The Ultimate Apeman Trawo A100 Review!

We have published a few articles going over these entry-level action cameras now as more and more people are starting to realize that you don’t have to pay premium GoPro level price tags for great performance these days. Technology is developing at an extremely rapid pace so the premium action camera technology for this generation of action cameras is usually very similar to the technology in the entry-level action cameras in a year or two.

This presents a great opportunity for anyone on a budget or who just wants to save money as these excellent quality action cameras are usually a quarter of the price of the latest GoPro while offering some excellent image quality for your money. Now, Apeman has been slowly growing their reputation over the last few years with the majority of the action cameras they have released has earned them an excellent reputation as a cheap GoPro alternative brand.

Their latest release onto the market is the Apeman Trawo, sometimes also referred to as the Apeman a100 depending on where you are in the world but they are the exact same action camera. With the release of the Trawo we have seen a bunch of people reaching out and asking for advice on the camera so we have decided to publish our own, dedicated Apeman Trawo review.

Our hope is that we will be able to help any of our readers who are considering purchasing the Trawo and adding it to their collection of camera accessories. Now, Apeman is already a very successful cheap action camera brand with a large number of people who already use their products so the Trawo had a large market waiting for it to be released with people wanting to upgrade their action cameras to the latest release.

With the level of performance that the Trawo provides for its users as well as the price tag that it retails for, it is not surprising that it has managed to earn such an excellent reputation amongst the community in a short space of time. Many of the action sports enthusiasts who use the Apeman Trawo have chosen to post their own reviews of the action camera too. These are well worth a quick read as they offer some great independent insight into how the camera is performing in a large number of popular action sports in a wide range of situations too.

As many people suspected, Apeman has smashed the ball out of the park again with the Trawo. In our opinion, at the time of writing at least, we feel that it is without a doubt the best action camera under $100 on the market with little to no real competition. If the last few months are anything to go by then its customer base is only going to keep getting larger while its reputation amongst the action sports community keeps on growing.

Performance And Functionality

Apeman has really upped their game when it comes to their Apeman Trawo and absolutely smashed the ball out of the park when it comes to the functionality and performance that the action camera is able to provide. On top of this, they have been able to keep the price tag for the camera under one hundred dollars making it an absolute bargain for what you get for your money.

Although many entry-level action cameras in the sub-one hundred dollar price bracket advertise themselves as a 4k camera, they are actually using digital technology to upscale their footage and are not native 4k cameras. The Apeman Trawo, on the other hand, does offer true, native 4k helping to ensure that you are able to capture the best image quality possible during use too.

Not only does native 4k look better but as it is the true resolution of the camera, it also requires less battery power to capture rather than having to digitally upscale the footage after initial capture. Due to requiring less power from the battery of the camera, this also means less heat generation and less chance of the camera overheating during use too.

Just like all of the other budget-friendly action cameras on the market right now, the Apeman Trawo is capped at thirty frames per second when capturing 4k video as it is very battery intensive. This helps to ensure that you are able to use the 4k resolution for a decent period of time without depleting your battery life instantly.

The Trawo also supports 2.7K at thirty frames per second offering some solid image resolution without depleting the battery of the camera as quickly as its 4k settings. It also offers full 1440p and 1080p at sixty frames per second offering a nice compromise of image quality and battery life too. Additionally, the camera also offers you 720p at one hundred and twenty frames per second too that is ideal for fast-paced action sports or any slow-motion shooting that you may need too.

Although a number of compeating action cameras also come with a 20MP camera sensor as standard for your photography, the camera sensor on the Trawo just seems to be clearer and to provide you with better-looking photographs. If you are using a small capacity memory card while you are out and about on your adventures then you can also downgrade your photograph image quality to 16MP; 12MP; 5MP or even 3MP depending on your needs.

That said though, in this day and age, especially if you are wanting to capture 4k video footage, you really should be using a memory card with at least a 100MB/s transfer speed. If you do need to upgrade your memory card to one with a more suitable transfer speed for optimal 4k video transmission then you should try to get at least 64GB of storage meaning you should be able to capture all the 20MP photographs that you want.

On top of this, the Apeman Trawo also comes with a fully adjustable 170° wide-angle lens to allow you to capture those epic landscape vistas that are so common in many action sports in all of their glory. This allows you to capture some great photographs for your social media profiles with ease so you are able to share your experiences with your followers too.

The vlog above has been captured exclusively using the Apeman Trawo and does an excellent job of showing off the image quality available from such a low priced little action camera. As you can see, it performs very well for tasks such as vlogging and capturing your action sports without issue. It is clear to see why the camera is so popular.

The Trawo also comes with the new Apeman EIS (electronic image stabilization) technology as standard too based around a six-axis gyroscope to provide you with some solid, smooth video footage for bump action sports. That said though, if you are planning on taking part in an action sports with a ton of vibration then you can also add a cheap gimbal stabilizer like the Feiyutech G6 to your camera accessories to further improve the levels of image stabilization available for optimal image quality. We also have our article going over what we feel is the best gimbal for action cameras that can be helpful if this is a route you are considering.

Another new technology that Apeman has added to the Trawo is its recognition system allowing the camera to automatically detect people in the frame and then adjust its internal aperture controls to tweak the depth of field. In addition to allowing you to easily highlight the subject of your videos, this also allows you to blur the backgrounds of your videos with ease to focus on the action.

No action camera review would be complete without covering the underwater capabilities of the camera. The video above has been captured using the Apeman Trawo and shows off exactly what you can expect. As the waterproof case included with the action camera is waterproof down to around forty meters, there is a good chance that a number of our readers will be taking advantage of its underwater capabilities.

Now, the changing and often poor lighting conditions when underwater can often cause issues for some budget-friendly action cameras but Apeman have done an excellent job as you can see in the image above. Even in the low light conditions for the video, the subject is still visible with ease and the image quality is sharp and crisp too. The underwater mode on the Trawo adds a slight green filter to the footage when underwater to help improve the image quality to allow the camera sensor to better adjust to the conditions and optimize the performance of the camera for sub-surface images.

When it comes to the maximum battery life of the Trawo you can expect around two hours worth of video recording when using the 1080p resolution and around ninety minutes when capturing 4k video footage. When it comes to photographs, this will depend on the image resolution that you are using but we doubt that you will be running into any battery life issues when using the camera for photography.

The Apeman Trawo comes with two 1350mAh as standard to allow you to potentially recharge one battery in your backpack via a USB power bank while using the other one to actually power your camera. This should keep you covered for those long sports sessions and ensure that your action camera will always have the battery life needed to allow you to record your adventures without running into issues with battery life.

With the cheap GoPro alternative market becoming increasingly competitive, Apeman has also added a number of camera modes to the Trawo to add an additional competitive edge to the camera. These include burst photo, loop recording, time-lapse, shooting timer, and Rotate. These camera modes allow you to quickly and easily switch up your image quality as required for a large number of situations that you may find yourself in while out and about.

When you look at what you can get from the compeating sub-one hundred dollar action cameras at the time of writing, the Apeman Trawo absolutely blows them out of the water when it comes to its performance and functionality. This is why it has proven to be so popular amongst the community and has been able to grow such a large customer base in such a short period of time.

Additionally, a large number of the action sports enthusiasts who have purchased the Apeman Trawo have also decided to post their own independent reviews of the camera online that you can read if you wish. They offer some great insights into the performance of the camera from people who have used it in a large number of popular action sports in pretty much every situation that you can think of too.

User Interface And Control System

Apeman have perfected the control system for their Trawo and corrected the issues that they have had with some of their other cameras in the past. The whole interface for the camera is based on the two-inch IPS screen and the touchscreen technology is excellent for its price point. So many cheap action cameras can have issues with their touchscreens if your fingers are wet or cold but the Trawo holds up well. This is particularly useful as a large number of action sports involve water and cold weather ensuring that you have optimal control over the camera in all conditions.

The technology on the IPS screen has also been perfected to ensure that you are able to clearly see what the screen is displaying no matter the angle of view. This can be particularly handy if you have your Apeman Trawo mounted somewhere and you have to glance at the screen from an awkward angle as you can still clearly see the information that it is displaying to you. The retina technology on the screen also ensures that it accurately displays your photographs and video in the highest possible quality too.

The navigation menu on the Apeman Trawo is also very easy to work your way through to quickly and easily locate any camera settings that you may want to tweak during use. If this will be your very first action camera then this helps as it is extremely user-friendly and easy to learn. On the flip side of this though, the Trawo also boasts a number of more advanced features for the more experienced user too.

The camera also comes with built-in Wi-Fi and HDMI ports to allow you to quickly and easily connect it to other devices too. This allows you to stream the videos that you have captured to your TV or monitors or just quickly and easily transfer your content from the camera over to your computer within seconds.

All in all, Apeman has done a great job with the interface for the Trawo and we love its simplicity while still having everything there that an advanced action camera user may need. We are impressed that they have been able to keep the touchscreen so responsive, even if your fingers are cold or wet without having to hike the price tag for the camera up too.

Smartphone App

Now, the Yuyu Pro app that Apeman use has had a number of issues previously but the latest update seems to have corrected most of the problems with it. That said though, all the app really does is allow you to share your content directly from your camera to various social networks. We would imagine that any vloggers or social media influencers would want to transfer the content to their computer for a little post-production editing prior to uploading it anyway making this feature of the app useless for many people.

On top of this, the app allows you to tweak some settings on the camera too but in all honesty, it is a very similar navigation menu to the one used on the camera itself so, in our opinion, it is easier to just make changes directly to the camera. This removes the set needed to take your smartphone out, open the app and then make changes as you just do it directly to the camera in your hands. In our opinion, very few people will need the smartphone app for the Apeman Trawo and this is not something negative to the app, it’s just that Apeman has made the user interface on the Trawo so easy that its just as quick to tweak your settings directly on the camera as it is to do it via the app.

Build Quality And Design

The Apeman action camera range has a solid reputation for being as robust and lightweight as possible to ensure that they are able to take the bumps and knocks that are common during action sports without breaking. Thankfully, the Apeman Trawo is no different and it is a surprisingly tough camera considering that it costs less than one hundred dollars. The camera comes in at 2.6 x 1.8 x 0.9 inches with a weight of only 0.17 pounds making it very easy to store and carry with you without having to take up much weight or space. This lets you easily place the camera in your pocket or bag without issue when not in use allowing you to go about your regular business as required.

The waterproof case that comes included with your Apeman Trawo further increases the toughness of the camera too while also allowing you to use it underwater to a depth of forty meters too. This should ensure that the Trawo is able to meet your needs no matter what action sport you are involved in and ensure that you are always able to capture your content in the best possible image quality too.

Our Verdict

That brings our Apeman Trawo review to an end and we really are massive fans of this excellent, cheap action camera and judging by the number of excellent, independent reviews that have been published for the camera from the community, it would seem many people agree with us. If you are looking for a cheap GoPro alternative then the Apeman Trawo is probably the best option available at the time of writing in the sub-one hundred dollar price range.

Not only does the Apeman Trawo offer some of the best resolutions available to allow you to capture your adventures in the best quality possible but it is also tough enough to take the punishment of action sports without breaking. The low price tag is just the icing on the cake in our opinion that helps score it those additional few points to make it the obvious option amongst the competition. The Apeman Trawo is also the winner of our ultimate guide for action cameras under $100, thats how good we feel this action camera actually is!