Gabe Turner: Hey, folks. This is Gabe at Security Baron. SimpliSafe is one of the biggest home
security companies out there today. We want to look at their front door offerings and
review the SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro.
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Gabe: In today's review of the SimpliCam Video Doorbell, we're going to go over some pros
and cons, its design, its feature set, the installation process, before finally diving
into that mobile application to make sure you have all the information you need to make
the right decision.
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Gabe: If you would like to see a list of our favorite video doorbells, google Security
Baron best video doorbells. If you have a question about today's review, leave us a
comment, and I'll get back to you.
Let's check out some pros and cons for the SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro, beginning with
the pros. It has 1080p high-definition video, 162-degree field of view, and person detection.
On the con side, it reports to work only between 14 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit and lacks any
smart platform integration.
Let's look at some of the pros and cons for the SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro. Now that
we've gone over some pros and cons for the SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro, let's talk
about its design. It has a clean, white aesthetic on the front. It's a little bit of an off-white
gray for the rest of the device.
If you look at that front face, it is almost flush with a little bit of a protrusion for
the camera lens and for the button itself. What I like about the button is it has a nice
blue LED that surrounds the button when you press it or begins to record.
On the back, you can charge it a bit, but SimpliSafe tells us that it'll only work for
about two hours without being hardwired in in terms of the power. If the power goes out
at 02:00, you will have no more video footage at 04:00.
It should handle rain and snow, but note that they tell us it should work between 14 and
104 degrees Fahrenheit, which may be something to think about for those of you in colder
climate. Overall, I'm a fan of the aesthetic and design of the SimpliSafe Video Doorbell
Pro.
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Gabe: Now that we've gone over the pros and cons and the design of the SimpliSafe Video
Doorbell Pro, let's talk about its feature set.
Beginning with a 1080p high-definition video, which is enhanced by HDR or high-dynamic range
capability. It has a 162-degree field of view, so your catching everything taking place,
along with pretty solid night vision due to two infrared LEDs.
Additionally, the SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro has two-way audio. You can have a nice,
clear, engaging conversation with any of your visitors. If you want to have cloud storage,
that's going to be $4.99 a month, but you get 30 days of storage and ability to save
and view clips.
When it comes to artificial intelligence, the SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro is actually
bringing it. It has two separate sensors to bring you person detection. It has a heat
signature that can recognize people and a sensor that detects the form of humans.
When you talk about artificial intelligence, it's bringing the heat when it comes to person
detection. That's a look at the feature set for the SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro.
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Gabe: Hold on. I really hope you're enjoying today's review of the SimpliCam Video Doorbell.
If you want to be up to date on the newest in video doorbells, smart home security, cyber
security and more, subscribe to our channel, Security Baron. We're dropping new hot content
weekly.
Let's get back to the video. Now that we've gone over the feature set for the SimpliSafe
Video Doorbell Pro, let's talk about the installation experience. It's pretty straightforward.
You're going to need the actual doorbell, the battery charger, your mobile device, and
your WiFi connection. Before you do anything else, you're going to charge the battery on
the SimpliSafe. Then you're going to engage with the hardwiring and the set-up on your
phone.
When it comes to the set-up on our phone, we were done in less than five minutes, very
easy and straightforward, integrated with your SimpliSafe system. No problems. We did
have trouble when it comes to hardwiring it into our home.
We found that we could not keep it powered for about 30 minutes. Once we hit that point
and it was steadily powered, we were ready to go. We were solid. We just wanted to point
that out. That's our look at the installation experience for the SimpliSafe Video Doorbell
Pro.
Now that we've got our SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro installed, let's check out where your
going to be accessing and interfacing the mobile application SimpliSafe. It has pretty
impressive ratings, a 4.8 out of 5 star in the Apple App Store, a 4.6 out of 5 star rating
in the Google Play Store. Let's go ahead and check it out on my iPhone.
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Gabe: Here I am checking out the SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro. If I want to jump straight
into the live video, I can do so. Tap on Watch Live, and here is the block. Apparently, someone
is trying to park on my street right now. No, they're pulling away. There they go.
If you note, there's a little bit of lag right now. It's not the fastest of WiFi, but you
have a nice 162-degree field of view and a 1080p vision. If I wanted to record, I could
tap on Record on the bottom left-hand corner. Now I'm recording what's happening at the
front door. It'll save that directly to my event history or timeline, whatever you would
like to call it.
On the right side, you'll note that there is a microphone. This is what I would press
if I wanted to speak to whoever's outside. I hold that down, and I'm able to talk to
whoever's at my front door.
Let's go look at that actual timeline. You'll see here that the front door detected motion.
That's that whole car fiasco going on outside, the bicycles. You can even look at my user
recording and even know when someone rang at your front doorbell. These are all really
useful for keeping up with what's going on around your home.
Let's go look at the actual settings within the app. If we go down to Settings, we continue
to Camera Settings, and we look at our front door. You'll note that it has a few options
for you. You have motion detection, motion notifications.
With some apps, you have the ability to customize this. Unfortunately, SimpliSafe doesn't have
as much. You have, of course, the ability to detect motion with the normal level of
activity, medium, high, low, or off all together, or you can just turn the motion notifications
off completely.
Along with getting your doorbell ring notification, that's typically something you're going to
want to know when people are at the door. You can, at least, if you're not at home,
go and check out a live view. You can see where your WiFi network is, your night vision,
your status light, and your mic and audio.
You note that it doesn't have the most robust settings available. Overall, it's a pretty
easy, intuitive experience in the SimpliSafe app for the SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro.
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Gabe: We've come a long way with the SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro. You're saying "Gabe, you've
showed me a lot of doorbells. What distinguishes this one from another?"
Regardless if you have the SimpliSafe security system or not, you're going to get great video
from the SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro. We're talking 1080p with high-dynamic range. It
has amazing app ratings for both iOS and Android devices. It has person detection, so it can
help you chew down on the number of notifications your going to get throughout the day.
You should also be cognizant of the fact that it doesn't have Smart platform integration.
If you like Google, or Amazon, or IFTTT, you have to forget about it. It also has a slightly
spendy cloud storage at $4.99 a month. If you want to view and playback those clips,
you're going to have to pay for that.
At under $200, the SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro is a solid doorbell option, whether or
not you're in the SimpliSafe ecosystem.
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Gabe: That concludes our review of the SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro. If you appreciate today's
video, give us a like, and hit that subscribe button. As always, this is Gabe at Security
Baron. Be secure.
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