eufy – Security Video Doorbell Slim 1080P Battery

This video doorbell and its 1080p-Grade Resolution doorbell has been a great addition to our family. It has done a great job giving my wife and I the freedom to easily identify which neighbor kid/delivery company etc. is coming to the door without having to even get up to open the door. The camera has great clarity, with a very responsive smooth motion and depth. I am able to easily see out into the street and the motion sensors aren’t overly sensitive, which is a plus. Install was super easy, removed the prior doorbell, replaced with the outer plate and connected the camera. Everything you need for install is in the box too which was very impressive. Connecting to household wifi was a breeze as well, similar to pairing any other bluetooth/wifi device, standard process. For the price, ease of install and use, this is a great product to have at an affordable pricepoint!

This video doorbell is a great starting point–maybe even transition point–into a far more connected and fully featured security system without needing to run cables and wires all over the house. Setup is user-friendly and very low-friction, needing only an open outlet for the chime/SD recorder unit and an open area of the door frame to mount the doorbell/camera unit. The doorbell unit offers spoken prompts during installation/setup and the Eufy security app offers fully illustrated and animated installation guides–all told, I was up and running in less than 4 minutes!
The doorbell unit itself is relatively small but conspicuous enough that would-be package thieves will be able to see that they’re under surveillance the moment they start heading for the door. At night, you can easily see the IR LEDs and blue motion detection ring illuminate around the doorbell button well before you reach for the doorbell itself–this offers both ease of use for nighttime visitors who don’t have to go fumbling for the doorbell button, as well as an additional visual deterrent for those you’d rather not have loitering around your doorstep. The mounting kit includes a heavy-duty plastic frame for the doorbell ringer/camera unit as well as an angled backplate to help optimize the view of your landing/yard. Mounting options can be as simple as super-strong velcro or glue to wood or masonry screws. Once the doorbell is locked into place, it would take a decent bit of force to break the unit out of the frame (or rip the frame off the wall entirely)…but the video captured from the doorbell camera is live-streamed and recorded on the SD card (one is even included!) housed in the indoor chime unit, so even those making off with your camera will still be caught/recorded in the act. The rechargeable battery in the doorbell camera is rated for about 120 days–maybe a bit more or less depending on the sensitivity of the motion detection and recording duration set in the Eufy companion app (which helpfully displays the battery level for the doorbell unit right on the main page of the app). Removal for access to the weatherproof battery port simply requires one of those SIM-card removal tools (also included) to access a hidden catch underneath the unit–recharge for a few hours, pop the doorbell back into its frame, and you’re back in business again.
The chime unit is also dead-simple to operate and even more so to install–it hangs on its own from a two-prong electrical plug; no additional tools, screws, or mounting kits required. A small LED ring on the faceplate glows red when disconnected from your home network, and blue when all is well. The unit was designed thoughtfully and compact enough to only block one outlet while in use–nice! About the only drawback we noted is that the chime’s compact size definitely limits just how loud the doorbell speaker can go. If you have a smallish home, it probably won’t be an issue (we could easily hear it 3 rooms away), but it can’t reproduce the kind of decibels that a dedicated, traditional doorbell unit is capable of. But that’s where the Eufy’s connectivity and app integration can also take over. We don’t have an Echo Show so we can only preview the camera’s live feed from within the Eufy security app, but with Alexa’s Eufy skill installed, we can integrate the Eufy doorbell with our Echo Dots so they can be used as auxiliary announcement speakers when someone rings the doorbell–Alexa will even tell us there’s someone at the door after playing a short chime. And while I can’t speak for the Android experience, the Eufy iPhone experience was quite extensive, providing real-time alerts when someone either rang the doorbell or motion was detected (with the option to review the recorded incident or pick up a live feed from the camera), as well an Apple Watch alert with a preview image of what the camera had captured.
The camera’s low-light performance is good enough to easily make out faces and figures, and although our front door faces a street, we have yet to get a single false-positive from either street traffic or pedestrians walking out past the front of our house. In full daylight, the picture quality is extra crisp and definitely detailed enough for security or law enforcement purposes. The companion Eufy app offers VERY extensive customization of doorbell ringtones & playback volume; motion detection threshold, activity zones, human/all movement recognition; power management plans for the doorbell unit to optimize battery life or surveillance duration; video quality and streaming settings; audio recording (yes, you can hear what the camera sees, too); notification preferences; local and cloud storage options; as well as options to share the feed remotely with others in case you’d like someone else to monitor your doorstep while you’re away without needing to give them full access to your home network or even your Eufy app credentials. All in all, the Eufy app is actually a powerful little security tool with enough sophistication to handle more advanced home surveillance needs while still being user-friendly enough for a novice to pick up and confidently use for a single doorbell unit.
We weren’t entirely sure what to expect when we snagged the Eufy video doorbell system, but we’ve been so happy with the performance and convenience (and ease of installation) that we’re going to expand our system with a doorbell/camera unit for our side and back doors, as well as a “panic” button unit near the pool. Sure, you can get something even more robust with a hard-wired solution underneath, but as someone who’s not so keen on DIY electrical work, or hiring a professional installer for a wired security system, the Eufy video doorbell system sets a pretty high bar for performance and capability while offering incredibly low overhead for installation and upkeep–definitely recommended!

Clear picture recording. Love the night mood. Love the facg you are in control of your recorded capture videos.

I’ve been a bit slow to post this review, trying to ensure I have given this a full and complete chance before I shared my thoughts and findings.
When you open the box, and by the weight of the box, you can tell this is a super well built product. Not cheesy at all. It is kind of on the hefty side, and just exudes its quality build. So this is good. And it comes with everything you could want to ensure a quality quick install. Takes almost no time to figure out what to do….well documented, easy, self explanatory, etc. And the shape of this makes it very conducive to both flat and corner mounting. My mounting situation was not good, re-using the existing wiring for the other brand that sits next to this one in the picture. This one doesn’t offer that option to re-use existing wiring, and frankly I’m glad because it allowed me to branch out with mounting locations and get a much better view!
I mounted mine using some of that mounting tape/velcro sort of stuff that you mount your EZ pass with, and it is the easiest way to do it in my situation. I don’t care if someone takes it, they’ll be on video doing it, so I’ll worry about that later.
The app loaded quickly, the install was super easy, and honestly, it just was not hard to do. None of it. Easy as can be. Everything worked as the instructions said, each step was perfectly documented, and no surprises.
The beauty of this product is that your video clips are stored on an included micro-sd card that sits inside of the interior chime unit, which works as a gateway between the doorbell and the network (I think), but also sounds a chime when the doorbell is pressed, and houses your video. Super easy, super cool, and is possible to be monthly fee free to use. The interior chime is included, and while a bit large for an outlet (it’ll take up more than one outlet in space if using a multi-tap style), it is included and is a decent value!
There is of course, a cloud based option to record there too, which I’m now using on a trial basis, which seems to speed up the review of video vs. waiting on the interior unit to load and play back clips. Same price as the competitive doorbell camera unit at $3.00/month.
So here is where I ran into some concern, and it is probably just working out some bugs in the firmware/software. As used in a doorbell situation, part of my interaction is saved as a video and some of it wasn’t. It is like it doesn’t know when it really ended being a conversation and just cut off or some times not recording it at all. I like having a video/audio clip of my doorbell interactions, because alot of times potential criminals or just unsavory salespeople will try the doorbell, and that interaction could be used to prosecute them later when they can be told that soliciting is forbidden and to leave, and they don’t, or also to capture their voice and video, showing they had a presence in the area when the deny having ever been here. Of course, lately they have gotten smart to this and just knock instead.
So, the other concern I have, is that using this as a motion detection camera for recording activity, is that I’ve found there are some times it works, and sometimes it just doesn’t. I don’t know why. Seems a bit strange, I’ve tried all the different settings and options. But for example, with the grass cutters the other day, sometimes it recorded them and other times it did not. No idea why. My son and his girlfriend came home today and were not captured at all coming up the walkway to the front door, and in the front door, passing directly past this, with no recording of them at all. However, my daughter and I walking separately, are recorded without fail. No other activity had “just happened” so it wasn’t like it wasn’t recording because of fear of repeat activity – just never recorded it. Weird. I guess there are some bugs to work out and I think this could be a deal breaker for someone who wanted it mainly for this purpose. I’m sure it’ll get worked out in time, but out of the box, this is a concern.
I work with electronic security for a living and have exposure to all kinds of devices, systems, etc. These anomalies concern me a bit, not sure why they are doing this, and maybe this should be a 3 star because of it, but I already have surveillance cameras in place so this is just really more of a doorbell camera. And I feel like it is more of a firmware and/or software glitch than an equipment issue, so I’ll remain hopeful a patch will be released to resolve it.
As for the hardware, you are expected to remove the unit by using a small pin type device to lift it off of it’s mounted installation plate, then bring it in and charge it, then place it back into service once charged. No issue with this, even if in my case I need to do each month or so, that isn’t a big deal. My security cameras (not this brand) require this to be done every week or so, so I’m used to it.
The hardware is really cool and some features I really enjoy are new twists. Like the LED ring light that glows when it senses motion. It is bright enough to notice, but comes on only when someone is near. Smart! And the camera quality is outstanding – I mean really outstanding. And the IR part isn’t even needed if you have a nice porch light. The images are still decent in low ambient light vs. using the built in IR light. The microphone and speaker are very decent and allow both parties to be heard by the other clearly.
The one piece of literature talks about a security chip, which is a hot button for me with the passage of the national defense authorization act that talks about products made with certain chipsets. I don’t know if that is what this is eluding to, but hopefully it is. Honestly though, if some other entity wants to spy on my doorbell camera, go for it, I’m not as concerned as if it was being used inside of my house.
I like the disconnect from the competitive product that basically allows sharing with law enforcement, not for fear of law enforcement use, but since it is such a big network of cameras, because of hackers seeing this as something worth hacking. This is not as well known nor with the number of customers, so hoping it will be less likely to be hacked.
I struggled with the rating, but I think it fair to edge on the side of positivity because I really like the build quality, what the company is promoting, the ability to keep my recordings local and not be charged a monthly fee as everything these days seems to require to use the features of the unit. I also like the encryption level used in the recordings, hoping again to keep things a bit more secure. I’m sure the bugs will be worked out and fixes applied. That should move this up to a 5 star unit.