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)
I thought I'd check the official Viofo website to see if the A229 had been mentioned at all, and there's a banner mentioning pre-orders for the A229 starting on May 20th 222.
dashcamtalk.com
- It might be using an upgraded front 4K sensor that is not "Starvis 2", along with 2K rear (65% chance).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Possible that both will be "Starvis 2". (If scenario A2 outlined above happens instead of A1?)
- 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.