In this review, I check out the Botslab Wireless Video Doorbell Camera. You can buy this wireless video doorbell currently for $124.99 from Amazon US 👉🏻 https://amzn.to/4a0s4ey, and for £149.99 from Amazon UK 👉🏻 https://amzn.to/43rYYCj.
TL/DR: The Botslab Wireless Doorbell Camera is a comprehensive home security solution with a 5-megapixel camera, wide-angle field of view, various monitoring features, and easy installation. It offers good video quality, multiple viewing modes, day and night recording capabilities, and reliable connectivity. With free onboard storage and cloud backup, it stands out among competitors at a discounted price of £129.99, making it a solid choice for anyone in the market for a video doorbell camera.
This is a five-megapixel wireless doorbell camera with a 180° wide-angle field of view that offers comprehensive monitoring capabilities, both horizontally and vertically, allowing you to keep an eye on packages left on the doorstep with head-to-toe coverage. It comes bundled with a plug-in door chime which can be positioned within your home and with Internet connectivity you cannot only monitor its video recordings on an app, you can also view them on your smart screen.
In the box, you get a quick start guide, some stickers and drill mounting guides, the doorbell camera itself and its plug-in chime. It comes with vertical and angled mounting brackets, screws and wall plugs for a more permanent installation, wire connectors for hardwiring the doorbell, an ejector pin, and a USB charging cable.
Features & Design
The doorbell itself comes in a grey plastic and black case design. On the front, there are the camera and PIR sensors as well as a large doorbell button that’s also illuminated at night.
The plug-in chime comes with its various UK and EU plug-in adapters inside. Mounted inside is 32 GB of local storage so that you know any recordings are safely secure and located inside the home and aren’t on the doorbell itself.
On the rear, there’s a button on the back to power the doorbell. Inside the doorbell, it features a 6400 mAh battery that is meant to last up to 210 days depending on the frequency of detections and length of recordings. Also on the back, you’ll notice there are two hardware points for attaching the doorbell to existing doorbell wires and various supported wired voltages can be selected from within its companion app.
Installation & Viewing Modes
Installing the camera is a breeze thanks to using its preinstalled adhesive mounting plates. Two are provided: one straight and one slightly angled to get the best view from the camera. Removing the camera from the mount is simply done by inserting its removal pin at the top of the mounting plate to unlock it.
The camera captures video in a square 1:1 ratio video format and then it is displayed in the app as one of four different viewing modes. The first is its Panoramic mode, which displays the entire view of the camera in a kind of security peephole view. Next is VR mode which simply zooms into this view and allows you to pan around the entire view by using swipe gestures. Its horizontal mode gives you the video feed, cropped to its full width, and its vertical mode shows you the video feed cropped to its full height.
Video Quality
Its 5-megapixel video quality is decent with natural colour and clarity is also enhanced with its built-in HDR function. Its live video feed can be switched between three different video streaming modes to help reduce bandwidth and improve streaming speeds when viewed remotely in its companion App. Panning around VR mode is quite fun, and both of its horizontal and vertical feeds can come in very handy when viewing the entire width of a driveway as well as monitoring if any packages have been left below the doorbell camera.
I found both day and night recordings were acceptable when viewing them back in the app. Its night vision can view up to 24 feet which I found plenty for my use, and with IP66 of waterproof protection, it makes placing this doorbell camera easy as it will withstand all kinds of weather elements.
Remote Viewing & Storage
I didn’t encounter any problems with streaming from the camera, both locally and remotely, even with a low connection recorded in the app. With dual 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi connections, the doorbell can easily obtain a connection with your home’s Wi-Fi router. Viewing back recordings can be easily done in its companion app, and it’s here you can configure the camera’s functions as well as view past recordings, receive event alerts and communicate with people through its built-in speaker.
Its PIR and recognition software does a good job of detecting people walking by as well as people loitering, and visitor face recognition. All of these are recorded in the app and saved both locally and also in the cloud thanks to its free cloud storage service. Local storage can store up to 365 days of video event history, whilst 48 hours of event history are saved to the cloud for added back up in its first year and then this service lowers to 24 hours of event history in the afterwards. Optional service plans can also be purchased, costing $40 for 30 days of event history.
Smart Home Display
I connected the doorbell camera to my home’s Google Assistant and Google Home Hub without any trouble. From here you can then view the camera’s display and audio on the Google Home screen. Alexa is also supported should you have this smart assistant display instead.
My Impressions
The Botslab Wireless Doorbell Camera currently retails for £249.99, from Amazon with a £120 off voucher, making it a more wallet-friendly price of £129.99. Other regions also have their sales, including 50% on Amazon US right now. Making this doorbell camera far more worthwhile when it is at its sale price point.
I found the Botslab wireless doorbell camera to be a decent doorbell solution for any home. Its camera quality is decent and its various view modes are very helpful, especially for keeping an eye on packages that are left on the doorstep.
Its free onboard storage and free cloud backup give this camera a one-up over its more popular and similarly priced competitors, and I found viewing back videos and operating the doorbell within its companion app also pleasant to use.
So if you’re looking for a competent wireless or wired video doorbell camera for your home. I would certainly put this wireless doorbell from Botslab on your shortlist.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 – Brief overview
0:32 – Unboxing
0:51 – Features & Design
1:43 – Installation
2:00 – Video Display Modes & Quality
3:00 – Night recording
3:17 – Remote Access & App Connection
3:48 – PIR Detection & Storage
4:40 – My Impressions
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