We were impressed by the EufyCam’s clear 1080p video and high battery life rating when we evaluated it last year, but less so by its recording quality, difficult installation process, and lack of support for IFTTT and Google Assistant voice commands. Additionally, the EufyCam 2 has a long battery life, produces clear 1080p video, and doesn’t have any of the installation or recording troubles that the prior security camera did. Although it now works with both Alexa and Google voice commands, IFTTT applets are still not supported, and testing revealed inconsistent audio performance. With our Editors’ Choice, the Arlo Pro 3, you’ll get better all-around performance, 2K HDR video, and a built-in spotlight, but be ready to pay more for these features.
Design
The EufyCam2 is a low-profile, oblong device that measures 4.25 x 2.25 x 2.25 inches, just like the original EufyCam. Sleekly matched with the white body’s shape is the black face. There are two stands included in the box: a magnetic dome and a 2.25-inch-tall screw-in base, both of which offer decent positioning flexibility for the camera. Instead of the previous model’s two infrared LEDs, the EufyCam 2 has four arrayed around the lens for night-vision videos. On the camera’s bottom are the speaker and microphone. The camera also includes a 90-decibel internal siren. The EufyCam 2 is weatherproof and has an IP67 rating, which is higher than the standard IP65 or IP66 grade seen on the majority of other security cameras. In other words, the Eufy may be submerged in water without being damaged because it is waterproof as well as weatherproof. The disadvantage of having a fully sealed unit is that the camera must be removed from its mounting when the battery needs to be recharged or a charging cable must be connected to it. The camera will be connected to the HomeBase (hub) by a 4-foot USB power cord, or you can use a USB/AC power block. The battery, according to the manufacturer, will last up to a year. The EufyCam 2 cameras connect wirelessly to a HomeBase, which then connects to your home network, just like the Arlo Pro 2 cameras do. HomeBase is a 3.5-inch × 3.5-inch white monolith that is about 5 inches tall with rounded corners. It differs from the Arlo hub, which requires an external USB drive, in that it has 16 GB of eMMC storage for videos. The 5-foot power cord, 45-inch Ethernet cord, USB recharger for the camera, and 100-decibel siren of the Eufy HomeBase plug into three ports on the back. The Wi-Fi at Eufy is WPA2 encrypted, all videos are AES-256 encrypted, and the data is double encrypted. When we tested the EufyCam 2, two-factor authentication wasn’t supported, but the company said it would be added in February 2020.
Anker Eufycam 2 review: Setup
Overall, installation isn’t too bad and goes much more smoothly than with most other smart home appliances. Prior to connecting the HomeBase to your router and downloading the Eufy Security app, it’s important to charge each camera. Create an account if you don’t already have one after downloading the app, then select “add new device.” The Eufycam will pair the two when it receives a high-pitched tone from the HomeBase. It shouldn’t be too challenging to complete this process, which takes five to ten minutes. You can check in on all the cameras you’ve paired using the app, take screenshots of the footage, and shoot brief videos in addition to seeing a list of all the cameras you’ve paired. It’s time to mount the cameras outside after they have been paired. It required some finagling to put ours to the roof of our home, but theoretically, if you’re skilled with a power drill, you could mount it to most surfaces. When it’s time to recharge, unmounting the cameras is as easy as unscrewing the top plate and putting the camera back inside.
Video quality
When it comes to video quality, the eufyCam 2 gets two big thumbs up. It features gorgeous, crystal-clear video. Despite the fact that both cameras offer 1080p HD resolution, the video is actually more crisper than what we observed from the Ring Stick Up Camera. However, there is some distortion, which is unusual for high-end cameras like the Arlo Pro 3 and Ring. We observed that the video increases so that a person’s face is astonishingly clear when the camera detects them, which is annoying. also you will learn our article on Anker Eufycam 2 review. That is intentional. The camera’s detecting system was designed by Anker to identify humans. The AI attempts to make the image as clear as possible when a person is spotted by enhancing video quality around the person’s face. The camera has the clearest and crispest night vision we’ve ever seen in a security camera, which is even better. Most cameras typically produce pixelated nighttime videos. The EufyCam 2’s clear nighttime recording makes it simpler to spot anyone hiding in your yard or on your porch. Although the Eufy website claims that the video is in real time, we respectfully disagree. When something happens, there is a lag of at least a few seconds before it is reflected in the live feed on the app. Even though a few seconds may not seem like much, they can mean a lot in an emergency.
Anker Eufycam 2 review: Audio quality
Anyone standing within 25 feet of the camera could clearly hear them in our tests of recorded videos. But even a modest breeze created noise that occasionally made it challenging to understand what was being said. When the EufyCam 2’s speaker was used for full duplex two-way audio testing, voices were echoey but audible. However, when we listened on our phones while speaking into the camera, the voice was distorted. We could clearly understand our helper on both of our phones when she spoke up to around 5 feet from the camera. On the other hand, it became more challenging to understand all of our assistant’s words the more she travelled from the camera.
Anker Eufycam 2 review: Battery life
The Eufycam 2 lasts 365 days on a single charge, claims Eufy. After doing some research on that figure, the company claims in its forums that it was able to achieve it by recording 30-second clips for each of the ten events it held each day and taking advantage of the fact that the weather was generally pleasant for most of the year. Your number of cameras, however, may vary depending on where they are placed and where you live. We recorded well over 80 events, lasting roughly 10 seconds each, from a single camera during our three-week testing period in Northern California, and the camera is still going strong at about 95% battery life with the best surveillance option selected. By extrapolating from our test results, we can see that Eufy’s claim of over a year’s worth of battery life from a single charge is accurate. Despite the fact that you should definitely not accept our or Eufy’s estimates as the ultimate, final battery life, they should be able to give you a general idea of what to expect. Of course, you’ll have to remove the camera from its base and bring it back inside to charge when it does need to be recharged. Because charging takes around six hours, you’ll probably have to go to bed without that camera every few months, which is a minor inconvenience. People who want to always be protected might have a problem with this, but most people probably won’t find it to be a deal-breaker.
Performance
We installed one camera above the entry to our front door and another on a side external wall that faces the driveway. The camera’s wide-angle view provided us with enough footage of the surroundings in each site. When night vision was turned on, both live and recorded video had sharp, accurate colors and strong contrast. You can pinch the live video to enlarge it in either mode with little to no image quality loss. In our tests, motion detection was consistently accurate, and alarms were delivered on time. The relevance of motion notifications can be adjusted in a number of different ways. The functioning mode of the camera is the first. Four options are presented by the app during installation: The best surveillance mode extends the video clip length to 60 seconds and records each event as much as possible. The best battery-life option limits video clip length to 20 seconds and automatically adjusts the detection time period to reduce the likelihood that the camera will detect the same event more than once. Customized recording mode allows you to set all the parameters. In the app’s settings, you can always switch between working modes. By adjusting the sensitivity on a slider and setting up activity zones, you may further fine-tune motion detection. In the latter scenario, the camera won’t start recording video or sending you alerts until motion is detected in one of these areas. A human-detection setting instructs the camera to attempt—mostly successfully—to identify human shapes while excluding moving vehicles, animals, and other things. It will also make an effort to locate and recognize faces in the video image, though we discovered that for this to be effective, the subject had to be directly in front of the camera.
Price and availability
Although not the cheapest camera available, the EufyCam 2 is considerably less expensive than comparable devices. The EufyCam 2 is typically offered as part of a two-camera combo with the HomeBase 2. You should expect to pay about $300 for two cameras and the hub. Even at full pricing, you would pay around $100 less for a two-camera set with the Arlo Ultra 2 than that. also you can check our article on Anker Eufycam 2 review. We believe the price is reasonable given what you receive with the EufyCam 2, particularly the simple setup, local storage, and long battery life. The Arlo Ultra 2’s higher price is justified by its more sophisticated tech features and analytics, but it’s safe to say that the EufyCam 2 is a respectable entry-level alternative. For access to cloud storage and intelligent analytic features, many cameras charge additional monthly subscription fees. However, if you choose Eufy’s local storage option, there are no monthly fees at all.
Conclusion
With a complete product lineup that rivals that of Nest, Arlo, and Ring at lower prices and – crucially – without relying on a cloud subscription, Eufy is quickly emerging as a competitor in the smart home security space. If you’re searching for a home security camera system that won’t tie you down, the EufyCam 2 is the company’s flagship security camera and a pretty fantastic alternative. The 1080p Full HD streaming, 365-day battery life, IP67 weatherproofing, local storage of all your footage, lack of a subscription requirement, and compatibility with HomeKit, Alexa, and Google are key features here. A complete package.
