Review: Eufy Security Video Doorbell – has some nice features

Design and functionality

The Eufy Security Video Doorbell has a video resolution of 2560 by 1920 pixels. The camera has a horizontal viewing angle of 120 degrees and a vertical viewing angle of 90 degrees. With a height of 14 centimeters and a width of 5.4 centimeters, it is a hefty colossus on the door, door frame or on the wall, but at least you know for sure that people know where your bell is. The plastic material of the housing has been given an ip65 certificate. The video doorbell is therefore dust-free and spray-proof and can therefore withstand a rain shower.

The device has a built-in microphone and speaker, so you can communicate with the person in front of the door. Zooming in is only done digitally, which is at the expense of image quality. Fortunately, the camera has a reasonably high resolution, so that zoomed-in images up to a certain point still look decent. There is also a night mode, the doorbell has a wide dynamic range and there is a built-in rechargeable battery. The base station is supplied as standard.

You need that base station for various reasons. The Eufy Security Video Doorbell connects to your Wi-Fi network via that station. It is exactly the same station as that of the Eufycam 2 and 2C. If you already have the base station, then we have good news: you can also buy the doorbell as a separate product. That drive comes with 16 GB of internal storage, which should be good for about 5,000 short recordings. If you want cloud storage, there is: but it will cost you money.

The black monster has a camera, light sensor and microphone at the top. At the bottom is the button for the doorbell. If you press it, the LED circle will turn blue and you will hear a sound. So you know for sure that you have printed correctly. That LED circle is also used for charging, for example. If the color is orange, it is still charging. At the bottom we find a speaker, with which the person in front of the door could hear you via two-way audio. You can hang the doorbell with a special back.

In use and image quality

Installing the Eufy Security Video Doorbell is a piece of cake. After charging (you have to do that, especially if you want the battery to save the promised 180 days), you can add it directly to the app. That is the same app as that of the Eufycam 2, which we previously reviewed on Smarthome Magazine. If you already have those cameras, adding the device is a breeze. After following the steps within the app you can quickly install the bell. Didn’t have HomeBase 2 yet? That installation is also over in no time.

When someone rings the bell, you will be told in different ways. For example, you can set that you receive a notification on your phone, you hear a tune ringing at the bell itself and you also hear a tune from the HomeBase 2. Moreover, you can set an Amazon Alexa device as a chime, so you can everywhere in the house should in principle be able to hear that the doorbell is being rung. The sound quality during the call via the doorbell is of excellent quality: both parties understand each other and no interference has been spotted.

As you may expect, the Eufy Security Video Doorbell has motion detection. It functions properly. You can set that you only receive notifications when a person walks by or for every movement. You can experiment with this in both cases, for example by adjusting the activity zone (which can be set flexibly) and increasing or decreasing the sensitivity. Fortunately, you can also switch it off if you constantly receive a notification even at the minimum settings; so there are plenty of options for it.

When you receive a notification from the app, you can do several things. You simply wipe the notification, open it and answer the person at the door or play a pre-recorded message. The latter in particular is super handy and a fairly unique function for this doorbell ( Hello, Nest Hello ). This way you also know that the postman will drop the package when you do not have time to answer, since you can say that it is okay to place that package in the corner next to the door, for example.

When motion is detected or someone rings the bell, you will immediately receive a notification on your smartphone. Then you can open it if you want and you will get access to the video you have made. You can then choose to save it locally; you do not need a cloud service for this. That is a big advantage over other smart doorbells in the house. Because the system simply works without additional investment. The disadvantage here is that you have little space (up to 16 GB) and there is no battery as a backup.

We are very pleased with the image quality of the camera. The images look sharp, colorful and detailed. This is partly due to digital wide dynamic range: image technology that ensures that certain parts are not quickly overexposed and that details remain clearly visible in dark places. This makes the contrast look nice. It makes little difference to the level of detail whether it is during the day or at night: you always see what is happening. The images are unfortunately curved, which is impossible to remove.

Application

You use the doorbell in combination with a great app that has a clear layout. When you open the app, you will immediately see the cameras that you have added to HomeBase 2. The base station is also listed in the overview. In all cases, you can therefore directly access the settings of the various devices, as well as the live feeds of the cameras. Once you’ve opened the feed, there are all kinds of functions at the bottom, such as giving a standard answer, taking a screenshot, recording and talking.

Fortunately, the settings page of the Eufy Security Video Doorbell is also well-arranged. If you are looking for something, then you actually found it that way because of the clear headings. For example, you can set the doorbell receiver, adjust the energy consumption of your doorbell, set how loud the sounds sound and thus set a quick answer yourself. You can also switch off the doorbell camera here with the push of a button. In short: if you are looking for an option, it will be listed here. If you can’t find it, the bell doesn’t have that option.

The Power Manager is interesting to mention separately. For example, there are two modes that are preset. With Optimum Battery Life (a key point of the Eufy Security Video Doorbell), the maximum video length is twenty seconds. If the same object is seen again, no picture is taken. If you choose Optimal surveillance then videos are 60 seconds long and the system tries to capture every event. This is at the expense of the battery. And then you have the mode where you determine the parameters yourself.

Integrations

You don’t have to expect much in terms of smart home integrations. There is a stable link with  Apple’s HomeKit , but the integrations with  Amazon Alexa  and  Google Assistant still leave something to be desired. We have run into several problems. Linking the Eufy account will still work, but then we will not see the images on a smart display, such as the Nest Hub when we ask for it. Requesting the images manually by controlling this via the touchscreen works again.

Eufy Security Video Doorbell – Conclusion

If we place the Eufy Security Video Doorbell next to other doorbells, a number of things stand out. For example, the viewing angle is not very high or wide and you cannot, for example, clearly see whether a package has been placed in front of the door (Nest and Ring do that slightly better). In addition, the image quality is of a high level, it is nice that you can also play automated messages and the audio sounds great when you communicate with someone who rings the bell while you are not at home. We have not encountered any problems with WiFi.

In addition, the Eufy Security Video Doorbell has the advantage that images are immediately stored locally. Is your doorbell stolen? That is very annoying, but you know that no one can access your images. You are also not required to purchase a cloud subscription for a storage service, but the company does offer it for a fee. There is no free version available. The integration with, for example, Google Assistant still works a bit creaky, but it is clear what Eufy hopes to achieve with it. Hopefully this will get better soon.

It is also very nice that there are several options for the gong in the house. For example, you can use your Amazon Echo device for that, but also the HomeBase 2. That device suddenly becomes very handy. Not only is it a hub for your Eufy devices, it is also an alarm system and a chime for your doorbell. If you have already invested in this brand, it is nice to know that the functionality is being expanded. Furthermore, there is little smarthome integrations and it is a pity that only a 2.4 GHz network is supported.

Positives of Eufy Security Video Doorbell

Negatives of Eufy Security Video Doorbell