Video doorbells are one of the fastest-growing DIY categories, as we value safety more. They can notify your smartphone if you are not home.
But some traps and tricks can make a low-cost video doorbells expensive and vice versa. We have tested video doorbells from Arlo, Swann, Uniden, Google Nest, Tapo, and many more, and performance levels are not always commensurate with price.
Buying a doorbell camera starts with the words total security.
You just don’t buy one video doorbell or security camera and expect it to solve security issues. It is like locking the front door and leaving the back door unlocked.
Our most sage advice is to consider the entry points to your home—the garden, driveway, doors, windows, side fences, and even from above and inside. Develop a plan—a typical house will need a mix of cameras with specific features and strengths. Then find one supplier that can do it all in one app.
A video doorbell camera is best suited for the front door, but what about the back door or other entry points? Here, a fixed-focus, fixed-field-of-view camera with night vision may work best. You can also install smart sensors that can detect door or window openings or movement (these options may require a smart hub—more later).
A pan-and-tilt camera may be better for the side fences, and you may even need a 4G one if you need a camera out of Wi-Fi range. Don’t forget to cover inside the home (Santa has given permission to monitor the chimney).
Let’s look at a few things you need to know about video doorbells.
Field of View (FOV)
This means how much you can see. For example, 180° vertical means from the ground to the sky, but these have a slight ‘fish-eye’ distortion effect. See below
Some have dual cameras (Eufy), allowing you to see the whole vertical space.
Most have 150-160° FOV, meaning you see a person from the knees to the head.
Resolution – 2K is now standard
Most have a 2K (2560 x 1920) resolution at 15 to 20 frames per second. You can look for a higher resolution, like 4K, but it uses far more Wi-Fi bandwidth, so stick to 2K if you want details and even 1K (1080p) for well-lit areas.
Night vision
Most have a couple of 850nm IR LEDs for mono night vision, and overall, this is all you need. Some have a LED spotlight for basic colour vision at night. If you have an external light, you could swap it for a smart light and use a ‘routine’ to turn it on when the Video doorbell detects movement.
Placement
Placement is critical for many reasons. First, you need to ensure it is at the right height to see the FOV you need. Mostly that is at chest height; any higher, you start to see the tops of heads or cut off the knees.
Second, if you mount the video doorbell beside the door (not on the door), you may need to angle it. Make sure the mounting hardware has both an angle and a flat wedge.
Activity Zones – mandatory
Your video doorbell will chew through the battery if you have many activations. It can usually sense movement to 15-20 metres. If the camera has a view of the footpath or road, it will be unnecessarily set off. Try to place it where the maximum viewing distance is <5m.
Some have motion detection zones (often part of a paid subscription) where you can define the area to monitor. Some have package, person, vehicle and animal detection (often on a paid subscription).
The App
Most of our recommended brands have comprehensive apps. At a minimum, expect
- Some AI detection of motion, people, pets, vehicles and packages to reduce false alerts.
- Detection zone/s – ditto
- Doorbell press (fewer alerts) and event detection (records all movement in the zone)
- The free option of local micro-SD storage or a paid cloud subscription with more AI features
- Video quality settings (auto is best, but you may have to force lower bandwidth if Wi-Fi is not strong)
- Night vision quality – only if there are both IR and spotlight LEDs
- Mesh aware
- Privacy mode
- Notification type
- Share device (others can install the app)
- Smart Actions (If doobell has an event, turn on porch light)
- Geofencing (when home or out)
- Firmware update (you would be surprised at how few generics offer this most important feature)
Good Wi-Fi is essential
Video doorbells use Wi-Fi to connect to a router or smart hub. You need a strong Wi-Fi signal, or two-way full-duplex speech is impossible, and video quality can be reduced to 720 or 480p. As a rule, place it within 10 metres line-of-site of a router or hub. If the Wi-Fi signal travels through walls, bricks, doors, windows or floors, then you can halve that effective distance.
Stand where you want to place the cameras and measure the Wi-Fi strength.
- Anything below -50dBm is usable
- 50-100dBm may cause dropouts, lags between activation and notification, and low-quality or stuttering audio and vision
- -100dBm or more is unusable, and you need to consider a Mesh router.
- Read Extend in-house internet to out-house for ways to increase Wi-Fi coverage.
If you cannot get a strong signal, you may need a Wi-Fi Mesh satellite or router extender. You can test your Wi-Fi signal strength on Android at Google Play with the free Network Cell Info Lite and Wi-Fi.
A signal strength of no more than -50dBm (lower is better) and a data transfer rate of 100Mbps (higher is better) on the 2.4GHz network is best. Read CyberShack Mesh and Router news and reviews.
A Bunning’s expert stated there is an extremely high rate of video doorbell returns [all brands] for two main reasons: low-to-no Wi-Fi signal at the front door and frustration at charging batteries too frequently—as much as weekly instead of 3-6 months—because a doorbell can have thousands of monthly activations.
IP Rating
Unless your front door area is out of the weather, look for an IP rating of IP66 (dust and rain-proof).
Lower ratings mean ‘weather-resistant’ and are not recommended for dusty or seaside areas.
Two-way speech
Do not believe any marketing hype that having effective 2-way, full-duplex speech with the caller is possible. Besides the Wi-Fi signal strength issue, audio and video are generally passed to the manufacturers’ cloud (which adds delay) and then back to your Wi-Fi or the mobile data network. In the latter case, it can take seconds to get to your smartphone. If all you expect is a half-duplex, walkie-talkie-style conversation, then you won’t be too disappointed. Most use the speaker as a siren as well.
Battery or Electric
Battery life depends on the number of activations and the length of the video clip. Poor placement can see batteries exhausted in weeks.
Most have a rechargeable battery, but you must remove the video doorbell from its mount and take it to where you can charge it. Some use AA batteries, and unless you want to keep Mr Eveready in champagne, avoid these like the plague. These are good for renters.
Wired is the way to go, especially if you already have a wired ‘Ding Dong’ Chime and push-button doorbell. But there is a catch—it generally requires a licensed electrician to fit it, and the cost will be around $200 plus parts. These are good for homeowners.
Wired video doorbells require 240V AC to 16-24V AC 10VA power. But in Australia, the standard Friedland/Honeywell ‘Ding-Dong’ chime uses 8V/1A DC.
Using the existing wiring from the doorbell to the chime is OK, but you will need to replace the DC transformer with a 16V AC transformer plug pack (RJ Turk or try Jacar). If the transformer (usually in the roof cavity near the bell) is hardwired, it is illegal to DIY change it, and you will need an electrician.
The next issue is that the DC Ding-Dong chime won’t work on AC, and you will need to get a 16V AC one or a chime from the video doorbell manufacturer. Note that you cannot buy US chimes that work on 110V.
If you don’t have a Chime, you can use OK Google, Alexa or other Home automation Apps to announce it using a smart speaker. You can also cast the image to your TV or smart display.
Privacy
Most generic Chinese-made doobells store images in Chinese clouds with strong privacy implications.
Some companies share camera data with law enforcement without your knowledge or consent.
Arlo has Privacy as a Pledge that no other manufacturer has yet to match. The recommended ones have local or Singapore cloud storage.
Eufy, Google Nest, Tapo, Swann and Uniden have benign policies and store your images in local clouds.
CyberShack’s view – video doorbells add peace of mind.
There is nothing so reassuring as saying. “OK, Google, show me the front door” when you are home alone. It is good to review activations to see if unwanted strangers are around (a thief almost always rings the doorbell to see if someone is home).
One other thing you need to consider is the overall security camera needs. If you want a video doorbell, you probably need an external camera on the driveway, one near the pool, or covering the backyard. It is best (currently) to buy the same brand and use the same App and cloud subscription (if necessary, and it usually is).
Suppliers we can recommend:
CyberShack video doorbell news and reviews
Arlo (expensive but quality and easy to set up)
Eufy (Pretty special 2-camera version )
Google Nest (If you are into Google Home)
Tapo (good value and has a wide ecosystem of cameras and sensors)
Swann (good gear and aimed at the DIY market
Uniden (good range of cameras)
We cannot recommend other brands due to App privacy issues or a lack of brand knowledge.
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