SimpliSafe Out of doors Safety Digicam 2 overview: Barely an improve

Greatest Costs Right this moment: SimpliSafe Out of doors Safety Digicam Collection 2

SimpliSafe is likely one of the most venerable good dwelling safety firms, and whereas it commonly refreshes its {hardware}, it does so gadget by gadget, slightly than upgrading your entire system directly. Is sensible, as a result of it has a minimum of 16 completely different parts you possibly can combine and match together with your current SimpliSafe base station or add on to one in all its {hardware} bundles. 

The newest improve to the SimpliSafe household is a brand new model of the SimpliSafe Wi-fi Out of doors Safety Digicam, which was launched in 2021. The SimpliSafe Out of doors Safety Digicam 2 retains the general feel and appear of the unique, whereas making a number of modifications that supply some compelling upgrades. 

Options and design

Fairly a number of issues stay the identical: It’s nonetheless—surprisingly—a 1080p digicam with IP65 weatherproofing (which means it’s dust-proof and immune to water jets sprayed from any path) and a 140-degree subject of view. Infrared night time imaginative and prescient is included, together with a small highlight, built-in two-way audio, and a 90 dB siren, whereas a magnetic base permits for simple repositioning. The digicam may be powered both by its inner battery (SimpliSafe says it’ll final for as much as 3 months), a microUSB energy cable, or an non-obligatory photo voltaic panel ($80). 

Once more, none of digicam’s core options supply any main modifications, and have been it not for the sizeable ridge that now juts out beneath the lens housing, you won’t discover any distinction in any respect between the SimpliSafe Wi-fi Out of doors Safety Digicam 2 and its predecessor. 

Christopher Null/Foundry

Setup

If you have already got a SimpliSafe system, establishing the digicam is a straightforward affair that ought to take just a few minutes of onboarding. I arrange a brand new hub from scratch for this overview. Together with all of the unboxing, setup, tutorials, and upgrades, making ready a small system of hub, keypad, two sensors, and two cameras took about 45 minutes, with just one hiccup requiring an indoor digicam to be reset.

The digicam nonetheless works along with most different SimpliSafe gear, which suggests it’ll mechanically report if the system is armed and one of many sensors is triggered. (SimpliSafe final up to date its movement and entry sensors in 2023.) My solely actual criticism is that, bizarrely, SimpliSafe cameras nonetheless use dated microUSB connectors and cables for energy as an alternative of extra fashionable (and symmetrical) USB-C. 

AI-powered risk detection

The largest improve to the digicam is its help for SimpliSafe’s Energetic Guard Out of doors Safety (AGOP), a brand new service that makes use of AI to detect potential threats on video, then alerts reside (human) brokers to view the digicam feed and take motion.

Brokers can converse to trespassers, sound the siren, or activate the highlight—or all three—and dispatch police if the state of affairs warrants it. 

In fact, to make the most of this new characteristic, you will want one in all SimpliSafe’s upper-tier monitoring plans. The Core plan ($32/month) doesn’t embrace AGOP. The Professional plan ($50/month) consists of the AGOP service however solely from 8pm to 6am native time every day. You’ll want the Professional Plus plan ($80/month, gulp) if you would like 24/7 monitoring.

Aside from that, all of the plans are about the identical, together with limitless cloud storage for as much as 10 cameras, agent intervention on indoor cameras, and emergency dispatch companies. 

Efficiency

I examined AGOP on the brand new Out of doors Digicam 2 by arming the system and strolling by way of the digicam’s body a number of occasions, in addition to having my spouse achieve this. 

What’s supposed to occur, per SimpliSafe, is {that a} SimpliSafe agent ought to connect with the digicam’s speaker and let the intruder know they’re being monitored and recorded, then ask, “How can I make it easier to?” What did occur throughout my testing is none of that: Not as soon as did a voice come over the speaker in any respect.

Christopher Null/Foundry

The movies have been, nonetheless, efficiently monitored by SimpliSafe, because the app’s Timeline signifies when a clip is considered by the corporate’s brokers. Almost all of those have been categorized inside a couple of minutes as “Frequent exercise” and apparently dismissed as innocent. It wasn’t till I placed on a baseball cap and ran by way of the body—as suspiciously as I might—that the clip was categorized as “Particular person on property,” after which I acquired an electronic mail from SimpliSafe to that impact, together with a nonetheless from the video. The vetting course of takes a couple of minutes to finish for every incidence. 

The outcomes might need been completely different had I run by way of the body wielding a machete or repositioned the digicam so it might spot me choosing the lock. However SimpliSafe formally advises towards simulating such felony eventualities, as their brokers can decide to name police straight within the occasion of great emergencies. (In addition to, there are limits to what I’m prepared to do for PCWorld.) The underside line is that whereas testing AGOP to its fullest extent will not be wholly potential, it clearly doesn’t fairly work the best way it’s marketed. 

AGOP additionally comes with some caveats. It solely works with outside cameras (because the title implies) and it makes some obligatory modifications to the digicam’s settings within the course of, notably dropping video high quality all the way down to 720 by 1280 pixels (720p), turning on IR night time imaginative and prescient, and activating the standing gentle. Medium movement sensitivity and people-only movement detection are additionally obligatory. As effectively, cameras with AGOP enabled should even be linked to wall energy and might’t be operating on battery energy or have a photo voltaic connection. The one digicam characteristic that the consumer has any actual management over is the exercise zone setting, so you possibly can block out areas you don’t need monitored.

Of those constraints, the decision drop is probably the most notable: 720p video is grainy and pixilated, and at a distance it’s troublesome to make out faces with any degree of reliability. Evening imaginative and prescient is equally washed out and murky. 

Do you have to purchase the SimpliSafe Out of doors Safety Digicam 2?

The $200 asking worth for the digicam (a lot much less if you happen to store round) is after all deceptive, as you’ll spend a minimal of a minimum of $600 extra every year on monitoring.

In case you don’t need or want the AGOP service–and it’s powerful to say whether or not it’s value that outlay–there’s actually no cause to improve from the older, cheaper outside digicam, which may be had for as little as $73 at this writing. 

This overview is a part of TechHive’s in-depth protection of one of the best safety cameras.