Between 70mai A510, Viofo A119 mini, and mini 2

[frizky]

I live in Indonesia, I'm in a bit loss in choosing a first dashcam for my car. There are several brands sold in my country, ddpai, 70mai, azdome, blackvue, which have an official reseller here. But some notable brands like vantrue and viofo don't have an official reseller here. I need help in choosing one between three:

1. Viofo A119 mini, at USD80 pricetag
2. ⁠Viofo A119 mini 2, at USD120 pricetag
3. ⁠70mai A510, at USD150 pricetag



The best would be A119 mini 2 for front cam and A119 mini for rear cam, but it's over my current budget. 70mai A510 is a good alternative because the brand has an official reseller here for easier warranty claims than Viofo, but my country has relatively hot climate and A510 still uses lithium battery instead of capacitor makes me reconsider. Does the USD40 difference between mini and mini 2 worth the price?

 

[Nigel]

but my country has relatively hot climate and A510 still uses lithium battery instead of capacitor makes me reconsider.

Typical life for a lithium battery in your climate is maybe 18 months. The 70mai batteries are normally almost user replaceable without a soldering iron (I haven't looked at the A510), and they are Li Ion, so don't swell up and burst the camera apart causing damage, but they will vent gasses, only in small amounts for a battery that size, but they are not very nice gasses:

The gas mixture generated and released is flammable and toxic, consisting of various mixtures of hydrogen, carbon-monoxide, carbon-dioxide, and various hydrocarbons including methane and propane, and compounds of hydrogen, including hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen chloride and hydrogen cyanide, as well as sulphur dioxide and other dangerous chemicals.

Not good when you are trapped in a car with them!

Does the USD40 difference between mini and mini 2 worth the price?

The mini 2 is definitely better, especially at night when the HDR feature will read a lot of license plates moving at speed while the Mini 1 will not, or would see them overexposed by too bright headlamps. For a rear camera, license plate reading at night is not very important. For the front camera, it is good to record license plates, but if you don't drive much at night the Mini 1 is OK, and it will still record many license plates at night if they are not moving. It is a bit difficult to answer your question, depends on how much USD40 is worth to you! For me, that is about half a tank of fuel, while the insurance savings from reading night time number plates have so far been zero - I don't have many accidents, but maybe one day, night time HDR will result in someone else paying $4000 for damage that I would otherwise end up either paying for, or paying an extra $400 in insurance payments plus a $400 excess. In other words, it is a feature that may easily pay for itself, and given that Viofo super capacitor life seems to be at least 10 years, the extra $40 seems like quite a small insurance payment.