For DoorCam's technical set up, there are some pretty common pitfalls that can happen. Here are our top tips: The HomeBase acts as a brain for the whole system. It securely stores all the footage – which means, if your camera is ever stolen, all of the video is still safely stored inside. Even better, Eufy uses a proprietary communication technology that’s more power-efficient than standard Wi-Fi, allowing the wireless camera to work for months without recharging. Will you be able to hear the doorbell? To hear it in the house (not just on your smartphone), you will need a chime unit. With wired doorbells you can usually connect them to your existing chime, whereas battery-powered doorbells typically need a proprietary unit. With some video doorbells these come in the box; with others, it costs extra. What about smart home features? In terms of image quality and features, the Nest Doorbell (wired) is still up there with the best but given the complications over subscriptions, it isn’t quite the slam-dunk recommendation it once was. It’s also significantly more expensive than other doorbells on this list. Video limitations: Although most doorbell cameras support a 1080p or even 2K resolution, we’ve found the images are never as sharp as what you’d get with a typical smartphone camera—especially for subjects at a distance of a dozen feet or more. Also, streaming high-resolution video chews up internet bandwidth, so be sure your home network can support it.

The other difference is that it records in a 4:3 aspect ratio, which means you can see people’s faces when they’re close to the door and can be crucial when you need to spot little details for a police report should you ever need to give one. The app is similarly intuitive and lets you easily tweak variables such as sensitivity, shape detection and notification times. Whenever someone presses the doorbell, your phone will ping and you will be able to interact with the caller remotely, which worked perfectly in our tests. Image quality is excellent at 2,560 x 1,920 in resolution and we found that notifications came through on our phone almost instantaneously, something older Ring doorbells can struggle with. There’s no facial recognition but you can set motion zones and only send notifications when humans are detected.Setting up the system isn’t exactly as simple as pairing some new headphones, but it isn’t as difficult as you’d might expect, either, especially if you’re drilling into wood. Aside from this novelty, the doorbell has great video quality at night and during the day. It’s at least as good as the Nest Hello in this regard. When you’re connecting the device, make sure to finish all the setup steps within a few minutes. Otherwise, the LED light on DoorCam will stop flashing up and down, meaning that you may need to start the setup process all over again.

Wired doorbells draw power from two wires that connect to a transformer that steps down your household power to between 16 and 24 volts. If your home doesn't have doorbell wiring, you can still wire it yourself using a plug-in transformer or hire an electrician to perform the setup. Either way, the process requires some drilling to run wires from the inside of your home to an exterior location.Even better, the HomeBase supports up to 16 devices, which means if you ever want to expand your home system with, say, a bunch of Eufy Cam 2 cameras, it’s no hassle. Video doorbells come in all shapes and sizes. The least expensive models tend to be bulky and available in only a few color choices, while many of the more expensive models are inconspicuous and available in a variety of finishes. Battery-powered models are typically larger than their wired counterparts.

The good news here is that there is no overhead to the Eufy Smart Doorbell Camera. You buy it, you own it and you can manage it all without ever having to pay a subscription fee. Audio: A good doorbell camera should have a built-in microphone so you can hear chirps and chatter. Most also feature a speaker for two-way communication, allowing you to talk to whoever shows up at your door. Over our two-week testing period, our camera was triggered close to three dozen times recording 10-second clips each time and is currently holding strong at 90% battery life. Extrapolating that data, we’d be looking at around 140 days of battery life, or around four-and-a-half months, which is a significant improvement on our battery-powered Ring that needs to be re-charged every month. Most smart doorbells equip a video camera that sends an alert to your phone along with a live video stream when someone presses the doorbell button. You access those recordings via the same mobile app you use to install the device, configure wireless settings, and set up alerts. Doorbells with features such as 1080p video (or better), motion detection, two-way audio that lets you speak with whoever is out there, and on-demand video streaming tend to cost the most. To avoid false alerts from passing cars, high winds, and any critters that may roam around your property, look for a doorbell cam that offers customizable motion zones. The only catch is that it isn’t battery-powered and needs connecting to existing mains-powered doorbell chime wiring, which means you may need professional help installing it. And, after the initial trial period expires (three months at the time of writing) you will have to pay a subscription fee to keep using most of the camera’s features.

Blink Video Doorbell + Sync Module 2

The only thing Eufy can’t do is ring a mechanical chime. Otherwise, it’s pretty much the perfect video doorbell. It comes at an additional cost compared to the standard Ring doorbell, but that extra money gets you a camera capable of capturing 1536p footage with a wide 150-degree field of view, as well as HDR processing and colour night view. You will also get brilliant motion detection. The Pro 2 is not only able to detect movement within the field of view of the camera but it also allows you to set how close objects need to be before they set off an alert – especially useful for houses that have short front garden paths. Its headline feature, however, is its new Advanced Pre-Roll functionality. This allows the camera to capture full-resolution video footage from six seconds prior to motion being detected. Because we’re renting, we opted to install our Eufy Wireless directly onto the wood frame of the door and we were able to complete the job in under 10 minutes. You certainly could install it anywhere outside, but by virtue of being wireless and us being less than capable mason workers, wood works the best and leaves holes that are fairly unnoticeable when it’s time to move out. You have to add your own storage, in the form of a microSD card slot, but that’s not overly expensive, and you can’t wire this doorbell up to an existing mains supply or chime. But, other than that, it’s a brilliant smart doorbell and our new all-round favourite. Storage: Subscription-based cloud storage (with video saved over the internet to a remote server operated by the manufacturer) is the norm these days. Some doorbells store recordings locally on a microSD card or a connected hard drive, but it isn’t of much help if someone steals the camera or you lose power.

Again, it’s obviously a your-mileage-may-vary situation so don’t take our numbers – or Eufy’s – as the absolute, definitive battery life, but this should be able to help you set some expectations. Support for Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands is also handy. With these integrations, you can, for example, simply say, "Alexa, show the front door," to launch a live stream on your Echo Show. After your initial charge, Eufy says to expect about 180 days of battery life – depending on how many events are triggered in a day and how often you’re pulling up a livestream.

Be mindful of the distance between the DoorCam device and the phone you're connecting it to. We generally recommend keeping them initially close to each other, no more than 20 feet apart. Unfortunately, that means battery life is really dependent on where you keep the camera, what it’s pointing at and how close it is to the street. If you’re living in the city with people constantly passing by, it seems unlikely that it will hold six month’s worth of charge. But out in the country, with only a few triggering events per day, that number feels accurate. It can be connected to your mains doorbell wiring if you can’t be bothered to charge it, although a monstrous claimed battery life of up to six months means that shouldn’t be too much of a bind anyway.