Popular Picks for Home Security
Finding the best home security camera for your home will depend on your specific requirements. Your budget, the special features you want and what smart home systems you have will influence your decision. Video quality and ease of installation are other factors to consider when looking for a security camera for your home.
Now, let's take a look at five amazing options.
1. Ring Indoor Camera
The Ring indoor camera is one of the lower-priced security camera options at only $59.99. It offers 1080p HD resolution with color night vision and shoots high-quality video even in low lighting. It also offers two-way audio with noise cancellation. The camera has a one-year warranty.
It integrates with the Ring ecosystem and the price becomes more expensive with a subscription. You need to subscribe to Ring Protect if you want the indoor cam to tell a person apart from other moving objects like pets. It will cost you $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year for a basic plan. When you subscribe to Ring Protect you receive rich notifications, person alerts and package alerts. You can download up to 50 videos a month and extend storage for 180 days.
As Amazon owns Ring, it integrates with Alexa. It also integrates with Google Assistant.
2. SimpliCam
SimpliCam is a wired indoor camera with up to 180p HD resolution, up to 120° field of view and infrared night vision. It comes as both a standalone camera and integrates with the SimpliSafe ecosystem. The price-to-feature ratio is one of the best for a security camera at $99. It has a user-friendly mobile app and two-way audio. With an automated privacy shutter, you have privacy when you need it. Setup is simple and all you need to do is unbox the camera and follow the interactive steps.
The SimpliCam doesn’t record locally so you need a cloud subscription. This costs $4.99 a month for one camera. The Fast Protect professional monitoring plan will cost you $29.99 a month. The camera uses AI to detect the unique heat signature of people. It alerts you and the SimpliSafe monitoring center so they can verify an alarm. They can even use the two-way audio to warn off intruders and offer more protection.
3. Blink Outdoor 4
The Blink Outdoor 4 is a wireless camera that offers 1080p HD video, two-way audio and on-demand live view in the Blink mobile app. It has a PIR motion sensor that can distinguish between a person and other types of motion by reading heat signatures. This reduces false alarms and saves battery power.
You can access a 30-day trial of a Blink Plus Subscription Plan at no cost which gives you access to cloud storage. You can use local storage to save your clips on a USB drive by using Sync Module 2 (sold separately).
The Blink Outdoors 4 integrates with Alexa and you can enjoy using commands to arm or disarm your device or get live views. You can expect a battery life of up to two years based on the default camera settings.
4. Google Nest Cam
Nest offers security cameras with facial recognition and continuous recording. The indoor Google Nest Cam offers 1080p resolution with HDR, and field of view is up to 130°. It needs Wi-Fi connectivity and video storage is in the cloud. Night vision kicks in when the lights are out. There’s also two-way audio, two-factor authentication and accurate motion detection.
You can install and use the Nest cam through Google. The camera is compatible with the Google Home app. You only get three hours of history unless you sign up for a Nest Aware subscription. Signing up will cost you $8 per month for 30 days of event history. Once you tag familiar faces, the notification includes names which can be reassuring. A con is that there’s no local storage option.
5. Eufy Cam
The Eufy indoor security camera E220 is sleek-looking and unobtrusive. It offers 2K resolution and comprehensive coverage with 360° pan and 96° tilt auto-tracking to ensure that every angle is covered. This means if you’re watching on your mobile phone, you can get a clear view of a whole room. The picture and audio quality are good. The camera has an affordable $54.99 price tag and you can often get access to discounts.
Most security cameras don’t work with Apple’s voice assistant but this one does. You can ask Siri to view the live feed on your iPhone. Using the app makes it easy to arm and disarm the camera remotely as long as you have internet access. It also integrates with Google Home and Alexa.
Intelligent AI can distinguish between humans and pets. By only recording meaningful activity, it maximizes storage efficiency. It can keep up with moving objects and adjust the field of view accordingly. You will receive alert notifications automatically whenever the camera picks up someone or something.
Built-in two-way audio facilitates immediate conversation and you can even interact with your pets in real time.
You can save the recordings to either the cloud or to local storage in the form of a removable microSD media card.
Tech-Savvy Security
The best security camera for your home is one that suits your budget and offers the features you desire. It should offer good video and audio quality and a wide enough field of view. Night vision and local and cloud recording are other features home security cameras offer. You may have to take out a subscription to enjoy more advanced features, such as person detection.