Amazon[1] has an interesting approach to the home security market. At the premium end, there’s the Ring range, featuring video doorbells and high-resolution cameras, capped off with high prices and a useful app.
Ring’s pretty well known, but you might not be too familiar with Blink, Amazon’s budget-oriented home security company. Blink offers my favourite home camera and it’s our pick of the best outdoor home security system[2]. It’s also currently at the lowest price I’ve ever seen in Australia.
The Blink Outdoor 4 is a gadget I use at home myself, although it’s not affixed outside. It sits in my lounge room, recording the front of my house out the window. Being inside, I can plug it directly into power, although it can just as easily operate off batteries (Blink advertises up to two years of battery life, but I’d say it’s more like six to eight months if used daily). Off battery power, it’s reliable when placed outside, given an IP65 ingress and water rating.
The name of the game here is value for money, and the Blink Outdoor 4 knocks it out of the park, especially at 40% off on Amazon[3] – which drops the price to just AU$59 a pop.
Having written TechRadar’s Blink Outdoor 4 review[4], I have no trouble recommending it as a home security solution for anybody on a budget, or someone looking to give home cameras a go.
A 1080p resolution is serviceable, especially for the price, and the user interface is fairly easy to navigate (apart from some submenus, particularly when switching between cloud and local storage).
Like many home security systems, Blink offers a subscription service – either Blink Basic (AU$4.95p/m)[5] or Blink Plus (AU$15p/m)[6] – to enable some features, such as 60 days of unlimited cloud storage, photo capture, easy video sharing and local storage online back-ups, but I don’t personally use it. You can get by with a USB stick plugged into the Sync Module 2, with recordings saved locally. However, if you want to add multiple devices to a single network, you’ll need the subscription.
If you’re after a more premium home security arrangement, or if you’re looking for a system that can have a video doorbell added to it, I’d push you in the direction of the Ring range. That being said, the gap between the Ring and Blink setup can be bridged via the Alexa app, as both systems are compatible with Amazon’s assistant.
Alternatively, I’d recommend reading up on the best home security cameras[7] – though you may encounter déjà vu, as the Blink Outdoor 4’s wired counterpart, the Blink Mini, is the best budget option.
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References
- ^ Amazon (www.techradar.com)
- ^ best outdoor home security system (www.techradar.com)
- ^ 40% off on Amazon (target.georiot.com)
- ^ Blink Outdoor 4 review (www.techradar.com)
- ^ Blink Basic (AU$4.95p/m) (target.georiot.com)
- ^ Blink Plus (AU$15p/m) (target.georiot.com)
- ^ best home security cameras (www.techradar.com)