Garmin Dash Cam 57: a review with one big caveat
A well-documented camera at a price that no longer makes sense, from a product line Garmin has moved on from. Here is what it publishes, what replaced it, and when the remaining stock is still worth buying.
By Sawyer V. · Published · How we research
We have not tested any of this. Everything below is compiled from published manufacturer specifications, and the arithmetic is printed so you can check it. This page carries affiliate links: if you buy through one we earn a commission at no extra cost to you, and it does not change the order of the picks. Full disclosure.
The verdict
Do not buy this at full price. The Garmin Dash Cam 57 has been discontinued, and Garmin's current compact line is the X110 and X210. The 57 does one genuinely unusual thing — it publishes a real specifications table in its owner's manual, including a -20 to 60 C operating range — and that same table is what rules it out for anyone parking outside, because 60 C is the lowest ceiling in this ledger and below what a car in summer sun actually reaches inside. If you find it heavily discounted and park in a garage, it is a competent 1440p camera. Otherwise, look at the $150 page.
| # | Pick | Install | Score | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Garmin Dash Cam 57 A discontinued camera worth knowing about | Adhesive | 5.7/10 | Check price on Amazon |
No live price is currently verified, so every button here reads Check price rather than a number we cannot stand behind. Why we do it that way.
What it is
A matchbox-sized 1440p camera with a 140-degree lens, voice control, GPS and the Garmin Drive app ecosystem, sold at a list price of $229.99. It sat in the middle of a three-camera line — the 47 at 1080p, the 57 at 1440p, the 67W at 1440p with a wider lens — and it was for years the sensible pick of the three.
What it publishes, which is the interesting part
Garmin ships an owner's manual with a genuine specifications table. That is rare enough in this category to be worth stating as a feature:
| Specification | Published value |
|---|---|
| Operating temperature range | -20 C to 60 C (-4 F to 140 F) |
| Charging temperature range | 0 C to 45 C (32 F to 113 F) |
| Input voltage | 4.75 to 5.25 Vdc, 1 A |
| Wireless frequency | 2.4 GHz at 16 dBm maximum |
| Resolution | 2560 x 1440 |
| Field of view | 140 degrees |
The charging range is the row most people skip and it is quietly important. Garmin publishes 0 to 45 C for charging against -20 to 60 C for operating, which tells you unambiguously that there is a lithium cell inside — supercapacitors do not have a charging temperature range. In a hot car, that is the component that ages.
The 60 C problem
A car parked in summer sun runs roughly 60 to 70 C inside, and the windshield strip where the camera mounts runs at the top of that. A published ceiling of 60 C means the camera is at or past its rated limit on a genuinely ordinary hot afternoon.
For comparison, and these are all the makers' own figures: Vantrue publishes 70 C for the E1, E1 Lite and N4. VIOFO publishes 65 C for the A119 Mini 2. The Garmin publishes 60 C. Being the camera that tells you the number is admirable; being the camera with the lowest number is still the lowest number. The hot-weather page has the full table.
What replaced it
Garmin's current compact cameras are the X110 and the X210. The X110 is 1080p at $199.99 with a built-in Clarity polarizer, a 2.41-inch screen, GPS and Galileo, and a stated 20-minute internal battery. The X210 is the 1440p option and costs considerably more.
Note what happened across that generation: the resolution went down at the bottom of the range and the polarizer arrived. That is a defensible engineering call — windshield reflection ruins more daytime footage than resolution recovers — but it does mean the 57 is not straightforwardly superseded. It is a 1440p camera whose replacement at a similar price is 1080p.
When the remaining stock is actually worth buying
- It is heavily discounted. Run-out stock at a run-out price is a fair deal. Run-out stock at the original list price is not, and that is mostly what is out there.
- You park in a garage. The 60 C ceiling is a summer-parking problem. If the car lives indoors it is close to irrelevant.
- You already own Garmin things. One app, one account, one set of habits has real value.
- You want 1440p and a small body specifically. Garmin's own current equivalent at this price is 1080p.
When to buy something else
- The car parks outside all day. This is the main one. Buy a camera with a published ceiling of 65 C or better.
- You want the camera to still be supported in three years. Firmware support on a discontinued product has a horizon, and no manufacturer will tell you where it is.
- You care about low-light performance. Garmin does not publish a sensor part number or an aperture for any of these cameras, so there is nothing to compare against VIOFO's published STARVIS 2 and f/1.6.
- You want the best hardware per dollar. That is not what Garmin sells, and the brand comparison works through why.
What we cannot tell you
How the footage looks. We have not mounted this camera and we do not have sample clips from it. What we can tell you is what Garmin publishes and what it does not, and the omissions are informative: no sensor, no aperture, no bitrate. When a manufacturer publishes a temperature range and a charging range but not a sensor part number, that is a choice about what it wants compared.
Every pick, with the working
Each entry lists the specifications the maker publishes, the axis scores those specifications produce, and what you give up. Rows that read “Not published” are not omissions on our side: they are things the maker will not commit to in writing, and they cost the product points on the transparency axis. Specifications compiled September 4, 2026.
Our pickA discontinued camera worth knowing about
Garmin Dash Cam 57
Skip this one. This is a discontinued product with the lowest published heat ceiling here. Unless you find it heavily discounted, the Garmin Dash Cam X110 is the current camera and the Vantrue E1 has 10 C more headroom for half the money.
1440p, a 140-degree lens and a published operating range of -20 C to 60 C from Garmin's own owner's manual, which is more than most makers publish. It has also been discontinued, and that changes the calculation completely: remaining stock is real, and so is the fact that a discontinued camera's firmware support has a horizon.
- Front resolution
- 2560 x 1440 (1440p)
- Field of view
- 140 degrees
- Operating range
- -20 C to 60 C (-4 F to 140 F)
- Charging range
- 0 C to 45 C (32 F to 113 F)
- Input voltage
- 4.75 to 5.25 Vdc, 1 A
- Wireless
- 2.4 GHz at 16 dBm maximum
- Parking mode
- Parking Guard, via the Garmin Drive app
- Availability
- Discontinued
- Power store
- Not published
- Published current draw
- Not published
List price $229.99 per Garmin's listed price before discontinuation, captured on the compile date below. Not a live price and not what you will pay — the button is where the real number is.
What it gets right
- Garmin publishes the operating range, charging range and input voltage in the owner's manual, which almost nobody in this category does
- 1440p at 140 degrees in a body the size of a matchbox
- Voice control and the Garmin Drive app ecosystem
Flaws
- Discontinued. Firmware support has a horizon even if nobody will tell you where it is
- 60 C ceiling — the lowest published figure in this ledger, and below what a car in summer sun actually reaches
- Remaining stock is priced as new stock rather than as run-out stock
The working behind the 5.7
- Heat headroom: 7.5 (weight 22%)
- Published operating ceiling 60 C (140 F). A car parked in summer sun runs roughly 60-70 C inside, so 65 C and up is real headroom, 60 C is living at the limit, and anything under 55 C is a summer problem waiting to happen.
- Install effort: 6.0 (weight 24%)
- Adhesive pad onto the dashboard. Permanent in practice: repositioning means a new pad, and the pad is the part that fails first.
- Price against the ceiling: 2.5 (weight 24%)
- Listed at $229.99 on the compile date. This site's buyer has a practical ceiling around $150 for a single upgrade, so the scale rewards everything under $100 and falls away sharply past $150. The live price is very often different, and that is what the button is for.
- Written commitment: 5.5 (weight 15%)
- 12-month warranty. This is the only promise in the entire listing that a court would read, which is why it is scored and the marketing copy is not.
- Spec transparency: 8.0 (weight 15%)
- 8 of the 10 specifications we went looking for are published by the maker (80%). A blank row is never a guess here: it prints “Not published” and it costs the product points, because a figure nobody will commit to in writing is a figure you cannot check.
Axes with no published input are dropped and the remaining weights re-normalized, so a product is not punished for a category where an axis does not apply. Specifications compiled September 4, 2026 from Garmin Dash Cam 47/57/67W owner's manual, specifications page.
No live price is currently verified, so every button here reads Check price rather than a number we cannot stand behind. Why we do it that way.
Questions people actually ask
Is the Garmin Dash Cam 57 discontinued?
Yes. Garmin's current compact line is the X110 and X210. Remaining 57 stock is widely available and frequently still priced as current stock, which is the reason to check the price against the X-series before buying.
What replaced the Garmin Dash Cam 57?
The X110 at 1080p with a built-in polarizer, and the X210 at 1440p. Note that the X110 is lower resolution than the 57 it sits below in price, so it is a replacement in the range rather than a straight upgrade.
Is 60 C really a problem?
In a car that parks outside in summer, yes. Cabin temperatures of 60 to 70 C are ordinary on a hot day, and the windshield mounting position is the hottest part of that. It is the difference between operating within spec and operating at the edge of it every afternoon.
Should I buy it if I find it cheap?
If the discount is real and the car parks in a garage, it is a competent 1440p camera with unusually good documentation. If the car parks outside, the 60 C ceiling is the reason to spend the same money on something else.