Philips Hue Secure Wired Camera Review: Works if You Love Hue Leave a comment

With a longtime repute for high quality good lighting, albeit at a hefty value, Philips Hue is a well-known brand. A transfer into the saturated safety market could seem incongruous, however there are causes to purchase a Philips Hue Safe digital camera. Belief, reliability, and seamless syncing with Hue lights will tempt some, however distinctly common specs, the necessity for a subscription, and the shortage of HomeKit assist make it a tricky promote for others.

Closing in on a month with the brand new Philips Hue Safe wired digital camera, I’m impressed by the efficiency and the tight integration into the present Hue app. However the want for a Hue Bridge and a subscription to unlock one of the best options is off-putting, and there are various extra reasonably priced choices in our best indoor and outdoor security camera guides.

Strong Design

The Philips Hue Safe digital camera is available in black or white with a magnetic mount and a 3-meter (round 10-foot) energy cable that slots into the underside of the digital camera and is completely hooked up to the ability adapter on the different finish. It seems to be like an oversize Google Nest Cam. It feels sturdy and scores an IP65 score, which suggests you need to use it exterior, although the massive energy adapter received’t match some out of doors sockets. There’s a larger, battery-powered, wireless Hue camera that’s higher suited to the outside, although it prices an additional $50 and we have now not examined it but.

I put in the Philips Hue Safe digital camera in my workplace and opted for the model with the desktop stand, which value an additional $30. The sturdy magnetic mount makes it straightforward to regulate to your most popular angle and it slots into the weighted desk stand securely. There may be additionally cable administration on the underside, however I’m nonetheless not satisfied the stand is definitely worth the extra outlay.

A easy QR code scan had my digital camera up and operating inside a couple of minutes. It is a 1080p digital camera with a 141.2-degree area of view that permits you to maintain tabs on a large space, although there’s some fish-eye distortion. The footage was crisp and clear, and I discovered the digital camera coped fairly nicely with combined lighting and motion. There’s additionally stable evening imaginative and prescient in black and white. Connectivity-wise, the digital camera helps Zigbee and each 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz Wi-Fi. I discovered it was comparatively swift to load the livestream and there was nearly no lag.

Movement notifications had been dependable and got here by means of swiftly to my Pixel cellphone and iPhone 14 Professional. A useful nonetheless body from every video offers you an thought of what the alert is about, so you possibly can determine whether or not it’s essential to assessment it. You’ll be able to livestream and set blackout zones, and all video is end-to-end encrypted, so solely you may have entry. In case you have a Hue Bridge ($60) and Hue lights, you possibly can set the digital camera to set off them. For instance, you might need an intruder set off flashing pink lights.

I had the digital camera in my workplace set off the Hue lights within the room and was in a position to set them to completely different ranges based mostly on the time of day. It’s neat and works barely higher than a movement sensor, turning the lights off extra swiftly while you depart. The Take Motion button reveals choices to swiftly name an emergency contact or 911, activate shiny lights to see higher, and a slider to set off the siren and flash your Hue lights. You can even faucet the Speak button for two-way audio, which gives respectable sound high quality and nearly no lag, making it straightforward to hold on a dialog.

Slick Integration

To get one of the best from this digital camera you want the Hue Bridge and lights, and a subscription. You’ll be able to both pay $4 a month or $40 a yr for a primary plan that covers one digital camera, or you possibly can pay $10 a month or $100 a yr for as much as 10 cameras. Each plans unlock video clip recording to the cloud (there’s no native storage possibility), exercise zones, and AI-powered detection able to figuring out folks, animals, packages, and autos. The Fundamental plan offers you 30 days of cloud storage and the Plus plan ups that to 60 days.