New security camera also boasts radar and PIR to eliminate false alarms
Budget smart home king Wyze has announced its first-ever smart security camera with a removable battery: the Wyze Battery Cam Pro.
Available now, for just under $100 including shipping fees, it’s not exactly the bargain basement pricing we’ve become used to from Wyze Labs; but it offers a heck of a lot of tech for a sub-$100 outlay.
Starting with that continuous, 24/7, recording (which will land soon as a software update), you can choose to record everything all the time, or just motion detections, direct to an microSD memory card.
Obviously, this will absolutely hammer battery life but you can swap batteries around (additional packs can be bought for $23), or make use of a solar panel power option ($30).
If local storage isn’t a concern for you, a Wyze Cam Plus subscription plan ($2.99, monthly) also provides you with clip history from the last 14 days, as well as the ability to view the action through the Wyze Web View.
For those who don’t want to pay a monthly fee, it’s also possible to have the Wyze Cam Lite plan, but this limits event recordings to 12 seconds.
Without continuous recording we’re told you can expect up to 6 months of battery life from the interchangeable 6200mAh power pack.
Your recordings will be crystal clear thanks to 2K HDR sensor, a 134-degree field of view and color night vision.
Operating on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi, there’s no need for the Wyze Base Station, and there’s a new radar-powered motion detection feature that teams up with a PIR to eliminate false alarms caused by extreme weather conditions like heavy rain, snow or intense heat.
Elsewhere, there’s 2-way audio on board, a built in siren and spotlight and you can view your security footage on a smart display or TV thanks to Alexa and Google Home integrations.
The price of the Wyze Battery Cam Pro is $93.99 plus $5 shipping. A three-pack is $269.99 and there are also bundles that include an extra battery or the solar power panel.
Wyze is also selling a battery charging dock, for $17.99, which charges two extra batteries.
What I think
Wyze used to be known for offering up super, super cheap stuff that worked well but pretty much only covered the basics – the original Wyze Cam went on sale back in 2017 for less than $20.
In the past couple of years we’ve seen the Seattle-based brand introduce features to put it on a par with its higher-end rivals, but at the same time we’ve seen those budget price-tags become not so budget.
There’s an abundance of security cameras on sale in the sub-$100 region that the new Wyze Battery Cam Pro sits in.
However, while Wyze’s prices are now a little north of where they once were, they are still packing in plenty of bang for your buck – the Arlo Pro 5, for example, has a similar feature set to the Wyze Battery Cam Pro, but is more than double the price.
