Akeeyo 4K UHD Bike Camera

The Akeeyo 4K UHD Bike Camera is a decent action cam that comes at a cheap price and can double as a dashcam. It offers 4K video recording, loop recording, and a host of practical features. However, it can sometimes be a bit of a pain to operate, especially when it’s mounted beneath the handlebar.

> Buy now: Akeeyo 4K UHD Bike Camera for £89 from Akeeyo

The camera feels solid, with an IP66 waterproof casing, and is clearly built with durability in mind. It has a decent 155g heft to it, though it isn’t as chunky as the original Cycliq Fly12, and sits nicely under or over the handlebar without any issues.

The mounting system is straightforward – it comes with an out-front mount that holds the camera securely, using rubber shims to help reduce vibration, and you can fix the camera on top or below. It’ll work with any Garmin or GoPro mount you may already have – I did most of my riding with it sat under an existing out-front mount.

One button controls all the functions on the camera. It has a small LED indicator for operational status, but no screen to give error messages or status. 

Video quality and recording modes

The headline feature of the Akeeyo 4K UHD is its ability to record at 4K/28fps. There’s also support for 2K at 55fps and 1080p at 28fps or 55fps, and a loop recording mode that functions much like a dashcam – overwriting older footage unless it’s locked manually or automatically by the built-in motion sensor. I have historically found that 720p is pretty much useless for dashcams as it’s not good enough to reliably pick up number plates, but the 1080 and 4K are crisp and clear, even if they do take up a bit more room on the memory card.

In good daylight, footage is sharp, with accurate colours and a wide dynamic range. Details like number plates, road signs, and even facial features of passing riders or motorists are easy to make out in both 1080 and 4K. The 142-degree wide-angle lens captures a broad field of view, which helps to give a more accurate picture on the video than some cams which can go a bit fish eye.

Low-light performance is fine, if not outstanding. In dusk or shadowy conditions, the footage can become a little fuzzy, but it still retains enough detail to be usable in the higher settings. There’s also a WDR (Wide Dynamic Range) mode that helps balance exposure when you’re riding between light and dark areas, such as under tree cover or through tunnels, which is a nice touch.

The device supports up to 256GB microSD cards, and it comes with a 64GB card in the box, which translates into hours of continuous footage. The loop recording ensures you don’t need to worry about storage once it fills up anyway, unless you fall off a lot.

> 10 tips for submitting good quality camera evidence to police

One element that shows the difference between a more premium action cam and the Akeeyo is in the image stabilisation. While the video is perfectly usable, you can really notice that it’s shaky on rougher surfaces and at speed. It didn’t prevent me being able to identify a number plate or show an incident, though, so it’s not the end of the world.

Ease of use and connectivity

Day-to-day operation is designed to be simple, but is actually made a little more complex because of this intent. As the camera has no screen, and the only way to tell if it’s recording when under the bar is through a sequence of vibrations, it wasn’t always clear whether it had started recording or not. To be honest, I couldn’t remember whether three long vibrations meant it was recording, or powered on, or powered off… And without being able to see the LED from above when the camera was mounted below the bars, it meant I always felt the need to make sure it was recording before I set off, which could be a bit annoying.

A built-in microphone captures ambient sound reasonably well. Wind noise is, as expected, an issue at higher speeds, but voice annotations at low speeds are intelligible, and tyre noise, honking, or passing vehicles are all well captured.

Getting videos off the device is a case of either taking out the SD card and plugging it in, or connecting to the phone app through Wi-Fi and transferring them across. While it may be possible to connect the camera directly to a PC (I don’t know, I don’t own one), I couldn’t make it work on my Mac.

The app is functional and easy to use. It uses an off-the-shelf app that is customised for this camera. How do I know? It’s the exact same app that I have for my car dashcam! It works well, allows you to change the video settings easily enough, and you can do things like invert the video so you don’t have to flip it in production if you’re using it under the bars.

Real-world performance

On the road, the Akeeyo performs well. It’s reliable, boots up quickly, and starts recording within seconds (although, as I mentioned, I always felt the need to check). Importantly, for a safety-focused device, it didn’t crash or miss recordings during testing – after I had checked that it was recording.

Like most modern bike dashcams it uses a motion sensor to lock footage in the event of a collision or heavy jolt, preventing it from being overwritten. While I didn’t test this in a real crash scenario, simulated impacts triggered the lock reliably. (I chucked it across my garden.)

It doesn’t have GPS tracking built in or app-based ride data overlay like some higher-end models, but for the core purpose of documenting rides and capturing incidents it does its job well. There is an optional external GPS module available if you want route recording, but it is not integrated into the camera as standard.

The camera has a battery capacity of 1800mAh which gives a run-time of 5.5 hours if running 1080P@28fps with Wi-Fi turned off. This is what I tended to choose as it gives the best combination of decent enough quality and run-time. If you wanted to run it at 2K@55fps with Wi-Fi on, you would get just under three hours, which is the shortest run-time and isn’t too bad.

Charging is through a USB cable, which I always prefer because if I run out of juice on the road I can walk into almost anywhere and there will be a cable I can use if needed.

I charged it in a couple of hours from empty when plugged into my computer, which is about par when it comes to this battery size.

Value and alternatives

With an RRP of £114, and currently discounted to £89, the Akeeyo is the cheapest action cam we’ve reviewed on road.cc. While it lacks the polish of a GoPro, Cycliq or Garmin, it does the basic work of recording what’s in front of you in a usable format.

The Drift Innovation Ghost XL that Steve reviewed back in 2021 is £149.99, but the maximum resolution is considerably lower, 1,080p, and that, combined with zero image stabilisation, made it more difficult to see number plates, which, ultimately, is one of the most important qualities of a bike dashcam.

Dave reviewed the Recall Rider 4K Safety Camera more recently, and it has a similar spec, lacking things you get with more premium models such as image stabilisation. However, it costs £159.99, and comes with mini-USB charging rather than USB, which, as Dave said, is pretty retro.

For more options, check out our top recommendations, whether you want to capture bad driving or epic rides.

Conclusion

The Akeeyo 4K UHD Bike Camera is a practical, no-nonsense option for cyclists who want dependable video capture for safety and documentation. It doesn’t have the frills of more expensive cameras, and the lack of image stabilisation means you’d probably not have it as first choice if you’re posting on YouTube. However, using this for safety and reporting bad driving, it’s hard to fault – it’s well priced, has a decent run-time, and picks things up well enough for all but cinematic uses. My need to check that it was recording was a little annoying, but aside from that it is a more than capable budget bike camera.

> Buy now: Akeeyo 4K UHD Bike Camera for £89 from Akeeyo

Verdict

Wallet-friendly camera that may lack frills but picks up what it needs to

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