[music]
Gabe: Hi, everybody.
This is Gabe at Security Baron.
Today we're looking at the Amazon Cloud Cam.
[background music]
Gabe: If you have any questions about the Amazon Cloud Cam, drop us a comment below
and we'll get back to you.
It seems that Amazon is everywhere these days.
You might know them for the online marketplace, their Fire Tablets, their Echoes, Echo Dot,
their Web services, their Cloud services.
We want to look at their first foray into the Smart home security market and how it
works within their ecosystem.
That starts with the Amazon Cloud Cam released in November, 2017.
Let's jump into its features.
When you go into the Amazon marketplace to buy the Amazon Cloud Cam, the company wants
you to take note of the following things.
Staying connected 24/7 through your camera, so you have constant access to a live stream.
With that live stream, you also would get notifications either through the Web browser
at cloudcam.amazon.com or the mobile app.
They also want you to know you get night vision with infrared LEDs, two-way audio, and a 30-day
free trial to the Cloud plan.
In the Cloud plan you get person detection, custom motion detection, and on top of that,
a 30-day history of all of your video clips.
Of course, all of this comes integrated with the Amazon Alexa Smart Platform.
Let me give some of my initial thoughts on the construction of the camera right out of
the box.
First off, the most notable thing is it does have a hard plastic around the lens and the
camera itself.
On top of that, this pivotal ball mount allows for you to place it in actually a wide range
of positions, which I like.
There's rubber around the bottom of the mount, which you can also ultimately place on anything.
You can set this mount up and put it on a wall.
Of course, here at Security Baron we typically like to put it inside of a bookcase.
In the back, you've got a micro USB power cord, which comes with this nice little square.
It's a different design.
We have not actually seen anything like that.
It makes it seem more durable, as if it's not going to yank out easily.
That's basically the construction of the Amazon Cloud Cam.
While this design isn't blowing anyone away and the color scheme is pretty basic and the
same as what we've seen across the board, it definitely feels pretty durable and is
a nice little camera.
The marketing is great, but let's see how well all of these elements stack up against
the Security Baron necessary features test.
The Amazon Cloud Cam comes with 1080p high definition video.
It runs at 30 frames per second and has a viewing angle of 120 degrees.
Honestly, at this price point, and honestly with any price point, 1080p video resolution
should be the standard.
Amazon fortunately did not cut any corners.
The video looks crisp and sharp.
We give it full marks for that.
The 30 frames per second makes any movement look good, and so we appreciate that as well.
The 120-degree viewing angle is standard.
We see it in most of the cameras, but nothing particularly impressive.
Another Security Baron necessary feature is two-way audio.
When you go into the Amazon marketplace and look at the Amazon Cloud Cam, they say you
can use the two-way audio to check in on your family or tell your dog to stop barking.
I don't know if that will work for me and my dog.
My dog barely listens to me when I'm there.
Is it going to listen to me tell it to stop barking from afar?
I'm anxious to see how that works out.
Regardless, we're glad that Amazon threw in the two-way audio.
We definitely give them props for that.
Amazon did us a solid with their infrared LED night vision.
Here at Security Baron, that is our preferred method of this necessary feature of night
vision, is the infrared LEDs.
We're not huge fans of anything that uses any type of illumination that shines a bright
light or anything like that.
They're doing a really great job with this crisp, clear video.
I can see who's walking around my house at night.
That's all because of the infrared LEDs.
I definitely give them full marks on their night vision.
Another Security Baron necessary feature are storage options, both local and Cloud.
Here, the Amazon Cloud Cam has no local storage options, so let's look and see what they offer
in terms of Cloud.
First, I want to mention that whenever you buy a Cloud Cam or a Cloud Cam package, you
get a 30-day free trial with any of the options.
For just buying an Amazon Cloud Cam, you get 24-hours of video storage for up to three
cameras.
If you want to upgrade to a paid subscription plan, there's three options.
Basic, extended, and pro.
Let's talk about each one.
In the basic plan of $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year, you get up to seven days of Cloud
storage for up to three cameras.
In the extended plan of $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, you get 14 dates of Cloud storage
for up to five cameras.
In the pro subscription plan of $19.99 a month or $199.99 a year, you get a month of Cloud
storage for up to 10 cameras.
With any of the paid subscriptions, you get person detection.
While it is not a facial recognition which we've seen with some of the cameras, it will,
at least, tell you if there's a person in the room versus a dog or a bird.
Another feature of the paid subscription plans are the custom motion zones.
You can reduce any unwanted alerts by focusing on where you want to actually care about it
detecting motion.
This is a great feature of the paid subscription models.
With any of these, both paid and non-paid subscriptions, you get unlimited sharing of
the video clips that you've taken, and you'll get notifications when motion is detected
in your home.
We like the tier subscription plan options for the Amazon Cloud Cam, but we would have
liked to have seen a local storage option.
We can only give a half-point here.
One of the great, and I mean great things about the Amazon Cloud Cam is this integration
with Amazon Alexa and the Fire TV.
The fact that it fits right in with the Amazon ecosystem is fun and very easy.
It makes everything more convenient.
I'll just let you see for yourself.
"Alexa, show me what's happening in the living room."
In terms of Smart platform integration and the Security Baron necessary features, you
can't beat the Amazon Cloud Cam with the Fire TV and the Amazon Echo.
Across the board, it was easy to use, hands-free, and just really convenient.
In terms of Smart platform integration, we got to give the Amazon Cloud Cam, as long
as you're using Amazon, of course, thumbs up.
The Amazon Cloud Cam doesn't come with a very sophisticated artificial intelligence.
It does have person detection, which will allow you to know when someone is home or
someone is in the kitchen, but it won't tell you who that is.
However, that is an added feature.
If you want to do person detection you have to, at least, pay for the basic plan of $6.99
a month or $69.99 a year.
Considering that it's an extra fee for person detection and it doesn't have any facial recognition,
we can't give it the highest marks in terms of the Security Baron necessary features test
and artificial intelligence.
When you think about all the things that come with the Amazon Cloud Cam and the fact that
it only comes in at around $120, we overall think it's a pretty great value.
With the built-in Cloud storage of 24-hours for up to three cameras, the crisp video,
the two-way audio, we ultimately think that compared to some of the other cameras out
on the market, the Amazon Cloud Cam is a good value.
Amazon did a great job putting this together in a way that would function for everyone
who's already in the Amazon ecosystem or those who are new to it.
Overall, it's a great value.
Setting up the Amazon Cloud Cam was easy.
If you're already familiar with the Amazon ecosystem, it's even easier.
Here in the office we already have an Amazon Echo, an Echo Dot, the Fire TV.
We just basically plugged and played.
While it was easier for us as part of the Amazon ecosystem, I imagine anyone could have
it up and running within 30-minutes.
Overall, we give it a great score for convenience.
We'd like to show you that convenience in the app itself.
The app is pretty easy to use.
You can just go in and you immediately see the live stream on the home page of the app.
You can look at more clips.
You can look at the motion detection clips from before.
It will take it from 19-seconds, or 20-seconds, or however long it captured something.
It can add camera, Cloud Cam.
The settings, it can go through.
The zone requires Cloud Cam plan.
You can also set motion sensitivity and even turn off the motion detection altogether.
You can sign up for Alexa notifications and be sure to turn the camera on, off, and record
audio.
It's not the most comprehensive app that we've seen, but it definitely gets the job done.
We wanted to give you a preview of the video quality on the Amazon Cloud Cam.
As you can see from this shot, it's got great 1080p resolution.
Also, it runs at 30 frames per second, which we think looks great.
A lot of the cameras we've seen run at 24 frames per second.
Despite using the same Internet for all our camera reviews, for whatever reason, the Amazon
Cloud Cam seems to have the least lag of any of the cameras.
As you can see, I can still do the digital zoom with the camera and look around.
We have to say that the Amazon Cloud Cam, in terms of its video quality, deserves top
marks.
This is the night vision on the Amazon Cloud Cam.
As you can see, I can still do the digital zoom.
The camera looks good.
It especially looks good if you come in really close like this.
See what's going on.
We like the infrared LED on the Amazon Cloud Cam.
It doesn't use any type of illumination, which shines a bright light.
It can throw everything off.
This looks good just from the infrared.
We definitely are big fans of the Amazon Cloud Cam and its night vision.
Let's provide a bit of an overview of some of the things I liked and didn't like so much
about the Amazon Cloud Cam.
For starters, there was no local storage option, which is something a lot of us like to have.
We like to be able to put a micro SD card into the back of the device and not rely on
the Cloud.
Secondly, there's also no facial recognition, which was a little bit surprising considering
all the other technological advancements that you might find in the Amazon Cloud Cam.
That being said, we loved the Smart platform integration and the convenience factor.
Those also work together.
It was very convenient to use the Smart platform integration.
It basically facilitated everything going on in our Amazon ecosystem within our home.
I want to discuss why the Amazon Cloud Cam might be the right move for you.
If you're already in the Amazon ecosystem, don't want to spend much more than $100 on
a camera, and just like 1080 HD and two-way audio, the Amazon Cloud Cam might be for you.
However, if you'd like a local storage option or some other Smart platform integration beyond
Alexa, if you're a Google home or simply want to use IFTTT, then you might want to look
in another direction.
Overall, the Amazon Cloud Cam comes with a lot of value at its price point.
It's super convenient, and it's just been a lot of fun.
If you'd like to read our full review, Google Security Baron plus Amazon Cloud Cam.
If you appreciated this video, give us a like and subscribe to our channel.
As always, this is Gabe at Security Baron.
Be secure.
[music]