Cobra HD Dash Cam with Bluetooth®Drive HDTM Dash Cams allow drivers to protect their vehicle, relive their drive and share interesting footage by continuously recording video of the road ahead in 1080P Full HD video.The CDR 855 BT is Cobra s most advanced, user friendly and feature packed dash cam.It includes a two inch LCD screen, ultra wide 160 viewing angle and embedded G Sensor to automatically save and protect clips if an impact is detected.In addition, the CDR 855 BT is the first and only of its kind to connect to your smartphone via Bluetooth Smart wireless technology.The smartphone connection enables new features including embedded GPS location, time, G Force and speed information footage, as well as providing alerts for upcoming speed and red light cameras, live police locations and shared radar alerts from the iRadar Community.What's in the Box:

•  Owner's manual
• CDR 855BT Dash Cam (with 8 GB microSD card inserted)
• 21" Micro USB cable (Type A USB on one end and Micro USB on other end)
• 118" Micro USB cable (Type A USB on one end and Micro USB on other end)
• Windshield mounting bracket with 1.75" suction cup
• DC power adapter with female Type A USB port
• Quick Release Mount
• Quick Start Guide
• Important Product Information
• Product Registration card
• Product Highlights

Features:

• Compact full HD dash cam with 2" LCD display for viewing and playback
• Package includes:
• Adjustable vehicle suction cup mount
• 8 GB microSDâ„¢ memory card
• Vehicle power adapter
• PC software for viewing GPS-enabled video
• USB to micro USB cable
• Bluetooth capability for use with smartphones
• Red light camera, speed camera, live police location, and shared radar alerts via iRadar® online community
• Bluetooth-powered video geo-tagging
• Internal microphone for audio recording
• Built-in speaker for playback
• Parking mode for motion detection
• G-sensor incident detection
• Mini HDMI output
• Sensor: 2 MP CMOS
• 160-degree viewing angle
• Video resolution: 1080p (30 fps) and 720p (30 and 60fps) HD
• Video format: .mov
• Dimensions: 2-9/16"W x 2-5/16"H x 1-1/4"D

Review of the Cobra CDR855BT:The dash camera market is being flooded with outside competitors offering more features for less money.To counter this, big name manufacturers are releasing a line of new products to try and stay ahead of the curve.For the team at Cobra, they looked to build upon their great line of cameras, like the CDR 900 we reviewed last year.But can they reduce the price, improve the design, and stay ahead of the competition?We gave the Cobra 855 BT Dash Cam a whirl to find out.Initial camera setupThe packaging includes the 855 BT camera unit, windshield mount, USB to Micro USB cable, 8GB MicroSD card, and 12-volt power cable.Because this is a budget device, the camera body is composed of light plastics that can feel rather unsubstantial.This isn’t to say that the camera will fall apart in your hands, but don’t expect a solid metal build like the stuff from some manufacturers like Vantrue.The design of the camera is thankfully more rounded than the “simple and square†style of last year’s CDR 900.For this updated design, Cobra has also improved the interface to incorporate four buttons under the display screen.This allows for easy access to common controls like the display on/off, mute/unmute, pause/record, and capture photo actions.Additionally, you find a button above the screen to capture and save an “Emergency Recording†so it cannot be overwritten.Bill Roberson/Digital TrendsBill Roberson/Digital TrendsUnfortunately, the system requires you use Bluetooth to pair a smartphone running the iRadar application in order to keep track of the video location.The application offers a nice interface and quickly connected our iPhone 6 to the Cobra 855 BT camera.Other benefits of the iRadar application include alerts for red-light cameras and speed traps as reported by the community using the app.The drawback of this GPS system is that you will need to remember to connect your phone each time you set off, and it’s a manual process each time.For those who regularly prefer something like the Waze application for road alerts, this may be inconvenient to have another background app running.Video quality and featuresWith a 160-degree viewing angle, the Cobra camera really captures every detail of the road ahead of you.Out of the cameras we have tested, the Vantrue R1 Pro is the only one that outmatches the video quality and viewing angle for the price.The Cobra has great value for the quality of video and a fair amount of detail can be seen in the 1080p quality setting.In low light, the camera also does a good job adapting to street lights and you can make out the details for surrounding cars and signs.In fact, the quality at night is on par with the more expensive cameras like the BlackVue DR650GW.Like most cameras, the Cobra 855 BT has a built in G-Sensor that will store recordings in the case of an accident.The system will also auto-detect when the vehicle is stationary — for five or 10 minutes dependent on the settings — and automatically activate Parking Mode.We found that in slow traffic, the G-Sensor would assume you were stopped even if crawling at around 15 mph and the camera would prompt, asking if you would like to switch to Parking Mode.Changes in the G-Sensor sensitivity helped with this, but it would also trigger an accident recording when going over some larger potholes on a couple occasions.The automatic Parking Mode can be completely disabled for those who don’t want to use the camera while stationary.ConclusionIf you’re new to the dash camera market, a device like the Cobra 855 BT is a fantastic place to start.If you are open to using the iRadar application for road alerts and GPS location on your videos, then you will have very few problems with this camera.But for some people, the lack of built-in GPS may turn them off completely.For that buyer, the extra $30 for a Cobra 875 G that includes a GPS unit that attaches to the camera — and doesn’t require the iRadar app — may be a better decision.Whatever you decide, Cobra remains one of the better options for compact and affordable cameras in the market.Specs Sheet:http://www.cobra.com/sites/default/files/features/CDR855BT_SPEC.pdfManual:http://www.cobra.com/sites/default/files/manuals/CDR835_855BT_875G_895DMANUAL_VC_1.pdf