How To Add Vivint Outdoor Camera

Photo of the Vivint outdoor camera.

The Vivint Outdoor Camera Pro

MSRP $399.00

"The Vivint Outdoor Photographic camera Pro uses A.I. to lookout your property and proactively keep it safe."

Pros

Integration with basically everything
Smart lookout man fashion
Low profile, unobtrusive
Two-way speaker

Cons

No floodlight
No smart screen integration
iPad app locked to portrait

With more and more than DIY home security solutions in play these days, it's important to know that there are all the same habitation security professionals out there y'all can call on. When those professionals work manus-in-mitt with smart home tech and bogus intelligence, things get really cool and that's just what we're working with hither with the Vivint Outdoor Photographic camera Pro. But beginning, permit's briefly talk about the whole "Vivint feel."

Every bit we covered in our review last yr, Vivint is a whole-home smart home/security solution that is professionally installed and monitored. All of Vivint's technology is deeply ingrained in the whole security system, which is why it's challenging to evaluate a unmarried component of it. You tin can't but go out and buy a Vivint Outdoor Camera Pro and wire information technology up to the house. It'southward a office of the whole. In this case, the Outdoor Camera Pro most direct works with your Vivint abode security console to show video. Plus information technology works with other components around your home, like your smart locks, lights, etc.

Keeping out of the way

One affair that I really like nigh the Camera Pro is how small and unassuming it is. Coming off a review of the Netatmo Outdoor Camera with siren, the hardware blueprint is night and solar day. This camera is designed to sit down snugly on a corner and not be noticed unless information technology sees someone messing with your stuff. Then it gets visible, which I'll talk almost in a footling bit.

The Vivint Outdoor Camera is small and unobtrusive.

The camera needs to be difficult-wired to your home, merely it does and then through power over ethernet. Basically a True cat-five cable runs from the photographic camera to a plugged-in hybrid Wi-Fi adapter that feeds the photographic camera power, while at the same time transmitting the video indicate over Wi-Fi. If this sounds intimidating, it maybe is, just that's why the photographic camera is professionally installed.

Overall picture quality is quite expert and sharp. Its 140-caste field of view coverage is non the most out at that place, just it meets the capricious minimum standard. A camera like the Arlo Pro iii gives you a generous 160-caste field of view, which is great. In my back g, 140 degrees does the chore. Plus, the app allows you to adjust the picture quality and bandwidth. I set up mine to medium which was more adequate for my needs. The photographic camera also has full night way every bit well.

Loud and proud

Equally for the residuum of the hardware, the camera is equipped with a loudspeaker and a ring light. The loudspeaker allows yous to talk through the app to whoever is exterior, whether that'south an intruder, or your kids on the trampoline who decline to come in for dinner. The speaker is loud and clear, and so both the intruder and your children will know they're being bad. Whether or not either of them care is a different conversation. The loudspeaker tin can also be used equally an extension of your alarm, pregnant your neighbors can be notified if something is amiss as well. Also, the camera can be a door chinkle extender, which is super handy if you're doing yard work or having a socially distanced party in the backyard. The speaker adds a ton of functionality.

At 85 decibels, the loudspeaker isn't the loudest, especially compared to the 108dB output of the Netatmo Outdoor Camera. But in our testing, 85db is bang-up for talking to people through the photographic camera, and the Vivint photographic camera also comes with the protection of professional monitoring. It'south a fiddling easier to forgive a serenity siren in light of the boosted layers of protection Vivint brings.

Software strengths

Ironically, the software of this camera is both its greatest force and its biggest weakness. One really cool, unique thing that this camera does is called scout mode. Scout mode keeps an eye out on your turf, and looks for people. If anyone lingers in the camera'south heart for a specified amount of time (anywhere from 1 to 90 seconds), the camera can play a tone, and turn the ring calorie-free red to point that information technology's recording. My favorite tone that it tin can play sounds similar a human whistle. The whistle, theoretically, causes an intruder to look at the camera, and then information technology gets a perfect shot of their face. Picket mode can be enabled automatically when your alarm system is armed, on a schedule, or manually.

Moving into the app, you use the Vivint app (available on Android and iOS) to view the cameras, scout recorded events, and yous tin use the app interface to unlock the doors straight from the camera view. You tin as well grab a photo from the app or view all events that were recorded. Settings for multiple cameras can be adjusted within the app as well, so you can turn sentry mode on in the front thousand while leaving it off in the back. But the camera and app accept some limitations.

Software challenges

First, in guild to have 24/7 recorded footage, you need a Smart Bulldoze, which is a physical difficult bulldoze module in your home. The smart drive is attractive, but it costs an extra $250. Having the difficult drive allows you lot to "rewind" and scrub through footage for upwards to 30 days. Without the smart drive, y'all're limited to events recorded when people come into the frame, which leads us to our second weakness.

The smart camera volition but tape events when it sees people. It volition ignore animals and other movement. That is not platonic. Most cameras can identify people, only they tin also record events for automobiles, or animals, or any other movement. You can run into those things if y'all scrub through the footage (if you take the smart bulldoze), but it can be easy to miss some of those other motions which is a real bummer. Equally a case in point, my married woman discovered an animal has been eating our vegetable garden, which is in the camera'south view. Without recorded events, information technology's difficult to scrub through and meet what'southward actually getting in there and how.

I take 2 other pocket-size quibbles with the photographic camera. The Vivint app on the iPad is locked to portrait mode which is an obvious sign that the iPad app is just a scaled-up version of the iPhone app. Also, neither Vivint controls nor camera are compatible with Alexa or Google Assistant smart screens. The former is a disappointing detect for a veteran company like Vivint that gets so much else correct. The latter merely feels like an overall swing and miss. With smart screens condign more than and more mutual, beingness able to monitor your backyard camera on your kitchen Nest Hub should be a given. When I asked Vivint about these, I was told the company would look into the possibility of calculation both.

Our take

Overall, the Vivint Outdoor pro camera is a solid upgrade to an already solid security organisation. The security factor is i affair, but picket manner puts it over the top. Security cameras are typically passive protectors. But watching out for people and warning them off is another level of defense force.

I'd like to encounter a floodlight on here as another layer of protection — whistle, red light, then hitting them with the flood if they don't run. Simply by that time, I would already been notified and so has Vivint, and so things will get taken care of one way or another.

Is there a better alternative?

Yeah and no — $399 is steep, and other options provide just as much (or more) functionality for lots less. The Nest Cam IQ outdoor will integrate with your Banana-powered smart displays. The Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera gives you a floodlight along with the camera. If you want to get super inexpensive, check out the Wyze Cam Outdoor.

Will it last?

The camera has a solid plastic build and feels durable. All Vivint equipment is under warranty for the duration of a customer's service agreement. For the first 120 days afterward installation, any needed service visits are no accuse. Afterward 120 days, service visits are $49. After the 120-day period, follow up service visits inside 30 days of a $49 service visit for the same reason are no charge.

Should you buy it?

Aye. This camera integrates seamlessly into the Vivint security organization and information technology has bells and whistles that outshine its few shortcomings. That being said, this is a qualified yes merely if you are going to invest in Vivint'southward whole system. If all you want is a security camera and nothing more, wait elsewhere.