The Swann 1080P Alert Indoor Security Camera- £79.99 from Swann.com
We are currently in a strange time with the current lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak. People are adding home improvements and one area people should consider is improving home security. In this review, we have been given the Swann alert indoor security camera which costs £79.99 from Swann.com.
Opening the box you get quite a bit you get the camera, 45-inch power cord that runs into an AC adapter that also comes with an EU adapter, Window stickers to show your house is secured with a Swann camera. We are also given a drill template and screws if you wanted to put the camera up on a wall. Finally, you are also given a quick start guide.
The Camera itself is an elongated 3.5 x 2.25 inch that is 1.5 inches deep and stands at 4.5 inches tall.
The camera has nine infrared LEDs around the lens on the black faceplate under that is the infrared motion sensor and also a microphone and with the speaker on the back of the camera. This camera is powered by a AC adapter but you do find the power cord gets in the and the adapter made me have to take out some other plugs due to the size which is a little annoying.
Set up is quite an easy process you need to download the Swann Security app and then make sure the camera plugged in and follow the steps in the app and you will be set up. It does not take long just remember to have your Wi-Fi code to hand as you will need it. Once you have done that you are ready to use.
Now the video quality offers 1080P with a 110-degree field of vision that works both during the day and also the night with the help of the LED’s that circling the lens. The quality of the video is disappointing I found them to be overexposed and even a little blurry I checked the camera to make sure I had not done anything wrong and even looked at the settings but the results were still disappointing.
Moving onto the audio quality and this was an improvement as you can have it either one-way audio which will allow you to hear whats going on in the room. You can have a two-way audio experience for when you need to who may be in the room. Overall, the audio is not that bad when using the one-way audio it was very clear and also quite loud. However, when you switch to the two way audio you get an internal feedback loop between that mic and the speaker making the making it very difficult to hear. You can reduce the volume but this does not make it better so I found its better to just keep it on the one-way audio. When you listen to the recorded sound if you got an alert you did get a decent sound that was clear but a little echo at times.
This camera also has motion and sound detection. The motion part is run by Swann True Detect which uses an infrared motion sensor which heat will trigger an event recording. In my testing, this proved to be over-sensitive when I had the camera in my living room due to the fish tank it triggered alerts too much for some reason.
When I moved the camera to monitor the back door it worked better and the settings allow you to control the motion detection and also the person- detection settings to eliminating false alerts. If you had an alert the alarm is a 70-decibel siren which you can decide how long the alarm will go off for as short of 30secs to as long as 120 seconds.
One thing I noticed is this camera does not allow activity zones so you are unable to refine the areas of view to monitor as this can cause false alarms. I did find if you like me have multiple Swann alarms set up you can have multiple cameras on the app that will monitor different areas and this is something unlike other brands we have tested offer.
To playback any clip this is also possible via the app you will see a number of thumbnails linked to each video recording you can click on the video and view or download that clip. This camera stores up to two days of recording but you can set up 7 day cloud recording and offline backup for an extra cost.
Last but not least like this camera can be connected to your smart- home set up as this camera will work with the likes of Goggle Assistant, Amazon Alexa via your smart displays.
Overall, this camera has a number of good features such as its ease to set up, allows for night vision and the audio quality is not bad when set up for one-way audio. It’s also useful for cloud recordings (extra Cost).
However, this camera has a number of negative points that make me really question would I invest in this camera such as the power cord is just simply in the way and who wants 45-inch cord hanging also the adapter is rather large meaning you would have to unplug something on a circular extension leed.
Other negative points include the image quality is overexposed and when viewing this camera at night I found the image quality blurry. Audio quality when using the two-way audio is also poor due to the internal feedback loop you get with the mic and speaker being so close. Last but not least you cant pick zones to monitor due to the fact this camera is unable to use the activity zones feature some other camera offer.
So would I buy this camera I would have to say: NO
I feel you can get some much better products on the market like the Nest Cam IQ that costs £269 and provides a much better experience and offers an image quality improvement and two-way audio without the internal feedback loop?
The Swann 1080P Alert Indoor Security Camera- £79.99 from Swann.com
