VIOFO Dash Cam A119 Mini 2, STARVIS 2 Sensor, 2K 60fps/HDR 30fps Voice Control Car Dash Camera with 5GHz Wi-Fi GPS, Night Vision 2.0, 24H Parking Mode, Supercapacitor, Support 512GB Max

Overall Impression- The camera has a compact design, which allows easy installation behind the rearview mirror.- Stable windshield mount ensures the camera stays in place when pressing the buttons. Once mounted, only the vertical adjustment of the view is possible. It’s best to use the included static sticker to be able to make horizontal adjustments if needed.- The image is high-quality during day and night. The license plates are readable from short distances. The readability can be improved at night by enabling HDR, but it reduces contrast slightly. The optional polarizing filter enhances contrast and color saturation, even at night, but it can create surreal effects on the sky.- The LCD screen simplifies camera positioning and settings adjustments without the need to connect to a phone. For example, the SD card can be formatted using the buttons.- Recording of the vehicle's location and speed by using in-build GPS is accurate.- The parking mode requires an optional ACC hardware kit because the camera doesn't have an in-build battery.Using the Mobile App- The 5 GHz Wi-Fi enables fast video transfers to a phone, but for bulk file transfers, removing the SD card and connecting it directly to a phone or PC is more efficient.- Wireless Android Auto must be manually disconnected before a Wi-Fi connection to a phone can be established.- The mobile app offers settings adjustments, live camera control, video browsing with previewing the recorded route on a map, and selective downloads to the phone. However, downloaded videos require manual correction of the date of creation because it doesn't align with the actual recording date.

The media could not be loaded. I have one video uploaded, but I cropped out my own screen data that includes my license plate (plate data can be added in the app). You’ll get the idea of the image quality, but I believe that Amazon compresses this. It looks better than what is uploaded. I had a thinkware F50 from 2017 that I am upgrading because I burnt it out by accidentally connecting it to 12 V directly. My bad. As I looked to replace my old dash cam, I came across Viofo and the new a119mini 2 with GPS, Sony starvis2 and capacitor (a must in Florida) vs cam with an internal battery. The quality for both daytime driving and nighttime exceeds my old cam. Huge difference, but we are also talking a model from 2017 to 2024 release date, in all fairness. I want to note that I am not using the viofo polarizer and the image is still really good. I am certain I could benefit a little bit from the polarizer by getting rid of some windshield glare and reflection. But for me, having no polarizer does not hurt the image quality. It is difficult to quantify, but in my opinion, a big part of capturing an image is to get a license plate number if needed for identifying a vehicle. My old cam would sometimes fail to resolve plates in high contrast situations, which are often with bright days in Florida and was too grainy at night or in rain. It may have been the frame rate, too, that caused the old cam issues. I am using this new camera with the higher frame rate and middle resolution, based on some car gear review I saw. Bottom line, I’m getting way better images with this camera than the older camera. Customer service is also great. I had an issue that others were reporting, too, that I could not see the GPS data in the ios app. I heard back from customer service in a few days with detailed instructions. There was a misunderstanding on my part on how to obtain the GPS tracking data. It is not visible while viewing the camera footage in the first gallery. It must be downloaded and then viewed within the app in the downloaded My Media menu area (pancake menu in upper left gets you there as of Oct 2024 app release). That is where the GPS tracking data attaches, and shows the map. You just have to get to it a different way it appears than from what users say was available in an older version of the app. Also, the little gaps between video review that people complain about is by design. You aren’t missing any data. It’s just ending on one file and starting a new file. This is just part of the looping structure of the video clips that are taken. Any good dash cam should do this. But, I suggest also allowing the camera to do smaller sized video clips. This can be done right in the camera settings. This makes them easier to download. Having the little 2 minute clips is much easier to download. Even the small clips at high resolution can be upwards of 500 MB. That is a big file to share. Imagine trying to share a clip of the entire duration of your drive. These settings can be done while connected to the camera via wifi. Yes Wi-Fi, not Bluetooth. There are many complaints in iOS app reviews about connecting the phone to the camera. The camera does not connect via Bluetooth to the iphone. It connects via Wi-Fi. Think of it as its own little Wi-Fi hotspot. Based on some of the comments I am reading, it seems like people think that they should have their home Wi-Fi and also be able to connect to the camera. Or they keep thinking that the dash cam should be a Bluetooth device. This is not the case when the camera and the phone are connected. I do get my phone service data simultaneously (I don’t know if this is specific to carriers, but I can’t connect to the phone and still browse using my LTE or 5G on iPhone 14). To connect, turn wifi on (right lower button under camera screen). Open phone and join the new hotspot (camera will speak a wifi connected confirmation). Then open app and connect to camera. App now can control camera, review video, download and see GPS data and offer ability to share images and video to others. I was not provided a dash cam nor was I paid or rewarded to write this review.

I purchased this camera as well as the kit to allow parking recording on April 10 2025. It worked well paired with a 128GB SD card for 3 weeks. The parking recording feature began beeping and not recording. The only solution I could find was to switch to low bitrate recording. Ok fine, I did that though I wanted triggered recordings enabled. May 28th it stopped working all together. Only the left LED illuminates, no other functions. I power cycled it as well as reseating it on the base. No change. I submitted a ticket through the manufacturer website a week ago, no response! I really expected better from this product and company given their good reviews and strong recommendations from "influencers". Lesson learned. No more VIOFO equipment for me. I'm glad I waited before buying units for my other 4 cars.6/12/25 Update,I created an account on the VIOFO website then requested help again. This time they responded, claiming my first ticket was not received. I was advised to update the firmware and given a link to the firmware I updated to when I received the dash cam. I performed the update, which revived the dead camera. It also factory reset the camera. I proceeded to reconfigure my settings. The parking recording remains limited to "low bitrate recording" rather than event triggered recording. The camera has been working again for 2 days now. I will update both my rating of the product as well as this review as time goes on. I'm happy the camera is working again. Not happy that it "forgot" how to camera and needed the same firmware reloaded. If I have to reload and reconfigure the camera every 2 months, it isn't a good value to me. I requested an option to backup and restore settings from within the app, which I was told would roll out in the next firmware update. Time will tell.The lesson here. Create an account on the VIOFO website before submitting tickets. Then you and they can track ticket progress. I truly hope to upgrade my rating to 5 star eventually, but I'm not there yet currently going from 1 to 3 star.7/2/25 Update.After reflashing the firmware using my original Samsung SD card the camera operated for exactly 1 week before becoming unresponsive again. During that time, parking recording only worked in low bitrate mode. During the week it worked again, I acquired a VIOFO brand SD card at the recommendation of the manufacturer. I installed it during that week. Parking recording continued to only work in low bitrate.I reinstalled the firmware 1 more time. This time from the VIOFO SD card. It has worked flawlessly since, including having event based recording enabled. The SD card is definitely high quality construction and packaging. I have updated my rating to 4 stars now.In my opinion this camera requires their SD card in order to perform the operations advertised. I believe a card should be included with the camera, or required to be bundled with it in order to purchase. It would save the company and customer significant hassle and wasted time if this were the case. At minimum, stating that a VIOFO card is required for proper operation, rather than recommended would be an improvement. I have run Sandisk, Samsung, and several other makes in many gadgets and never had this kind of issue simply because of the card chosen. I now have the Samsung card in my camcorder, working great.