The VIOFO A119 Mini 2 is a compact, front-only dash cam with a Sony STARVIS 2 sensor, a 140-degree lens, a 1.5-inch screen, GPS and dual-band Wi-Fi. PCWorld rated it 4.5/5 and found its footage excellent for colour and headlight-flare handling, while Vortex Radar names it the best budget front-only dash cam for its low-light clarity and buffered parking recording. The Gadgeteer praised the voice control and notifications, but found the default 60fps mode soft and the collision sensor over-eager on the motorway. It suits drivers who want strong front video in a small, discreet body; anyone who needs rear coverage or cloud alerts should look elsewhere.
Full review
Sharp, colourful front footage once the settings are right
PCWorld called the A119 Mini 2's captures generally top-notch, with good colour and detail at night and decent handling of headlight flare, though it noted daytime footage slightly favours smooth over sharp. Vortex Radar, which has tested dash cams since 2012, says the STARVIS 2 sensor with HDR gives the best video clarity it has seen in this class, with excellent low-light sensitivity. The Gadgeteer's first drive was disappointing: at the highest frame rate the picture was soft and number plates were hard to read. Switching to maximum resolution at 30fps and turning HDR off fixed that, after which it judged the footage very good and hard to tell apart from VIOFO's 4K A139.
Small body, screen, voice control and a fixed mount
The camera measures roughly 1.8 by 2.8 inches, according to PCWorld, and slides off its mount so it can be taken out of the car. A 1.5-inch screen means settings can be changed without a phone, and the Wi-Fi app adds a live view and file downloads. The Gadgeteer found the ten voice commands worked perfectly and instantly, but disabled them because there is no wake word, and Vortex Radar notes voice control cannot hear over music. The mount is the main design compromise: PCWorld points out it uses semi-permanent adhesive with no adjustment afterwards, so the camera has to be aligned carefully at install. PCWorld also found the GPS set the date but not the correct time zone.
Parking protection needs extra hardware
Vortex Radar singles out the buffered parking mode, which keeps a rolling clip so an impact is saved with the moments before it, something many cheaper cameras cannot do. It needs constant power, though: VIOFO specifies its hardwiring kit, and PCWorld learned an OBD-II power source also works. Vortex Radar lists no low-power parking option, no cloud support, no rear camera and no memory card in the box among the drawbacks. The Gadgeteer also found the collision sensor far too sensitive on a long interstate trip, saving a protected clip roughly every 30 minutes even on its lowest setting, so the card needed formatting to clear unwanted saves.
Strengths
- +Small body blocks less of the windscreen view and draws less attention than most dash cams
- +Good colour and detail at night, with decent control of headlight flare
- +Buffered parking mode saves footage from before and after an impact when hardwired
- +Voice commands and spoken notifications responded instantly in testing
- +Built-in screen allows every setting to be changed without pairing a phone
Watch-outs
- −Mount uses semi-permanent adhesive and cannot be re-angled after fitting
- −Front-only recording, with no rear camera option
- −Collision sensor saved clips on lane changes and bumps even at low sensitivity
How it compares
Like the Garmin Dash Cam Mini 2 and Vantrue E1 Pro, the A119 Mini 2 is a small front-only camera, but it adds a built-in screen, GPS and voice control, and PCWorld judged it a worthy competitor to Garmin's small cameras, which keep the advantage of a fully adjustable mount. Unlike the Redtiger F7N it has no rear camera, so buyers who need front-and-rear coverage should look at that model instead.
Rating sources
Counts as 4.64/5 in our score — this publisher's 60 scores on the site average 4.02, so its scores are adjusted up to compare fairly with other publishers.
Not in the average — we derived this score from the review's words, and a publisher printed a score for this product, so the printed number counts instead.
Not in the average — we derived this score from the review's words, and a publisher printed a score for this product, so the printed number counts instead.
Our 4.6 score is the average of 1 of the scored reviews above, each adjusted for how strictly its publisher scores. 2 derived scores above are not in the average because a publisher printed a score for this product. Ratings marked * were derived from the reviewer’s written analysis or video transcript — the publisher didn’t print an explicit numeric score, so we inferred one from their own words. Click through to verify. More about methodology.
