Also there is a reason the audible notifications are so dim. The speaker is too small, even though there is a cut out for a larger speaker next to it. Probably to cut costs for the pre-production/ test samples batch, which is ok as that is not a critical component but will be nice to have in retail units.
It is really just a beeper, the only audio other than beeps is the startup and shutdown sounds, so large size is not important as long as it does OK at the frequency of the beep. For me the startup and shutdown sounds are at a nice level, I can hear them OK but they are not annoying/distracting. I haven't heard many beeps except for the button presses, and those seem loud enough. Yes, it is not loud, but my car is not quiet, certainly not compared to a typical Chinese car. Am I missing something? Maybe you have a car sensor housing blocking the sound path from the speaker to your ears?
I think there is some extra room for a slightly larger heat dissipation block.
Seems to cover the whole circuit board except for where there are connectors, note that it extends under the supercaps which is not immediately obvious, they are stuck on top of it. Also, the heatsink/spreader appears to be aluminium, the PCB will conduct heat better at further distance from the processor since it will have a copper ground plane so good to let some air get to that.
There is not shielding between the heat sink and the GPS module and I'm concerned it may be picking up interference from the CPU plus all the heat as it is seating just on top of it with just few millimeter clearance.
The heat sink itself should act as a shield, and should be grounded, and even if not, it is sitting on top of of an emi shield.
One of the advantages of the tall design is that there should be some convection over the heatsink fins which hopefully stops the GPS getting hot. They have even put the fins running vertically to help! Many dashcams, especially the tube shaped ones can't use convection, tall chimneys are always far more effective than horizontal ones!
One thing I like they did is the placement of the RTC battery away from the heat and not soldered to the main board which will result in a longer life span and very easy to replace when the time comes.
Yes, that is good design.
I was wondering why the supercaps didn't go down there too, but there isn't room once you put the image sensor back on. It is good though that both supercaps are heated by the heatsink instead of only one, should stop them going out of balance as they age, first camera I've seen do that.
