Viofo VS1 Mini 2K review: This tiny dash cam delivers the goods
Expert's Rating
Pros
- Super-small, handsome profile
- Very good day and night 1440p captures
- Voice commands/alerts and phone connectivity
- Integrated GPS
Cons
- No room for a display
Our Verdict
if you want a small dash cam that takes good captures, then the Viofo VS1 competes well with the Garmin Mini 2, upping the resolution ante. It even has the GPS that the Garmin Mini 2 lacks.
Best Prices Today: Viofo VS1 Mini 2K
Viofo makes capable dash cams, but the $140 VS1 Mini 2K, notable for its diminutive size, is easily the best that the company has asked me to review. It’s super small, good looking, and voice controlled, with phone connectivity and voice alerts,. And best of all, it takes very good 1440p captures day and night. It even has GPS, though it won’t watermark such.
With GPS and better resolution, it’s an attractive alternative to the 1080p GPS-less Garmin Dash Cam Mini 2, or would be if the GPS had actually worked in my testing. More on that in a bit.
Further reading: See our roundup of the best dash cams to learn about competing products.
What are the VS1 Mini 2K’s features?
The VS1 is very small, measuring 1.3 inches wide by 1.18 inches thick by approximately 2.85 inches tall. It’s styled nicely in black with tastefully minimal accents. The right side of the unit is home only to the Type-C USB power port. The left side sports the microSD slot (a 32GB card is included) as well as the microphone on/off button.
The back of the camera is home to the power indicator, microphone, video save/Wi-Fi button (short/long press), and status light. There’s nothing on the front other than the lens, which, unlike many cameras, does not protrude. Despite that seeming disadvantage, the VS1 produces very good captures.
The Mini 2K uses a semi-permanent adhesive mount that the unit slides on and off of. The camera swivels vertically on the mount, but that’s it, so be careful when you affix the mounting plate to the windshield.
Use the live view to orient it properly. Also, truth be known, if you don’t press too hard when you first affix it, you can pull it off and try again. Too many attempts, however, will ruin the adhesive. There’s an extra pad in the box, as with most dash cams.
As someone who’s prone to forgetting where his phone is, I’m not a huge fan of display-less dash cams. Of course, any screen on a dash cam this small would be near impossible to read anyway.
Also, the VS1’s plentiful voice commands (“Turn on/off audio,” “Turn on Wi-Fi,” etc.) help compensate, and there’s of course the app shown below.
The VS1 connects to your phone via Wi-Fi and the Viofo app found the camera quickly. Such is not always the case. I also found the app easy to navigate and use.
One other note: Viofo provides a standalone cigarette-lighter adapter with two Type-A ports — one for charging, and another free. Nothing bugs me more than adapters with only one port, especially for dash cams that require a phone to configure. I recommend that you switch to an OBDII adapter to power the dash cam anyway as it makes for less obtrusive cable runs.
How are the VS1 Mini 2K’s captures?
To be honest, I was not expecting the VS1 to perform as well as it did. Viofo dash cams generally produce better-than-average video, but not as good as what we saw from the VS1.
I was especially impressed with the night video. Headlight flare was handled wonderfully, and California’s bright white license plates were still quite readable when my own headlights lit them up.
This daylight capture shows very good detail, and the color is accurate for a gray day in San Francisco. This is the San Francisco DMV parking lot, if you were wondering — and I’m driving by, not into it.
The VS1’s captures are top-notch — in the running for best 1440p I’ve seen.
You can see the proof of my claims about the VS1’s night captures below. This is significantly improved from the recently reviewed Viofo A119 Mini 2.
As I’ve already said, the VS1’s captures are top-notch — in the running for best 1440p I’ve seen. The processing really makes a difference.
You may have noticed that while the VS1 sports GPS, there’s no watermark in the captures. That’s because the GPS on the first unit I was shipped, which the captures are from, was faulty. Viofo shipped a replacement and the GPS was fine. I only mention this so that if you purchase a VS1 — and you might want to — you test the GPS immediately to make sure you didn’t get one of a bad batch..
Should you buy the VS1 Mini 2K?
The VS1 one bests the Garmin Dash Cam Mini 2 (our former favorite tiny model) in both resolution and by providing GPS. It’s a couple bucks more and slightly larger, but the superior captures give it the win.