I am so stuck! Which premium 2CH to pick!?

[msc]

Hello all,

I am incredibly new to dashcams, I took out a lease for my merc 4 years ago and used the free dashcam the lease company provided ever since - bottom line is it was rubbish. I've now upgraded to a newer merc but this time privately (so no freebie dashcam anymore) and was looking at a premium 2CH setup alongside an external battery pack. I first looked at Blackvue and was drawn to the aesthetics and how discreet it looked, however I was put-off by all of the 1 star reviews on the Appstore with some reviews specifically stating to avoid Blackvue altogether.

This led me to the Thinkware U3000, I'd like to say I've done above average research on this dashcam and I've watched most of the YouTube reviews out there. Although it doesn't look as good as the Blackvue, it's still a small and compact unit which has all of the features I thought I'd ever need..... up until I came across this forum where I saw quite a lot the "avoid THinkware because it has no HDR" posts.

It seems that the Viofo A229 pro seems to be the forum favourite? I would go for this but I really wanted to avoid any dash cam that had a screen but I can't ignore all of the positive recommendations.

Just to give some background on my situation in case that helps anyone trying to recommend: I use my car for commuting to and from work. It's parked in a fairly secure multistore in the day and overnight on my drive. I do a lot of motorway driving and regularly in the night when it's dark (so clear night footage to see registration plates would be important as well as this being why I don't want a screen). Overall I'm just trying to find the best 2CH on the market so that I don't have to change anything for another 4 years, would be looking up to £800 including a decent external battery.

Thanks in advance!

 

[GroovyGeek]

A139 pro does not have a screen but the cable connections seems unsightly relative to the Blackview and Thinkware.

 

[msc]

Thanks, yes this looks good from a short browse on Amazon. I'll do a bit more digging on this today. I've seen some mention that the Blackvue 970x Plus is due to be released later this month so I was going to hold off until that's been reviewed - have people got good feelings for this one?

 

[GroovyGeek]

Thanks, yes this looks good from a short browse on Amazon. I'll do a bit more digging on this today. I've seen some mention that the Blackvue 970x Plus is due to be released later this month so I was going to hold off until that's been reviewed - have people got good feelings for this one?

Seems that the Blackvue does not use Starvis sensors at the plate reading ability is pretty dismal, at least if you believe this video.

 

[JardaB]

it is better to get a device where the childhood bugs are already removed

 

[jayzy1]

Hi @msc I'm in the same position, i.e. looking for a premiium 2CH, which one did you get in the end and how is it?

 

[Google]

watching...

 

[kamkar]

It is funny, often in these threads people are holding a regular dashcam up against a smart / cloud enabled dashcam.
Of course they are both recording video, so i can only assume by premium people mean video quality, and in that case it seem like the smart / cloud cameras have always been lagging behind regular dashcams.

As jadaB say, yes dashcams often have some not yet revolved issues at launch, but i have yet to see that being a problem in any of the many cameras i have tested, maybe due to me only really wanting the basic function of the camera recording when i drive and stop when i stop.
If you are looking for instance for using a particular parking guard mode in a new system, in that case you should hit testers up and hear if they have tested that and how it was for them.
But general stuff like recording all cameras do when new, but granted image quality can and will most often get better, but i have yet to see one that was garbage image quality,,,,, well aside for a certain kickstarter system that did / do not impress.