Hey there folks!
In this video I'm going to be taking a look at the Kasa Spot indoor security camera from TP-Link.
I am going to be talking you through the features of this device showing you how to set it up and talking about the pros and the cons about this particular smart security camera.
In this video I have included some real footage that was filmed on the Kasa Spot indoor camera.
In addition to the video, I have also included an audio test to show you what the audio sounds like when it's recorded directly onto the Kasa Spot camera.
This channel is all about helping you as a consumer to make a more informed purchase decision.
Let's get started.
Starting off with the unboxing.
In the box you'll get a quick start guide with some product information.
Now this is really handy if you want to mount your security camera on the wall, you can use this screw template to show you exactly where to place the screws.
You also get a wall plug adapter. This is the Australian wall plug. I'm sure if you buy this in your local region you'll get the wall plug that should fit with your local power point.
Of course you get the Kasa Spot indoor security camera itself and you get a micro USB cable which is used to power the device.
I was pleasantly surprised by how long the cable is. Usually these types of devices ship with a annoyingly small cable but not this camera from TP-Link.
The cable on this camera is around 3 meters long which is about 10 feet. The product dimensions are 5.06 cm by 5.84 cm by 8.89 cm and the product weighs 200 grams.
In order to use this camera, you will need to download the Kasa app. You can't use this camera or set it up for the first time without downloading the app.
The setup process for Kasa devices is really easy. Kasa has over a million downloads and it's rated 4.7 out of 5 stars on the Google play store.
After opening the app, you'll need to click on the plus button and then select the Kasa Spot camera from the list of supported devices and then you'll need to connect the camera to your existing Wi-Fi and you're done.
Some of the features of this security camera include full 1080p recording. You should be aware that the default setting for this camera is 720p.
So if you want to get the best quality footage from this camera, you'll need to go into the settings and change that to 1080p instead of the 720.
You can set this camera up to automatically record whenever there's motion in the room.
Alternatively, you can manually record by pushing record in the app so you can set this camera up to send a notification straight to your phone.
Whenever motion is detected, you can jump into your phone, see what the motion is and if it's important you can manually press record to record what's happening on the camera.
This device comes with two-way audio which means you can push a button here on the app and talk through the camera. It is really quite loud;
I tried to find a way in the settings to see if you could turn this down but I couldn't find a way so just be aware of that. It is quite loud which could be a good thing. It depends on how you're using it.
All of the footage for this camera is recorded in the cloud and unfortunately TP-Link have not included a memory card slot. So there's no way for you to record footage on your own memory card.
Included with this camera is the Kasa Care 2 year free plan. You can store your clips for the last 12 hours in the cloud and if you do want to save these clips for later,
you can download them to your phone and then save them on your computer. This 12-hour limitation is annoying especially if you're going away from your house for any longer than 1 day.
There are other cloud storage options available for purchase. Here in Australia, the prices start from $5.99 for 30 days of storage on 1 camera or $19.99 for up to 10 cameras.
This app works with Amazon Alexa and the Google Assistant. I only have the Google Assistant and that works pretty well.
I can ask my Google devices to show the camera footage on either a TV if it has a Chromecast or even a Google Hub device.
"Play Spot on Living Room TV"
What you can't do however, is view this camera directly from the Google Home app.
When you go into the app to view the camera or if you've got a notification and you want to see what the notification is about,
whenever I click on the camera, there seems to be a few seconds of lag before the camera loads up.
I'm sure this isn't my internet because I've got pretty good internet here and I don't have any problems loading other videos.
Sometimes the camera would appear quite quickly but other times it would take a few seconds to load and sometimes the shot would freeze and then start moving again after a few seconds.
Look, it is fine most of the time, but I think for a security camera, you kind of want it to load instantly all the time which is not the case.
Another feature of this camera that I haven't talked about yet is the activity zones. So you can go into the app and set up specific activity zones where you want the camera to alert you if some movement occurs in this particular zone.
Let's take a look at some real world tests using this camera and see how good the footage is.
This is a clip of my lounge room shot on the Kasa Spot camera. You can see that this camera has a really wide lens and you can see in this room all the way from this wall over here, all the way to that wall over there.
And this is a really wide, open space, so the camera's done really well to be able to see that much of this large room.
Here's what the audio sounds like when it's recorded directly from the camera.
I think it's good that this camera records audio as well as video; it's just an extra feature that might come in handy.
Let's see what the two-way communication sounds like when the sound is coming directly from the camera.
Here I am in exactly the same room - have a look at how the night vision works for this camera.
Hopefully you can still see the full shape of my body and facial features which you might need to identify someone who's snuck into your house at night.
So to summarize my opinion on this camera, some of the positives are it's great that it supports 1080p footage rather than just 720p.
i like that this camera has cloud storage, but I don't like the fact that you can only use cloud storage and there's no option to install a memory card.
Another great feature of this camera is the really wide angle that this camera has. Being able to capture such a large area with the camera makes a big difference to how useful this camera can be.
One of the things about this camera that probably wasn't the best was the night vision. I mean certainly functional, you can still see what's happening, but I think a lot of the detail in the image was lost once the night vision mode was activated.
This camera does come at a very competitive price point when compared with other cameras with similar features.
But of course prices can change; I'll leave a link in the description if you want to check out the most recent price on this camera.
Overall, I don't think this is a bad option if you're looking for a camera at a fairly reasonable price for the features.
This could be a good option for you.
I hope you found this video helpful. If you did, let me know in the comments.
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I'll see you next time!