Netatmo Smart Outdoor Camera With Siren Review

Reviewed by Keith Mitchell

The Netatmo smart outdoor camera with siren is designed in France and manufactured in China. It is extremely well packaged and protected. The first thing to notice is the unit is well made and sturdy, metal not plastic. I do not touch electrics and required a qualified electrician to wire it into the mains. Unfortunately many tradesmen in my area either fail to respond to requests or are too busy. This can be reasonably expensive. I managed to have one recommended to me and waited for him to install the unit. If you have an outside light, this installation is quick, simple and cheaper he informed me. I did not, so he had to drill through the wall to fix the unit covering the front door area.

The unit operates in the 100-240 v range for power. He knew I was reviewing this item, so he said from his experience, the light area and camera area were larger than cheaper units, measuring 2” x 8”x 4.3”. With the wall mount that becomes 4.3”x 9”x 6.9”. The instructions indicate wall mount should have sealant applied to the top and two sides, leaving the bottom unsealed to allow for any drainage should it be needed. He said the instructions for fitting were easy to understand and simple to follow. The camera has a 100 degree field of vision, range up to 65ft, livestream, full HD 1080p, microphone, floodlight 12w dimmable white LED infrared night vision up to 49 ft and a 105 decibel alarm. A micro SD card is already installed in the unit.

Next in order to configure the camera you need an IOS or Android smartphone or tablet (13.2) and high speed wireless internet connection. This cannot be done via a MAC or PC. For this I enlisted the help of my techno savvy daughter who downloaded the app to a smart phone and two tablets relatively easily. She added it to my main computer and also to her smartphone which will allow her to act a system administrator type role to make changes to the settings if we struggle to do them. This to me is an excellent point in favour as I am elderly and can struggle a bit with technology. It also allows for turning off notifications to the remote access and customising of notifications. The camera has an 8x zoom which I found fast and gave no loss of picture. The quality of the picture was excellent, clear and sharp with excellent accuracy on colours.

The alert zone was not as intuitive as some cheaper ones relying on square/rectangular boxes, BUT these can be used in multiples to define specific areas, do not overlap and allow for selection of areas. I am able to view my front door, driveway and two cars parked parallel to my property. Using the zones I can eliminate any vehicles passing the property or pedestrians outside my garden wall from activating the camera recording or sending warning/notification to me. The camera is active but records when something enters a targeted zone. It can be set to respond to humans, ignoring small creatures etc. There is a 6-7 second delay on video allowing for the encryption for security, which is a little disconcerting when talking with people at the door. I could hear them clearly but they could not hear me which is probably operator error and I will need to practice and investigate further. The light activated at night is very bright ( but is adjustable) and therefore is excellent as a deterrent. It certainly illuminated a delivery man very well!

The camera system will record continuously for a rolling month so will override itself so there is no need for you to manually delete videos. Optional storage is available on Dropbox or FTP. The system works with Alexa and was easy to set up pairing. “Alexa turn on outside light” could be useful if you wish to do something outside requiring constant light rather than the light going on and off all the time.

It is early days in usage but my first impressions are this is an excellent piece of kit. Yes, it is not cheap BUT it appears quality and a big plus is you do not need to pay monthly or annual subscriptions so the extra cost will quickly be recovered. It is simple to install, the quality of recording is excellent and would allow miscreants to be clearly identified if needed. I have not tested the siren but I expect it will be equally as impressive as the rest of the system. I am sure there will be other exciting discoveries as I become more attuned to the system.. On initial impressions I would certainly recommend this security camera to others.

Rating: 4/5 star

RRP: £289.99/ £183.48 Netatmo via Amazon

This item can be purchased from Netatmo here.