This is a review of Amazon's BLINK Security Camera System: I bought the "Blink Outdoor – wireless, weather-resistant HD security camera with two-year battery life and motion detection, set up in minutes – 5 camera kit" For the money, the BLINK Home Security System is a good compromise.
My Experience With Amazon's BLINK Security Camera System is not in conflict with the 43k+ reviews on Amazon that average out at 4.5 / 5. (The above link is a sponsored link)
For your bang for the buck, Amazon's Blink security camera system does the basics pretty well, with not too many bells and whistles you might want in a video surveillance system. It will sooth your concerns if you've been having issues or are concerned about some things.
Where to begin...
I bought the battery powered version... with 2-year lithium batteries. The longevity depends on use. I can imagine powering up the cameras a lot can wear out the batteries faster, but if you're not a handy man, these are perfect for you.
Camera Reaction Times: The cameras are not instantaneous when they detect motion. They kick in within a few seconds of detection.
Night Vision: It's not quite what I was hoping for, with a 20-foot detection range at best for these cameras. As I conducted my tests, the time-delay shows my head going under the camera, losing those first few seconds of motion. From what I've seen online, you should know that a 20-foot detection range is on-par with industry standards for home security systems.
Single Camera Operation?: NOPE. The system uses one hub to control all the cameras on your system and you cannot turn on only one... it's either all the cameras attached to the hub or none.
Motion Detection: It seems to sense and trigger off motion better with objects going thru the frame rather coming at the camera.
Viewing The Camera Views: Bringing up the view of any of the cameras requires a few seconds... they have to be powered up from their sleep mode. When you switch to another camera, you have to wait a few seconds for the 'live mode' to deactivate on the first camera, then the next camera view pops up, a few seconds after you've selected it.
Video Quality: is pretty good. The cameras have microphones, so you can hear what's going on in the scene. They say you can have two-way communications but I haven't tested that mode yet.
Wireless Range From the Base/Hub: The control hub for the cameras is centrally located in my home and every camera in each corner of the house have great signals to the hub.
Connecting to the Hub: Once you figure out how to connect the first camera to the hub, the rest are easy. The directions aren't horrible but I had to focus a tad to get them connected.
Can You Watch All Cameras At Once: NOPE. This is not that kind of security system.
Access Your Camera System on Your Laptop? NOPE. You can only access it via your phone app.
Mounting The Cameras: There's a wooden ledge under my roof and it was super easy to drill a starter hole, then drive the two screws to mount each of the cameras. The cameras then snap onto the mounts and are manually movable to fix your camera aim.
Video Storage: If you need to keep your videos, there are multiple options to do so. Blink offers an online storage option for ~$10/mo for unlimited number of camera sources. They have a 30-day free trail. They also have an option to share your video, like mine below, that I uploaded to YouTube. Or, you can plug in a USB stick to store videos (I haven't tried that option yet.)
The following are product details from the Amazon sales page:
- Wireless battery-powered HD security camera with infrared night vision.
- Long-lasting battery life, for up to two years on two AA lithium batteries (included).
- Outdoor is built to withstand the elements, come rain or shine.
- Designed so you can set up yourself in minutes. No wiring, or professional installation required.
- Get motion detection alerts on your phone with the option to customize motion zones.
- See, hear, and speak to visitors with live view in real time and two-way audio features on your Blink app.
- Works with Alexa – use your voice to monitor your home through supported Alexa-enabled devices.
- Store video clips and photos in the cloud or save events locally to the Blink Sync Module 2 via a USB flash drive
If I had more money to spend on a system, I would have gone with a more robust, live and interactive system with better cameras. But as it stands and for the money it did cost me... I'm not unhappy with it.
Here are a few tests of mine:
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Here are a few tests of mine:
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UPDATE #1: If you remove the Blink online storage account and use the USB storage option, it seems they dumb down the speed to make their online storage feel better. I literally have a blazing fast internet connection at home and even when I'm at home, the app still claims that loading from the USB drive can take potentially longer due to connection issues. Even though I'm using the latest USB technology combined with my fast internet. So this is a bummer data point.
UPDATE #1: If you remove the Blink online storage account and use the USB storage option, it seems they dumb down the speed to make their online storage feel better. I literally have a blazing fast internet connection at home and even when I'm at home, the app still claims that loading from the USB drive can take potentially longer due to connection issues. Even though I'm using the latest USB technology combined with my fast internet. So this is a bummer data point.
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