Blink Video Doorbell (newest gen) | Add-on | Head-to-toe HD view, two-year battery life, simple setup, IP-65 | Works with Alexa | Required Sync Module not included – (Black)

This is really good. You should get one.
I’ve had this for a week now and it’s really handy. I installed it by screwing it into the uPVC/double glazed front door frame.Having read other reviews, I had some reservations but my WiFi is strong at the front door. The bell lives on the normal home WiFi but it ‘sleeps’ until it detects motion (or someone presses the doorbell) because it just runs on 3 (lithium) AA batteries it’s sleeping until it needs to wake up. The ‘sync module core’ which it ships with uses some lower frequency network to wake the camera up when required. This is so you can view the doorbell camera when required (you open the Blink app, ask Alexa to show the doorbell, etc. and it sends a signal to the doorbell to wake up and then start streaming via WiFi) – if you don’t have a decent signal at your front door or your sync module is too far away then it’s not going to work but I understand how it works and this works well for me.It’s well designed (although maybe I should have bought the black one instead of the white one as it’s on a white front door frame and sometimes people don’t notice it’s there and just use the old door knocker as it’s white on white) and fits securely. It’s also very good value for money compared to the competition (like Ring).I’ve had no false motion notifications so after three days got Alexa to announce ‘there is motion at the front door’ when people turn up and it works perfectly. See the pic in the review – you can set up activity zones where you get a grid and you can tap/grey out area where you don’t want notifications from. Nobody needs constant notifications about people walking past on the road and all you’re doing is devaluing genuine notifications and wasting your battery unnecessarily – so block out areas you don’t need.You can also set up privacy zones where the doorbell won’t record – I guess this will be handy if your front door looks out over someone else’s window – it won’t alert for activity there or record activity there either.I’ve had dry days, very wet days and very windy days and no false alerts even from the tree that sits in front flapping around. Odd spot of rain on the lens but that’s what happens when it rains.The lens is very much ‘fish eye’ but the viewing angle is massive top and bottom and the sides. I know some people don’t like it but if you wanted a ‘letterbox’ view you’d chop off the top and bottom or the sides. I know it might look a bit unflattering but you’re going to see that parcel in front of the door without issue.I have the quality set to “standard” which pushes out 960×960 video – I’ve included a screenshot of it as well as an actual video clip the night-time mode. A ten second clip is about 1mb.The app is fluid and functional, works well on iPad and iPhone as well as Mac OS. Once you get used to it it’s fine.One oddity of the Blink system is you won’t get notifications for motion events (apart from some pushing the doorbell button) unless the system is ‘armed’ – I think Blink chose a confusing term here as you’d normally ‘arm’ a security system when you leave but if you also consider they do indoor cameras too (which I also have) it is not so odd. For my indoor cam (not in this review) I have the system ‘armed’ on a schedule from say 11pm-7am – so it’ll only record and issue motion alerts when it’s armed (unless I tell it I’m going out or arm it manually) – I don’t need motion alerts of me walking around the house only when that’s not happening. So the same kind of system works with the doorbell – you just need to leave the doorbell ‘armed’ so you get notifications. Doorbell press notifications always happen though. I guess if you were getting a lot of false positives (maybe you look out on to a main road or it’s a particularly windy night blustering your plant pots and trees around) you could stop the notifications by just disarming the system. Or maybe you only arm the system (which will save battery life) when you’re expecting a package or whatever that day. But the armed/disarmed situation isn’t obvious as who needs to arm a doorbell.You can set your system up to be activated and deactived via Alexa (but you’ll need to set a PIN) or on a schedule or only manually.You have to have one sync module for a each ‘system’ (which is Blink’s word for zone) – you have to arm/disarm each zone. I have three zones – doorbell which is always armed has a sync module, inside (these are all plugged in cameras so don’t need a sync module) and my back garden which has two cameras. I leave doorbell armed all the time, inside on a schedule and the back garden has it’s own schedule. So two sync modules for me. If I had a second camera out the front then I would probably add it to the ‘doorbell’ zone. But once you get used to how the various systems work, it’s okay.The doorbell comes with a one month free trial of their Blink Plus plan. This means your clips are saved to Blink’s cloud and they’re there for a month. If you want to save it for another time you can just go to the app and email it to yourself. If someone broke in and pinched your camera or whatever, the footage is saved to Blink and isn’t lost.Currently a “Blink Basic” pla is £2.50/mo (or £24.99 if you buy a year in one go) or the Blink Plus plan is £8/mo (or £80 for a year bought in one go). For one device that’s £2.50/mo and the £8/mo is for unlimited devices (you may find you get a doorbell camera, then an indoor one for the hall or to look at the back door, and then why not get one for the back garden and, and and… You can also buy a ‘sync module 2’ to replace the Sync Module Core and stick a USB drive in it and save stuff locally.Anyway, the Blink ecosystem is quite inexpensive, and the subscriptions are inexpensive (and sometimes not needed with a Sync Module 2) but the system seems quite decent. I’m sure most of the problems people have are because their WiFi is a bit flakey outside or they don’t position their sync module anywhere near or they don’t set up motion zones.

Decent camera for price!
Can’t fault this camra I wanted somthing that wasn’t expensive but also decent quality and ive got both. Sound os very good. Motion detection is really good day and night. The picture quickly is really good on a night. Delay from the door bell is only a few secondsI use those daily and is brilliant when im out if anyone comes to my door. So far battery seems good haven’t worked out of you can change the battery but apparently should last 2 years depending on the use of the camra daily. Easy to set up and install. All round a decent camra and I would recommend.

Great door bell camera
Great camera with a wide view and full body view clear picture and easy set up

Bait and switch
I bought these due to the current sale, thinking I would be able to run this without the subscription, as long as I bought a usb drive. That’s because the previous version came with a hub you could do that with. However this is the updated version and there is no SD card slot or one for USB. Which means the so called update is actually a downgrade in functionality. Of course you can buy the old hub with usb slot, but that’s another £40. And buying the old package of hub and doorbell is still £70. But that’s with a poorer quality cam.But in terms of function, not having the subscription is a downgrade itself. Because the camera uses AI for processing images and detection. So bear that in mind. This can’t be ran as a non subscription unit with the same level of function. Another issue is the lack of detail on how to set up the camera with the angled mount. I needed to check YouTube for this. All in all it does feel like the discount didn’t make this as much as bargain because you need to factor in the years subscription. Because they decided to do away with local storage. The other thing is that one of the hubs with storage isn’t even available in the UK. Do research before you buy and don’t ask AI. Because it told me to buy a usb drive for local storage.