A guide to staying safe with EZVIZ
Before modern smart home tech arrived, making your home secure with cameras to get alerts of visitors or intruders was complicated and expensive. Nowadays, it simply is not.
We’re going to take you through where you may want to start when getting your home tooled-up.
We’ll also show you the various things each piece of kit can do other than just look for motion — from classic smart home cameras to video doorbells and motion sensors — to help you work out which would be the best fit for your home.
At each stage we’ll use EZVIZ’s line-up to suggest specific products you might want to consider.
EZVIZ makes some of the most affordable smart home cameras, and at each turn focuses on making them easy to use.
EZVIZ is also super flexible on how you want to power your cameras too; many are powered using integrated batteries, so there’s no need to wire them into the mains during installation, for example – but there are also plenty of great wired options too, for people that want permanent power.
EZVIZ does not make you subscribe to a service with a monthly cost to use its kit either, only if you want advanced features like longer-term cloud storage of recorded clips. But where should you start?
Where to start: The smart doorbell
The smart doorbell is a great entry point for anyone who wants to make their home a bit smarter. You mount one of these to your front door, and it communicates wirelessly with a ringer — commonly called a chime — indoors.
It operates completely separate to your classic “dumb” doorbell and connects to your home Wi-Fi, letting it send a notification to your phone as well as the chime.
This means you’ll know when there’s someone at the door even if you are miles away from home at the time. Two-way talk lets you talk to visitors too, which is useful if you need to tell a courier where to leave a package.
Video doorbells like the EZVIZ DP2C Peephole Doorbell and EZVIZ DB2 2K Video Doorbell Kit have wide angle cameras, which let you see a clear live feed image of whoever knocks.
They both have rechargeable batteries too, and will operate for 3-4 months before needing a recharge.
The 2K Video Doorbell Kit simply attaches to your front door using supplied mounts, while the Peephole Doorbell uses the peephole present in many front doors for an even stronger fit.
EZVIZ’s Peephole Doorbell also includes a 4.3-inch display that sits indoors, which is handy if you like to disconnect from your phone when you get home.
An indoor camera is more fun than you might guess
A classic indoor camera makes a great second buy, or a starting point if you don’t need a smart doorbell.
The beauty of a model like the EZVIZ C6 is it may well be the only smart home camera you need. It has a wide angle lens that sits on a motorised base and can tilt up and down, giving it a 360-degree view of any room you put it in.
It can pan to follow a subject, and crop into the picture to frame someone’s face in the preview window. A smart home camera is not just for security. It’s fun.
Two-way talk makes it a great way to check in with pets and interact with them while at work, or chat to and see people back at home. It can only do this because the camera has both a speaker and a microphone.
The EZVIZ C6 is cute too, a little 10cm diameter white ball that looks great on a shelf or coffee table.
It’s a mains-powered smart home camera — no maintenance required. The EZVIZ BC2 may be a better fit if you want a camera that can live virtually anywhere in your home, though.
Its 2000mAh battery lasts up to 50 days between charges and its magnetic base will stick onto any metallic surface with no prep.
There’s no need to drill holes or stick anything to walls, potentially pulling off the paintwork if you decide to move it around. The flexible base can also stand up by itself on any flat surface.
The EZVIZ C6 and BC2 record crystal clear video day or night, and you can control them using Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa as well as the EZVIZ app. Ease of use is all part of the plan in a well-designed smart home camera.
Here’s how the day-to-day experience works. An EZVIZ camera records a clip whenever it detects motion, either to EZVIZ’s cloud storage or a microSD memory card plugged into the camera itself.
At any point you can see the camera’s view using the companion app on your phone. So if you don’t plan on using a smart home camera to check in with the kids back home, or perhaps an elderly relative, you can largely just set it up and let the camera do its thing.
Classic home security: outdoor cameras
The next step in the smart home journey is an outdoor camera. We’re in classic home protection territory here.
An outdoor security camera alerts you to any unexpected activity on your property, and the significant deterrent effect of the simple presence these cameras is powerful in itself.
Two of our favorite EZVIZ outdoors cameras roughly recreate the appeals of the indoor models we talked about earlier. The EZVIZ CTQ3N is a highly affordable camera with a ball hinge mount that lets you point its view wherever you like.
The EZVIZ C8W Pro 2K adds motorized pan and tilt, giving it a 360-degree panoramic view. It frees you up a little when you decide where to mount the camera, and means you may only need a single camera to secure your entire home.
Another great option is the EZVIZ eLife (BC1C), which features 32GB of built-in eMMC storage, a feature you just won’t find on rival cams.
A few of the best features of EZVIZ’s top outdoor cameras include color night vision — instead of the classic monochrome night picture of a home security camera — and AI object recognition that can detect when a car enters the frame. They are, of course, highly water resistant too, ready to work in all types of weather.
Some models also have loud built-in alarms and bright spotlights, for just about the most powerful deterrent effect you can get without hiring a security guard to stand at your front door.
All of EZVIZ’s cameras can operate without a subscription, so the original cost of the hardware is all you need to pay. However, it’s well worth checking out the EZVIZ CloudPlay plans if you are more interested in home security than, for example, checking in your dog while at work.
They let you store an unlimited number of video clips on a cloud server, for three, seven or 30 days, and start at just €2.99 a month (€29.99 a year).
Going further
There’s more coming in the future too. EZVIZ plans to bring out standalone motion sensors, which will alert you of motion in or around your house without need for the camera part.
And all of this, from motion sensors to indoor cameras and video doorbells, can be accessed through the one app, meaning you don’t need to be a tech wizard to get your head around how it all works.
Plus, with Google Assistant and Alexa integrations, it’s also super simple to tie-in your EZVIZ devices with other brands, helping you to build a super robust smart security system for your home.
