S1 4K quick review

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forcefed

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Decided to purchase the vueroid s1 4k camera, already had a viofo a229 pro but wasn't happy with it so decided to try something new.
Things i didn't like about the a229 pro is that it would shut down in the summer when it was too hot, saw some of the vueroid heat testing vids on youtube and it convinced me to give their cameras a try, seems they take this seriously. Also the viofo's connectivity to the app and firmware upgrade process is pretty archaic, almost like this is a first generation wifi dashcam. Let me explain the app connectivity differences between the two cameras and see which you'd prefer

Vueroid s1
Press wifi button
Open app
Press Connect to wifi and it connects to the camera
If new firmware is available it'll ask you if you want to install it

Viofo a229 pro
Hold wifi button
Open app
Press Connect to camera
Choose viofo hotspot from wifi list
Press back to go back to app
Press Connect to camera
App crashes, yes its the newest app, even on multiple android phones it always crashes for me
Open app again
Press Connect to camera
Finally connected but with no ability to do ota firmware updates, even though there is a firmware upgrade option in the app it hasn't worked since it was implemented maybe a year ago.
So you go to viofo's website to find the firmware files for the front/rear and interior cameras, copy it to a microsd card and bring it back to the camera, pop it in and finally let it update each of the cameras. If this isn't a bad user experience i don't know what is, its things like this that made me look for something better.

One nifty feature that i didn't expect was Auto REC off zone, with my viofo everytime i got home i had to turn off the camera otherwise it would do parking recording in my garage and drain my ecoflow battery overnight or over the weekend if i didn't use the car. The auto rec off zone feature in the vueroid s1 disables parking recording in up to 3 gps located areas, so i dont ever have to turn off the camera when i get home.

Its hooked up to my ecoflow river 2 with the 3 wire hardwire cable spliced into the supplied 12v car plug, really like the low profile plug, doesn't stick out too far from the ecoflow unlike most aftermarket plugs.
The acc wire is connected to the fusebox however the camera still wouldn't turn on here, turns out you need a ground from the car itself, when i connected the ground from the car then everything worked.

I only had it a few days so this is my initial review with things that stood out to me. Looked through some of the footage and it looks great, wifi download speeds are fast for 400mb chunks but wish it was longer than 1 min clips though. Will add more info once i find other nifty things. Also seems i'm the first one in canada to get it from @SafeDriveSolutions 😎




20251010_235440.webp20251010_234707.webp20251010_232444.webp20251011_000039(1).webp
 
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So the S1 only do 1 min clips.
That is,,,,,,,, unfortunate as i prefer 3 minutes.
Not a deal-breaker though.
 
We asked Vueroid early on to give different video length options. They did say if they did it would need to be formatted every time you changed that setting. But No idea if they will plan for future or not
 
forcefed said:
Viofo a229 pro
Hold wifi button
Open app
Press Connect to camera
Choose viofo hotspot from wifi list
Press back to go back to app
Press Connect to camera
App crashes, yes its the newest app, even on multiple android phones it always crashes for me
Open app again
Press Connect to camera
Finally connected but with no ability to do ota firmware updates, even though there is a firmware upgrade option in the app it hasn't worked since it was implemented maybe a year ago.
Click to expand...
Not quite. You may have configured something incorrectly.

Viofo A229 Pro
Wi-Fi on the smartphone is enabled
I pressed the button on the remote control, and the Wi-Fi on the A229 Pro turned on, and it indicated so.
The A229 Pro immediately indicated that it had connected to the smartphone.
The app has never crashed during my entire use.
I've been using the Viofo Beta app since its release.
Before that, I used the regular Viofo app.

Forced automatic updates are also a double-edged sword.
The user should have a choice: when and how to update the dash cam.
 
Mandatory updates will occur, as far as I understand, when there is a need, such as a serious bug fix, or in this case, a new dashcam with a much earlier release, and the customer should be setting up and using the dashcam on the latest release. This is much the same with HUB, a user should always be on the latest release of HUB.

How many times have we read in one of the VIOFO boards, where the OP is asked if they have updated to the latest firmware? There is a reason for that question. 😉

The risk of bricking the S1 4K is extremely low.
 
forcefed said:
That's not really an issue imo, choice is nice.
Click to expand...

I am not sure why the limit, at the moment, is one-minute video lengths. I prefer 2-minute as that seems a reasonable size to quickly download to the cellphone, and it seems to be a good length to usually capture the before-and-after of events around me.
 
Let's consider this situation:
You need to go to work. You get in your car and decide to check what the S1 4K recorded in the parking lot.
You turn on Wi-Fi, the S1 4K connects to the app, and immediately starts updating.
You need to go to work, BUT you still need to set up the S1 4K.
I think many users won't like this situation.
 
Karagandinez said:
Let's consider this situation:
You need to go to work. You get in your car and decide to check what the S1 4K recorded in the parking lot.
You turn on Wi-Fi, the S1 4K connects to the app, and immediately starts updating.
You need to go to work, BUT you still need to set up the S1 4K.
I think many users won't like this situation.
Click to expand...
Who said it immediately starts updating? It asks if you want to update, doesn't force you.
 
forcefed said:
Who said it immediately starts updating? It asks if you want to update, doesn't force you.
Click to expand...
I didn't notice the app asking me...
Next time I'll have to be more careful. 😀
 
Karagandinez said:
Not quite. You may have configured something incorrectly.

Viofo A229 Pro
Wi-Fi on the smartphone is enabled
I pressed the button on the remote control, and the Wi-Fi on the A229 Pro turned on, and it indicated so.
The A229 Pro immediately indicated that it had connected to the smartphone.
The app has never crashed during my entire use.
I've been using the Viofo Beta app since its release.
Before that, I used the regular Viofo app.

Forced automatic updates are also a double-edged sword.
The user should have a choice: when and how to update the dash cam.
Click to expand...
Here i made these videos, after redownloading the viofo app it doesn't crash anymore, but still takes 8 screen presses compared to 3 on the vueroid.

viofo vueroid
 
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forcefed said:
Who said it immediately starts updating? It asks if you want to update, doesn't force you.
Click to expand...

As @lufa6977 said, there may be a mandatory firmware update when the user first connects the S1 4K to HUB if there have been important updates since the dashcam was boxed up ready for shipping.

To check this, I just took an S1 4K out of the box, powered it up and connected it to the HUB app. HUB immediately found the latest firmware v1.3.1, downloaded it and transferred it to the S1 4K, which then began the FW update process. The app did not ask if I wanted to do the update.

I don't think this is an issue provided that future incremental firmware updates are optional so the user can decide to do the update at a convenient time, rather than being forced into an update and settings reconfiguration when they are trying to get from A to B.
 
TonyM said:
As @lufa6977 said, there may be a mandatory firmware update when the user first connects the S1 4K to HUB if there have been important updates since the dashcam was boxed up ready for shipping.

To check this, I just took an S1 4K out of the box, powered it up and connected it to the HUB app. HUB immediately found the latest firmware v1.3.1, downloaded it and transferred it to the S1 4K, which then began the FW update process. The app did not ask if I wanted to do the update.

I don't think this is an issue provided that future incremental firmware updates are optional so the user can decide to do the update at a convenient time, rather than being forced into an update and settings reconfiguration when they are trying to get from A to B.
Click to expand...
 
The current product was manufactured in August, and we've made many improvements since then. We've decided to force updates, especially when there are serious bug fixes or significant improvements that may occur intermittently. I don't think this will happen often, but we plan to improve it if users find it inconvenient. When we release new firmware, we set whether to force updates or not. I hope there no more forced update ..
 
It seems there is no supercapacitor and battery inside the S1, so maybe it is better for heat handling.
But you will find the last file is always corrupted.
 
viofo said:
It seems there is no supercapacitor and battery inside the S1, so maybe it is better for heat handling.
But you will find the last file is always corrupted.
Click to expand...
I think you should reframe your post to better explain what you are saying.
 
viofo said:
It seems there is no supercapacitor and battery inside the S1, so maybe it is better for heat handling.
But you will find the last file is always corrupted.
Click to expand...

hmmmm....is VIOFO feeling threatened? It is rather rude, crude, and unprofessional to pop into another manufacturers thread and sling accustations.


(psssst.....I have not yet lost any video from that 'last file')
 
lufa6977 said:
hmmmm....is VIOFO feeling threatened? It is rather rude, crude, and unprofessional to pop into another manufacturers thread and sling accustations.


(psssst.....I have not yet lost any video from that 'last file')
Click to expand...
There is some truth to their post. But if they want to post that. They should back it up with the full facts.
 
lufa6977 said:
hmmmm....is VIOFO feeling threatened? It is rather rude, crude, and unprofessional to pop into another manufacturers thread and sling accustations.


(psssst.....I have not yet lost any video from that 'last file')
Click to expand...
I always comment on other non-Viofo product posts.
 
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