Beta Tester Review of Wyze Cam v2!

Beta
15

There have been many people before me giving you a lot of good information about the new v2 WyzeCam, so I’ll be brief.

In general, I don’t find the v2 unit to be a drastic improvement over the original v1. The image is a little clearer, the sound is a little better, they optionally highlight motion in your video content. Behind the scenes, the engine for this camera is said to be stronger, which should make it easier to add capabilities, but you may not notice the difference directly.

That said, I LOVE this camera. So why am I not writing about all the new things in v2? Because the v1 was such a great unit already! Look, if you want a camera that’s connected to the web and viewable from your phone, at a very reasonable price point to sweeten the deal, there’s no question. Go buy a couple of these cameras and enjoy them. They are easy to set up and easy to mount; easy to configure and easy to view.

Now, that being said, there are some challenges, both in the original v1 and continuing to v2:

  • The recording to the cloud is limited in how quickly it will capture the next motion event, and each cloud-recorded motion event is limited in duration. Now, that said, the units take an SD card, allowing for continuous or motion-activated recording to local storage. (Just don't mount it too high should you need to access the card)
  • The camera is not protected from weather in any way, meaning you need to be careful about where you mount it if you use it outside.
  • They are aggressively working to improve the firmware and software, so while the software isn't all I would want it to be, they are introducing improvements often, and I don't expect that to stop soon.
  • Third-party software that works with the WyzeCam is limited, at best. Okay, there's ONE package (plus the Amazon Echo video line). That's not a problem with the WyzeCam, but it does limit its use. I'm hoping that as they market share grows, we'll see more software makers jump on-board. This means I cannot yet use it with my Synology NAS surveillance software. :-(
Look... for the price and the quality, go and buy one camera. See if it works for you. If it does, buy more. If it isn't all you hoped it would be, tuck it away high on a wall somewhere as a continuous-recording security camera and move on. That's what I did, and I'm currently headed to five units in the near future!

(Note: As an avid and active user of my v1 camera, I was sent a v2 WyzeCam beta unit to evaluate and help improve. This has not in any way affected my honest review of the product, and I plan to add more cameras on my own dime soon.)