We review the Veho Muvi No Proof No Glory Action Cam!

While GoPro is the undisputed king of the action cams with their latest offering the Hero3+ Black Edition (for now), not everyone has Php 20,000  squirreled away for one. While there are other, more affordable action cams in the market (some even retailing less than 5K), they’re not as solid, or  as capable as a GoPro. Veho, a company known for making accessories for smartphones and other electronics, has come out with the Muvi No Proof No Glory Action cam priced at only Php 12,990, aimed at enticing customers who want to have a sturdy, capable action camera for less.

Big, bulky but  easy to use

One thing that you’ll immediately notice with the Muvi NPNG is just how big and tall it is. At around 4-inches tall, the Muvi NPNG is one of the biggest action cameras around, and possibly one of the bulkiest, especially when it’s inside its waterproof casing.

There’s a reason for the bulk – the Muvi NPNG is one of the few action cameras that has a built-in display, allowing you to check what the POV is when you mount it to a car, bike or in our case, helmet. The display also allows you to review footage that you’ve already taken without the need for a PC.

Because of how big the Muvi NPNG is, Veho has also put in navigation keys in the back that allows you to easily navigate the rather simple menu in place. This is a refreshing change from the almost infuriating LCD menu in the Hero3+. The keys are all touch sensitive, save for one in the middle.

On the right side of the Muvi NPNG (with the display facing towards you) lies the microSD slot, VOX switch (which turns on the Muvi NPNG when it detects sound) and the record button.

On the left side lies the HDMI port, USB slot, power switch and AV out. On the bottom of the Muvi NPNG lies a standard camera mount, allowing you to use the Muvi NPNG with a number of traditional camera accessories including tripods aside from the ones that Muvi sells.

Comes with a lot of accessories

Speaking of accessories, the Muvi NPNG comes with a bunch of them im its box, which should allow you to mount the action camera on nearly everything that you can think of. For our review, we mounted the camera on our helmet using the included double-sided tape.

Like the other comparable action cameras, the Muvi NPNG comes with a sturdy (and bulky) waterproof case, which is rated up to 60 meters for around an hour. Realistically though, most of the general populace won’t ever get that deep when diving, so you can theoretically spend more time underwater at shallower depths without compromising the waterproof case.

Like most waterproff cases, the one included with the Muvi NPNG muffles all but the loudest and sharpest sounds when you’re using it. Unlike the GoPro Hero3+ Black, it doesn’t have a skeleton door to prevent that – so if you take it biking or any activity really that requires it to be protected against the environment, you will have to give up the ability to pick up ambient noise and most of the audio.

Another nice accessory of the Muvi NPNG is the included remote control. Using it is simple enough – press the green button and the Muvi starts recording, press the red one and it stops doing so. A grey camera button in the middle tells the device to take snaps automatically. Speaking of pictures, the Muvi NPNG takes 8-megapixel photos.

Has all the basics covered

While the Muvi NPNG doesn’t sport the same number of shooting modes as the Hero3+ Black Edition (topping out at only 1080p recording at 30FPS), it’s still a pretty capable camera and has all the basic shooting modes covered, from 1080p down to WVGA at 60 FPS. Unlike other action cameras, you’re stuck with the 170 FOV though.

Good image quality, though suffers in places with low light

The picture quality of the recorded image isn’t bad at all, and has excellent color reproduction especially with plenty of light. The Muvi NPNG does take a considerable hit though when there’s not a lot of light (as evidenced by the short video we embedded below of us playing in an abandoned theater), with very noticeable noise in the video and degraded video performance.

When there is a lot of light, the Muvi NPNG shines, as it manages to record bright and vibrant colors. Unfortunately, the camera reacts slowly when you transition from a very bright environment to a dark one, though that’s par for the course for most action cameras.

Image quality when it comes to stills is a mixed bag. While it can take photos with good color reproduction, the Muvi NPNG has white balance issues, as you can see in the photos embedded above.

The Muvi NPNG’s 1400mAh battery managed to give us around 2 hours and 20 minute’s worth of recording time, which is far better than the battery life we experienced with the Hero3+, simply because the Muvi NPNG had far less battery draining features (like Wi-Fi).

Verdict: A good alternative to a GoPro

After all that’s said and done, the Muvi NPNG is a good alternative to the high-end GoPro if you don’t have enough cash. Even if you compare it with the lower end Hero3 Silver, it still holds up because of the sheer number of mounts and the included remote control. It’s not perfect of course, as its almost comically large footprint make it unwieldy for some applications – you can’t mount it to a quadcopter for example, or a remote control car since it’ll unbalance it, wind resistance might rip it out of its mount if you plan on attaching it to a fast car – though for most people, the Muvi NPNG is a relatively low-cost, high-quality action camera that allows you to record your extreme moments.

The Muvi NPNG can be bought from a number for shops, which include Henry’s Camera Supply, iClick, Mayer’s Ph0to, PixelPro, Widget City, Camerahaus, 5th Avenue, QSL Wireless (Dagupan),  Mountain Studio and  Tiongsan (Baguio).