Lorex 2K Wi-Fi Lightbulb Digicam assessment: A house safety twofer
Professional’s Ranking
Execs
- Extraordinarily straightforward to put in and arrange
- Pan/tilt permits digicam to watch a large space
- Customers can select between native and cloud storage or use each
- Appropriate with Amazon Alexa and Google Dwelling
Cons
- Night time imaginative and prescient is just efficient to ~25 ft
- Is likely to be too giant for some fixtures, so measure earlier than shopping for
- QR Code on bulb is just too small, making it arduous to seize with a cellphone digicam
- Not suitable with Apple HomeKit Safe Video
Our Verdict
The Lorex 2K Wi‑Fi Lightbulb Digicam is without doubt one of the best methods so as to add good house safety features to your house. Screw it into a lightweight socket, join it to the web, and also you’ve acquired a strong pan/tilt digicam to assist defend your house.
Value When Reviewed
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Greatest Pricing At this time
The Lorex 2K Wi‑Fi Lightbulb Digicam is a $69.99 pan/tilt safety digicam with an built-in, general-purpose, dimmable LED gentle supply designed for householders who need a primary, no-hassle path to including safety cameras to their houses.
That ease-of-use comes with a couple of tradeoffs; however in case you’re searching for one thing easy that may get the job completed, Lorex has you coated.
In case you set up the Lorex 2k Wi Fi Lightbulbcam outside, it is going to should be in a luminaire that gives some safety from the weather.
Lorex
Set up
Truly, “set up” appears too sophisticated a phrase to explain setup for the Lorex 2K Wi‑Fi Lightbulb Digicam. Decide a lightweight fixture with an ordinary E26/E27 socket and screw within the unit simply as you’d with an ordinary lightbulb. Most customers will need to use a ceiling fixture, however the Lorex app means that you can flip the digicam lens’ orientation in case you choose to make use of a ground or desk lamp. Word that the digicam/bulb should be put in in a weather-protected luminaire in case you set up it outside (extra on that in a bit).
You’ll discover loads of comparable lightbulb/digicam combos, however none that carry the status and historical past of such a longtime model as Lorex.
Obtain the Lorex app for iOS or Android, activate the sunshine fixture, and scan the QR code on the unit to attach the app and arrange a Wi-Fi connection for the unit. The QR code is extremely small, so be sure you’ve acquired a plan (or not less than a stepladder and a flashlight) earlier than you begin your scan.
As soon as the set up is full, the Lorex 2K Wi‑Fi Lightbulb Digicam seems like a barely overgrown lightbulb.
{Hardware}
You may flip the digicam’s video stream in case you set up it the wrong way up in one thing like a torch lamp.
James Barber/Foundry
The Lorex 2K Wi‑Fi Lightbulb Digicam seems like an ordinary bulb at first look, however it is a substantial machine—measuring about 7 inches tall and greater than 3 inches huge. The underside half homes a 2K (2560 x1440 pixels) motorized pan/tilt digicam that sweeps a full 360 levels. Its stationary discipline of view is 107.9 levels diagonal, 92.2 levels horizontal, and 50 levels vertical).
The sunshine is a 400-lumen, 6,500 Ok LED ring, which is roughly the brightness of a 40‑watt incandescent. That makes the unit appropriate as an accent gentle or for porch temper lighting (though its colour temperature is comparatively cool for that function), nevertheless it’s in no way able to lighting up a driveway.
The bulb carries an IP65 weatherization ranking. In keeping with our IP code information, meaning it’s impervious to mud ingress and that it’s protected towards water projected in jets from any course. As I’ve already talked about, the bulb’s LED aspect should be coated if put in outside. Put it a clear sconce or another kind of indoor-outdoor fixture. The digicam’s pan/tilt motor is remarkably quiet, and its complete housing is a sturdy plastic that ought to maintain as much as years of use.
Video high quality
Lorex’s app has all of the options you’d look forward to finding for a contemporary safety digicam.
James Barber/Foundry
Like many good house units we’ve examined, the Lorex 2K Wi‑Fi Lightbulb Digicam is proscribed to a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi connection. Its 2K video, captured at 15 frames per second, options glorious picture high quality, with particulars that stay clear when utilizing its digital zoom. Movement detection successfully identifies folks and automobiles after they enter the digicam’s discipline of view.
Lorex doesn’t embrace a microSD card, however customers can add their very own (as much as 256GB). In fact, limiting your self to native storage signifies that you would lose entry to your video in case of theft, accident, or pure catastrophe.
As a backup, Lorex additionally gives a cloud subscription plan that provides customers entry to the final 30 days of dwell recordings for $2.99/month or $29.99 12 months. If you wish to use a number of Lorex 2K Wi‑Fi Lightbulb Cameras or pair them with Lorex video doorbells or safety cameras, you’ll must pay $9.99/month or $99.99 12 months for as much as 10 units in a single location.
Night time imaginative and prescient is colour throughout low‑gentle, shifting to IR black-and-white imaging when pitch darkish. The seize works properly as much as 20 to 25 ft; previous that, particulars fade. It’s usable, however not the enhanced-video high quality acquainted to viewers of TV crime exhibits.
App and AI
You’ll must scan this tiny QR code while you arrange the Lorex 2k Wi Fi Lightbulbcam within the Lorex app.
James Barber/Foundry
Lorex touts its use of on-device AI (i.e., video is processed regionally, vs being first uploaded to the cloud) to distinguish between folks and automobiles when movement is detected, at which level it is going to ship an alert to your smartphone. The digicam additionally helps two‑manner audio and there’s an onboard siren ought to you have to deter an unwelcome customer from hanging round. The app has a clear and easy interface, however you may dig right down to entry myriad choices.
A privateness slider on the app’s house display screen disables the digicam in case you’re going to be in discipline of view for prolonged time and don’t need something recorded. You may invite shared customers to put in the app, after which they’ll achieve entry to all of the options of your put in unit.
Two-way audio permits you to maintain a dialog with anybody who approaches the digicam, and there’s a menu of responses that lets a pre-recorded voice inform a customer issues like “We’ll be there shortly” or “Please go away the package deal on the door” when movement is detected.
You may select from 5 ranges of movement sensitivity, and you’ll restrict movement alerts to the presence of individuals or automobiles. You may also regulate the audio sensitivity of the digicam’s onboard microphone by decibels.
The built-in gentle is managed by a slider that exhibits up on the house display screen simply above the video picture. There’s additionally a sleep button on the house display screen that gives a wide range of time spans to pause notifications. In case you’re an Apple Watch person, the Lorex app sends notifications to your wrist and customers can pause them from the watch display screen.
Lighting
The dimmable built-in LED gentle bar produces a most of 400 lumens of brightness, roughly equal to a 40-watt incandescent bulb.
James Barber/Foundry
Consider the sunshine fixture as an adjunct for the digicam greater than a conventional gentle bulb. Lorex designed the sunshine primarily to optimize the digicam’s capability to seize video. The unit’s 400-lumen restrict retains it from being an efficient main gentle supply in a basement or darkish hallway. In case you’re utilizing it indoors, you’ll need lamps or different overhead lighting sources within the room for on a regular basis use.
Whereas it’s an efficient gentle supply for nighttime video seize outside, don’t evaluate this product to such floodlight/digicam combos because the Ring Floodlight Cam Professional (2,000 lumens), the Eufy Floodlight Cam E40 (additionally 2,000 lumens), and even the Eufy Wired Wall Gentle Cam S100 (1,200 lumens). Perceive its limitations—in addition to its advantages, given that every of these three units should be hardwired to your house’s electrical infrastructure—and also you’ll doubtless see previous its limitations.
There are many low-cost, no-name 2K cameras that screw into a lightweight fixture. A few of them even have gentle bulbs. A number of actually have a restricted vary of pan and tilt the Lorex. What you received’t get is the status and historical past of a longtime model like Lorex, a priority that appears much more essential to think about with house safety programs than, say, a transportable Bluetooth speaker.
The pan/tilt digicam has a privateness mode that covers its lens.
James Barber/Foundry
That characteristic additionally makes the Lorex 2K Wi‑Fi Lightbulb Digicam a compelling choice for renters. There’s no drilling or screws concerned, and no extras cables. Unscrew the unit while you transfer and be arrange at your subsequent deal with in a matter of minutes.
This assessment is a part of TechHive’s in-depth protection of the greatest house safety cameras.
Do you have to purchase a Lorex 2K Wi-Fi Lightbulb Digicam?
The Lorex 2K Wi‑Fi Lightbulb Digicam provides a safety system to the type of gentle fixture that everybody already has at their house. A easy swap can add with high-end good surveillance, not less than considerably discreetly camouflaged inside a bulb. Picture high quality is above common, and options like native storage, voice management, and an on-demand lens cowl for privateness display considerate design.
Some customers will probably be much less impressed with its different efficiency metrics. The brightness of its onboard LED lamp would be the largest sticking level for a lot of, and the digicam’s night time imaginative and prescient fades with distance. Out of doors installations are restricted to luminaires that provide some safety to the digicam. Lastly, setup could be a gentle nuisance because of the tiny QR code on its base.
Total, nonetheless, this unit is a winner. You get a rotating, speaking safety digicam that screws in like a lightweight bulb for lower than $70. There’s no simpler solution to get into good house safety.
