Help deciding between 70mai pro vs Viofo A129

cyclist

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What do you guys think about the Viofo A129 vs 70mai Pro in terms of quality and values? I know Viofo is highly touted, but 70mai is a MI Brand and although I would never buy a Xiaomi phone, I think highly of their manufacturing.

I’m in the process of buying my first dash cam and after diving into the rabbit hole researching dashcams I’m set on these two. The 70mai is half the price of the Viofo and it has the better IMX335 (5MP) compared to IMX291 (2MP), but 1.8 aperture versus 1.6. It has the better app design as far as I can tell. It has voice control to turn on/off display, take picture, and record video.

The Viofo is the more experienced dashcam. What I really like is the dual band WiFi. Viofo also has less limitations. It supports 256GB vs 64GB. It doesn’t limit the recording length to 1 minute like 70mai. There’s option for 1, 3, 5, and 10 minutes. The rear camera is nice to have but not a deciding factor for me.

I really like 70mai price and features, I only hate that it has a 1 minute clip limitation. I have watched all the videos on YouTube I can find on the 70mai pro and A129 and I still can’t decide. I know most will probably say the Viofo, but why? What is it I’m missing. I really like the A129, but why did it get downgraded from the A119 V3 IMX335? At $180 is it still a good value? It’s approaching the price range of entry level Thinkware and BlackVue.
 
if you're only wanting single channel have a look at at the A119V3 also

the 70mai is a Chinese domestic market product, and it shows
 
I really like the A129, but why did it get downgraded from the A119 V3 IMX335? At $180 is it still a good value? It’s approaching the price range of entry level Thinkware and BlackVue.
A129 was released a long time before the A119 V3 (long time in dashcam and image sensor development anyway), so was not a downgrade, in fact a big upgrade on the A119 at the time. The sensor is not worse anyway, it is the more sensitive sensor and gives less motion blur at night. In the same way that the A119 has been upgraded to the V3, the A129 is soon to get a Pro version with 4K resolution, so for daytime use that will be better than the A119 V3, and with not a big difference in the dark.

I suggest you go for the A119 V3 unless you know that you want the wifi, the extra resolution is good for USA number plates with their small writing, and dashcam wifi is a bit slow for file transfer anyway unless you have the A129 Pro, and even then it is still slow because the 4K files are huge!
 
Thank you so much. I’ve read up on the A129 Pro and it will be releasing soon. I will wait for that. Hopefully it’s not much more expensive.
 
I realise that wifi can be a tempting feature on your first dashcam. In practice, I find it more difficult to use the app than the on screen menu (if the camera has a screen), and I prefer to use a card reader than WiFi for transferring files. I should probably clarify that. The apps themselves are OK. It's a pain to enable wifi, find it on your phone, enter the password and confirm you want to use WiFi without data, all before you can use the app.
 
It’s approaching the price range of entry level Thinkware and BlackVue.

But you still get a package that outperforms their flagship stuff.

Last I remember checking, their entry level dual cams were still stuck at 720p for the rear.
 
The 129 bundle package on Amazon is a great price and I am going for it, as mentioned the 4K will suck up more room on the card.The 129 allows a bigger card,so I checked many of the features and this is the one. I am sure in the next couple of weeks I will have lots of questions. I also want to thank the forum for all the great advice
 
I would not go near the 70mai, too many factors like region model / region firmware ASO.
 
if you're only wanting single channel have a look at at the A119V3 also

the 70mai is a Chinese domestic market product, and it shows

Sorry to drudge up an older topic. I'm trying to get more info on what drawbacks of a "Chinese Domestic Product" are. From what I gathered searching through your posts they:
  • Tend to be a lot flashier in appearance, not as stealthy as the export market expects
  • Have reduced quality control
  • Localization is often non-existent, or if it does you have to ensure you buy the right export product
  • Reduced customer support for the export market and often require users to ship it back to China at their expense
Anything else I'm missing? I'm trying to figure out if the 70mai Pro is worth buying and I don't know as much about the Chinese domestic market as I would like.
 
that's pretty much it, another problem with domestic market product is most of it was never intended for export but you get sellers that see an opportunity and find a way to buy it, how long they last doing that may impact what sort of after sales service you get, on some brands they come and go out of the market very quickly
 
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