Blink Mini – Compact indoor plug-in smart security camera, 1080p HD video, night vision, motion detection, two-way audio, easy set up, Works with…

I’m a Blink XT user with three cameras on the exterior of my home. The set up of the mini was FAR EASIER than the outside cams. I had this thing set up in less than 5 minutes. Picture is good. Sound is LOUD which is what I was looking for.

The app however needs some work to support this style of camera. The app works decently for the BlinkXT cameras and functionality, which is motion for most users. As in you get a notification that there is motion, it records, and you watch the recording or live as you please. but it is clunky to get into the Blink Mini for the purpose of continuous viewing which is my intention for this camera, like a baby monitor. Like many other Americans now working from home with a full house of kids, I wanted to use this to assist with keeping an eye on the kids as I worked and record those cute moments. I wanted to use this to visualize a blind spot that I can’t see from the office. I tried mounting it from the ceiling and realized you can’t rotate the video. Mounting on the wall was a little problematic, I couldn’t quite get the right angle needed.

Another quirk to the app is if you switch to another app and then come back to the Blink app, you have to hit the play button to resume viewing.

All in all, these are minor issues specific to my use of the camera which is why I have it five stars anyway.

Hey amazon/Blink, it would be an awesome feature if you’d allow the integration of this camera with Alexa so we can “drop in” and talk through the Echo Dot. Just saying.

I bought this to use as a baby monitor, thinking if the quality was good I would end up purchasing an outdoor set as well. I got it in this afternoon, and set up was super easy. The picture quality is excellent for the price point.

The main issue for me is that there is no option for continuous viewing. The live view from the app will automatically shut off after 30 seconds if you don’t tap the “continue?” prompt. If I had known this ahead of time, I would have never purchased a Blink camera. I watch my daughter on a Fire tablet while I work at night, and it’s really not feasible to stop typing every 30 seconds to press a button.

Maybe it’s my fault for not realizing it, but I don’t remember reading any information about the length of viewing time, so I assumed it would be like the Foscam I had sought to replace. If Blink ever adds an update for continuous viewing, I would repurchase in a heartbeat, but for now, I’m sending it back.

UPDATED: When I saw these smaller cameras announced I was excited and looked forward to adding them to my existing 5 camera Blink system. I figured these would be a great replacement for the XT/XT2 cameras that I had inside my house so I could then re-purpose those for additional outdoor locations. I thought this was a brilliant addition to the Blink camera ecosystem, adding a lower cost camera for indoor applications like mine where the benefits of the battery power and weather-proofness would be overkill. Soon as they were released I ordered up a two-pack to add to my system. I installed one of the them and found that the picture quality right out of the box wasn’t the best but once you change the video quality setting to “Enhanced” it’s right up there with the XT2 quality. The motion detection is a little spotty, as they use a new digital method of detecting motion (AI compares one frame to the next to check for changes). Some very subtle movement will show up, like a shadow moving across the viewing area, but then actually walking across it won’t (sometimes). A rep I spoke with said that they are working on an update to improve the consistency of that feature, which will be available as an over-the-air update since it is a digital-based feature, which I think is pretty cool. So originally my poor review was based around the cloud storage feature on these cameras. After I purchased these cameras I looked into the cloud storage feature as all of the literature I found on them stated that a subscription would be required. Since this is different than the previous XT & XT2 systems I was not pleased about this. After I posted my original review a rep from Blink reached out to clarify the cloud storage situation. So here is what I learned: If you already have an XT or XT2 system, then you can add these cameras to it without having to get a paid subscription. If you do not have a Blink system at all, and these cameras are the first ones you get, then you get a free subscription until December 31st, 2020; then you will pay $3/month per camera after that. By then though, they plan to have released a new sync module with an SD card slot so that you can locally store video clips without having to pay for a subscription at all. Personally I don’t think they intend to have too many people on the subscription plan, I think they see the SD card functionality being more of a selling point but they had to piggy-back the first adopters of these Mini cameras onto the cloud storage until the new sync module gets released. Maybe they had delays in getting the new sync module released at the same time as the Mini due to factory closings around the world right now. I am much happier after this getting cleared up, but hope that they update the cloud storage & subscription info on the product pages to make it much clearer how this all works. Had I looked at all of the available info before buying these, then I probably would not have purchased them based on the unclear info that’s out there. In the end, the savior of the situation was the rep that contacted me from Blink. He clarified all of my concerns, gave me a great amount of info on the product, and answered all of my questions (I had lot of them). To be clear, the rep did not once ask me to change my review, take it down, or in any way artificially influence me to do any of those things. The great job he did led to me to change this of my own accord, as they really took care of my concerns. One star deducted for the confusion but three added back in for the great CS experience. Good product can get you a buyer, but good service gets you a customer for life. Blink has done a fantastic job turning a disappointed (and misinformed) buyer into a satisfied customer. So to recap, if you have an existing Blink system, buy these and use ‘em where you don’t need the wireless ones. If you are looking to get these as your first Blink setup, get them knowing you will have the option of paying for a subscription starting in 2021 or a one-time purchase of a sync module with SD card slot to store your video clips.