myQ Outdoor Battery Camera review: Truly wireless surveillance
At a glance
Expert note
Pros
- The power of the battery and a magnetic frame offer a lot of placement flexibility
- 2K resolution, double that of previous myq cameras
- Powerful on -board LED spotlight
Disadvantages
- Lack of infrared night vision
- The night movement activates the projectors and you cannot deactivate this behavior
- Unable to record video without subscription
Our verdict
Chamberlain gives this myq camera fueled by battery a long -awaited increase in resolution, as well as a light projector to hunt darkness. Unfortunately, you cannot prevent its movement detector from lighting these LEDs at night.
Price during the examination
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Best price today
Best prices today: Myq Outdoor Battery Camera
$ 89
Barely a few months ago, the Myq de Chamberlain brand extended its range of home security cameras with its first outdoor model. Now the brand is back with another iteration, this time with an integrated battery.
Industrial design maintains the long-time long-up-over-cuff cut look for each MyQ camera to date. The main start of the battery powered by battery examined here is a new base that allows the camera to fix magnetically to its swivel support. (It can also oppose another metal surface, although you cannot easily aim for it.)
Battery supply makes configuration more practical, but stimulated resolution is a more convincing reason to spend a little more for this new model.
Features
Chamberlain does not specify the size of the battery – it is not removable or replaceable – but suggests that it will work for 4 to 6 months before needing recharge. The load takes place via a USB-C port embedded on the underside of the device. You can also leave it connected 24/7 if you do not want to take advantage of the battery function (or if you are afraid, you will forget to remove it for the load, potentially missing a crucial event).
Chamber group
In addition to the battery, the camera offers another upgrade on the Cabinée Outdoor Camera: increased resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels – a significant improvement compared to the 1080p image sensor in the old camera. Another new feature is an integrated projector; It is activated when the movement is detected at night or on demand. Note that this projector is instead of an infrared night vision: in the dark, the camera can do nothing without the spotlight; The image becomes entirely black.
A 130 -degree field of vision and a two -way audio remain standard. Chamberlain does not make any assertion of the meteorization – or at least it does not publish an IP code for the camera – but its USB -C port and its reset button are covered with thick rubber shutters, suggesting a reasonable level of weather resistance.
The configuration is not complex, forcing you to press and maintain the reset button on the underside of the camera while integrating it into the application. The location of this button is difficult to reach without pen or other implement, but once it is resolved, it is a simple process to connect the camera to your Wi-Fi network at 2.4 GHz.
Performance
The MyQ Outdoor Battery Camera application has all the parameters that you expect to find in this type of device, but it does not offer a way to prevent nocturnal movement detection from activating its light projectors.
Chamber group
Functionally, the camera is identical to all the other MyQ cameras: a live video flow is available on demand and the recordings are only carried out when the movement is detected. These are stored on the MyQ cloud service exclusively (there is no way or other storage means). The video looks good – even better now, thanks to the upgrade of resolution, either by day or under the surprisingly strong projectors, which has a significant range of at least 50 feet.
The clips are initiated when the movement is detected; As with other MyQ equipment, there is no way to manually record video clips or save 24/7. The clips are limited in length, ranging from a minimum of 10 seconds to an unknown maximum length, although the longest I have reached was 43 seconds of my tests over several days.
The camera classifies clips based on the type of movement, including the person, the animal, the packaging and the vehicle. Faces can also be saved, allowing you to mark clips with the names of family members and frequent visitors. Each of these modes fueled by AI can be deactivated, but there does not seem to be a strong reason to do so.
The movement detection range can be adjusted (namely a battery saving measure) and up to three detection zones are supported if you want to filter parts of the image, for example for the neighbor’s privacy.
Most of these features work well, although the camera has often failed to recognize my cat and has rarely attributed an “animal” designation to these clips, despite itself which works directly in the frame. Movement detection was otherwise on the point. Cutting it through clips is simple in the monolithic archives of recordings, and a filtering system allows you to easily pierce if you are looking for a certain type of activity.
The 2K resolution of this camera is an important step compared to previous cameras in the MyQ range, but its AI on board has always refused to identify my cat as an animal, no matter how many times I have corrected it.
Chamber group
Because myq cameras store all their video online, reading can be a little slow, although things seem improved in my tests this time compared to my experience with the camera in the wired outdoor. I have not met any accidents or other operational bugs, except that I could not deactivate the projectors. You can turn it off after the movement detection turned on it, and you can turn it off after turning it manually, but there is no way to prevent movement detection from lighting it.
The settings of the Night Vision menu of the MyQ application did nothing: the automatic, always and never, the options all allowed the camera to behave in the same way, activating the projectors at night when the movement was detected. I imagine that there is a strong possibility that this behavior is not what Myq wanted and that it will be repaired or altered on the road.
As with all other MyQ devices, you will absolutely have to subscribe to the MyQ video storage service if you want something beyond a live flow. The price has not changed lately: it’s $ 4 / month or $ 40 / year for seven days of storage on a single camera; or $ 10 / month or $ 100 / year for 30 days of storage on several cameras. A 30 -day trial of the seven -day plan to a single device is included with the purchase and activates automatically during installation.
Should you buy the camera from the MyQ outdoor battery?
Chamberlain put a suggested retail price of $ 100 on this camera, and at the time of this exam, its price on the street was around $ 89. Compare these prices to the outdoor Myq Filar camera, with its $ 80 PDSF and the current $ 75 street price. The addition of battery supply makes the configuration more convenient, but the help of resolution is an even more convincing reason to spend an additional $ 15 or $ 20 to recover this new model.
If you are already in the ecosystem of the MyQ camera and you pay a subscription, the addition of this model is very logical, because there will be no additional cost to add cameras on the multi-appareil level.
That said, the lack of infrared night vision and the inability to prevent movement detection from turning the spotlight of this camera are important disadvantages. If one or the other of these limitations is even remotely important to you, consider this camera as a pass.
