Top kritische recensie
3,0 van 5 sterrenGood product limited by mediocre functionality
Beoordeeld in Nederland 🇳🇱 op 24 april 2021
So first the background....
In our house we have owned and used both the Ring cameras and the Nest (Goggle) video doorbell. They both works exceptionally well with some plusses and minuses, but overall we are extremely happy with both.
I needed to install a surveillance system into my mother in-law's house and opted for the Blink system for several reasons. The biggest reason was the 2-year battery life and ease of installation. I selected the three pack of cameras for exteriors along with one Blink Mini for monitoring the first floor inside.
Installation:
Simplicity is key here. The cameras appear to be well designed and the packaging is excellent. Two small gripes on the installation; the instructions are useless. There is a quick start guide that is probably the most basic quick start guide I've even seen. Luckily, I am pretty tech savvy but I did have a few things that I would have liked to have known. Second, camera registration for each camera to the hub is supposed to work automatically. Using my iPad it did not and I needed to perform each pairing manually. It was simple enough but not pairing correctly with Apple products is unfortunately a common theme with Amazon products. It was still simple but a bit annoying. It did pair automatically when I tried with my Samsung Android device.
The cameras themselves look nice, discrete and mount in literally minutes. The only negative about the hardware is that for some odd reason Amazon only provides one pair of wood screws for each camera and no hardware to mount in masonry or brick walls, which is surprising.
I was hugely impressed at the wifi range of the cameras. I thought that would be an issue on a house with such thick walls, but I tested each location ahead of time and each one was either full bars, or almost full bars. All provided video flawlessly.
The actual quality of the video and audio is really impressive. Just be aware that IR range for night vision is just average, even with the three power settings and selecting "high".
I understood given this is a full, non-rechargeable battery system there would be some limitations. I believe that it's a reasonable trade-off.
The not so great stuff:
Saying that the app is limited and basic is an understatement. As great as the video is, as easy as the installation is, matters little if the functionality is just not there. Some glaring shortcomings:
- You cannot arm cameras (zones) individually. You must arm every single camera in your system together, which is ridiculous.
- There is no scheduling of arming zones to arm / disarm automatically.
- There is no live preview of all cameras (or any cameras). If you receive an alert you must manually connect to each camera, one at a time. this takes upwards of 15 - 30 seconds every time you change your camera view to see what's going on and where the intrusion occurred.
- The camera video is limited to approximately 30 seconds and then the video just stops. A button appears which says "continue". When you press the button, instead of continuing the video just ends.
My biggest complaint is the non-stable operation. Several times the video just stops and you need to re-start the app. This despite 50Mbps internet speeds and excellent wifi coverage (full bars). I have also had several times where the hub itself just stops working. It will then automatically reset and start working again. Not a big deal UNLESS that's the time where someone is breaking into your house and you are attempting to record and say something over the camera.
So, do I like the system? Yes with caveats. To be honest, I expect more in the way of being a truly usable product from Amazon. This is one area that Apple could teach Amazon a few things. Let's hope that things get better through firmware updates and a new app version 2.0!!
