Please help me decide. Viofo A129 Plus Duo vs. A229 Duo

flyingchris

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Hi,

I did a fair bit of research and I had a winner on my list. The A129+ Duo. However Viofo released a never version and now I can't decide on which to get.

As I understand the only thing that sets them apart is that the a229 has wifi.
There hasn't been a lot of reviews of the a229 - obviously because it's like 2 weeks old.

I got to the a129/a229 because Garmin recently cut down the saved clip length to 15s before and after an event which makes them basically useless.
The B4K was ruled out because the image quality is not as good and its also a lot bigger.

Can you help me decide on which to get?
Thank you all for all the effort you put into the Best of list btw.

-Chris
 
Hi,

I did a fair bit of research and I had a winner on my list. The A129+ Duo. However Viofo released a never version and now I can't decide on which to get.

As I understand the only thing that sets them apart is that the a229 has wifi.
There hasn't been a lot of reviews of the a229 - obviously because it's like 2 weeks old.

I got to the a129/a229 because Garmin recently cut down the saved clip length to 15s before and after an event which makes them basically useless.
The B4K was ruled out because the image quality is not as good and its also a lot bigger.

Can you help me decide on which to get?
Thank you all for all the effort you put into the Best of list btw.

-Chris
They all have wifi. A129nn models and the A229.

A229 is the latest release. It has 2K front and back cameras.
A129 Plus Duo is the sweet spot in the A129 range IMO.


 
I just unboxed my A229 today and the front cam is noticeably bigger than the A129’s. Besides the wifi and rear 2K recording, I believe the A229 adds buffered parking recording too. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.
 
I just unboxed my A229 today and the front cam is noticeably bigger than the A129’s. Besides the wifi and rear 2K recording, I believe the A229 adds buffered parking recording too. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.
The Auto Event Detection (motion detection) parking mode is a buffered parking mode. I found some problems with AED parking mode during my pre-production product review testing and I worked with VIOFO to provide the testing steps / info to help them fix it in the production firmware release for the A229. I discuss some of that testing info in this post https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/viofo-a229-duo-first-look.46972/post-574567

AED parking mode video files should have approximately 15 seconds before the motion event that triggered the recording and 30 seconds after the start of the motion event for a total of 45 seconds.
 
As I understand the only thing that sets them apart is that the a229 has wifi.
They both have wifi, but the A229 wifi is faster and should always playback smoothly without buffering. It also has 5GHz wifi, which I don't think the current A129 Plus does.

The main differences are:

The A229 has a 2K rear camera instead of FHD, so twice the detail on the rear view.
The A229 rear camera is smaller and cylindrical.
The A229 front camera is larger, probably doesn't make much difference to most people though, it is still wedge shaped and easy to hide behind the mirror.
The A229 rear camera has 360 degree rotation, so can be pointed inward, while the A129 can only face rearward.
The A229 uses thin coax cable to connect the rear camera instead of thick USB cable.
The A229 uses the newer Viofo CPL filter on the front camera, but there is no CPL filter available for the rear.
2K
The A229 is powered using USB-C instead of mini-USB cable, so requires the newer USB-C hardwire kits for hardwiring.
The A229 has voice notifications instead of unintelligible beeps and voice acknowledgements instead of silence.

There are a few other general improvements.

The A129 Plus still works fine, but it is a budget dashcam compared to the A229. While the A229 rear image has twice the detail, the front image sensor is the same one, so front image quality is very similar, I think the A229 is a little better on the front, but that is not what you are paying extra for.
 
AED parking mode video files should have approximately 15 seconds before the motion event that triggered the recording and 30 seconds after the start of the motion event for a total of 45 seconds.
Or you can use low bitrate parking mode which records everything, no worries about not enough seconds or worries about not triggering an event in the first place!
 
Thanks for helping me guys. I think the A229 is worth the cost then.
Btw. Is there a timeline when the A229 will be availible on Amazon?
 
I'm always an advocate for paying for the best that you can afford. A dashcam is something that you will use for a while and not replace.
I don't anticipate any "major" improvements in the next 2 years or less that would be worth upgrading from an A229 today.
 
Btw. Is there a timeline when the A229 will be availible on Amazon?
Should be very soon, I think the initial batch was quite small and sold out rather quickly, but no serious issues have shown up so another batch will be in production. There were some production issues with one of the suppliers due to covid, so I'm not sure exactly when it will be in stock.
 
I'm always an advocate for paying for the best that you can afford. A dashcam is something that you will use for a while and not replace.
I don't anticipate any "major" improvements in the next 2 years or less that would be worth upgrading from an A229 today.
2 years is a long time, Starvis 2 is likely to arrive before then, doesn't mean it is worth waiting though.
I am expecting an A229 Pro sometime, but that will be an upgrade from the A129 Pro, not the A129 Plus.
 
2 years is a long time, Starvis 2 is likely to arrive before then, doesn't mean it is worth waiting though.
I am expecting an A229 Pro sometime, but that will be an upgrade from the A129 Pro, not the A129 Plus.
Assuming that Viofo only release 1 major flagship every year...

2022: A229
2021: A139 (I don't really consider the T130 to be a flagship)
2020 and earlier: Not sure what else they released prior to that(I'm guessing A129 Duo, A129Pro, and A119V3 should fit somewhere in prior years) and when as I've only been following dashcams for 2 years.

A.) I'm expecting an A229 Pro (4K front, 2K rear) next in 2023. (I made this guess sometime back and the Viofo boss liked the post...Not sure if he was "confirming" my guess with that, or if he only liked it because he thought that it's an "interesting" idea)
  1. It might be using an upgraded front 4K sensor that is not "Starvis 2", along with 2K rear (65% chance).
  2. It is also possible that it might have a new "Starvis 2" front 4K sensor, but I find this to be less likely (35%, but still entirely possible) especially if 2K rear sensor is included in the package. If anyone can do this, it would be Viofo though...
B.) Then maybe some future (2024?) 2K front, 2K rear dashcam with "Starvis 2" sensor.
  1. Possible that only the front will be "Starvis 2" since this is always more important than the rear cam. This also depends on their bulk order commitments of the current 2K rear sensor from Sony? If they still have a lot of stock, then this is a possibility.
  2. Also possible that both will be "Starvis 2". I find this to be less likely than scenario B1, but it will be interesting if this happens and it might make me evaluate a purchase after a thorough examination.
C.) Then 4K front, 2K rear with "Starvis 2" sensor.
  1. Possible that both will be "Starvis 2". (If scenario A2 outlined above happens instead of A1?)
  2. Also possible that only the front will be "Starvis 2" since that is more important than the rear. (Only if both scenario A1 outlined above happens and scenario B2 does not happen?)

All of this is an "incrementalism" based approach of course, and things may change depending on what they believe their competitors might do.
I'm not sure that anything before 2K "Starvis 2" sensors on both front/rear (will have to wait & see the video results) would make me upgrade from my current 2K dashcam, it would also depend on processor/SOC improvements (ex: AV1 codec, real HDR, etc...) or if someone in my household gets a new car then that is always a valid reason to buy a new dashcam and transfer the existing one.

My conservative estimate has a 2K "Starvis 2" coming out sometime in 2024 at the earliest.
There could be 1080P models in between for low-end/mid-range users, but I don't care about any of those as 2K is the sweet spot now.

It's very hard to follow Novatek's processor/SOC line, like I can predict for AMD, Intel, Arm, and even Apple almost 2 years out.
There is no public information whatsoever about Novatek's line of processors or where their future development is headed.
But...The one thing that I would venture to guess is that AV1 codec support still won't be ready for dashcams until at least 2024 or later regardless of what Novatek does.
This also gives me the opportunity to wait 2 years before getting a new laptop after Intel works out their kinks with their with their ARC gpu (which has AV1 suport) after spinning several generations along with AMD and nVidia coming on board sometime later.
 
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