Buy VIOFO A229 Plus Dash Cam Front and Rear, Dual STARVIS 2
Sensors, 2 Channel HDR, 1440P+1440P Voice Control Car Dash
Camera, 5GHz Wi-Fi, Voice Control, Ultra-Precise GPS: On-Dash
Cameras - desertcart.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible
purchases
Review: THIS DASHCAM IS PERFECT IN NEARLY EVERY WAY! - TL;DR -
Please skip to ‘Pros and Cons’ if you only want the details. Let
me start by saying that I spent almost two months searching for
the perfect dash cam solution for my car. We recently had our
first child, and I was determined in every way to make sure that
she is as safe as she can be whenever we are on the roadways.
Twice a week, I also have to commute 70 miles each way, which is
about 90% interstate, and 10% city driving. After encountering
two road rage incidents on the same day, I finally decided had
enough. If something goes down, I want proof of the person(s) at
fault. I’ve likely read every review and studied every device
that desertcart sells, including Wolfbox and Pormido. I
eventually ended up on r/dashcam on Reddit, which is where I
finally struck gold. Reddit always cuts through the noise for me,
and this time was no different. The overwhelming choice there for
brand is Viofo. They claim that Viofo dash cams excel in every
way, and so far, that has been my experience. Installation: The
install is about as straightforward as it gets. You need to run
the wire to any cameras that you want, except for the main
camera, which is built into the main unit. If you only want a
single camera facing ahead, there is no wiring necessary, unless
you plan on hardwiring the unit to your car’s 12V system. If you
intend to utilize ‘Parking Mode’, you will need to have access to
both a constant +12V and an accessory +12V, and a ground/earth. I
opted for the latter, as I would like my car to be under
surveillance at all times. If you opt for only ‘Driving Mode’, it
will be an even simpler install, but that will not allow you to
record while away from the vehicle. I planned out my route for
the rear camera, and ran the single USB-C to USB-C cable, using
the provided trim tool. It is very simple in most cases to tuck
the wire away behind the vehicle’s interior trim paneling. The
tool, although I have my own, was actually very good quality.
Setup: Again, it was entirely straightforward. You power it on,
go through basic setup for language choice and whatnot, and then
you’ll want to enable WiFi so that you can use your phone and the
Viofo app to configure the rest of the settings. This *can* be
done using the physical buttons on the device, but it is MUCH
easier to do on the app. There are so many wonderful options,
that using the device’s GUI, although well developed, would be
too much to do on a small LCD screen. Take my advice and use the
Viofo App. It’s available for iOS and Android. You’ll also want
to large Micro SD card to store your recordings. I started with a
16GB Samsung that I already had, but even at normal quality and
bitrate settings, it filled up at just 2 hours of recording. This
device does have ‘Loop Recording’, but I didn’t choose to enable
it. I am fine with deleting the recordings as it fills, as I
would rather be sure to have the footage if I discover later that
I captured an incident that I didn’t notice right away. Loop
Recordings are limited to 10 minutes in length, and that just
isn’t enough for me. After operating to the 256GB memory card, I
was then able to increase the quality and bitrate setting to the
maximum of 2K for the front and rear cameras, and still have
plenty of space. I can record about 12 hours without having to
delete anything. Image Quality: I immediately tested this device
at night by driving around my city and county at 11PM. I wanted
to try to capture license plates because, whenever I’m driving, I
always have to try to memorize the license plate if something
happens, and that is not always possible. When I returned home
and checked the footage, I discovered that the STARVIS 2 lenses
actually made the possible at night! If you capture a license
plate of any car within 10’ or so of yours, you will be able to
read the plates using the video footage. Of course, with the
audio recording, if you can read it aloud, it will capture your
voice in the recording. I am now in the habit of reading the
plates aloud for that exact purpose. There was minimal to no
glare from either camera, although I do think that I will be
ordering the additional lenses for my front camera, as I have a
very bright display in the car that is very visible in the
recordings. I suppose that is the price you pay for having
exceptional Sony Starvis 2 lenses- you WILL capture EVERYTHING.
As far as just overall video quality, the 2K and 1080P quality
images are exactly as they should be, which is crisp and free of
imperfection. These Sony Starvis 2 lenses are something you just
have to experience for yourself to understand. Knowing what I
know now, I would never use a dash camera without them.
Temperatures: The one thing I was most concerned about when I
started researching these devices was the sheer amount of failure
from the elements. The device you choose will be subjected to
extreme heat and cold, and the device you choose absolutely MUST
have protections in place for this. Luckily, Viofo planned for
this and they use special capacitors and other electrical
components inside to ensure that your device doesn’t fail as a
result of direct sunlight, freezing and condensation, and overall
interior and exterior cabin temps. This was actually my biggest
factor in deciding on which brand to choose from. The fact that
Viofo not only considered this, but placed extra special care and
attention to it, was the ultimate deciding factor for me purchase
it. I have already connected with their customer service, and
they have been extremely helpful in answering all my questions. I
haven’t had any issues, but I wanted to reach out to be sure that
I could contact someone if I needed to. Value for money: I
actually waited until a Flash Sale to purchase my A229 Plus, and
I managed to catch it for $169! I have literally never made a
faster and more urgent purchase! You will not find ANYTHING with
this kind of quality and features for that price. If you can,
wait for a sale and pounce! 🐅 I have tested all the modes and
everything works exactly as it should. If you have any questions
about it, I would be happy to answer them. I will be monitoring
this item for questions for the next couple of months or so, so
if you just use desertcart’s product questions feature, I’ll see
it and respond. I will also be updating this review every 3
months just to ensure that it’s working properly, and will
include and issues and incidents that I encounter. PROS: • Price
• Exceptional image quality • Night vision is amazing • Features
• Ease of install • Durability Cons: • Doesn’t include a hardwire
kit or SD Card
Review: Great package overall. Will not disappoint! - Has
everything you will need in my opinion. It functions as it is
supposed to, but did run into that beeping/slow card error. With
this error I advise to contact Viofo and tell them the error and
ask for a different firmware made for slower cards. I am not sure
if it would've worked, but in my case I just reformatted it 3
times and it somehow helped and haven't gotten that error since,
with a Sandisk max endurance card. With that aside, the camera
quality is exceptional and all most would need to be honest. I
almost went with 4k, but realistically you get all you need from
a 2k camera. I did not hard wire it so I'm not sure as far as
that goes, but if you know how I expect it to run well. I have no
problems connecting to the wifi of the camera and extracting
videos. It does take a bit of time to do so, so beware. For this
reason I set it to capture 2mins every loop (going to be around
200+mbs of storage). If I need more I will just grab more video
from the storage, no problem. I will also suggest if you put it
just to the left of your mirror, make sure you put it far enough
away or low enough so you can access the SD card or you will hate
yourself for not doing so at some point. For example, if you need
to install new firmware or your card fails, you will need to
access that port. An even bigger reason for wanting to do that is
because this 3M adhesive is ridiculously strong. When putting it
on I needed to remove it and I negligently took it off and I had
to remove the adhesive from the camera, which took 30+minutes of
alcohol scrubbing. Luckily they pack an extra 3M adhesive, which
saved some frustrations. Very easy to install the wires in your
car (even SUV). Once you get used to how much pressure to apply
on getting the wires to fit behind the airbag slots and other
plastic areas, it moves very quickly. I would say it took roughly
25minutes to get the wires snug where I wanted them. The audio is
also very good along with the video quality and I honestly have
nothing bad to say about those two things. They perform with ease
and exceed expectations in that manner. I have owned it for a
couple months with no other flaws, besides that card speed error.
It feels like a very solid package overall and would recommend it
for anyone who constantly runs into negligent reckless A-holes on
the road. *Would have uploaded a video of it's performance, but
desertcart degrades the upload quality, so no point.*
