DIY connected video devices are a great way to add a layer of security to your home. Anker’s sub-brand eufy has two new additions to its video lineup that’s worth consideration. Follow along as we take a look a the eufy Indoor Cam 2K and the Indoor Cam Pan and Tilt.
Design
The Indoor Cam 2K is a pretty standard affair. For the money you get a 2K resolution camera with a built-in stand to install in your home. The camera is housed in a rounded square frame with the camera on the front with IR and motion sensors to detect movement and provide night vision.
There is a slight swivel option offered by the ball-in-joint design of the stand mount to allow you some range of motion to get the camera angle you want. However, once you’ve set the position, you are limited to just a few degrees one way or the other.
To the right side of the lens, the eufy Indoor Cam 2K has a dedicated microSD slot. We’ll have more on that later, but this allows you to store your data locally on the device.
Around the back is a dedicated sync button that you’ll use to set up the device and a micro-USB power supply port. This is the one hardware portion of both cameras that seems dated in the age of USB-C.
The bottom of the Indoor Cam 2K has an integrated anchor system for mounting the camera in numerous ways. There are rubber pads to simply sit on a desk, or you can use the mounting ring and the plastic mounting inserts, to install it on the wall or ceiling.
Moving over to the eufy Indoor Cam 2K Pan and Tilt model, you immediately see how the device got its name. It’s nearly the same, but the main difference is that it will pan and rotate up to 360-degrees horizontally and up to 96-degrees vertically.
This attributes to the other addition with a much larger IR array to help pick up movements. While it has the same number as eight, they are much larger and more prevalent on the Pan and Tilt.
Also, you’d be remiss to not notice how much the eufy 2K Pan and Tilt looks like a robot or R2-D2 from Star Wars. I’m not sure it makes it any less jarring for users not used to having indoor cameras, but it does have more personality.
Setup and Software
Onboarding with these cameras is great. Eufy has built a very well designed, quick app to walk you through the initial setup. These steps will get you powered up, connected to WiFi, access settings, and even add internal storage via microSD card.
The SD card adds to the overall experience of the eufy Indoor/Pan and Tilt 2K . With all the missteps around competitors like Ring and Nest, it’s refreshing to see an option that doesn’t sit on anyone’s server.
Eufy says that if you don’t sign up for its cloud offering, and all videos are only stored locally, then it never touches its servers. You have end-to-end encryption that only transfers the live stream over data to see your live or recorded feeds.
The app itself is very well done. You have a default screen to see all your cameras. Clicking on them presents you with a live feed with the history below.
Digging deeper into the setting allows you can control notifications, motion detection, and opt into eufy’s cloud storage. There are additional options for turning off the LED, Night Vision, watermarking, and sound detection.
Recording quality and options can be adjusted as well. Recording resolution defaults to 2K , hence the name, but if you prefer to save that local storage, you can downgrade to 1080p. Streaming quality adjusts automatically based on the bandwidth available.
I also found notifications to be on point. First, it has the video preview inside the notification which I think every app in this space should offer. It’s nice to glance at this thumbnail to see if you have an exception or just the standard movement around your home without fully opening the interface.
The speed of the notifications and the transition to opening the app are some of the best I’ve seen as well. Many apps in the video streaming security market struggle to make that handoff from you clicking the notification and actually showing you an image. eufy has found a good balance here that allows you to be in the live view with minimal delays.
Last, you get almost instant pings when exceptions are detected. Whether it was the sound, movement, or pet monitoring, I have been getting consistent alerts. I’ve been very impressed with the overall app experience eufy has built with the Security app.
Price and Upgrades to Cloud
The initial pricing for both cameras is pretty decent. The standard Indoor Cam 2K will cost $32 with the Pan and Tilt seeing a $20 premium for $52 total. If you have a spare microSD laying around, then that’s the entirety of your buy-in.
However, if you do want to have extended backup and cloud storage, eufy offers two different options. You can add each device for $2.99 per month ($29.99 annually) or you can go all-in with a 10 device maximum plan at $9.99 per month ($99.99 a year). Both offer the same 30 days backlog of video history and just allows you flexibility depending on how many cameras you’d like to support.
Conclusion
The eufy Indoor Cam 2K plus the Pan and Tilt offer users a pretty cost-efficient way to add live video to their home network. Add that to a quick and well-designed app experience and eufy has a winner in my eyes.
