A stylish new doorbell and smarter switch join upgraded indoor/outdoor cams
Are you really a smart home brand if you don’t have a video doorbell? TP-Link has seen the error of its ways, rolling out the Kasa Smart Doorbell at CES 2021 this week, alongside a couple of other new products and a plethora of updates to existing ones.
The Kasa Smart Doorbell is a weatherproof buzzer with 1080p Full HD video and person detection. Local storage is on board via a microSD card (up to 128GB), and there’s a 30-day cloud storage plan on offer, too
Top picks: The best smart video doorbells
An included plug-in indoor chime lets you choose your home’s ring tone and, along with the rest of Kasa’s products, it will work with both Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa.
We love Kasa’s smart home cams here at The Ambient, with the current Kasa Spot (KC105) being our top pick for a budget security cam. So, we’re excited to see its cams getting some nice upgrades, including 2K video, color night vision and 24/7 recording.
The Kasa Spot Pan Tilt with 24/7 Recording (KC410S) and the Kasa Cam Outdoor with 24/7 Recording (KC420WS) both bring 2K HD video and full color night vision (thanks to a new “starlight sensor”) to the line.
Plus, as the name implies, 24/7 continuous recording is now available on these corded cams, so you can keep an ongoing eye on proceedings both inside and outside your home. Local storage on a microSD card (up to 256GB) is still an option, too.
The indoor Pan Tilt also gets a new Patrol Mode in addition to motion tracking, which lets you set multiple viewpoints and program the camera to keep an eye on each area at selected times.
On the lighting front, the brand new Motion-Activated Kasa Smart Dimmer Switch (KS220M) automatically turn lights off at a set time based on motion and uses an ambient light sensor to keep them off when they’re not needed. It also has a nice Fade In and Out feature to prevent any jarring wake-up scenarios
The Kasa Smart WiFi Light Switch with 3-Way Dimmer Kit (KS230KIT) brings some upgrades to Kasa’s 3-Way switch that add smarts to the rooms in your house with a silly amount of switches controlling them. A “Smart Dimming” feature automatically adjusts the brightness of your lights, and the Fade In and Out is here, too.
Finally, the Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Outdoor Plug now comes with a single port option, in addition to the existing double socket IP64-rated plug.
Price and availability are TBD, but TP-Link says its new products will “become available throughout 2021 at competitive price points.”
