Kehan CubeCam review – good looks are not everything

Kehan CubeCam camera is not officially categorized as an action camera but more specifically as a wearable camera. Thanks to the small dimensions you won’t almost even notice you are carrying it, but you have to be careful because it’s quite squishy and doesn’t meet any of the endurance or resistance standards or certifications.

PACKAGING

Tiny white box hints at the contents with the camera’s outline visible from the front. On one of the sides there are QR codes pointing to the control app download site, so information flow starts right away even before you open the box. Nothing else noteworthy so let’s open it and take a look inside.

You will find are the following things inside the box:

– Kehan CubeCam so the wearable camera itself
– clasp
– USB cable
– manual
– warranty certificate

Because there are no other accessories for the camera packaged (and probably there will not be any further in general] you have to get by just with the clasp and use it to attach the camera to your clothes or a bag for example. It’s a shame that the manufacturer didn’t make a similar clip with a stand mount or something.

Specifications:

Dimensions: 41 x 41 x 13mm
Aperture: f/2.5
View angle: 120˚
Weight: 24,5 grams
Memory: Micro-SD card up to 64 GB, Class 6 and higher
Battery lifetime: 2,5 hours
Video resolution: 1920 x 1080 (15 fps), 1280 x 720 (30 fps)
Picture resolution: 1280 x 720, JPEG
Connectivity: Micro-USB 2.0, WiFi 802.11b/g/n
Application: The Kehan App for iOS 8.0 and higher, Android 4.0 and higher

DESIGN AND BUILD

Even though the Kehan CubeCam camera’s design is not my cup of tea, there is nothing to complain about with the build quality. Both front and back sides are divided into two sections, smaller upper stripe has a rugged surface while the bigger bottom one has a smooth texture all over it. Overall the camera doesn’t look bad at all but because of the small dimensions it’s tricky to hold and control.

The memory card slot is on the left side and on the opposite right side you can find two control buttons, power button doubling also as a Wi-Fi on/off switch and mode switch button below it. Above the buttons is a microphone hole and on the top edge there is shutter lined with two-colored LED. Bottom is reserved for the micro-USB port and the reset pinhole.The lens up front is embedded enough inside the main body to protect it against scratching so no complaints there either.

CONTROLS AND FUNCTIONS

Using the camera is not hard at all, but I really do miss the display, at least a small one with some basic information would be handy. The display has been replaced here with the two-colored LED built in the shutter button but that just doesn’t cut it.

Blue LED means the Wi-Fi connection is active while red means quite the opposite. If the LED slowly blinks then the camera is in a video mode and recording. Changing the mode (photo/video) is done by the side button with the letter M engraved.

Besides the usual video capturing the camera is supposed to be able to make slow-motion clips. But unfortunately I wasn’t able to find where or how to turn this feature on. In the app you can just switch between 15 fps (FullHD) and 30 fps (HD) recording.

THE APPLICATION

The app is free-to-download and you can get by following the aforementioned QR code on the box. It offers four different ways how to connect your smartphone to it and one of the options even allows you to use it as a surveillance camera for your home. But unfortunately this feature is possible only with the Kehan CubeCam Plus version of the camera.

The Wi-Fi connection works fine so at least you can use your phone as a remote display eventually. In the app you can also set the desired resolution and sequential shooting. You can save your best shots in the app directly to your phone and share them to social media.

According to the manufacturer it should be possible to use the camera for live streaming on Facebook or YouTube, but all my attempts failed so hard to say.

PHOTO AND VIDEO

Finally we are getting to the most important part of the review and that is camera’s output quality. But before I show you some samples and my opinion, let’s talk about what Kehan CubeCam should theoretically be able to do .

The manufacturer says that the camera can shoot video in FullHD resolution which is true, but a video with 15 frames per second is useless and I can’t imagine any practical use for it except for marketing purposes. The HD capture with 30 fps is fine, but of course lower resolution means the clarity takes a hit. Output in general has quite some problems with focus and is full of noise, making it quite difficult to get a good video or picture. In low light it’s dark and in sunlight overexposed. The videos are stored on a memory card in .rec format which can be tricky to play with your usual video players. Possible workaround is to download the video to the phone directly using the app, because if you do that, the video is saved as a standard MP4 file. On the manufacturer’s website you can download a PC program for the .rec conversion, but my antivirus software flagged it as suspicious so I rather passed.

The battery capacity is not listed anywhere but the manufacturer claims that 2.5 hours of continuous shooting should be possible. But in reality it’s more like 90 minutes during my testing.

Unfortunately the app refused to recognize some of my recorded videos stored on the card so I can’t add them to the review. But I think you can get the idea about the output quality even from the few i salvaged.

There is also a watermark automatically applied to all the photos, which can’t be turned off, at least for the time being. I hope the developers will get rid of it in the next update of the app.

CONCLUSION

So what’s the final word about the Kehan CubeCam ? The camera gives quite an inconsistent impression, the good build quality and nice design is dragged down by poor output results and fairly unfinished app. Not to mention the rare and troublesome format of the videos. Personally i struggle a bit to find a real niche usage for the camera, but it could come in handy for someone who needs to record something sometimes on-the-go, like policemen, medics or maybe students who want to record their lectures, where the quality of the footage is not as important. But still in my opinion smartphone is a better choice, even though not as compact and tiny.

We would like to thank the Kehan company for supplying the review sample and you can find more information about the product on their website nd buy it right there for $99.99 too. Or wait, we have an extra $15 discount coupon for you so use C90IT15 until November 30th 2016 to have it even cheaper. You can also use Amazon for shopping and the $15 discount code there is AZKHC90B.