Top 29 Best Security Cameras of 2022

Google Nest Cam is the sole successor to four of Google’s previous cameras. Both the indoor and outdoor versions of Nest Cam and Nest Cam IQ have been merged into this new product. Nest Cam is a LOT cheaper than before, much more versatile, and offers even more no-extra-charge features. It’s also not quite as good and dependent on a horrendously overcomplicated app.

Nest in Google

You can now use the same Nest Cam indoors or outdoors. Other innovations include a really clever magnetic wall mount, as well as between one and three months of battery operation depending on usage. It’s possible to run the camera on mains power, but the cable included is for indoor use only (a weatherproof outdoor cable is sold separately). If you’re worried about the camera being stolen, you can also buy anti-theft protection as an optional extra (surely this could have been included?).

Installation is super easy thanks to the magnetic attachment. Adding it to the Google Home app is no problem either. Despite the Nest name, everything is now managed in the Google app. It’s an app that aims to do everything with all kinds of products, which makes it incredibly messy if you have multiple devices in your smart home. Adjusting the settings in the app is also very confusing and requires many clicks to get where you want to go. That’s a shame, as the camera offers a lot of really good features, many at no extra charge.

Generous camera

Without having to sign up for any subscription, you get three hours of stored video (saved on the device). At no extra cost, you also have the option of setting up Activity Zones and identifying people, animals, vehicles, parcels and movements. Many cameras only allow you to receive free-of-charge instant notifications, and object recognition usually costs extra too.

The facial recognition from previous Nest cameras is also available directly on the device. But if you wish to activate this feature or get longer video storage, you’ll need to take out a Nest Aware subscription. You get really sharp images both day and night. This is thanks to 1080p resolution with HDR. This is lower than Nest IQ, which had 4K and thus also a clever zoom function. While that’s missing here, you still get good quality images, even at a lower resolution.

The Google Nest Cam is really easy to install and good value for money in terms of what’s included at no extra charge. The design is also discreet and really quite stylish. If you’re already committed to the Google system with smart speakers and suchlike, this is the perfect complement to that system; it will be less interesting if you prefer being a bit more independent. That said, the Google Home app is very confusing when it comes to the camera settings. All things considered, this camera ticks all the boxes for any environment, especially if you’re already using Google’s smart home system.

Eufy Cam 2 Pro is a really interesting option for those of you who want to avoid subscription costs, and also want to keep your technical solution on a slightly simpler level. Most of Eufy’s cameras are based on you using their own base station for both wireless transmission and storage.

Easy installation

As stated before, the base station works with quite a lot of Eufy’s cameras, regardless of price level. The package we tested contains the base station and two Cam 2 Pro units, but it is the same base station that comes with, for example, the video doorbell or one of the simpler cameras.

As a basic package, this is a fairly stable one. The base station is reasonably easy to pair with the app. Initially you need a network cable (and for the sake of speed and stability, it’s what you should invest in), but after installation you can add a Wi-Fi network if you want. The base station manages communication with the cameras, partly to avoid disturbing the regular Wi-Fi network, and partly to act as storage. The latter consists of 16 gigabytes of memory, which sadly cannot be increased. If that storage feels insufficient, or if you want to see recorded material from your computer (the base station only speaks to the mobile app), there is a cloud service to subscribe to, but as a standard it is not required.

Once you have the base station up and running, adding the cameras is easy. Once paired, you will have two types of wall mounts to choose from for the easiest installation.

Long battery life

Another advantage of the base station is that you can access it quickly if reception is good. If the base station and camera can speak to each other without problems, Eufy’s solution is among the most stable and fast we have tested when it comes to getting live video on the app.

On the other hand, the range is not record-breaking. It is about the same as a Wi-Fi camera, which means that you have to plan a little for where you place the base station in relation to the cameras.

In terms of images, on the other hand, it's really good. Initially we were a bit disappointed with the image quality when receiving notifications with pictures. But when we looked at the recorded material in the app, it was almost always clear and crisp, regardless of whether it was day or night. At dawn and dusk the picture can get a bit murky, i.e. before day mode switches to night mode. But most of the time, the cameras have good visual and audio quality. In addition, Eufy claims that the cameras will provide one year of operation on one battery charge. We haven't tested this, but during the two months they’ve been up, the battery meter has pretty much moved according to the specifications.

In the app, you can see previously recorded material and play around with a number of settings for geofencing, motion zones, and the like. Cameras can identify people, reducing false alarms from swaying trees. However, there are no functions for identifying faces, car registration numbers, or parcels like some other cameras can boast of.

Eufy is a really good option if you want a camera package that is easy to get up and running, and can be expanded if needed, while avoiding monthly charges. The Eufy Cam 2 Pro also delivers great picture quality, so you can definitely see what’s happening, when it happens.

Google Nest Doorbell (Battery) is, in many ways, the old doorbell from Nest, but with a battery. However, as with Nest’s new battery-powered camera, there are both pros and cons for the new products that are lined up. The old Nest doorbell will remain, but has now been given the addition “(Wired)” to distinguish them.

Battery or power

The design of Google’s doorbell has been updated a lot. If you are looking for a video doorbell that blends in, we would say that this one is the best. We wouldn't call it beautiful, but it blends in. At the same time, the camera is almost twice the size of its predecessor, which is due to the built-in battery. However, you can still run the bell using fixed electricity, and thus more easily connect to the existing doorbell indoors.

With a battery in the unit, installation is really simple, as you don't need to pull a cable to get it in. Pairing it with Google Home, which is now the home of Nest cameras, is also no problem.

On the other hand, this camera falls short on the same things as the regular Nest Cam. Google Home is messy from the start, and accessing all the settings for a surveillance camera is another few layers of motion on top.

Smart Notifications

That’s a shame, because Nest Doorbell is as generous in its free version as Nest Cam. This is even more evident for the doorbell, which already tells us in its free version when it has seen a person, animal, vehicle or package. For the first time, we also receive notifications when the doorbell no longer sees a delivered package – something that could be amazing if you have a problem with parcel thieves. Facial recognition is also available, but it is embedded in the premium service. Very generously, three hours of video footage from notifications are saved in the camera. If you want more, you’ll have to pay more. The combination of storage time and the level of notifications is, after all, much more than we are used to from a free camera service.

The notifications for this arrive immediately, but it takes a few seconds before you get a picture of the event. On the other hand, it is relatively slow to access the app and see the camera live.

The 960p picture quality doesn't sound particularly convincing, but it’s good enough for it to do its job. This is especially true in combination with the recognition functions and facial recognition. Unlike the previous version, we also get HDR picture, which further enhances the picture quality. Google Nest Cam (Battery) is quite large to be a video doorbell, but it blends in well. It has a really good picture quality and an unexpectedly high technical level despite its free mode, which means that we like it a lot.

TP-Link Tapo C310 is a surprisingly versatile and inexpensive outdoor surveillance camera. It will hardly win any discreet design awards, but the price makes it hard to beat.

Shared platform

The C310 is the same camera as TP-Link’s two indoor models, C100 and C200. The difference here is of course the design. It is of course weather-resistant, and also designed to be screwed onto a wall. Another significant difference is that there is also a weatherproof power socket for network cables, which is definitely not a given for outdoor cameras in any price class.

On the other hand, the camera is equipped with two large “ears” that act as antennas. Unless you’re a fan of spaceship aesthetics, they’re hardly appealing. Storage takes place locally via a memory card, via TP-Link’s cloud service (subscription), or on your own network drive if you wish. This also feels unexpectedly versatile.

Talks to Google

The app and its features are also very extensive. Features such as sabotage alarms and motion zones are usually only found in more expensive cameras. Voice assistants, such as Alexa and Google Home, are also supported. If you get lamps and the like from TP-link’s Tapo series, they can be combined with the camera in different automations, e.g. so that the patio light comes on when the camera detects motion.

Image quality, on the other hand, is quite limited. The video stutters at 15 frames per second, and the details at night leave a lot to be desired. In the daytime, however, there are no major problems with sharpness. Picture quality, at least at night, is something you should be aware of when it comes to the TP-Link Tapo C310. But if you’re looking for something cheap and very simple, few cameras come close to the versatility that exists here.

A security camera with 4G may be useful for monitoring your holiday home or other places without electricity or Wi-Fi. The Arlo Go 2 offers not only battery power and 4G, but also Wi-Fi. The latter if you have the camera mounted where Wi-Fi is available.

Versatile

The actual camera is somewhat large, but quite simple. The back has holes for the wall bracket and the charging plug is located at the bottom (unfortunately Arlo’s own instead of USB-C). On the inside, you’ll find the battery, SIM card slot and an additional memory card slot if you want to store that way. Otherwise, storage takes place in the cloud via Arlo’s subscription service, which also unlocks a few more advanced features. However, there are no features for recognising or calling to wild animals, such as you find on some wildlife cameras.

Shorter-than-expected battery life

As the camera is intended to be used completely “free of charge”, there’s obviously no need to link it to the Arlo camera hub, but it’s the same app as the ordinary cameras you use. The picture is generally really good and with as many details as the resolution allows. Night mode is also relatively detailed, at least within a distance of a couple of metres.

On the other hand, we’d have liked to have seen better battery life. Over 4G we land at three to four weeks, and via Wi-Fi it’s just over one month. Of course, it’s possible to increase this by turning down the sensitivity, but it’s still a tad short. If you want to monitor your holiday home, you’ll have to drag yourself there once a month to recharge the camera.

Despite the short battery life, the Arlo Go 2 is still one of the better built and well-thought-out 4G cameras we’ve tested, even if the price tag could have been a little lower as the subscription costs extra anyway.

TP-Link C100 is a really inexpensive surveillance camera for indoor use. The camera itself is the same as that of its big brother, the C200 (with pan/tilt function) and the outdoor model C310. The app and software are also the same, which gives this low-cost camera a relatively wide range of features.

Double storage

The camera itself is very small and flexible, with a three metre power cable so that it can easily be placed in the right spot. The disadvantage of its smaller size is that the power plug is relatively large. As it is connected to the underside of the camera, it is extremely visible, and also tends to pull the camera skew from the position you set it in. If the plug was at the back, or even in the foot, it would have been better for both aesthetics and placement.

The camera connects to Wi-Fi, but unfortunately only on the 2.4 GHz band. While it provides a good range, it can also cause problems for those who run networks with the 5 and 2.4 GHz bands combined. However, this is not something we noticed during our test. The connection to the app is otherwise very easy.

There are two storage options directly out of the box: Either you can insert a memory card directly into the camera, or you can subscribe to TP-Link’s cloud service for storage. More advanced users can extract the video stream to a network drive if desired.

Simple video

The app is the same as the one that TP-Link uses for its smart lamps and similar devices. If you use these, it is of course possible to combine them in automations with the camera, while you also get a connection with Google and Alexa. The app also includes settings for motion zones, as well as many other features that usually only appear in higher price ranges.

The price tag can only be noticed in the quality of the sound and image. Loudspeakers and microphones give OK sound in both directions, but no more than that. The video can do both day and night, but can feel a bit choppy as it has a maximum of 15 frames per second. At night you lose quite a lot of image details too.

After all, TP-Link Tapo C100 is an inexpensive and functional option for those who either want to try out having surveillance cameras, or who just need a cheap solution, as you get a lot for your money.

The Ring Floodlight Pro is the company’s most advanced outdoor surveillance camera with built-in lighting. Unlike the much simpler Spotlight camera, it really lives up to the “Floodlight” part of its name, as the two lamps can illuminate an entire backyard without major problems.

Better but still odd looking

The Floodlight Pro looks a lot like the standard model. The camera module is positioned centrally on the base plate, flanked by a floodlight on either side. We think that this is an odd-looking design, although this time the floodlights have been given a minor makeover, which tones down the Mickey Mouse silhouette slightly. The actual camera looks more or less the same as before.

The whole package requires a mains connection to get started, while all communication takes place over WiFi. We’re happy to report that the camera now supports both the 2.4 and 5 gigahertz bands. The actual installation is very simple and straightforward, provided you have good WiFi reception. Via the Rings app, you can receive real-time notifications whenever motion is detected and see a live view from the camera at no extra charge. But if you want to record and save video and access more advanced features, you’ll need to pay for a subscription.

3D View

We’ve seen many of the Ring Floodlight Cam Pro’s features before in their more advanced doorbells. They include colour night vision in the camera and customisable Motion Zones.

The 3D view is even more useful here than in the doorbell. The recorded video is accompanied by a mini map with a dot that shows you how the detected person has moved. While this feature felt a bit superfluous in the doorbells (the person was obviously moving in front of the door), it feels a lot more useful in a camera monitoring e.g. your backyard or driveway.

Alongside the features, for the price you get a good image at any time of the day or night. It also gets some extra oomph with HDR support. The resolution is satisfactory, although you may lose some detail if you want to monitor larger areas. It also has a built-in security siren for deterrence.

The Ring Floodlight Cam Pro may not be the first security camera you buy, but feels more like something you upgrade to after first dabbling in the Ring ecosystem. But if you’re already a fan, this camera will make a really good addition.

The Nest Cam IQ is the slightly more high-end of Nest’s two models. The “IQ” bit gives it a couple of extra functions compared to a normal camera, which actually do make a difference in practice. Extremely easy to install

But let’s start from the beginning. The camera itself is slightly larger than average, but feels well-built and is discreetly designed to blend in. The included cable is generously proportioned, but unfortunately so is the mains adapter that goes with it. This enormous lump takes up two or even three sockets without any problem and could definitely have been designed better.

The actual camera is only connected via Wi-Fi, but even at slightly longer distances we still get really good reception and image quality. After this, the installation is simple and mostly involves downloading the app and registering the camera.

Subscription dependent

Once set up, the camera offers a really good image with wide angle and sharpness in day and poorer light conditions. Movement is either picked up over the entire field of view or in an area that you draw in the app yourself. Notifications to your phone are fast and show a short sequence of what the camera is reporting.

If you want more than this, you have to subscribe to Nest Aware, which is Nest’s premium service. But this gives you a really handy timeline of what the camera has seen. However, we’d have liked there to be a memory card option or similar local storage as an alternative.

Because the camera films in 1080p resolution, but has a 4K sensor, it zooms in on anything moving in front of the camera without losing quality. This combined with really good facial recognition means you can quickly find out if it’s someone you recognise or a stranger in front of the camera.

The Nest Cam IQ isn’t the cheapest camera, either to buy or run. But the price pays off in terms of good image quality and really useful functions.

The Arlo Pro 3 is a fully wireless camera with good image quality both day and night. The camera has built-in lighting that means you get a colour image even in dark conditions. Of course there’s more limited visibility than you’d get in the daytime, but you can still see faces and so on clearly provided they're within a couple of metres.

The Pro 3 is slightly bigger than its predecessor, the Pro 2, and also has a different type of charger. The Pro 2 came with micro-USB, which meant you could charge it with any cable. Now you're entirely locked to Arlo’s own model. This feels like a rather negative development, even if it’s quite cool that the cable’s magnetic. Unfortunately the charger isn’t IP classified. The battery life without the cable is about three months in areas with daily movement in front of the camera.

Fits into your smart home

The Arlo Pro 3 is a modern security camera in that you can see the difference between people, animals and vehicles (if you pay for a subscription) and because it has support for voice assistants. Unfortunately it doesn’t support facial recognition. It would have been nice if you didn’t get notifications when you had a family member outside your home.

Overall, the app is very easy to use and starts extremely quickly. It sends notifications to you when someone passes the camera in the area you've set it to capture movement. But it does take a little while from you receiving the notification until you can see real time images. When you click the notification, the app starts, but you don’t automatically see the camera. Instead you get a view with all cameras and have to press Play to see the relevant camera’s live image. And it then takes another couple of seconds before it actually starts showing the image. In total, this means quite a lot of seconds pass before you can see what the camera’s looking at.

Another disadvantage with the Arlo Pro 3 is that it sometimes misses recording the start or end of events when the movements take place on the edge of the image. So despite it having a wide-angle lens, important information still sometimes gets lost.

Another thing worth noticing is that it continues to warn you repeatedly despite it still being the same event. So if you're standing in front of it, it will record several short clips rather than one long one, and every time it starts a new recording it sends you a new notification. This can be rather irritating if you’re doing something within the camera’s sensor range, because you get repeated notifications.

Fortunately, you can temporarily deactivate these. This method also means that it sometimes misses details that take place between the clips. But of course the function can have advantages in that it’s fast to download and mail shorter clips when you've captured something interesting.

It’s good that you can communicate through the camera. You press a microphone icon and the person on the outside hears what you're saying.

We also like the fact that the camera is so easy to hang up (and remove for charging) because it has a magnetic back and consequently attaches to the bracket without screws.

Subscription or free

The Arlo Pro 3 communicates over Wi-Fi and doesn’t support a SIM card (though the base station does).

The real time view you see is in 2K resolution. The camera then stores the clips in 2K resolution in the cloud for up to a week, free of charge. If you want a longer storage period you need a subscription. The subscription price varies depending on how many cameras you have.

There’s another subscription you can choose that allows you to do continuous recording which is stored for up to two weeks.

We’ve previously praised Arlo because they have such a generous range of free functions for their cameras, and the Pro 3’s basics are the same. You still get free video storage and a really good camera for a relatively reasonable price. But if you need more advanced functions, the price climbs rapidly. Arlo’s Ultra model includes one year’s subscription, and we think they could have included that with the Pro 3 too.

Overall, this is a really convenient, user-friendly and good value security system for anyone who doesn’t need facial recognition and similar more advanced AI features. But as soon as the basic range of functions is insufficient for your needs, it gets expensive quickly. If you can cope with 2K resolution (and most people can) and a week’s storage, this is a good buy for keeping an eye on your home.

The Ring Doorbell Pro is a perfect example of how a relatively advanced product should be packaged – a camera doorbell with fixed power that produces surprisingly good night time images and includes all the accessories it needs.

Everything included

Itemising everything that’s included in the substantial package for the Ring Doorbell Pro feels a bit like making a shopping list, but it also illustrates Ring’s almost unique strength. As well as the usual screws and screwdriver, you also get a set of fronts for the doorbell so it matches your home, a replacement transformer to replace your existing one if it’s too weak, and a Ring Chime. The latter is an internal speaker that makes a sound when someone rings at the door (and of course has a range of different signals to choose from). It simply feels very good quality and well thought out.

The actual doorbell is very small and neat, because it doesn’t have to house a battery like the company's battery-powered version.

However, for obvious reasons the installation should be done by a professional – although Ring provide clear instructions for how to do it. But rooting around in the fuse cabinet to change a transformer is perhaps a little bit above general DIY skills.

Once this is done, the remaining parts of the installation, both for the doorbell and the Chime, can be done in a couple of minutes provided you have good Wi-Fi coverage around your door.

You essentially get notifications on your phone when someone moves in front of the camera or rings the doorbell (depending on your settings) and you can also see live images and talk to people. But if you want to be able to save video clips, you’ll need to sign up for a subscription.

And there's sadly no option for facial recognition.

Stable doorbell

As long as you have good coverage from your Wi-Fi network, the Ring Doorbell Pro is a really reliable doorbell. Both the Wi-Fi coverage and the speed of the connection are significantly better here than in their battery-powered version, which is probably due to being constantly powered.

One nice update that came out last year is the opportunity to see night-time images in colour. This applies only to the company's mains-powered cameras (the battery-powered ones still only offer black-and-white). The camera produces a very clear image at night. It doesn’t display bright colours, however, but a more toned down colour scale that still looks really good.

If you want a doorbell with a camera for your front door, it’s a much better choice to go for a mains-powered one than battery-powered. The installation is a bit more fiddly, but the Ring Doorbell Pro shows that the reliability it provides is worth the trouble.

The Eufy Video Doorbell 2k is a really stable video doorbell offering a good image, as long as you don’t want to use your existing bell or wiring.

Long-lasting battery

The Eufy Video Doorbell 2k is available in two versions: with and without a battery. The one without the battery is the one we tested. Which was just as well, because it behaves a bit weirdly and that can be useful to know.

The battery-powered version of the doorbell can run on either a battery for up to 120 days or on mains power. At least in theory. The choice between electric or battery operation only comes up during the installation itself and even though we re-did the installation three times and each time chose electric, the doorbell still decided that we wanted battery operation. For unclear reasons (which can also only be affected during the installation), it also refuses to talk to our existing ringer inside the house so we have no choice but to use the ringer built into the base station. Whether things work better with the fully electric version, we can’t say, but be sure to buy the right version for your needs from the start.

And then there’s the base station... As with Eufy’s slightly more advanced cameras, the Video Doorbell 2k only works with Eufy's base station and its own wireless network. It has 16 GB of built-in memory for storing videos, but if you want more, you have to pay for the cloud service. Here, of course, we’d have rather seen the option to expand the memory via memory cards, but nope. Recorded material is also only available for download via the app, not the web interface, which also feels a bit fiddly if you need to get hold of it in a hurry.

Fast connection

Despite all that, the base station is still pretty good. Among other things, you get a hub for your Eufy cameras and the ability to actually run the system completely without paying anything extra. Perhaps the main advantage of all this is that the connection is very stable. The time it takes from something happening until you receive a notification is almost instantaneous. The same applies to the time it takes from receipt of that notification until you're in the app with live video running, which is among the fastest we’ve tested for video doorbells.

The image quality is good both night and day. At night it's a black and white image, but you still get a clear image of faces moving in front of the camera. The two different settings for motion detection are both quite sensitive, but with a little fiddling they do work quite well. However, there are no more advanced functions such as the ability to recognise faces or to determine if there is a package in front of your door and so on. Despite the rather fussy installation, the Eufy Video Doorbell 2K actually works really well in everyday life. You get fast notifications, can clearly see who is outside your door and have no problem talking to them if needed. For those who don’t necessarily want to sign up for a subscription, this is a really good option.

The Arlo Essential Spotlight is a fully wireless security camera with built-in spotlight for extra light. The spotlight is motion-activated, but you can also switch it on via the app. Overall, it provides good light, although of course it’s not as strong as a mains-powered dedicated spotlight. However, it’s ample for getting good images even at night.

The camera itself has a slightly shorter battery life than other models we’ve tested from Arlo, but it still lasts around a month if you set the motion sensor’s capture range. We consider that this is a good battery life, and you can also attach it to an IP-rated charger so you don’t have to keep track of battery life. Unfortunately, the charger is proprietary.

One good thing is that your phone will alert you when the battery is running low.

Just a few issues

The Essential Spotlight is one of the best outdoor cameras you can buy from Arlo. The image quality is really good (as long as you don’t zoom), the angle of view is great and you also have a clear colour image at night even though it’s pitch black out.

We also found the installation of the camera very easy – even though it takes some time for the system to find the camera. Similarly, the app is easy to use and the interface is relatively clear.

The security camera has a wide range of functions. We still would have liked to see facial recognition, but if you have a subscription, the camera can see a difference between people, animals, packages and more. We managed to fool the camera by dressing the dog in a jacket – it thought he was a human being. But overall it works well, and you can set notifications based on whether or not a person is visible in the picture, so that it doesn’t notify you of every bird landing in the garden, for example.

Without a subscription, you have to settle for the last week’s recorded footage and no distinction between moving objects – which is still quite generous.

The freedom wireless provides has many benefits. For example, you can place the camera in a wider choice of locations than if you need to consider a power cable. In addition, the cameras have a really good magnetic mount, which allows you to pick up the camera when it’s time to charge it (or put it back in place and reorient it) very easily.

However, there are three obvious disadvantages with Arlo's cameras. The most tangible one is that it takes a little too long from when a notification appears on your phone until you get the camera image in the app. Partly that’s because you’re not taken immediately to the relevant camera when you click on the notification – instead you come to an overview. And partly there’s about a 20 second delay before the camera image actually appears after you select the camera. Of course, everything is recorded so you can check it out afterwards, but it’s still a nuisance if, for example, someone rings the doorbell or similar.

Another minor disadvantage is that you can’t set individual notifications for each camera. So for example if you mute notifications for 3 hours, you do this for all cameras, and not a specific one. If it’s windy out and you have trees moving close to a camera or a partner who’s out moving in that particular area, this means you get repeated notifications on your mobile phone or you can mute all notifications – there’s no intermediate solution.

Finally, we’d like to point out that it sometimes fails to film events. For example, we had a case with a fox sneaking around around the camera, but the only thing we actually saw of the event was when the fox disappeared out of the picture. It had been up on the stairs the camera is positioned facing, but the camera only captured its tail when the fox left. But such a recording delay doesn’t always occur.

Now we may sound very negative, so we should make it clear that other manufacturers’ products have similar or other problems. Ultimately, this is still a good value and very easy-to-use security system that has many advantages.

The Nest Hello is a doorbell with a built-in camera, which is really useful for most homes. Nest is owned by Google, and the model they have launched is similar in many ways to the equivalent from manufacturers such as Ring.

Stingy installation

The kit consists of a doorbell unit – in this case one with a relatively modern design that doesn’t try to blend into its surroundings – which is connected to mains power and Wi-Fi. Unlike Ring’s doorbell camera with mains power, however, it doesn’t include a replacement transformer (many existing doorbell power supplies are insufficient and must be upgraded). Instead you have to buy one yourself, which feels rather stingy. And if you don’t have any electrical skills, you also have to include the price of an electrician to install the doorbell.

Another difference compared with Ring’s doorbell is that you have to settle for the colour the camera comes in. You can’t replace the front housing with more suitable colours.

Once it’s installed, Wi-Fi is your only choice for connection, so make sure you test the position in advance to check that you have good coverage by your door.

Works really well

Once connected, we get a more positive impression of the Nest Hello. Pairing the camera with the app is very simple and you’re quickly up and running.

You can operate the camera without a subscription, but this gives you pretty much no way of saving video clips from the doorbell. Instead, you’re intended to add a subscription to Nest Aware. This gives you the opportunity to save video clips (of different lengths depending on your subscription) but also gives you access to the camera’s biggest strength – facial recognition.

This feature allows you to train the camera to recognise people so that you can easily find out who’s ringing the doorbell.

Pressing the doorbell causes a chime at the doorbell itself and indoors, such as connected mobiles and your Google Home speaker if you have one. This means that you always hear when somebody is at the door.

Good image quality and easy to set

The motion sensor can be used to detect people outside your door (in our case, mostly the neighbour’s cat) and can be set to an accurate level so it doesn’t give out false alarms all the time.

The sound quality when you choose to speak to the person ringing the doorbell is mostly good, if a little bit quiet. Even if the image isn’t in full HD (or 4K, like Nest’s other cameras) neither we nor the facial recognition software have any problem seeing who's outside the door regardless of the time of day.

Nest Hello is a bit fiddly to start using compared to Ring’s equivalent model, and it doesn’t offer as many options. Once it’s up and running, however, there’s very little to complain about. If you’re looking for a doorbell with a camera, despite the installation issues, we’d currently recommend the Nest Hello.

The Ring Video Doorbell 2 is a bit different from a traditional security camera, both in terms of design and concept. This camera is a replacement for your doorbell. Instead of ringing a bell indoors (although you can connect your old doorbell’s ringer or Ring’s own ringer accessory, Chime), it sends a signal to your smartphone, both when someone presses the button and when the doorbell detects movement. From there you can see a live stream of the person outside the door and speak directly to them.

The entire point here is that you should be able to see who’s outside the door without having to open it. Either to get rid of door-to-door salespeople, to make it look like you aren’t at home or to buy yourself a bit more time when somebody rings the doorbell and you’re in the shower.

Rather large but many advantages

The actual doorbell is almost ridiculously large and quite plasticky. Even the ringtone that comes from the bell sounds really hollow and cheap. But the size is due to the fact that it’s battery-powered, so there must be space for a battery. (Ring also sells the Doorbell Pro, which has mains power and is less than half the size.)

The battery power means that the doorbell is very easy to install. You simply screw it in place and connect it to your Wi-Fi network. Here, Ring get extra points for including everything you need to use for the installation, including a screwdriver.

Pairing the doorbell with the app is very simple, as is giving user permissions to other family members. During the time we had it installed, we rarely ran into any problems with connection or with the time taken to ring. Regardless of whether it rings, whether the motion sensor goes off or if you want to check the live video, it never causes any problems and works pretty much immediately in each case.

Subscription service

However, if you want to store recorded video clips you have to pay extra for Ring’s subscription service, which also allows you to download clips if you want.

Despite its plasticky appearance, the Ring Video Doorbell 2 is a really intelligent camera that works well and adds something quite useful to your domestic environment.

The Ring Stick Up Cam Wired follows the manufacturer’s admirable tradition of providing everything you need in a single package. The camera itself is intended to work both indoors and outdoors and is designed to easily blend into a domestic environment. You can rotate the foot pretty much how you want to make sure the camera can easily be installed either standing, mounted on a wall or ceiling, and all of the screws (and a screwdriver!) for the installation are included.

Because this camera doesn’t have a battery, you can run it on Wi-Fi and use the included USB adapter for power. But it also includes a PoE (power over Ethernet) adapter, which allows you to both power the camera and feed it data via a network cable. Ring have been particularly generous in that one of the two network cables included is also suitable for outdoor use.

With the network cable connected, you don’t need to worry about dodgy Wi-Fi, and even with a good wireless network it’s much faster to connect to the camera in wired mode. It also gives much more stable video quality. Regardless of whether it’s night or daytime, the image quality is very good, and it’s rarely difficult to see the faces of visitors.

Both the Wi-Fi and wired connections are very simple to carry out and you’re up and running after just a few minutes. After that you can look at the camera when you want, or get notifications in your phone when it detects movements. You can set the motion sensor quite accurately in the camera’s field of view and can supplement this with scheduling.

The software isn’t really up to the hardware

Unfortunately, the scheduling isn’t very advanced and there’s no way to shut off the camera if you're home. We’d have liked to see facial recognition among the functions. This is largely because the app has been designed to make it as easy to use as possible, but it doesn’t feel anything like as complete as the hardware in the package. To record video of the movements detected by the camera, you also need to buy an add-on service that has a monthly cost.

The camera has no built-in floodlight like Ring’s other outdoor cameras, but it does have a siren (with a relatively low volume) and the possibility of communicating through it.

Ring need to work a little on their software for it to feel like it’s on the same kind of level as the competitors’ offerings. But as a camera, the Stick Up Cam is very good value for money with everything you need to get started.

Eufy Indoor Cam 2K Pan & Tilt is a really inexpensive way to keep track of your home, and at the same time get a lot of functions in a surveillance camera. However, if you have browsed Eufy's other, slightly more advanced, cameras, you will quickly be disappointed by how little they speak to each other.

Easy installation

Getting started is so easy. Plug in the camera, set up the app on your phone, and it’s more or less ready. The app in question is the same as for Eufy’s more expensive cameras and doorbells – something we will come back to.

In the app, you can easily control the camera from right to left, as well as up and down. Connection takes a few seconds, and a few moments longer than with the more expensive cameras, but it's not something that will irritate you.

There are a lot of settings to choose from, even though we would have liked to have seen slightly sharper settings for motion recognition. If you'd like to, it's easy to connect the camera (and the whole of Eufy’s system) to both Google Home and Apple’s Homekit (and RTSP if you prefer).

Storage is handled via a micro SD card or Eufy’s cloud service. This is where we started having some opinions.

Not built-in

Eufy’s other cameras, which also operate within the Eufy Security app, connect to Eufy’s base station via their own wireless protocol. This greatly speeds up the connection and also ensures that all storage ends up in the base station. Indoor cam does not have this, which means that the recorded material is completely disconnected from the rest of the system, even if it appears among other Eufy cameras in the app. For the price, we understand that it may not be justifiable to supply both Wi-Fi and Eufy’s own connection, but if you have several cameras in the system, it's a bit sad.

When it comes to the image, it is obviously clear that there is a slight class difference between this camera and, for example, Eufys Pro cameras, even though it has the same resolution. For its price, it definitely gives a good picture and completely OK sound, but especially in the evenings the picture becomes pretty murky. During the day, or when it is dark enough for the night mode to kick in, it looks better, but it's never completely razor-sharp.

For its price, however, Eufy Indoor Cam 2K Pan & Tilt is really interesting if you want an indoor camera that is easy and cheap, in order to see what's happening when you are not at home. However, if you have other cameras in the Eufy system, this one will grate a little against those connecting to the base station.

Arlo Ultra 2 is an easy-to-use surveillance camera that is simple to link to other cameras from the same manufacturer. But it can also

It’s 100% wire free and the rechargeable batteries last for 2–4 months, depending on how you position the camera. Thanks to its magnetic mount, the camera is very easy to take down for charging. Unfortunately, the charger is proprietary – we would have preferred a universal solution, such as USB-C. On the other hand, it only takes just under 4 hours to charge the camera, which is very quick.

Provides a good overview

Ultra 2 is a wide-angled camera that captures up to 180 degrees of what happens in front of it. The resolution is 4K with HDR add-on for the best possible image with plenty of detail. But you will only be able to save these clips in 4K if you have a paid subscription.

The surveillance camera has good night vision, especially if you switch on the spotlight.

But one frustrating aspect is that it repeats notifications when you move in front of the camera. Even though you don't leave a picture, you get repeat notifications that movement has been detected. That means you have to mute the notifications in the Arlo app. Unfortunately, this also turns off notifications for all cameras in the system. If you’re out barbecuing in your back garden but have a camera monitoring your driveway, you won’t be warned about anyone approaching the house.

The camera also has the drawback of not always detecting movement in time. Sometimes the person has already moved out of view.

It also takes a very long time from when you receive a notification until the camera view is running in live mode. You first need to access the app and view a list of all the cameras. It doesn’t immediately open the camera that triggered the notification.

Frankly, Arlo Ultra 2 fails to meet the high standards we’d expect from a camera in this price range.

The Arlo Pro 4 is the latest generation of the Arlo Pro family. It really only varies from its predecessor, the Pro 3, on one point. The Pro 4 can be connected directly to your router so you don’t need to have an Arlo Smart Hub installed in your home. Otherwise, they’re identical. The fact that you don’t need the hub is nice, but not a deal breaker if you’ve already invested in Arlo as a home security system.

The Pro 4 features on-camera lighting that makes it possible to see well both day and night. The lighting also allows the video to capture colour images, which is far from the case with all outdoor cameras. Of course, the visibility is better in the daytime, but it’s still possible to distinguish faces and so on even at night.

Unfortunately, face recognition isn’t a feature of this outdoor camera, but it can see the difference between people, vehicles, animals and packages if you invest in a subscription.

The Arlo Pro 4 also has a built-in microphone so you can easily communicate with the person on the other side of the camera.

Completely wireless

The Arlo Pro 4 is a wireless surveillance camera with a convenient magnetic mount that makes it easy to install and remove when you need to. Unfortunately, the charger is completely specific to the new model, which means you can’t charge it using cables you already have at home. Without a cable, and with daily visits to our test home, the battery lasts about 3 months. Unfortunately the charger isn’t IP rated.

The security camera is easy to connect to your smart home and the app is very easy to use. You can set areas for the camera to capture movement, and then you get notification when something happens. But it’s here that we find the big weakness of the Arlo system. It takes too long for you to get the real-time image because you don’t get to the right image immediately you click the notification. When you click on it, you’re instead taken to the app with an overview of all cameras. Then you need to manually click play, then wait a few more seconds to get to the camera in real time. In the worst case, the visitor has already gone.

Overall, the Arlo Pro 4 is a convenient and affordable camera if you can manage with the simpler basic functions. It would have been more worth paying for a subscription if it had included face recognition. Here you’re pay for the freedom of having a fully wireless system.

The Arlo Video Doorbell Wire-Free is a doorbell with a built-in camera, microphone and speaker. When someone rings the doorbell, it rings on your mobile phone, and you can answer and talk to them even if you're not at home. You can also connect it to the Arlo Chime accessory (not included) that makes it audible indoors when someone rings the doorbell – this way you’ll hear it even if you don’t have your phone handy.

The doorbell operates on two AA batteries. They don’t last as long as the doorbell without a camera, where the batteries lasted for many months. But they’ll last about three months if you have several daily callers, and by buying double sets of rechargeable batteries you can quickly replace and recharge the old set. It’s easy to detach the unit and replace the battery, using a special tool with a tip that you press into a hole.

The fact that the doorbell is completely wireless means there’s no need for tedious setup or having an ugly cable hanging on the wall.

Video quality and performance

The image quality is very good. During the daytime you can see what’s going on outside, and you can clearly see people’s faces. The picture may be a little bit lacking in detail at the outer edges and far away. At night, it becomes harder to distinguish people’s faces when they are a few metres away, but if they come closer you’ll get a good picture even in dark environments.

What is a little more annoying is that it takes a while from when someone rings on the doorbell to when you actually see the picture and can talk. It’s not more than a few seconds, but enough for you to notice it and think it’s longer than it could be.

It’s also a rather slow process when you want to go in and check what the camera can see. From the moment you enter the app and press play to watch live video until the picture appears, it will take around 20 seconds. Improvement is needed here, because in some cases it means that what you want to look at has already gone.

Good microphone

The microphone is really good. You can clearly here what the person outside your door is saying, and it also picks up a lot of environmental noise without it interfering when you talk to the person. The people you talk to can clearly hear what you’re saying too.

Another interesting feature is the built-in siren that you can start if you have someone outside your door who shouldn't be there.

The Arlo Video Doorbell Wire-Free is an excellent complement for anyone who already has the Arlo camera system, or if you want more discreet surveillance over your entrance. You don’t immediately think that a doorbell is a security camera. It’s not exactly invisible, of course, as the design is quite large and bulky, but because it doesn't look like a traditional camera, it doesn't make it as clear to your guests.

The Netgear Arlo Pro 2 VMS4230P is a surveillance kit that’s very easy to install. It includes a week’s cloud storage of recorded videos, and when the videos are more than seven days old, they are automatically deleted. If you want longer storage than this, you have to pay extra.

Unfortunately, you can’t insert a memory card in the camera as an alternative to the cloud solution; you're reliant on the subscription service, which feels a bit stingy given that the cameras are quite expensive.

But on the other hand, they come with several useful functions. For example, they have a built-in alarm that you can start if someone approaches your home. They also send notifications to your mobile when they detect movements.

Problematic delay and rather short battery life

Regrettably, the relevant camera doesn’t automatically open in live stream mode when you open a notification. Instead, you arrive on the app’s home page and have to click to choose the right camera. This means that we miss seeing events in real time because of the delay.

The cameras are completely wireless. The promised battery life is 6 months, but that depends on how often they record video. During our test, the first camera needed charging after only a month’s use. If you want to save on charging, you should position the camera so it doesn’t unnecessarily film things. The batteries come fully charged from the factory.

One major advantage of the Arlo Pro 2 is that it’s restrictive about what it records. For example, it rarely reacts to trees moving in the wind, but always if a human or animal passes it.

The camera can be connected with a power cable, but only indoors, so it’s more of a charging cable. And the kit only includes one charger so you can’t charge both cameras at the same time.

Good image quality

The Netgear Arlo Pro 2 VMS4230P records 1080p video and live streams it on command. The image quality is perfectly acceptable and the camera has a very good wide angle. It can be difficult to achieve quality images of objects far from the camera, so it should be positioned close to the area you want to monitor. When you zoom into the image, it quickly becomes pixelated.

The camera has good night vision. The outdoor range is decent as long as you have a high-performing router. Connection is via Wi-Fi, but even when the reception is poor, we had nice image quality.

A major plus point is that you can communicate with anyone close to the camera because it has two-way sound. A further bonus is the user-friendly app. It’s easy to find recorded clips, change settings or playback the live stream.

You can invite other users to one or more cameras. They can’t control them, but they can see what’s going on. We would have preferred them to be able to use the microphone function in the app, but unfortunately that’s locked so only the primary user can access it. Nor can you be logged into several units simultaneously with a single account. This is probably a safety measure to prevent unauthorised access.

The kit lacks a sabotage alarm and it's very easy to steal the camera because it’s only attached to the bracket with a magnet. So, you need to place it in a position that’s difficult to access.

The Arlo Pro 2 is a good surveillance supplement to a home alarm system, or for those who simply want pure surveillance at home and no sensor solutions on doors and windows. However, it’s relatively expensive, particularly if you're going to use the cloud service for more than seven days. If you want a complete home alarm system, this package isn’t sufficient. But if you're just looking for a wireless IP classified surveillance solution with lots of intelligent functions, it’s a good buy.

The Netatmo Presence was released quite some time after the company's indoor camera and in some ways that’s really noticeable. You get a durable outdoor camera where you don’t have to rely on cloud services that are expensive in the long run.

Night light without communication

The Netatmo Presence can be used as a replacement for facade or garden lighting, because the only connection is a terminal block on the inside. This is a fairly large unit due to the built-in spotlight, which corresponds to a 120W lamp but with LED lighting. That, plus the rather industrial design, makes the Presence a pretty unique camera in terms of appearance.

However, the tough look is there for a reason. This camera withstands all forms of weather and has no problems with temperatures down to minus 20 degrees. The specification for weather resistance even goes so far that it can even be immersed in water without packing up. One thing to note is that the camera doesn’t have speakers, so unlike most cameras on the market, you can’t talk to the person in front of the camera.

Connection is via Netatmo's separate camera app and only via Wi-Fi. So make sure that you’ve got good coverage where the camera is to be sited. Getting started isn’t particularly difficult, but Netatmo's app seems to be stuck in the development phase a bit because it’s not always completely logical to find all the functions.

Local storage

The video is recorded in 1080p regardless of the connection speed. This is because there is a micro SD card pre-installed in the camera (you can buy a bigger one if you want). If you want to store files in the cloud, you can connect to a Dropbox account. You don’t need a subscription service at all.

Images are actually really good and for night mode you can choose whether you want night vision in colour or black and white IR. However, the camera has a fairly narrow lateral field of view, which you might want to bear in mind. The camera doesn’t recognise faces, but has object recognition for people, animals and vehicles so you only get notifications when needed. This particular function works really well and can also be connected to the lamp, so it only lights up if, for example, when a person is visible and not just a cat. Connecting to the camera via the app usually doesn’t cause any problems, but if your Wi-Fi coverage is poor, the app is a little more fussy than the average.

The Netatmo Presence is ideal if you want a connected camera outdoors without having to pay subscription costs. The picture is good and although we’d have liked to have seen both an alarm and speakers built-in (and connection to Netatmo’s other smart home stuff), it’s hard not to wholeheartedly recommend this camera as the best choice for outdoors right now.

In practice, the Ring Floodlight Cam is the same camera as the wired Spotlight camera. Here, the camera is flanked by two LED spotlights and all three parts are attached by adjustable arms to a shared back plate. If you have existing wall lighting, the idea is that the camera can replace it.

Laying cables suitable for outdoor use is a bit more tricky than the indoor version. This makes Ring’s Floodlight Cam a clever design. Because it’s not unlikely that your garden already has some form of lighting, and replacing this with combined lighting and surveillance is a sensible idea.

However, because this is one of the company's smaller cameras with two floodlights attached, you can’t exactly call it discreet outdoor lighting, or very attractive either.

Get started with what’s in the package

The installation is simple and no more difficult than it is to install a normal lighting cable. All of the tools for the installation (including a screwdriver) are included.

The light can be set to illuminate on movement or to be switched on either manually or according to a schedule. However, you can’t set the light level, so the alternatives are either dark or “lights up the entire garden”. Both the light and the camera can be set accurately in terms of the motion sensor’s field of view, but there’s no automatic on and off depending on whether or not you’re at home (obviously this is more useful for indoor cameras, but it's still a nice function to have).

The image quality is generally good regardless of whether it’s day or night time. Unlike Ring’s battery-powered units, we experience the reception strength for the Wi-Fi as being significantly better. It would have been nicer to have the option for wired connection.

Getting started with the app is extremely simple. As standard, you get notifications on your phone when the camera sees something and you can check it yourself at any time. If you want recording, you have to pay for Ring’s subscription service, which you’ll probably want to do to use the video clips in any case.

The app is easy to use, although it doesn’t have a vast number of functions. We would have liked to see facial recognition included, but have to settle for motion detection.

Good coverage but a bit clumsy

If you want to replace an existing garden light with combined lighting and surveillance, the Ring Floodlight Cam can be a solid choice provided you have sufficient Wi-Fi coverage. At the same time, it’s quite a clumsy unit with few light settings. From this point of view, a separate light and camera can be a better choice for outdoor use.

The TP-Link Tapo C200 is a cheap camera with lots of functions but plenty of irritation too. The camera itself is a bulky affair that unfortunately feels as cheap as the price tag implies.

The C200 is connected to TP-Link’s Tapo app, which also works with their connected lights and switches. Unfortunately you can only automate the lights with the app, as support for automating the camera has been described as “coming soon” the whole time we’ve tested the camera.

Free service

The C200 runs completely without any subscription service. This means that all clips must be saved locally in the camera on memory card (not included) or be sent out to third-party software via the ONVIF protocol. Sadly, only standard notifications are displayed when the camera finds something – the notification doesn’t come with pictures or videos like many other cameras can do.

And you certainly do get notifications. Although we put the camera in a mostly empty hall without a view of either end of the hall, it still found movement. In fact, sometimes as much as 100 different movements, despite the fact that people only moved in the hall a handful of times. Turning the sensitivity of the motion sensor to minimum doesn’t help.

Nor does the camera have support for zones – it just reacts to movement. This means, for example, that you can’t exclude a busy road or the like to save on notifications and video storage.

Ambitious

At the same time, we’re dealing with a rather ambitious creation. Despite the price tag, we get motor control of the camera and a perfectly reasonable image. Movement in daylight is captured sharply, while night-time movement is slightly blurred, though perfectly OK for the price range.

There is also an integrity mode that, according to TP-Link, should physically shut the camera lens. The physical aspect isn’t visible on the camera, but as long as the app is running we don't see what the camera sees. However, if you switch off the app and open it again you can see everything – so this doesn’t quite work as it should.

For the price, you can find far worse cameras than the TP-Link C200, which still has pretty good image quality and motor control. At the same time, you’ll want to turn off the notifications because they go off all the time, which rather defeats the point of having the camera.

The Ring Spotlight Cam Battery is an entirely wireless camera that, in terms of hardware, feels very complete. As the name indicates, there’s a built-in lamp that can illuminate smaller outdoor areas when someone passes the camera. Either to frighten away intruders or simply to give you a bit more light if you’re moving around your exterior at night. If you want to inform people that they’ve been caught on film, there’s also a built-in siren, and if you don’t want to make quite that much noise, you can also talk to them and hear the person standing by the camera.

The image quality is good regardless of whether it’s filming during the day or night. The camera isn’t exactly a design triumph, but it does its job.

Entirely wireless

There are several advantages to having a battery-powered security camera (you can also buy it with a standard power cable for the same price). Above all, it makes it much easier to install the camera because you don’t have to worry about laying cables. In addition, the camera has space for two batteries – even if the package only includes one.

But simultaneously there’s the question of the wireless connection. You need to have really good Wi-Fi coverage where the camera is installed to get the video stream to be smooth. This is a marked difference to Ring’s equivalent mains powered cameras. Not only to save on batteries, but the freedom that comes with an entirely wireless camera quickly becomes limited in this case.

But for reception there are no problems. Ring’s app is incredibly easy to get started with and it doesn’t take many minutes to add the camera to your account. You immediately get notifications on your phone when something happens and you can see the live view. But if you want to store film clips you have to pay a subscription fee.

The simple app also comes with limitations, such as a not having an entirely straightforward scheduling system, the lack of facial recognition and a slightly fiddly timeline of what has been seen and recorded.

Who would this camera suit?

The Ring Spotlight Cam Battery is a great choice if you have good Wi-Fi coverage outdoors. It includes everything you need for installation. It’s also great that it has space for double batteries, but we’d have liked to see better Wi-Fi connection and slightly more modern functions within the app.

The Netatmo Welcome has major advantages that many of its competitors are lacking, but it’s also getting on a bit. It’s quite an attractive camera built into an aluminium tube. However, this causes problems in pretty much every position if you were thinking of putting it on a table or something similar.

You have to work out some of your own accessories for wall mounting, and the fact that all the cables stick straight out from the back doesn’t help either. But the camera gets a big thumbs up for having an outlet for a wired network for a more stable connection.

Keep data to yourself

Another major advantage is that you don’t have to have a subscription to store video clips. The camera has an outlet for Micro SD-card for storage, but can also be connected to your Dropbox account or via FTP, for example to a network hard drive. This gives you better control over recorded clips – and your own data – than many modern home camera solutions.

Getting started with this camera is as easy as it is with the majority of others. Download the app, create an account and follow the instructions, and you’re ready to go in a couple of minutes.

After it’s been installed for a couple of days, the software starts to ask about the faces it has seen so it can identify them.

Ageing platform

The Netatmo Welcome was released couple of years ago, and unfortunately this is quite evident. Regardless of the light, the faces we are asked to identify are very blurred.

While it’s easy to get started, receive notifications and watch the live view in the camera, the app is rather fiddly to use. The live video is rarely of high quality (although the recorded material is), there are very few settings for the camera and identified faces and history are quite difficult to manage. The app would really benefit from a major update.

It’s also worth mentioning that the camera gets worryingly hot, so make sure it’s positioned in a well-ventilated place.

The freedom and lack of hidden costs together with an attractive design significantly increase the score we give to the Netatmo Welcome. But the fact that it’s quite difficult to position and has an ageing app means that it could have done better.

The Somfy Indoor Camera has one function that should be pretty much standard for all indoor cameras – a physical lens cap. In this case it’s motorised and can be controlled via the app or according to a schedule. This means that both you and any visitors to your home can feel secure that the camera isn’t filming – until it’s required.

Problematic design

The useful lens cap sits on a puck-shaped unit which is a nice shape but feels a bit plasticky. And the puck shape means it’s hard to position the camera. This is particularly true if you want to wall mount it (the bracket is sold separately), as the puck shape means it protrudes a lot.

You can add the camera to Somfy’s security app, where you can operate it separately or include it in a wider system with several cameras and other alarm sensors. The app has a large number of functions and you even get recordings of 30 seconds each, which are saved free of charge for seven days. This is generous and makes it one of the best security cameras no subscription required . But if you want more than this you can buy into the subscription service.

Light and blurry

Given all the functions in the app, you get a great deal for the money. And the camera has good reception over Wi-Fi too (there’s no wired version).

But the camera itself is a bit of a problem. The images are far too light, so some details disappear. At the same time, even when we try out different Wi-Fi networks, positions and settings for the camera, it never produced a detailed image. In fact, it’s so bad that it’s sometimes hard to make out faces on the images.

At night, the camera doesn’t seem to be as overcompensated in terms of light, but the detail problem remains.

The camera also suffers from a significant delay. It takes about five seconds from something passing the camera and it being visible in the app’s live view. Even cheaper cameras today can cope with real time streaming or very close to it, but for some reason, this camera takes a lot longer.

It’s even stranger when we use the speaker and microphone in the camera to communicate via the app, because the sound arrives five seconds before the person on the video reacts to it.

Given how long the camera has been on the market, we don’t have any hope that either the image quality or the delay will be fixed with software updates either.

And that’s a shame. Because Somfy’s app is really good, has lots of functions and is compatible with external services. The Somfy Indoor Camera gains a lot of points for its physical lens cover, but as a camera, it’s quite a distance behind its competitors.

The Nedis WIFICO11CWT is also named “1080p outdoor camera” or “Wi-Fi smart IP-camera for outdoor use waterproof Full HD 1080p”. But as the name doesn’t say anything and just like all the other Nedis camera names, you really need to check the long model name to be sure.

In any case, it's a simpler outdoor camera that means you can quickly get started with for home surveillance at a cheap price.

Double apps

The Nedis app can be connected to both cameras and lamps to act as a hub for your smart home. It can also be connected to a cloud service for storage of video, if you don't want to use the camera’s built-in memory card.

It works with Google Assistant too, but we had major problems setting this up and it took a while before it agreed to cooperate. We don't get this with Tuya, which is exactly the same app and camera, but adapted to a more global market. Tuya makes an app for Nedis, and it seems as though new functions are tested out by Tuya first.

Regarding the camera in the app, it's very fast to connect and when the camera sees something, we quickly received a notification about it on our phone.

Night blind

There aren't any luxury functions like motor control for the camera here, but at any rate this very plasticky camera doesn't have any problems being outdoors in all weathers.

Despite a resolution of 1080p, you don't get the world’s most detailed image. But for smaller spaces outdoors and in the daytime, we at least get an image where we can see most things, even if faces can be a bit blurry.

It is worse at night. The camera’s IR eyes don't reach far, and just over a metre from the camera, everything becomes quite dark. It still reacts to movements, but we often have a problem seeing what's moving in the darkness.

This means the Nedis WIFICO11CWT is very limited in terms of applications. If you want a really cheap camera with a reasonable app just so you can try out surveillance, this may be an option. But the poor night vision limits the usefulness of this camera for home use.

The Somfy Outdoor Camera is a rather oddly designed camera with functions that, on paper, look really good. According to the manual, the camera doesn’t tolerate either direct sunlight or rain, which is an interesting characteristic for an outdoor camera. Don’t give up yet…

Fiddly installation

The design of Somfy’s outdoor camera blends in like any other outdoor lamp. But the entire package is rather large.

You install the camera by removing the entire back panel and screwing it to the wall. The power switch has an extra outlet for a lamp, which can be activated when the camera reacts to movements. Despite the substantial installation housing, however, there's no outlet for a wired network or POE (Power over Ethernet) so it can't be powered without internet.

The camera itself can rotate horizontally but not vertically – and only a very little way horizontally. In combination with the angled design of the camera (and the fact that it clearly can’t deal with rain or sun), you really have to think about the position before installing it to get it right.

Once in place, however, you can activate a connected lamp, talk to whoever is standing in front of the camera or activate the built-in siren if necessary. You can also use the siren as an outdoor siren if you have additional alarm parts from Somfy. The siren starts up automatically if someone tries to disassemble the camera.

What about those images?

So in terms of functions, it's not at all bad up to this point. Getting the camera into Somfy’s app doesn’t pose any problems either, and it has really good reception strength over Wi-Fi. Somfy’s app is built to act as a home alarm, with cameras as part of this. This makes the app really function rich, if a little confusing. For the camera itself, saving short video clips is included, but if you want more you can subscribe to the company's cloud service.

The camera is very good at ignoring false alarms, like swaying bushes etc. The colours in the camera are also very natural.

But the outdoor camera has the same problem as Somfy’s indoor camera; the images are lacking in detail. This is despite the fact that we test it with different Wi-Fi networks and quality settings in the app. Faces are blurred and trying to determine the registration numbers of cars is pretty much impossible during the day and at night.

At the same time, the camera has the same five-second delay as the company's indoor camera, which is much longer than their competitors’ models - and something that makes two-way conversations very frustrating, if not impossible.

Because image quality is fundamental in a security camera, we are disappointed in the Somfy Outdoor Camera, particularly at this price. The app and functions are very good, but neither the camera nor the image quality is on the same level.

The Nedis Wireless Doorbell can be a really attractive alternative to the more expensive doorbells from companies like Ring or Nest. But at the same time, you do get what you pay for. And it’s above all the resolution that spoils this product’s performance.

Simple installation, except for the ringer

Nedis’ doorbell is very neat and stylish, although once in place it’s reminiscent of an older Logitech webcam. As long as the wires out to your doorbell deliver the right amount of current, it’s a minor issue to connect the bell.

But you can’t connect the doorbell further to a ringer indoors to hear when someone rings the bell. To do this you have to buy a separate ringer from Nedis, disconnect the power to the doorbell, run it on a mains USB cable and pair the ringer. This means the installation is much more fiddly and the complete package more expensive.

Apart from this rather pointless idea, it’s easy to set up the doorbell and Nedis’ app – or rather, Tuya’s app, because it’s the same app with different names.

It’s easy to set the settings you need in the app and see snapshots of what’s happened in front of the camera. It’s also pretty quick at delivering notifications, but could have been still quicker because after all someone ringing at your door is something you needto know about straight away.

Major limitations

Unlike the majority of doorbells with a fixed power supply, Nedis’ doorbell only copes with distance measurement for motion sensing, not delimited movement zones. And the sensitivity seems to vary quite a lot too.

The camera itself has a similar limitation. While it’s nice that stored material can be transferred to the built-in memory card or Nedis’ cloud service, there’s often not actually much useful material. For example, the camera reacts very slowly when taking a snapshot, which means that half the time you get an image of someone’s chest instead of their face.

In the daytime, the low 720p resolution is sufficient for identifying people. But at night all faces, regardless of skin colour, become blindingly white without any facial traits whatsoever, which is totally useless for seeing who’s outside the door.

Given its price, the Nedis Wireless Doorbell can seem like a good idea on paper. However, the price goes up quickly when you have to buy an extra ringer, and given that the camera isn’t even usable half the time, we can’t really recommend it.