TOPLEX Action Camera T101 review

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REVIEW – I used to use a GoPro camera for some of my video work a few years ago, but I got rid of it a while ago. I wanted to get back to using an inexpensive action camera, so I figured I would give this Toplex Action Camera T101 a try.

What is it?

The Toplex Action Camera T101 is a 4k capable action camera that includes a 2″ display, Panasonic Sensor, WiFi, a 170-degree lens, and image stabilization. It also has the ability to be controlled via a smartphone app.

What’s in the box?

  • Toplex Action Camera T101
  • Two 1200mAh batteries
  • Semi-hard carrying case
  • Micro-USB cable
  • Waterproof case
  • Many mounting accessories
  • User Manual

Hardware specs

  • 170 degree wide angle lens
  • 16mp Panasonic Sensor
  • Video: 4k/30fps, 2.7k/60fps, 1440p/60fps, 1080p/60fps, 1080p/30fps, 720p/120fps
  • Video format: mp4, h.264, h.265
  • Photo: 5, 8, 12, AND 16mp (4608×3456).
  • 1200mAh battery (two included)
  • Electronic image stabilization (EIS)
  • 7 layer glass lens
  • WiFi
  • Modes: Video, video and snap, photo, loop video (driving mode), time-lapse video, time-lapse photo, slow motion.

Design and features

The Toplex Action Camera T101 has a fairly good feature set. There are multiple video and photo modes.

The video modes include the following:

  • Standard video recording at 4k/30fps, 2.7k/60fps, 1440p/60fps, 1080p/60fps, 1080p/30fps.
  • Loop recording in 5, 10, or 25 minute loops
  • Video + Snap records video and captures photos at intervals of 3 seconds, 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute or 5 minutes.
  • Time Lapse creates a video from frames captured at intervals of .5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 30, or 60 seconds.
  • Slow motion video recording at 720p/120fps.

The photo modes include the following:

  • Standard photos at 5, 8, 12, AND 16mp (4608×3456).
  • Lapse takes photos at intervals of 1, 3, 5, 10 or 30 seconds.
  • Timer mode captures a photo continuously at a set time interval of .5 seconds, 1 second, 3 seconds, 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute or 5 minutes.
  • Burst mode will take a series of photos at a set time interval. The options include 3 photos in 1 second, 5 photos in 1 second, 10 photos in 1 second, 15 photos in 1 second, 20 photos in 2 seconds, 30 photos in 2 seconds, and 30 photos in 3 seconds.

There are some standard settings like being able to choose the starting mode so that the camera will start in whatever mode you want, like video, loop recording (for use as a dash cam), time lapse, etc.

The camera app allows easy preview and settings access to the camera. I found the app easy to use, in fact a little easier to use than the interface on the camera itself.

The camera app did fail to download a video. The first time it stated “Failed”, the second and third time it seemed to complete without error but I could not locate the video anywhere in the iPhone Photos app.

One thing that is really nice is the size:

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Here’s the problem

I was extremely disappointed in the video quality with this device. There are obvious artifacts in the video, in multiple formats. I tried multiple settings such as NTSC/PAL, 50htz/60htz, and various size formats, and they all seem to have the same dots and lines. The dots and lines varied in their positions, so I’m guessing it’s a signal processing flaw.

For example, here’s a screen capture from a 1080p time-lapse I took:

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A close up of the image artifacts:

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Here’s a screen capture from a 1080p video:

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Here’s a partial screen from a 4k video:

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There’s also a serious magenta color cast to the video.

1080p Video Time-lapse:

4K Video Sample:

What I like

  • Included two batteries
  • Included many accessories
  • Included waterproof case
  • Included nice semi-hard case
  • Smartphone app

What needs to be improved

  • Video quality
  • Addition of a Touch Screen
  • App did not download videos to my phone

Final thoughts

The video from this camera is so poor that I would not consider it for anything other than using this camera as a dash cam, or a security/body camera – but even then, not at this price. This is not something you would want for creating YouTube videos, or any video where you want some quality to the video. However, if you output the 4k video at 1080p or smaller, the dots and lines are reduced to an almost unnoticeable level. That might be something I could tolerate with a $40 action cam, but not a $100 one.

Price: $99.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Toplex.

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