I also ordered the hard wire harness for a permanent install, and will connect that to a toggle switch so I can easily power it down as needed

We have it hard wired and so just turn on the car - dash cam is on and recording great video.

Once you turn off the power (I have not hard wired yet), the unit turns off almost immediately.2

The port still works and the camera works very well, but I'm sure I'll have to replace the mount before long, as there are exposed wires, and the port comes loose from the mount every time I plug or unplug the power cable

I actually purchased a total of '3' of the X3 Cameras since I have multiple cars and have each camera hard wired for convenience

Hard wire kit should be included as an option

User friendly is always the plug is not requiring to hard wire, but is an option.

I also purchased the optional hard wiring kit so that the cables are hidden and tied neatly into the fuse box

The smell was coming from inside the ca,r from my charging phone (nexus),