Have you ever heard of Ring? No, not that ring you wierdo, the doorbell manufacturer who has taken the home video doorbell market by storm with their fancy-looking techy doorbells! Well, get ready, because the creators of Ring, being Amazon, have a new product on the market. And it’s called the Blink Video Doorbell. And we have one here to test! Well, not on my desk now, I’ve already installed it. Let’s take a deep dive into what this new competitor on the market can do for you.
The setup was extremely simple, as everything you need to really get started is in the box ready to go. The Blink doorbell came with screws for the outside wall including some rawl plugs, screws and a little template so you can plan where the bell is going to go. Just make some drill holes, screw in the bracket, and drop the bell itself onto that bracket. If you’re running battery power, don’t forget to insert the batteries before putting the bell on the bracket. Once it’s on the bracket, using the little tool to remove it from the bracket is a bit of a pain. The camera doesn’t fit snug to the bracket either, and can rattle around. There’s even a physical gap between the bell and bracket. It doesn’t feel like it’s going to fall off, or even be ripped off the wall very easily, but it does skew confidence when it comes to its IP65 rating. What happens if or when water gets inside the bell?
From here, I opened my Blink app and it found my Sync Module 2 within seconds. Now, you don’t need a Sync Module to connect to the bell itself, you can just directly connect the bell to your WiFi network, but there are some added advantages you get if you use a Sync Module 2, including local recording for your doorbell if you stick a small memory stick into the Sync Module 2’s USB port. If you’ve got other Blink cameras in the house, having a Sync Module 2 also means you can connect all of your cameras to one central location. The Sync Module 2 also means you do not need a subscription package, though only £2.50 a month for the bell itself to store your recordings, and it means you can access your cameras from anywhere.
So, what happens once you’re inside the app? Well, not a huge amount to be honest, which is actually quite beneficial. I’m going to be concentrating on the doorbell here, though other cameras will appear in the app too. So, as soon as you open the app you’re greeted with your profile. For me, I named my profile ‘Stef’s House’. Top right there’s a Plus button that allows me to add new devices to my Sync Module 2. I can see my Sync Module 2 is connected and live, and then in the middle is my doorbell which I can grab a live feed from either as a photo or video.
Down the bottom is your menu, and the first to the right, the play button is for your recordings. As I said my recordings are stored locally on my device and I have them set to Auto-Delete after 30 days, though you can choose a minimum of three days if needed. I don’t have my camera auto recording and picking up everything that goes by, it only records when someone presses the doorbell button. I’ll say here now that there’s no extra chime available. The chime rings through your phone as a notification, and the delay is minimal between the button press and your phone going off. It’s really good like that. But make sure your phone is turned on loud, otherwise, you’re not going to hear your doorbell. Alternatively, if you have an Echo speaker in the house, or a wireless speaker compatible with Amazon Alexa, this can also be used as a chime. There’s no compatibility here with Google Home or Apple HomeKit which is a bit of a shame. But it’s an Amazon product, right? So they’re not exactly going to be wanting to use their competition network.
Next up is your settings, where you have some security features, like turning on biometrics to unlock the app or your notification options. And finally, your Blink account options which are very self-explanatory like changing your email, password, and phone number and managing your devices. Every time you want to change something sensitive, Blink sends you a code via text to access that menu, so it’s secure.
The video quality is alright. It’s certainly not the best for a home security system, but the quality is passable if you’re wanting to see if it’s the Amazon delivery guy with your parcel or your parents turning up at the door. It films at 1080p, 30 frames-per-second which is fine if you ask me. Anything higher than that and you begin to have to think about storage. You’ve also got the chance to set zones for motion detection, so if you’re facing a road, for example, you can choose to ignore the cars driving past and only focus on areas where you need to capture motion. You can also change sensitivity too, as you know, cats might light to walk past your house, and you don’t want to be notified every time a cat decides to come and have a sniff around your front door.
There’s so much to like about the Blink Video Doorbell. More so the fact you don’t need a subscription service like so many other security brands issue. Local storage is perfect and why more don’t do this is beyond me. It was easy to setup and install and works as intended. It lets me know when someone’s at the door, and allows me to talk to them if I’m not home. The doorbell by itself can be found on Amazon for around £50, but if you want it with the Sync Module 2, you’re looking at roughly £80, which I emplore is the best way to go if you want to avoid yet another direct debit coming out of your account. For more information, head over to Amazon where you can purchase one for yourself.
