Abstract

• For $150, the Eve Cam Indoor Safety Digital camera provides a smooth design, a reasonably straightforward setup course of, and breezy integration with Apple HomeKit.
• You may want a 50GB iCloud+ subscription and both an Apple TV or HomePod so as to arrange a house hub and file video, arrange notifications, set timers, create guidelines, and connect with a number of cameras.
• Video and sound high quality are on par with the common house safety digicam, however comparable fashions supply an equally strong set of options at decrease costs—generally a lot decrease.

The Eve Cam Secure Indoor Camera guarantees privateness and safety at an inexpensive worth, however most of its options require extra units and paid providers.

Value and Availability

You should purchase an Eve Cam from Amazon, Apple, or instantly from the Eve web site itself for $150. The Eve on-line store takes $20 off your complete for those who purchase a two-pack – totaling $280 for the pair somewhat than $300.

Straightforward to Ignore (in a Good Manner)

There’s no getting round how smooth the Eve Cam seems. It’s a nicely-contoured and glossy hockey puck of a factor that might feasibly mix in nearly anyplace. On the very least, it does not stand out.

The bottom and neck are additionally weirdly spectacular with how easy they make bodily setup, positioning, and angling. Whether or not counting on the very grippy, virtually rubbery, ring across the underside or the built-in —and fairly robust—magnet, it doesn’t take a lot to discover a steady vantage level.

Then you have got a neck that tilts as much as 90 levels in both route relative to the bottom, a head that may swivel a full 360, and sufficient friction in each joints to require little or no bodily effort to maneuver, however they’ll nonetheless fortunately keep in place till you determine to regulate issues.

Between the bottom and neck, and an included metallic disc and screw in case you’d favor to mount it on a wall, the Eve Cam can go nearly anyplace. So long as it’s inside vary of an influence outlet or a minimal of 5V USB-C energy.

Fortunately, the included USB energy cable—which additionally comes with a number of plug adapters for a wide range of areas—is over 5-feet lengthy, so it shouldn’t be too tough to discover a location with a superb view and entry to energy, however this could restrict your choices in some areas.

Practical Caveats

As with most trendy electronics which might be supposed to have some type of shelf presence in a brick-and-mortar retailer, the again of the Eve Cam field calls out a handful of options and capabilities to attempt to sway potential patrons.

End-to-end encryption for stay video streams and recordings; as much as 10 days of recording historical past; notifications for movement detection that may categorize folks, animals, or autos; the choice to show the digicam off while you’re house; and assist for HomeKit Secure Video.

Necessities are additionally conveniently bullet-pointed again there and embody the latest version of iOS or an up-to-date iPadOS, an out there Wi-Fi community. A 50GB iCloud+ or larger storage plan, and both an Apple TV or HomePod to make use of as a house hub.

What’s not clear from this mix of lists is that, whereas a Wi-Fi connection and up to date working system are crucial to make use of the Eve Cam in any respect, each a house hub system and a 50GB iCloud+ subscription are required for almost all of its vaunted options.

With out an Apple TV ($130 to $150) or HomePod ($100 to $300) to arrange as a house hub and a 50GB iCloud+ subscription ($1 monthly), you received’t be capable of file footage. Or arrange notifications for movement sensing. Or set timers. Or handle guidelines. Or connect with a couple of digicam at a time.

That mentioned, you’ll be able to nonetheless stream video with movement detection flagging, make the most of low-light settings, and make use of the Eve Cam’s built-in microphone and speaker to hear in or broadcast to the room that’s being watched.

The official Eve app falls a bit quick as nicely, with quite a lot of choices tucked away in unintuitive locations, or popping up in a number of locations.

For some cause, the movement detection is simply… not good. It appeared positive upon preliminary setup, however after lower than an hour it refused to acknowledge the absence of any motion—even when the room was fully nonetheless and the sensitivity was set as little as attainable.

Turning it on and off once more, disconnecting and re-pairing, and even a manufacturing facility reset failed to repair the problem. So now this house safety digicam is flagging motion always, irrespective of the state of affairs.

At the very least it’s a breeze to attach the feed to Apple’s official House app. The movement detection drawback persists, however it’s at the very least a bit simpler on the eyes and smoother to navigate.

Seems Good, Sounds… Okay

For anybody who’s ever used—or at the very least seen—a contemporary house safety digicam in motion, the Eve Cam is just about what you’d anticipate.

Video high quality isn’t something remotely near 4K, however it does promote 1080p and is obvious sufficient to see what’s taking place fairly clearly as much as a distance of at the very least 15’ to twenty’—after which much less grandiose issues like shifting small objects could be robust to make out fully.

30 frames per second is the utmost setting within the app, which is completely positive for a safety digicam like this, although the feed itself is admittedly somewhat uneven. Once more, that is par for the course with a tool like this. Simply don’t anticipate buttery easy HD video and it’ll be positive.

Sound can also be an element, because of the beforehand talked about speaker and microphone. For its half, the speaker works nicely. The audio high quality is somewhat tinny and distant, however it’s loud and clear sufficient to be understood by people and pets alike. Additionally, it is a house safety digicam, not an leisure system.

The microphone will get the job carried out as nicely, albeit not fairly as successfully because the speaker. It does decide up sound, and it’s typically clear sufficient to be understandable—you’ll be able to maintain a dialog, for instance—however distance is usually a large issue.

In testing, loud and loud-ish noises (closing a door, dropping one thing, floorboards creaking, and so forth) got here by simply positive from just about throughout your entire room. Much less loud sounds, such because the ambient hiss of a radiator or the incessant scraping of an upstairs neighbor, didn’t.

That is all nicely and good, however noises that aren’t quiet or loud find yourself being pretty hit-or-miss. To return to the dialog instance, somebody talking at an everyday indoor quantity received’t be reliably picked up from roughly 10-feet away—typically leading to phrases reducing out.

Too A lot for Too Little

Evaluating the Eve Cam to its contemporaries initially appeared like a easy prospect: Simply go down an inventory of options, no matter necessities, and anticipate it to sit down both within the center or barely in the direction of the “that is higher” finish of issues. And but…

Value is all the time going to be at the very least somewhat subjective. Everybody has their very own finances limitations and necessities, and what could be price somewhat additional money to some received’t be to others. Not a lot for the Eve Cam.

At $150, which is on the upper finish of most common house safety digicam costs, it’s not unreasonable to suppose the Eve Cam ought to eclipse cameras just like the $130 Eufy Security Indoor Cam S350. And it ought to completely surpass a $50 TP-Link Tapo C120, proper?

Properly, to be completely sincere, no.

At $20 much less, Eufy’s S350 provides as much as 4K video high quality and as much as 8 occasions zoom, very responsive movement detection, microSD card assist for recording footage internally, and practical management over notifications. It simply doesn’t work with Apple HomeKit.

It’s even worse when wanting on the Tapo C120, as a result of that digicam’s somewhat over a 3rd of the Eve Cam’s worth however provides virtually all the identical capabilities. Plus microSD card assist, and it may be used outdoors. Simply no Apple HomeKit assist.

With out the necessity to purchase or already personal something aside from a smartphone, both. The one options locked behind a subscription plan are 30 days’ price of cloud-stored video historical past, tags and sorting for video clips, and snapshots to go along with video alerts.

Ought to You Purchase the Eve Cam?

Except you’re useless set on getting a house safety digicam that’s appropriate with Apple HomeKit, it’s tough to advocate the Eve Cam Indoor Camera. Significantly for the worth.

Not solely do inexpensive cameras supply a lot of the identical capabilities—if not all, or probably much more—however a great deal of what the Eve Cam does supply is successfully locked behind that HomeKit compatibility.

For a non-Apple product, this doesn’t make an entire lot of sense.