I spent two weeks testing the Garmin Dash Cam Mini 3, and I barely noticed it was there

I’ve been covering the best dash cams for several years now, and it seems like this product segment is subtly splitting off into two distinct camps. The first lot includes dash cams that can do everything — emergency driver assistance, security camera features, dual and triple channel recording. Then there are the stealthy, uber-svelte models that sit there discreetly, offering as little distraction as possible while capturing those all-important incidents.

It’s easy to see why the latter might appeal in modern cars. With the emergence of digital driver instruments, heads-up displays, and annoying context-driven console buttons, having one less screen to focus on just makes sense from a safety and convenience perspective.

As you might expect from its moniker, the Garmin Dash Cam Mini 3 is firmly in this ninja-esque camp, being smaller than a piece of sushi and just as adorable and well-constructed.

I’ve reviewed nearly 20 dash cams over the last few years, including the best from big brands such as Garmin, Nextbase, and Viofo. I also reviewed the Dash Cam Mini 2 way back in 2021. However, does its successor do enough to entice an upgrade?

Garmin Dash Cam Mini 3 review: Price & availability

Image 1 of 3

The Mini 3 Dash Cam is available from Garmin’s website and is priced at $149.99. Given its pricetag, it's undoubtedly a premium product. For about the same money, similar big-name rivals, such as the Nextbase Piqo and the Viofo A129 Plus, offer 2K recording, while less familiar players like Vantrue offer 4K recording and other features, such as GPS in the E1 Pro.

Garmin Dash Cam Mini 3 review: Design & features

I’ve been handling dash cams for a while now, and I still can’t get over how tiny the Mini 3 is. Being just shy of the length of my thumb and a few millimeters wider, it looks more suitable as a personal action cam for adorning on clothing than a car’s windshield.

It’s remarkably light too, at 30g/1.05oz, no more than a bag of chips, while tucking it into a backpack or pocket poses no problem — just don’t lose the thing.

Aside from the lens, you’ve got a fully plastic casing, which feels robust and solid; you won’t find any creaky plastic here, even if it’s a little on the scratchy side. The Garmin lettering is embossed on both sides in impressively minute detail.

On the back, you’ve got some textured plastic and a tiny hole for the mic, along with a single save button. Underside the unit is a microSD card slot and a mute mic button. There are also two lights — one to indicate video recording and the other to show whether the microphone is on.

The lens protrudes from the chassis a fair bit, and the ball-and-socket joint is mounted diagonally. Speaking of the mount, it’s very small yet sturdy, and its small arm meant I could install it practically anywhere on the car without it getting in the way.

The kit you get here is minimalist to say the least, with just a power cable, 12V charger and quick-start guide — don’t hold your breath for a full manual or bundled memory card.

Plenty of dash cams chuck in a spare sticky mounting pad in case you need to reposition the cam or swap cars, so I found it a little stingy to only find one adhesive pad chaperoning the mount.

In terms of features, there’s the usual dash cam repertoire of automatic incident detection and parking guard modes. Both start recording a video clip and protect it from being overridden when you’re either driving or parked, respectively. When you’re driving and spot an incident you want to record, you can press the save button, and it’ll save the previous and proceeding 15 seconds and store it in a protected folder.

Garmin also offers a Garmin Vault, where videos are saved to the cloud using a Wi-Fi connection for a fee of $9.99 per month.

Voice control also makes a welcome return, helping you keep your hands on the wheel.

New for the Mini 3 is the built-in Clarity polariser lens. This helps combat windscreen glare, which can help details from being obscured by any JJ Abrams-esque daylight flares.

I must admit, I’m a little disappointed that the resolution hasn’t been upped for the Mini 3, which features the same 1080p recording, 140-degree viewing angle, and no GPS that its predecessor had. Upping the resolution to 1440p or even having a 60fps recording option — as opposed to the standard 30fps — would have made for a more viable proposition for Mini 2 owners or discreet dash cammers. As it is, second-gen owners don’t have much compelling reason to invest.

With all that said, did I mention that it’s so dinky and adorable? Seriously, just look at it — it’s like someone shrunk a travel zoom camera into tiny proportions.

Garmin Dash Cam Mini 3 review: Setup

Setup was effortless with the Mini 3. You have a 12V cable that you plumb into the internal lining of the car, and connect the USB-C connector into the side. I found that the ball-and-socket mount gives plenty of wriggle room to adjust the camera to my desired angle while still being stiff and stable enough not to wobble while on the road.

You then download Garmin’s Drive app, search for your device, pair with the app, and you’re away. There are no overly complicated features to tweak, if that’s your sort of thing. Just adjust the G-sensor sensitivity, and you’re away.

Garmin Dash Cam Mini 3 review: Software

I’d have liked the app to be called “Garmin Drive” or something, as I often go about searching for “Garmin” and get nowhere, only to remember it’s just called Drive.

The app itself is fairly well laid out, even if it’s not the cleanest design. At least its navigation is clear, with large fonts and buttons for enhanced accessibility.

Dash cammers who might want to tinker and tweak may be disappointed with the lack of adjustables here, as the Mini 3 is more of a no-frills kind of device.

Garmin Dash Cam Mini 3 review: Video and audio quality

Dash Cam Footage - video 1 - YouTube

Watch On

For a 1080p dash cam, image details are solid, with visuals fairly sharp, if not super smooth. There’s an element of jaggedness if you’re sifting through clips on a full-screen monitor, but that’s pretty much to be expected.

The polarising filter, while fantastic at curbing lens flare, does give daytime shots a subdued, darker look, but I never found this a problem when analyzing scenes for detail.

Its contrast is its biggest strength, with the onboard Clarity HDR working to make registration tags clear and readable. Even at night, against my own bright headlights, I could make out plates directly ahead. With oncoming traffic, I had a harder time discerning them — passing stationary vehicles worked fine — but here’s where an upgrade to 60fps recording would have helped massively.

Like most dash cams, image performance drops during nighttime, with low light noise and grain creeping into shots, though the cam does well at ensuring scenes aren’t too dark.

Dash Cam Footage - video 2 - YouTube

Watch On

Audio is excellent, with vocals coming through very clear and with hardly any distortion, and the cam handles external road noise with ease.

During playback, I did find the shrillness of the acknowledgement beeps hard to listen to after a while. To help keep the unit small, the Mini 3 has a fairly rudimentary sound module, and it’s not as easy on the ears as other models’ sound profiles.

Garmin Dash Cam Mini 3 review: Verdict

The Garmin Mini 3 represents a solid dash cam that’s going to appeal to those who want few dash-based distractions in their driving. It’s tiny, very light, and can be tucked away behind a rearview mirror for better overall road vision.

However, I found it merely an incremental step up from the Mini 2, which carries most of the same features and specs. Though the addition of a polarizing filter is welcome, a bump up in the resolution or 60 fps recording would have made this a more tantalizing upgrade. As it stands, with 2K and 4K devices readily and easily accessible, it seems like there’s less reason to stick with 1080p recording.

It sits in the middle of the pack of compact contenders — it fares better in image performance than the Nextbase Piqo, though this rival offers smarter security features, and its Full HD variant is a fair bit cheaper. That said, the Mini 3 gets pipped by the Vantrue E1 Pro, which offers smoother 4K recording for around the same price, even though its design is much more cumbersome.

Still, the Mini 3 oozes refinement and quality, and it delivers a respectable image performance both during the day and night. Even if class leaders in this space offer better image detail, no others can touch it when it comes to discretion and compactness. Install this low-maintenance device, and you can almost forget it’s even there.