myQ Doorbell Camera review: It’s a dead ringer

Best prices today: Myq Video Doorbell (Myq-D49TXXB model)

$ 79.99

The world needs another door camera as it needs another social media influencer, but I get it: each manufacturer of intelligent domestic devices needs a video bell to complete its range of products.

Chamberlain is the last to enter this space after launching interior and outdoor cameras of myq brand like Mad while it moves away from its inheritance centered on the garage door.

Features

Myq video doorbell will absolutely not surprise anyone in design or function. The oblong and black black rectangle measures approximately 6 inches high and has a large bell button under a camera lens which captures the video in a ratio of aspect 1: 1 (1952 x 1952 pixels) with a viewing angle at 150 degrees.

The unit contains an integrated (and non-removable) battery which loads via a USB-C cable. It can also load via standard 24 V doorbell wiring, via two wiring posts at the rear of the device. Chamberlain does not specify the size of the battery, but the estimates will operate for 4 to 6 months before a recharge is necessary.

Christopher Null / Foundry

Although there is no formal IP rating on the device, the only electronic element you may need to worry – the USB -C port to load its battery – is well covered with a rubber shutter. MyQ specifies an operating temperature from -4 to 122 degrees fahrenheit.

Installation and configuration

The physical configuration is simple. A flat assembly support is fixed to the wall with two screws provided, then the camera then slides on the support. No inclined mounting support option is available. As with the myq smart garage video keyboard, a safety screw on the underside of the camera helps keep it in place while adding an obstacle to dissuade easy flight.

As for most MyQ devices, the electronic configuration is a simple case involving the selection of your choice of choice and pressing a small button at the back of the camera to complete the connection to the MyQ application. Once on board your Wi-Fi network at 2.4 GHz, the doorbell camera appears in the application alongside any other MyQ equipment.

Performance

Christopher Null / Foundry

There are not many surprises with the operation of the doorbell, except for the one I noticed right away. The large doorbell is surrounded by blue light, but this light does not light up until After The button is pressed, which also bursts a strong chime from the device (and your existing carillon if you have wired it.

In my mind, the main point of the clear ring is so that visitors can see the button in the darkness Before They press it, not after. This requires a simple but important rethink, namely to use the integrated moving sensor of the camera to detect when someone approaches and light the light when it is nearby.

The motion sensor does a good job of detecting nearby people, which quickly causes a small green leads to light while launching a video recording operation. As with other MyQ equipment, there is no way to initiate manual recording (although the flow can always be seen on demand) and the resulting clips are short, generally 10 to 30 seconds, but up to 43 seconds in my tests.

The video quality is good for a doorbell, and although it is aggressive in fish eyes, the clarity of the recordings was solid in my tests. The infrared night vision is less capable, with the functional range of the camera exceeding less than 15 feet. Fortunately, most of the recordings will be close and personal, given the location of the camera next to the front door.

As with all other MyQ camera equipment, the doorbell can recognize and categorize clips based on the type of activity in the frame: any type of movement or a person, an animal, a package or a vehicle. You can deactivate push notifications for each of these elements in the MyQ application, but there is no way to deactivate the notification of a bell press.

Christopher Null / Foundry

You can also save faces with the application, giving you a more detailed overview of who goes and goes. The functionality is particularly practical with a doorbell, given the probability that you will see a lot of people’s faces to a range of a few feet. Other video options allow you to adjust the beach of the motion sensor and establish up to three detection zones if you get too many false movement alerts for a remote activity. The microphone can be disabled and the volume of the speaker can also be adjusted in the application.

The doorbell of the MyQ video door drops all the clips recorded in a monolithic collection of video extracts, as well as all your various myq camera activities. A filtering system is supposed to facilitate the search for what you are looking for, but I encountered a bug where the door camera appears in my devices with the name “camera”, although I set it with the name “Sonnette”.

This is a problem with other MyQ devices, it turns out that. Several devices are called “camera” and cannot be easily distinguished. Some miniatures were also inexplicably lacking in my recordings, and the application would frequently block when it was trying to refresh the list of clips, requiring strength of strength and restart. None of these problems is ruptures, but they are all a nuisance.

The biggest problem is that, for the moment, Chamberlain does not offer an interior chime, so the only notification of the visitors you will get is via the application on your phone – unless you go to the door of an existing chime. Myq says that a wireless “Myq Chime” arrives in October, but you never know how real a projected release date until it occurs.

Should you buy a MyQ video doorbell?

As with all myq cameras, the MyQ Video Stores bell only has a reserve at the Cloud service in Chamberlain, there is no option for local storage. So, if you don’t subscribe to this service, you will only see a live video flow from the camera. This cloud service costs $ 4 / month or $ 40 / year for seven days of storage for a single device; $ 10 / month or $ 100 / year for 30 days of storage for all your MyQ devices. A 30 -day trial from the seven -day plan to a single device is included in your purchase.

As with all MyQ equipment, it is probably not very logical to opt for this doorbell unless you have already installed other MyQ products and you can use the subscription plan at $ 10 / month.

The MYQ video door of $ 100 is not the most complete option on the market, and taking into account its inability to fully fulfill its main function – knowing you when someone is at the door – it is difficult to recommend fully in its current incarnation. Correct the Buggy app and release the myq chime, then maybe we can see it again. Even then, this is probably only a valid choice for houses with another MyQ infrastructure.