a few weeks now to put it through its paces. This isn’t a sponsored video; this is all
my own independent thoughts and feedback. But if you do like what you see after watching
this video, there’s an affiliate link in the description.
The key feature for me is the smartphone app and remote monitoring capabilities, but before
we get to that, let’s see what you get in the box. I have here the 8-piece kit so you
get the base station, 2 motion sensors, 4 entry sensors, a remote control, quick start
guide and a choice of sticky pads or screws and rawl plugs to put everything up.
It was very easy to set up and get it connected to my Netgear Orbi WiFi network and everything
worked smoothly straight away. The sensors don’t come pre-paired; you add each one
to the system individually during the setup by scanning the QR code on the back, giving
each one a name and assigning it to a room in your house. Being a modular system means
you can add extras and grow the system to your requirements, although I couldn’t actually
find individual sensors for sale yet so hopefully that’s coming soon.
The Base Unit is small, discreet and not too ugly looking - it could go on the top of a
bookshelf or something and not look too out of place. It’s loud enough to be heard around
my house, but it’s not really going to be heard outside by the neighbours unless it’s
by an open window. All 3 sounds are suitably horrible, which I guess is the point...?!
Have a listen... Absolutely everything is controlled via the app and you can set the
volume as well as choose the alarm tone.
And whilst we’re talking about the app, the level of customization you get for each
sensor is seriously impressive. It’s infinitely customisable, and allows you to choose what
happens in every possible scenario, individually, for each sensor, including setting motion
sensitivity and whether the little LED indicators light up or not when activated. It also shows
you the signal strength for each sensor so you know if you’ve accidentally installed
one in a dead spot. All mine show as full signal strength which is no surprise as in
total the system claims a 1.25mile wireless range, which is just over 2km!
Who has a house that big?!
What really impressed me was the overall quality of the product as a whole at this price point.
The build quality is really solid and it doesn’t feel cheap at all despite being extremely
competitively priced. The app is very well designed and laid out and feels well thought
through. The whole package feels really mature and high quality; it certainly doesn’t feel
like a new or unfinished product or anything like that.
A really good feature on the app (which I discovered by accident) is that when arming
the system, if any doors/windows are still open it asks if you’re sure you want to
switch to away mode and tells you which ones you’ve left open!
In my tests so far, the system seems to work well and is very responsive. The alarm goes
off straight away when a door/window sensor is triggered and there’s only about a 2s
delay on the motion sensor.
You can also set some or all of the magnetic sensors to play a notification sound each
time they’re activated by their respective door or window being opened which is a great
way of knowing if someone’s, say, opened your porch door or something. If you own a
small shop then this could alert you each time a new customer enters - the high-tech
equivalent of a jingling bell above the door!
The remote has 4 buttons on it; Disarm, Away Mode, Home Mode and an SOS button which if
you hold down for 5 seconds will sound the alarm on the base station and send a notification
to the smartphone app.
So all in all, a pretty good package so far. I was disappointed though by the lack of Google
Home integration. It’s a shame, as I can think of lots of ways in which they could
work well together. For instance, smart speakers around the house could chime as well as the
base station when doors/windows or opened, and even act as extra alarm speakers to really
scare the socks off a burglar. Or the motion sensors could turn on/off smart light bulbs
in a room to save energy when no-one’s in there, or trigger a smart plug to scare thieves
away with the illusion of house occupancy. You could even set/unset the alarm with voice
control (if you trust that), or have it arm the system automatically when your Nest devices
detect that you’re Away, or tell your indoor Nest Cameras to record only when the alarm
is armed. None of that’s currently possible though, so it would be great to see them work
on integrating into the Google ecosystem in the future.
It also has no control panel to put a PIN into when arming and disarming, which is a
slight shame, so the app or fob are the only ways to operate it. However, it’s easy to
add another user via the app and you could argue this is better than telling lots of
extra people the code for your alarm, as you can control and revoke their access more easily.
I should point out that this will only alert you of any intruders if your WiFi is on and
working; although the base station has battery backup, that only allows the alarm to ring
in the case of a power cut. A SIM card would be a good option, so that if a thief manages
to cut your Internet cable before they break in, you could still get a smartphone notification.
However, at this price point it probably wouldn’t be reasonable to expect a 3 or 4G modem and
a data plan!
As I’ve mentioned already, the base unit’s alarm isn’t ear-piercingly loud, which I
guess you wouldn’t really expect from an internal device - it wouldn’t be heard outside
the house and probably wouldn’t deter a thief from continuing to grab your valuables,
so to speak. But this to me is more of a remote monitoring thing, and the alarm will just
tell the thief “we’re on to you” and hopefully that will make them more likely
to leave.
I think this would be absolutely ideal as well for a shed, summerhouse or garden office
type room. When I initially opened the box I thought well this could never replace a
larger house alarm system or be the main one for a large house... but the more I used it
and thought about it the more I thought “do we need an external siren mounted on the outside
wall of the house?”
Do they still have a place? Car and house alarms tend to get ignored, and the police
won’t attend a house just because the alarm’s going off. So maybe keeping it inside is all
we need, and it’s actually more important to alert the home owner via the smartphone
notification?
Let me know what you think in the comments.
The smart element alone on this alarm is a game changer for me, it’s so much more useful
than the dumb alarm that was already fitted and hard-wired to my house by the previous
owner.
This is of course not the only alarm system that has this feature though, so how does
it compare to others? The Yale series of smart alarms work with Alexa and Google, but the
starting model in that range is nearly double the price of this and contains just 1 motion
sensor. So if integration with other smart home ecosystems isn’t that important for
you and more sensors for your money is, then this makes a very compelling alternative.
What would I change about this alarm? To be honest with you there’s not a huge amount
more that I WOULD change. The entry sensors are quite large which makes placement a little
bit difficult, although they don’t actually need to be touching, they can be 2.5cm apart
so it’s actually easier than you first think and they seem to work great. Also, the bracket
for the motion sensor could be reshaped so it fits in the corner of a room, for better
placement. With the current one you have to place it flat on to the wall which isn’t
ideal.
The base unit, which is where the alarm sound comes from, isn’t fixed and you can’t
mount it on a wall as it’s clearly meant to be placed on a shelf somewhere. It has
an internal battery which X-Sense say is good for 12hrs so an intruder can’t just unplug
it to stop it going off. I don’t know how well it would survive if the burglar smashed
it to pieces with a hammer though, they only sent me 1 review unit and I don’t really
want to destroy it! However, you wouldn’t need to destroy it... all you have to do is
press the button on the front, and the alarm stops sounding. It doesn’t disarm the system,
but it does shut the alarm up until it gets triggered again - which seems a slightly strange
design choice to me. Why make it so easy to silence, with no credential check? They could
easily have included a keypad on the base station to require a PIN to silence and/or
disarm it.
Honestly, I’m surprised by how good this is. Admittedly I’ve only used it for a few
weeks so far, but everything feels solid and well built, everything works well, the app
has a premium feel to it and all at a very low price point. My only real complaint is
lack of interoperability with other devices but who knows, that might come one day.
If you want to pick one of these kits up for yourself, there’s a link in the description
and X-Sense have also generously given Switched on Network subscribers an extra 20% off until
the end of this year, 2021. If you found this video useful - give it a thumbs up, and subscribe
if you’ve not already. Thanks again to X-Sense for sending this over and if you want to further
expand your home security with either security cameras or a smart doorbell, you can watch
one of the videos on-screen now. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next one!