YI Home Camera 2

The YI Home Camera 2 ($129.99) joins the growing list of smartphone-enabled home security cameras that will record activity when it detects motion and send a push alert to your phone. It's a cinch to set up, provides crisp 1080p video, and its motion detection works like a charm. That said, it's lacking some of the useful features you get with our Editors' Choice, the pricier Icontrol Networks Piper nv. Or you can save some money and pick up the Ezviz Mini HD, which delivers solid 720p video for nearly half the price.

Design and Features The Home Camera 2 uses a hockey puck design similar to the Nest Dropcam Pro, except the stand is white instead of black. The black camera head is round and measures 2 inches in diameter. It contains a 1/2.8-inch CMOS sensor and 11 infrared LED beads for night vision. The camera delivers 720p and 1080p video, has a 130-degree field of view, and houses a motion sensor as well as a microphone and speaker for two-way audio communications.

The stand contains a power jack and a hinge that lets you tilt the camera 180 degrees. Behind the removable back panel of the camera are a microSD card slot and a Reset button. You get a 32GB microSD card and a USB power adapter in the box.

The camera is controlled using a mobile app (available for Android and iOS) but does not have a Web app. The app opens to an advertisement that touts a Crying Baby Detection feature. The ad only runs for three seconds, but it happens every time you open the app and becomes annoying after a while. The Home page shows all installed cameras with a still image of the last captured activity. There's a Plus button in the upper right corner that is used to add cameras, and four buttons along the bottom of the screen. The Camera button lets you view live video, and the Alerts button shows a list of all activities by date with a video thumbnail. The Album button takes you to a list of all the photos you've taken with the camera, and the Profile button brings you to a page where you can edit account information, change your password and user na me, and add a profile picture.

Tapping a camera takes you to a live feed of that camera with buttons that let you mute the speaker, record video, initiate two-way audio, take a still photo, and view video in full-screen landscape mode. Below the live video screen is a list of motion-triggered video clips by date. At only six seconds long, the clips are much shorter than the 35-second recordings that you get with the Piper nv.

Tapping the gear icon in the upper right corner opens a Settings page where you can rename the camera and turn it on and off, enable activity alerts, check SD card storage, enable video recording when motion is detected, and enable PIN protection for camera access. Here you can also access the camera's multiple Detection Settings that allow you to set a detection region and enable the Human Detection option, which sends an alert when the camera detects human movement instead of movement from pets or outdoor activity (such as passing cars or wind-blown curtains). There are three Sensitivity levels and three Frequency levels (Low, Medium, High), and a Schedule option that lets you select certain times of day when motion alerts will be sent (the default is 24/7). The Home Camera 2 lacks support for email alerts like you get with the Netgear Arlo and Arlo Q cameras, and doesn't work with other connected home devices like the Piper nv and the Canary do. It also lacks support for If Thi s Then That (IFTTT) recipes.

Camera settings include Image Rotation, a Lens Distortion Correction option that reduces pincushioning, a Speaker on/off option, and three HD settings (1080p@25fps, 1080p@20 fps, 720p@20fps). The camera offers a Gesture Detection feature that lets you initiate a 10-second video recording you can send to friends or family. To begin recording, simply extend your hand out at shoulder height with your palm facing the camera. The camera will recognize the gesture with a voice prompt, at which point you close your fist to trigger the 10-second recording session. There's also the aforementioned Baby Crying Detection feature that recognizes the sound of a crying child and sends a push alert to your mobile device.

Installation and Performance To install the camera, start by downloading the Android or iOS app on your mobile device. Once you get through several pages of self-promoting ads you will be asked to sign up using an email address and password. When you log in you'll be instructed to plug the camera in somewhere close to your router. At this point a female voice will tell you that the camera is waiting to connect; when you hear it, press the button on the app. Next, select your Wi-Fi router and enter your password. When a QR code appears on your mobile device, hold it facing the camera and wait a few seconds for it to connect and for the voice to confirm that pairing was successful.

The Home Camera 2 delivered a highly detailed live 1080p video feed with rich colors in my testing, and recorded video appeared just as sharp and colorful. There was no significant lag, and two-way audio quality was loud and clear. Black-and-white night vision video was sharp up to around 25 feet. But the clips really need to be longer than six seconds in order to give you a better idea of what you're seeing.

The motion detection feature worked beautifully. I enabled the Human Detection option and set the Sensitivity level to Medium and did not receive any false alerts, even when my dog ran in and out of the room. The Alert Frequency and Schedule features also worked as advertised, and having the ability to turn off alerts during certain times of the day reduces unnecessary push notifications while family members are going through their usual routines.

I tested the Gesture Detection feature and at first, I was unable to make it work despite multiple attempts from various angles and distances. The same thing happened with the Baby Crying Detection; I didn't have a baby handy to use for testing, so I downloaded several audio clips of babies crying. The sounds were realistic enough to whip my dog into a frenzy, but the camera did not react at all. As it turns out, the camera needed a firmware update. I tried updating it using the firmware update setting in the app, but it failed every time. I was finally able to manually update the camera by downloading the new firmware and copying it to the microSD card. Once the camera was updated both features worked perfectly.

Conclusions With the YI Home Camera 2 you can keep a digital eye on your home from afar using your Android or iOS device and receive push notifications when motion is detected. It offers a few handy motion detector settings that help reduce or eliminate false triggers, and it delivers sharp, colorful 1080p video and stores recorded clips on a local microSD card. However, triggered recordings are only six seconds long, and there's no support for email alerts or integration with third-party connected devices. As a standalone security device, the Home Camera 2 will get the job done, but if you're looking for a camera that records longer clips and doubles as a home automation hub, check out our Editors' Choice for home surveillance cameras, the Icontrol Networks Piper nv. At $280, it's more expensive than the YI Home Camera 2, but it offers a wider field of view and is loaded with features including temperature, humidity, light, and sound sensors. If you're looking to save some money, the Ezviz Mini HD offers motion detection, push alerts, and multiple storage options for just $80.
Source: YI Home Camera 2