However, choppy performance isn’t the most distracting part about the Wyze Cam Outdoor’s performance – it’s the consistency of its quality. Wyze advertises that it can record video when the PIR motion sensor triggers, but Wyze is still working on that feature at this time, wyze security camera promising to it available for the official app release. To set up a Wyze Cam, you need a stable Wi-Fi connection and the Wyze app installed on your smartphone or tablet. The camera connects to the Wi-Fi network to communicate with the app and to stream and record video.
Fifteen feet out from the camera, it could register movement in a forty-foot stretch from left to right. Its design is deceptive, looking like it can only see directly ahead but monitoring a much wider arc. You can bet that would-be robbers will think (incorrectly) they’re out of view as well. The Wyze Cam v3 ships with a power adapter and a 6-foot / 1.8-meter USB-to-micro-USB cable, which plugs into a rubber sleeve that protects the connection from water seepage. The camera’s built-in speaker also does a poor job of recording audio, as it can’t seem to get clear audio beyond five meters, and it’s only able to pick up noise that’s hard to understand.
While there was no suggestion that hackers could access camera feeds, security is obviously a big concern with cameras in the home. The audio quality is good enough for live conversations but seems worse in most recorded videos. “Your continued use of the Wyze Cam v1 after February 1, 2022, carries increased risk, is discouraged by Wyze, and wyze home security is entirely at your own risk,” the company said in an email to customers [source no longer available]. However, it still didn’t disclose the fact that the cameras were essentially secret peepholes for hackers and that it knew about the issue. As Bleeping Computer notes, Wyze Cam owners might still be running a vulnerable firmware version.
The use of security cameras does raise important privacy issues, because they allow you to spy without consent not only on family and friends but also on anyone who happens to cross the threshold of your home. When you’re considering the use of a Wi-Fi camera, the feelings of those in your wyze home security household should be part of the decision. Concerns include the placement of the camera, when it’s in use, and who has access to the video. And babysitters, housekeepers, and even tradespeople doing work in your house may need to be advised that you have a camera, depending on local laws.
The Wyze Cam v3 Pro uses the familiar cube-inspired design that we’ve seen from Wyze in the past. You can buy The Wyze Cam v3 Pro directly from Wyze for $50, or you can save a little bit of cash by buying a two-pack of cameras for $96. It’s not much of a discount, but it’s better than nothing I suppose. All these features worked exceptionally well in my testing, so much so that I quickly had to turn off notifications because I was getting so many people and pet updates every day. Wyze’s latest camera, the Cam v3 Pro, isn’t really an update of the two-year-old Cam v3, but a fairly new animal with a moderately refreshed design and plenty of new features. Probably because the $30 v3 is still on the market and seems to be remaining there.
While many companies are improving these — particularly by adding more transparency and removing contracts altogether — prices are still fairly high, especially for professionally installed systems. Wyze also updated the two-way audio button in the app so you no longer have to press and hold the button to talk. The audio sounded clear when I spoke from the app to the camera, but not quite as good coming from the camera to the phone. Still, it was easy to understand what was being said on both ends. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so how many words is a video worth?