Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 is designed for your home. With Wi-Fi connectivity and a dedicated app, you can quickly access your video source. You can also adjust the angle of the camera so you can keep an eye on the whole house. Apart from this, many features are also available on it. We will talk about all those features here. So is this the best cheap security camera currently on the market? Let’s find out here.
Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 design and specifications
Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 is a direct competitor to the Godrej Spotlight Pan-Tilt camera. It offers similar range and features to the Vision. However, its design is quite different. The camera is housed in a ball-like module that allows it to look up and down. Its plastic box can rotate on its base.
The device has a microphone and a speaker that are present at its rear. With its help, not only audio can be captured, but also two-way communication can be realized. In addition, it plays alert and alarm music when an unwanted person enters the house. It has an LED on the front that shows its power and connectivity status.
Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 has a fixed base with a rubber surface for better grip. The rest of the camera body can rotate in this plane. A socket given at its bottom helps to mount it on a tripod. You can also mount it on a wall or ceiling. No mounting kit or bracket is provided, you need to purchase it separately. In the package, you get a wall adapter and a USB Type-A to Micro USB cable, which powers the camera.
At the base, you get a microUSB port for power and a microSD card slot, which supports cards up to 128GB. It has a 2-megapixel camera sensor with which FullHD video recording is supported. The camera has a horizontal rotation range of 350 degrees and a vertical range of 65 degrees. The field of view is 120 degrees horizontally and 95 degrees vertically. To increase visibility in the dark, it has been given 6 infrared LEDs. The camera connects to the Internet via 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi. The 5 GHz band does not support this.
Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 App and Features
Like other Wi-Fi home security cameras on the market, the Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 works through an app. This allows the user to monitor video, control the camera, view stored images, and much more. The Kent CamEye app is available on the iOS and Android platforms. I checked its connectivity on the old platform. If you have multiple Cant CamEye cameras, they can all be controlled and monitored simultaneously.
After registering in the app and creating an account, you can link security cameras and connect them to your home Wi-Fi connection. After this, tapping on the camera icon will take you to the video source. Here you can adjust the camera angle and settings, activate the speaker and microphone together or separately, even take a snapshot to save to your smartphone.
Using the app is very easy. Its options and functions are given in convenient places. For example, you can easily activate two-way communication or take a snapshot with a single touch. The D-pad can also be directly accessed to adjust the angle of the camera. Typically it only takes two to three seconds for the camera to activate and display the video.
Digging deeper into the menu and settings, you’ll find Privacy Mode. Enabling this does not automatically activate the camera or record images. You can view your saved recordings and photos, and view all alerts issued by the camera. Its alert sensitivity can be customized. After turning on all its settings, when I put it at the front door of the house, it issued dozens of alerts daily. In this way, it is very good to have control of its different functions at hand.
Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 images can be uploaded to the company’s cloud platform. This is a premium feature, storage space must be charged. It is 150 rupees per month or 1500 rupees per year. You can store video clips for up to 7 days, even for a specific event. These clips are 12 seconds long. For this, there is a charge of Rs 400 per month or Rs 4000 must be paid for a year, in which video history of up to 30 days is stored.
For this review, I used the one-month plan. With its help, I was able to store videos on cloud storage and also watch old videos. Even after the plan expired, I was able to watch some videos on the app and download them to my smartphone.
The paid subscription allows you to capture event-triggered recordings, which are saved in the cloud, according to Cantt’s website. From here you can also see them playing directly. However, all other features such as memory card recording and playback, real-time live video streaming, two-way communication, and privacy mode are available even without any paid subscription plan.
Using a skill, you can link the Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 to your Amazon Alexa account. This allows you to access streaming video from the Alexa app. Or you can even access the video feed on an Alexa-enabled smart display like the Amazon Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen). This worked for me, but I couldn’t adjust the camera angle with the Alexa link.
Performance Kent CamEye HomeCam 360
An important feature of a home security camera is its reliability. It should work when you need it. For me, the Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 worked fine with my 2.4GHz Wi-Fi connection. I was able to operate it smoothly and was able to do what I wanted in seconds. The app has been designed very well. Access to all the essential features is quite easy.
Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 can record FullHD video streams. Shows full color feeding during the day and monochrome feeding in the dark. The camera automatically detects low-light conditions and turns on the infrared LEDs as needed. This worked well as I was able to see details and faces even though the stream had no color. There were times it took a few seconds for the camera to adjust to the lighting conditions and recalibrate the video stream, but it didn’t cause much of an issue.
The FullHD footage from the camera was quite sharp and detailed, but showed some artifacts in fast-moving situations. There was no problem as there were a lot of visible details on the faces, clothes and small things like boxes and packages etc.
You can also set your resolution to HD or SD, so the stream is recorded more stable and detailed in case of low internet speed. This is also useful if you want to store more images on the SD card. Although it becomes difficult to read the text that appears on the objects in SD, the faces are still clearly visible.
Wide range is available to adjust your camera angle. Wherever the camera is placed, the area around it can be monitored with a 350 degree range. Its 65-degree tilt range combines with the wide viewing angle, giving you plenty of viewing range flexibility. However, it took a second for the camera to adjust the angle with the app’s command.
The Kent CamEye HomeCam 360’s speaker is quite loud. It makes a lot of noise and is louder in siren mode. Its chimes are also quite loud and can be heard from different parts of the house. Standing close to the camera, I was able to easily have two-way communication. The microphone captured ambient sound quite well, but when someone spoke standing close to the camera, it captured the spoken words just fine. If necessary, you can leave the speaker and activate only the microphone.
The camera captures the man’s movement well but cannot track any object or person. The saved clips were quite clear and faces and objects were easily recognized.
Verdict
A good Wi-Fi camera is an easy and efficient way to monitor your home, and the Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 is a great option. However, it faces stiff competition from the Godrej Spotlight Pan-Tilt camera and the Mi Home Security Camera 360.
This is a good basic Wi-Fi security camera that comes with two-way communication, paid subscription cloud storage, and reliable performance. It is also very reasonably priced and is obviously a good buy depending on your home security needs.
Price: Rs. 2,999
Classification: 8/10
advantages:
Wide range of motion for extensive coverage.
microSD and optional cloud storage option for event-triggered recordings
It works well in all lighting conditions.
Best Companion App
To damage:
Mounting kit not found in the box