Abode Cam 2 review
Our Verdict
The Dwelling Cam ii is a non-quite-fully-baked, but otherwise incredibly affordable and pretty capable camera that just doesn't quite outcompete the similar, nevertheless more fully-featured Wyze Cam v3.
For
- Very affordable
- Packed with features
- Motion-sensing boxes
- Easy and versatile mounting solution
Confronting
- Subpar motion-sensing and person detection
- Needs other Abode products to make subscription plan really worthwhile
- Long loading times for live feed.
- Charger cablevision unplugs from camera too easily
Tom'southward Guide Verdict
The Abode Cam two is a not-quite-fully-baked, but otherwise incredibly affordable and pretty capable camera that merely doesn't quite outcompete the similar, nevertheless more than fully-featured Wyze Cam v3.
Pros
- +
Very affordable
- +
Packed with features
- +
Move-sensing boxes
- +
Easy and versatile mounting solution
Cons
- -
Subpar motion-sensing and person detection
- -
Needs other Abode products to make subscription plan really worthwhile
- -
Long loading times for live feed.
- -
Charger cablevision unplugs from camera as well easily
Abode Cam 2: Specs
Size: 1.97 x 1.97 x 1.97 inches
Camera Resolution: 1080p
Field of View: 121° Horizontal
Spotlight: No
Battery Backup: No
WiFi Connectivity: 802.xi b/g/due north @ 2.4 GHz
Audio: Total Duplex ii-way Audio
Weatherproof Rating: IP65
Operating Temperature: -4°F to 113°F (-fifteen.vi°C to 45°C)
Smart Home Compatibility: Google Home, Amazon Alexa
Although information technology'southward amend known for its DIY habitation security system, Dwelling house also sells the Abode Cam 2, a standalone home security camera that'due south pocket-sized and ultra-affordable. This two-inch-cubed device that eschews some (though non as many as you'd recollect) of the luxuries of pricier smart dwelling cameras, making it instead easy to maximize coverage of your home for the toll of a couple nights out.
I spent a couple of weeks with the Habitation Cam 2 in and effectually my home to see how well information technology fares on its own. What I found was a camera with plenty of hope, but with several kinks that need ironing out.
- Meet how the Abode Cam two compares to the best outdoor security cameras
- The best home security cameras for inside and out
Abode Cam 2 review: Cost and availability
The Abode Cam 2 costs $35, and is bachelor through Abode'south website, Amazon, and other online retailers.
Abode Cam 2 review: Design
The Abode Cam two's pattern bears more than a passing resemblance to the slightly cheaper Wyze Cam v3, even down to the engineering science of the almost-identical stand up. It's a small, cube-shaped camera that you could easily stash but about anywhere in or around your home. Its rounded corners give it a friendly appearance which, along with its diminutive size, proceed it from continuing out too much (whether that'due south a good affair or not is up to y'all, of course).
Not having a bombardment, the camera is extraordinarily lightweight, and overall it feels similar, well, a $35 camera. The integrated stand/mountain is particularly cheap-feeling, but overall it's got it where it counts, with sturdy housing that I'd wager could take a couple spills if it had to. And with an IP65 rating, you can expect it to hold up against all but the worst conditions weather outdoors.
Every Abode Cam comes with a ribbon-mode, six-human foot Micro-USB-to-USB cable and wall outlet adapter. I found information technology a little likewise easy to accidentally unplug from the back of the camera, and I'k concerned it would be all also easy for someone to flick the cablevision out of the back of the device, disabling its feed. Considering of this and other reasons I'll become over later, I would non rely on this camera for surveillance of particularly important possessions or points of entry, but information technology would still perchance be good as an alternate angle on an already-covered area.
The stand, which doubles as a wall or ceiling mountain, is a small platform that is connected via a double-hinged arm and swivels at both connections, letting you aim the camera and mount it but about anywhere above, beneath, or behind the unit, which is quite dainty.
Abode Cam 2 review: Setup and installation
The photographic camera is a piddling more clunky to set up than most, with the pairing procedure involving manually entering your router login data and so scanning a QR code. Of course, just because other setups are easier doesn't mean this one isn't a slice of cake, itself, and after an initial false offset, I was able to get it going on a second attempt in just a few minutes.
Installation was similarly pain-gratuitous, involving simply putting one of the included screws (and drywall anchor, if needed) where you need it, leaving the caput of the screw sticking out just enough to slide the mounting hole over information technology. Yous'll want something to secure the cable to ensure it can't exist snagged or tugged easily to disconnect it, and then all you demand to do is conform the stand to signal the camera where you'd like it to come across, and you're washed. That last part is a impact tricky with the cable, equally I kept accidentally unseating it while I was adjusting information technology. If yous're putting the camera upward high, I'd recommend being certain that it'south on and connected before you climb dorsum down your ladder, which involves checking your phone, as in that location is no status low-cal on the front end of the camera to let you lot know it'due south active and receiving ability.
Home Cam two review: App
The Home app is like to the Ring app, in that the main screen (labeled "Dashboard") presents you lot with cards showing the condition of all the Habitation devices connected to your business relationship. At the bottom, three buttons allow you switch easily between that dashboard to the Timeline or to a camera-only view.
The timeline section is a sortable, filterable list-style view of all of the events recorded by your devices. If you have more than just a single camera (say a door sensor and a glass breakage sensor), yous can even gear up groups and view only the events for that grouping, if you'd like, so further filter by only certain devices or simply sure kinds of events similar Person Detection, transmission captures, and those captured during an active warning consequence.
Saving videos is a little scrap convoluted; if you lot are viewing on the timeline, the only manner to salvage a video is to change view from timeline to a per-outcome view; otherwise, the option is missing.
The last tab is solely dedicated to the cameras, and this is where you'll notice one of the best features of the Abode Cam 2, provided you've configured your programme correct. If you have the 24/7 recording add-on, you can scrub a timeline for up to 10 days back and view any moment of those days. Best part is, there is no limit to the number of cameras you can use with this feature. Not bad for $9/month or $99/year. To compare, a similar plan from Arlo is a very like $9.99/month merely only covers one camera, where each additional is another $four.99. Wyze offers this feature for free when using an SD Menu for local storage.
As far equally photographic camera settings become, almost of the tabular array stakes are covered here: the camera lets yous gear up a motility-detecting zone (consisting here of only a single, 4-corner box), flip the video to suit its mounting orientation, toggle sound recording, adjust volume (both the microphone and the speaker), or prepare the recording length for clips (up to 30 seconds).
It even has a couple of less-common features like having the photographic camera add fourth dimension to the get-go of captured recordings and then you can run into the moments leading up to the triggering motion, or turning on a movement indicator box then yous tin see what caused the camera to salvage a given clip. What you won't find hither is a wealth of options for camera night vision, brightness, dissimilarity, field-of-vision, or more. For the about part, what y'all see is what yous get, just thankfully, what you lot encounter is pretty decent.
Abode Cam 2 review: Video quality
The Habitation Cam 2 records 1080p video at 30 frames-per-second—the Wyze Cam v3, by comparison, only records at 20 fps. Its 121-degree field of view is generous enough, and makes it easy to place the photographic camera. Video is heavily compressed, every bit you might expect, making it virtually impossible to read text more than a few feet away (just attempt to read the brand on the propane tank in some of the video examples I've provided).
Night video was articulate with proficient colour where enough light allowed, and night vision was sufficient to view the whole room when I left it in my role overnight.
Movement at night tended to be very blurry, all the same, even if the bailiwick is moving at a normal walking speed, making identification of a burglar potentially difficult, if not incommunicable.
That's not going to exist a big problem if yous're just buying this as a supplement to existing, better cameras, simply again, I wouldn't rely on it as your primary camera.
Dwelling house Cam two review: Usage
Recording of events is really where the rub is, with this camera. Movement-sensing and recording was never as reliable every bit I'd like over the course of my testing. The Habitation Cam 2, as of the fourth dimension of this writing, is equipped with a beta person-detection feature (provided you're paying for at least the $half dozen/month Standard Plan) that, in my testing, still has room for improvement. Much of the fourth dimension, the photographic camera would record generic motion like a tree co-operative blowing in the current of air merely completely miss a whole person walking around in frame.
I also would've liked a motion sensitivity slider. More than one time I woke upwardly in the morning with dozens of notifications from the night before (I counted 199 in one fourteen-hour stretch), every bit the photographic camera recorded the same patch of moving shadows from a tree up above. There were even a few times where the camera's ain exposure adjustment triggered saved clips.
Person detection improved over the fourth dimension I used the cameras. As an instance, the Eufy Cam 2C Pro I have in the aforementioned area as the outdoor Habitation identified and recorded contractors coming and going from my back door eight times over the grade of an hour to the Abode's ii (although the Abode did capture other recordings, it didn't identify them as people).
Loading the livestream can exam your patience, particularly when you're trying to view something quickly. Two-fashion audio was similarly troublesome, with a multi-2nd delay between what I said and what the person on the other end heard. Audio coming back through was garbled and difficult to sympathize, peculiarly if the person on the other finish is more than a few feet away. This all takes identify on the ii.iv GHz band, of course, which in my household is particularly crowded, and could business relationship for some of the issues.
These problems aside, I institute the Abode Cam 2 to still be a decent potential value. Information technology records sharp, articulate, 1080p video at thirty fps, and has a robust characteristic set that y'all would normally expect of a photographic camera costing at to the lowest degree $lxx more than Abode is request. 2-way audio, weather-proofing, 24/seven recording, person detection—with any ordinary cheap camera similar this, yous might expect ane or two of these things, but certainly non all of them and more.
Abode Cam 2 review: Smart home compatibility
The Domicile Cam 2 is compatible with both Google and Alexa, allowing you to view the camera's stream on their respective video-equipped smart devices (like the Nest Hub or Repeat Show). I don't have either i of those, but went ahead and integrated the Dwelling Cam two with both to check out functionality. As is often the instance, Alexa offers more hither than does Google, with the ability to set motion announcements or include the photographic camera in your home automations.
Although Abode does back up HomeKit on some of its devices, it does not on the Abode Cam 2, nor has information technology announced any such support, so for now, HomeKit users need non utilize.
Abode Cam 2 review: Storage
Similar many other smart dwelling cameras, the Habitation Cam 2 has no local storage pick, so information technology requires a subscription to really go whatever value out of information technology. Sans subscription, it's little more a motion detector with a alive video feed you tin tap into, and at $35, it'due south actually the right price for such a device.
If you want more than that, you can get the Standard Plan, which is either $half dozen/month or $60/year and gets you x days of cloud storage, where the Pro programme ($20/calendar month or $200/yr) nets you the addition of 24/7 recording, professional person monitoring, unlimited equipment warranty, gratuitous shipping on new boosted equipment, and and so on. Y'all can also add 24/7 recording on its own for $ix/month for an unlimited number of cameras at one location.
Of course, I have to over again compare it to the Wyze Cam v3, which also offers 24/7 recording, but for costless, so long every bit yous have an SD Card. Additionally, the per-camera Wyze Cam Plus plan is a piddly $1.99 per calendar month.
Granted, the two plans are not directly comparable, every bit the Abode i covers much more than just a camera, but as it offers no camera-only plans, and this review is evaluating the camera on its ain, it'due south the most advisable compare. The calculus would definitely be different if you were to factor in a total security system. To see how Abode's plan stacks up against others, be sure to bank check out our security photographic camera storage plans compared story.
Abode Cam 2 review: Bottom line
There is and so much packed into the Abode—for better or worse—that it actually makes for a difficult camera to charge per unit. Yeah, information technology has serious bug with move detection. Yep, it can exist very dull to start a alive stream in the app. Simply these issues showed significant comeback only in the time I used the camera, and ane would promise they would continue to.
In a vacuum, the Dwelling Cam two is a lot of proficient for $35, thanks to its decent frame charge per unit, 1080p video, 24/7 recording, easy-to-employ app, and broad smart domicile system compatibility. Ultimately, however, I found it difficult to recommend over the cheap camera plan and local storage options offered by Wyze for its $thirty camera. Simply with time, that could change. At the very least, those with an Abode home security organisation would practise well to check out the Abode Cam 2.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/abode-cam-2
Posted by: cumminsswast1947.blogspot.com
0 Response to "Abode Cam 2 review"
Post a Comment