Wyze Cam Outdoor review: A weatherproof version of the awesome indoor security camera

The $ 50 Wyze Cam Outdoor Starter Bundle has the best parts of it the $ 20 Indoor Wyze Command adds a weatherproof design and battery-operated flexibility. It’s a great camera that looks great and is easy to set up and use – at a ridiculously low price. Wyze continues to offer two weeks of free cloud storage with this camera, as well as an integrated microSD card slot if you prefer local storage. (You’ll still need to use the microSD card slot if you want to use this camera’s travel mode – more on that later.)

Wyze’s decision to introduce an option to pay for the long-awaited personal notifications, which return this September, is the only thing stopping me from giving this model a Tips Clear Editors’ Choice Award (more on personal notifications later).

Overall, however, this $ 50 camera is a great budget option that complements Wyze’s excellent range of affordable smart home products. Starter bundles and standalone cameras can now be pre-ordered.

Continue reading: The best outdoor security cameras for 2020

The basics

With your Starter Bundle, you receive a Wyze Cam Outdoor, a base station and mounting parts. To like Arlos Pro camera seriesThe Wyze Cam Outdoor must be used with a hub, the base station, which you connect to your router with the cable supplied. Additional cameras are sold separately for $ 40 each – and you can connect up to four cameras to a base station.

The idea here is that the base station will be both Extend your WiFi range and improve your camera’s battery life. While battery life can vary based on usage, outside temperature, and other factors, it should last three to six months. Unfortunately, you’ll have to bring the camera with you to charge it – it doesn’t have a removable battery.

• 1080p HD live to stream
• Motion detection
• The customizable motion detection zone
• Night vision
• Two-way audio
• Built-in microSD card slot
• Free 14-day cloud storage
• time lapse
• Supported Alexa and Google assistant
• Travel mode
• Optional Cam Plus subscription starting September, including person notifications

More details

Setting up the Wyze Cam Outdoor is simple; it’s the similar to installing the indoor Wyze Cam, with the addition of connecting the Base Station to the app. Check out my Wyze Cam how-to article detailing each step for more information. But, in short, you need to download the Wyze app, create an account (if you don’t alread have one) and follow the prompts to connect your camera.

The app will ask you to plug the Base Station into your router and name your Base Station. Then add your camera, placing it near the Base Station and turning on the power switch behind the camera. Hit the sync button on the bottom of the camera, name your camera and you’re pretty much done. You do also have the option to share your device with a family member or friend. Also, you can follow instructions in the app tutorial to mount your camera. The camera has a built-in base similar to the indoor Wyze Cam, so I opted to set it on the railing of the back deck rather than mounting it.

All told it took a little over 5 minutes total to set up, although it will take longer if you mount your camera more permanently.

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Just like the indoor Wyze Cam, the Wyze Cam Outdoor offers adjustable video quality (auto, HD, SD and 360p), livestreaming, motion alerts, a motion detection zone and time lapse, two-way audio and free saved clips in the app’s events tab.

The camera also works with Alexa and Google Assistant. I don’t have a smart display at home to test this out, but you should be able to ask your Alexa- or Google-Assistant-enabled smart display to show your camera’s live feed. The Travel Mode option is supposed to record motion and time-lapse clips to a microSD card without being connected to the Wyze Base Station or your home Wi-Fi network. Again, I didn’t have a microSD card handy when I was testing out this camera.

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That brings me to person alerts. Wyze used to have a free person detection feature that worked really well, but got rid of it in January, promising to bring it back soon — and to continue to offer it as a free service. An excerpt from the Nov. 26, 2019, email alerting customers to the upcoming change read: “The good news is that when we do reroll out this feature [person detection] it will still be free for you – even if we use the cloud instead, if Edge AI. ”

On July 20 of this year, Wyze contacted selected early customers and informed them that Personal Identification would return in September and that anyone who created a Wyze account before November 26, 2019 would continue to receive Personal Identification for free. Due to the cost that Wyze didn’t anticipate, everyone else will have to pay for personal identification through an upcoming optional service called Cam Plus. I don’t have pricing details for this optional subscription yet, but will update this review when I do.

Fortunately, you still get two weeks of cloud storage – and the other existing features like motion zones and time-lapse – for free.

Privacy chat

User privacy is an important consideration When you buy a security camera or camera-enabled smart home device.

A Wyze data leak In December 2019, user data was disclosed for 22 days. Customer credit card information and passwords weren’t part of the leak, but Wyze signed all users out of their accounts and rolled back integrations with Alexa, Google Assistant, and other third-party providers. To protect yourself after the leak, Tips Clear’s Jason Cipriani suggested Create a new password (and change other accounts that may have the same password) and sign in for Two-factor authentication and reconnecting your third-party integrations.

Read Wyze’s privacy policy to learn more about what information is collected and how it is used.

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Should you buy it?

If you are looking for an affordable weatherproof home security camera, the Wyze Cam Outdoor should definitely be out there. This model combines an outdoor case with a rechargeable battery, so you can place it practically anywhere within range of your Wi-Fi network – and well out of the range of Wi-Fi when using travel mode.

Wyze offers you storage options with two weeks of free event-based video clips and the integrated microSD card slot. The camera itself is easy to install and works well. It’s a shame Wyze hasn’t been able to bring back free person-to-person notifications for everyone, despite the company saying it will re-examine whether to be billed for the feature in the future if possible. Regardless, this is a great camera that brings the best of the original Wyze indoor camera outside.