Continuing the line of affordable home surveillance and security devices, the Wyze Cam Outdoor is packed with features for the $50 price point. With motion detection, two weeks of free cloud storage, continuous recording with a micro SD card, and super-easy setup, there’s a lot to check out. Head below to watch the video and see it in action.
Wyze Cam Outdoor: out of the box
Much like the other cameras in the Wyze lineup, the Cam Outdoor features a boxy design in a white case. The mounting arm can extend, tilt, and, with the magnetic connection, pan on its base. On the back, we have a weatherproof plug that covers up a power switch and USB-C port for recharging. Underneath are the sync button and a port for a micro SD card.
Also included in the starter bundle are a base station, power cable for the station, ethernet cable, and some basic mounting supplies.
Seamless setup
Just like the other products from Wyze, the Cam Outdoor is very easy to setup. First, plug the base station into power and your router, then open the Wyze app and go to add a device. Select the Cam Outdoor and follow the steps. There is a sync button on the bottom of the camera, but with the base station plugged into your router, setup is very simple.
Wyze Cam Outdoor: video
Recording
Wyze offers up to two weeks of free cloud storage for recorded video clips. Or you can supply your own micro SD card for more continuous recording that the Cam Outdoor will write over as the card fills up.
Using a micro SD card also opens up Travel Mode. In this mode, the Cam Outdoor can capture time-lapse videos or just normal video and turns it into a bit of an action camera. Of course, it doesn’t have the quality or features of a GoPro, but it is also a security camera that only costs $50. Personally, I probably would never use it like this, but I guess it’s a neat option.
Night vision
The Wyze Cam Outdoor also works pretty well after dark. Night vision mode kicks on, and it can see a decent distance to pick up motion and record clips. Of course, it won’t pick up everything in a backyard and vision falls off after a certain distance, but it works similarly to other outdoor cameras that I’ve tested.
Notifications
One main feature is notifications based on movement. Wyze has attempted to make these a little more accurate with PIR or passive infrared to sense body heat and minimize motion detection from waving tree branches.
In my experience, this worked pretty well. I have the camera mounted facing my street and I didn’t get any notifications for vehicles moving on the road, but when I came out of my back door, it quickly picked up my movement.
One neat feature is that you can enable “Motion Tagging” that will outline the motion the camera is sensing with a green box. This way, if you’re getting false notifications, you can see what the camera is detecting as motion and make some adjustments to the camera or sensitivity settings accordingly.
On the downside of notifications, though, is that they do take a little while to show up on my phone. For me, it was about 30-40 seconds from when I started moving until the notification popped up on my phone. So if you’re hoping to use the Cam Outdoor as a security camera with instant notifications of movement, it will be delayed. But, there are other more expensive options if you’re looking for better performance like the eufyCam 2 we reviewed recently.
Wyze Cam Outdoor: battery life
One other small knock against the Cam Outdoor is the battery life. Wyze claims 3-6 months of normal use, which is 10-20 motion activations per day. But, in my opinion, this isn’t that big of a deal. It’s easy enough to bring the camera down and plug it in to charge. Getting from 10% to 100% took me about 2.5 hours, to give an example of how long the camera might be offline while recharging.
Wrapping up
Overall, for $50, the Wyze Cam Outdoor is a great budget pick for some surveillance outside your home. It is incredibly easy to set up with no monthly fees, continuous recording with a micro SD card, and pretty good motion detection, in my opinion. The delayed notifications are a bummer, but the camera is still very useful.
Buy Wyze Cam Outdoor
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