s a really clever way of enhancing the image to ensure you can read number plates. It has been criticised in the past for making the overall image a little dark, but I’ve found fiddling with the HDR settings, which is easy in the app, balances things out a bit. If you can be bothered, that is.

What I like about the Vantrue N4 Pro S is its ease of setup, and the way you can just leave it running and get on with your day.

It’s worth investing some time getting the settings right from the start, for sure, but once you’ve got it all honed to perfection, it’s a really nice dashcam to use – and the footage quality is top notch.

Another big success for Vantrue then, and another strong rival in the battle for the best triple channel dascham.