- What's the best doorbell camera of 2020.
What's the best video doorbell from
the Nest Hello to SimpliSafe,
the Eufy, the Arlo, the Ring, SkyBell and more.
I'm gonna compare them and my top pick
might actually surprise you.
Right now you guys are my top pick
for tuning back in.
Hi, I'm "The Deal Guy," Matt Granite.
Welcome back, if you've never seen me before
I hunt down deals,
and today it's a bit of a ding-dong for deals.
As I also help you save money.
There's many video doorbells on the market,
and I wanna show you the ones that have some new features,
some of the updates,
and of course,
a way to help you navigate through
a lot of what I would call misleading advertising,
tied to video doorbells.
A reminder, if you want that full breakdown,
it is on MATTSDAILYDEALS.com right now.
I do use affiliate links,
so if you're kind enough to use one of my links,
It will benefit you monetarily and things like
how to boost your WiFi
and what not to buy at Walmart.
And should you cancel your Amazon prime membership,
all topics I handle on a regular basis.
So let's start with the best picture quality
on any of the video doorbells.
While I compare all of these doorbells side-by-side
I'm also gonna show you how the system looks like
set up at my home
and what I can see on a regular basis
from my door.
If there's one smart home
video doorbell camera
that has hands down
the best picture
and the best video quality
I'm gonna go with the Vivint doorbell,
but I'm not gonna include this in my roundup today
because both the Vivint doorbell
and the runner up for best picture right now
are from SimpliSafe.
And they both require
membership plans and monthly fees
to even use the equipment.
SimpliSafe, you can install on your own,
but you do need a monthly fee to make it work for you.
And then the Vivint doorbell
requires a professional installation.
So I am gonna close these windows.
And these folks are gone from my breakdown,
as we say hello to Nest.
So if you're unfamiliar with Nest Hello,
I'm going to select this doorbell to begin with,
because this is one of the most advanced video doorbells,
since it has facial recognition
and on the more expensive side of the doorbells,
this might be worth your while.
So what do we get from here?
We get HD video night vision, 24/7 streaming.
You've got a good field of view,
and this brings something new
to the video doorbell spectrum,
which is called person alerts.
Nest Hello can tell the difference
between a person and a thing.
It can also remember profiles
for people, thanks to facial recognition.
Like most video doorbells,
when someone presses the doorbell,
you can talk to them.
You have a noise and echo cancellation
that is present on this device,
as well as prerecorded messages.
A while back,
I did an unboxing of a Zmodo video doorbell,
and it was one of the first in its price class
to have pre-recorded messages.
And if you look back on my old video for that,
I was very excited because
if someone hits the doorbell
and you're not near your smartphone,
or you can't answer
with one of your Alexa or Google enabled devices,
it's really nice to have
something that sounds like your home.
So this includes that feature.
It requires a wired doorbell,
a chime box
and the right transformer.
So not all homes are compatible.
This is not the easiest installation
based on its needs.
There's also the price of 229 US dollars
or 299, if you are in Canada.
And that is very expensive
for a video doorbell.
So I'm gonna knock that right out,
as I compare my favorite doorbells,
I'm looking for something that's capable,
something that doesn't have
a lot of monthly fees attached to it.
And something that you can afford
that provides great features.
The features on here
are second to none with that facial recognition,
but you do require a Nest Aware subscription
on top of that,
just to enjoy the video doorbell.
So if we take a look at some other video doorbells
that do not have a lot of monthly fees attached to them,
and I continue to narrow down
the ones I like and don't love.
The Eufy Security Wireless video doorbells,
a battery-powered camera.
And I like this
because it has local video storage.
So if you don't wanna pay a monthly monitoring fee
don't wanna pay any apps,
it is still expensive at $199,
but it is a very nice looking video doorbell.
I'm still not going to put this in my top pick just yet,
because while this does have human detection
and it does have some features,
I have not been blown away
by the responsiveness of this doorbell.
I know that sounds really weird,
but in some of the tests that I do,
doorbells timeout, when the WiFi isn't working,
or sometimes despite it being wired,
it doesn't trigger the chime box.
I haven't had a ton of success with this doorbell.
That doesn't mean everybody has that issue,
but I'm just going through
what I have experienced.
And I'm also going to knock out the Arlo video doorbell.
The Arlo video doorbell does not support
the IFTTT option.
It does not have Google assistant
and it's smart notifications require a subscription.
That aggravates me
because I like the built-in siren.
I like the night vision on here.
The picture quality is actually quite good,
but just to get the motion alert,
you need to pay a subscription fee
and I'm tired of paying subscription fees.
It's one thing to pay a subscription fee
for cloud storage.
I get that,
but just to have your doorbell
deliver an alert to your smartphone,
to let you know that someone's there.
The fact that that requires a fee
that aggravates me.
So I'm going to also say goodbye to Arlo.
And now as we go down to my top picks,
I've got three that compete in the top three spots.
And I'm gonna show you how they work as well as do
a full unboxing of SkyBell.
So the SkyBell has different models available.
It has a slim line video doorbell version,
which is $149.
And the prices obviously
will differ depending on when you're watching this.
And then you're going to find
the alarm.com branded versions of the doorbell.
This SkyBell would be
perhaps my number two
or number one pick.
If you wanna hook this up to a home monitoring system.
SimpliSafe is very good for that too.
But the SkyBell
is one of the most responsive cameras I've seen.
And I love the video quality on it.
Compared to the Ring that barely
ever times out.
I'm almost always able to pull a video feed.
I'm gonna show you right now
what this looks like.
Now, the sound of your hearing,
there's actually construction
on the house beside us,
so that's, what's coming through here.
But if I needed it to talk to someone through the doorbell,
someone is delivering.
I use the microphone and say, "Hello, hello."
And my voice is heard outside.
I can then hear the person through the audio.
If I determined that the person needs entry to the house,
I'm just gonna lower the volume for you guys for a second.
Very easy to do.
All I have to do is
enter the unlock button.
Then in a moment,
you're going to see that this front door unlocks.
(door unlocking)
Front door is unlocked.
I can see who the person is
and let them in.
This is the vertical display.
There's great night vision on this as well.
Let me show you some night vision.
This is the night vision on the camera,
and you could see it's making in
wonderful definition of what's going on in the neighborhood.
More importantly, this is not a very well lit front.
I don't have any additional lights on
other than that street lamp a little further back.
This is a phenomenal way
to see what's going on with your property.
You can set up push notifications.
So you know exactly
when your doorbell has detected motion.
You can even have the doorbell,
text your phone,
if it noticed something at a time of the day
that you specify,
or you could just keep it enabled
for all different types of environments.
You have the live video,
which is a feed.
Oh, and we can see someone's walking by right now.
Look at this.
I can even zoom.
This is all from the doorbell
and this person is not near my property.
That's the sidewalk.
And I can see what's going on.
Amazing, but more importantly,
if I wanna look back at older clips,
they're saved from the doorbell
onto my smartphone.
So let's go to a clip right here.
Let's go back to 9.10 in the morning.
Car drove by, detective movement.
I actually had my car
sideswiped not too long ago,
and I didn't have a doorbell camera.
Someone caused $8,000 in damage with the hidden run.
Now I have the ability to see that,
but more importantly,
I can download the clip
or if I wanted to share it to another device,
or perhaps it's something you wanna report
to the police or authorities,
you have the ability to share the doorbell clip
from your phone
to an email or a text message,
my Amazon drive.
However it is.
I wanna share the content.
I am fully in control
of what's going on,
on my property.
Here I am, doorbell.
Hit the doorbell,
I would automatically get a push notification,
but this is how loud the audio is.
Listen to this.
- [Recorded Voice] How loud the audio is.
Listen to this.
(truck moving)
- Now you're gonna hear the truck
- [Recorded Voice] Now you're gonna hear.
- that just drove by our street
came through perfectly,
but you can also speak to the person.
So this is what the person
outside your door would hear.
"Hello,"
- [Recorded Voice] Hello
- "This is the deal guy, Matt Granite."
Why are you on my property?
Now obviously it'd be much more intimidating,
but that works beautifully.
And again, you can see everything going on right now
from a doorbell.
We have right up there,
I don't know if you can see.
A more traditional surveillance camera
where it just wasn't capturing that well,
what was going on.
So I don't use that anymore.
This has become the primary camera.
I'm such a fan of everything
that I can do from the doorbell
in terms of home automation.
It goes on top of an existing doorbell,
very easy to wire, plug and play operation.
Really installation took a couple of minutes
and you do have a sensor on here.
It also flashes when it detects movement.
So you can easily see from the street
that there is surveillance in place on the property.
That on its own, is a great deterrent.
This is the control model panels for my SkyBell.
And if you use the Ring Security System or SimpliSafe,
it'll look similar to what you see right now.
I'm going to favor the SkyBell over the Ring briefly
because it doesn't have that barrel distortion.
I've just found the picture quality
a little bit better.
And I liked that it works with the alarm.com app.
The ring in Ring Video Security Systems
require a subscription to their own plan.
Alarm.com works with different providers.
But just to show you
some of the automation that I have set up
when the doorbell is pressed at night,
the lights go on.
That's a timeframe from 7:00 PM to 7:30 AM.
You guys wanna rob my house?
I'm giving you full instructions
on when I'm actually not home
and what you need to know.
I'm kidding, but obviously,
when someone presses the doorbell button,
it automatically starts recording.
I have found that the SkyBell is highly customizable,
and if you don't want it so sensitive,
in that it's not picking up every passing car
in front of my house,
I can adjust the sensitivity
as well as the LED doorbell quality.
For my alarm.com home automation system provider,
I have all of my cloud storage included.
I think it's up to about a thousand clips per month,
but if you are
looking to get more bang for your buck
and you don't wanna use as many gigs of storage,
set your quality
to lower than the typical HD,
assuming that you're not trying to make out
the license plates
of cars passing by
480 or 720, it'll give you a perfectly good picture
of everything going on.
And it doesn't take up
as much space in the cloud
as a video clip with higher resolution.
With that being said,
is the SkyBell my be all and end all
as that, the doorbell that I think you should go with?
If you wanna integrate a video doorbell
with a pre-existing alarm system,
I would highly recommend SimpliSafe.
If you're someone that has alarm.com in your community,
they're great as well.
But my runner up is
actually going to be the Ring video doorbell system.
And I like the Ring video doorbell system
is because they cater to all different types of people.
There is a battery-powered model.
There's the second generation of that
for $99 as well,
where you get HD
and it is wired.
There's the Ring video doorbell three,
which is new with advanced and improved motion detection.
It actually does a lot better through enhanced WiFi.
Works on pretty much any home.
There's the video doorbell three plus.
It's pre-world technology,
it shows you events and recordings
almost before they happen.
As strange as that sounds
and with the hard wired,
and then the elite option at $349,
which I think is total overkill.
You're going to find something for everyone,
even on the Peephole Cam,
even if you don't have a doorbell space,
you could use the Peephole camera in a condo,
an apartment, or a townhome.
And then the video doorbell with chime is great
because even if you don't have a chime box
and you wanna be heard from somewhere in your home,
you have that capability.
They even have video doorbells with a solar charger
for the new series of doorbells at 248.
So you've got a lot of versatility with Ring.
Before I show you
what I think is the best bang for your buck overall
and my favorite pick,
the Ring protect plans,
where you recording video from your devices
are also very affordable.
You pay $3 per month
for all of that cloud storage
and it's per device.
So if you have a Ring video doorbell camera,
and then another Ring floodlight,
somewhere in your home,
and then another outdoor camera,
it's $3 per device or $10 unlimited.
You kind of need to scroll down
to even see that on the Amazon page
or wherever you're buying it from.
But it's $3 per month per device,
or $10 per month per household,
which should include all your devices.
These work with Alexa and Google home,
and they are tremendous effective doorbells.
There is a new model
of the ring video doorbell coming up
with a release date of June 3rd.
It is going to be worth your while
in terms of design and specs,
from what I'm told.
I haven't gotten my hands on it yet
or done an unboxing.
But I am going to throw that in,
but why am I not flagging that
as the best overall bang for your buck?
Well, there is one other doorbell
that checks a lot of boxes.
It's inexpensive, and it's probably something
you haven't heard of.
And that's hopefully some of your payoff for watching.
You're gonna learn about a new product.
This is the Remo plus WiFi video doorbell.
Why do I like this video doorbell?
Well, it has many of the features
that are not even available at doorbells
that have a significantly higher cost.
It is an Alexa enabled doorbell.
And it does give you that 24/7 protection.
But on top of that, the doorbell gives you
cloud storage for free for three days.
If you wanna upgrade,
there are paid plans available,
but three days of cloud storage
included with this doorbell means,
for $98, at the time I'm recording this
right out of the box,
you get a doorbell that will record
everything that happens
in your neighborhood with two-way talk and night vision
all day long,
for a 72 hour period and generally
for package theft,
things getting stolen,
people on your property or trespassing.
You're gonna have an eye of recordings
for three days.
Check those recordings,
even if you're on vacation
and then let that cloud storage
reset for another three days.
And it is a really nice design.
It's a bit of a cheesy video,
but I like that (chuckling)
there's some friends playing tricks on each other
because why not sell a doorbell like that.
So while their marketing department
might have some interesting thoughts on this doorbell,
let's go through the features very quickly.
You get three days of rolling cloud storage,
paid plans are available for $3 a month
or 30 bucks for the year.
There are no monthly fees,
if you want that three days of rolling cloud storage.
That's amazing, or $30 a year for the paid plan.
If you do decide you want that continuous recording
beyond three days.
You get two-way talk,
you get HD video,
get a 180 degree field of view.
I will tell you guys,
as I said before,
the Ring video doorbells
have a little bit of barrel distortion.
My test of these, that has not been the case.
They were at the consumer electronics show in Vegas.
And I had a chance to play around.
The night vision on here is strong,
just as good as the SkyBell.
The motion alerts do not require a plan.
So just to remind you guys,
for Arlo, you do need to pay
to get their motion alerts.
For the Remo Plus you don't,
this is also weather resistant
and you can access this from multiple devices.
So if up to five people
wanna access the doorbell feed
from an iPad, an iPhone, an Android device an Alexa device,
you can use this.
This also works with Google assistant
and unlike the Arlo doorbell,
which doesn't support IFTTT, this does.
A lot of bang for your buck
and even on a price comparison right now,
all of these other larger cumbersome doorbells,
which are $10 less
do not check the boxes that this one does.
And if you look at some of the more expensive doorbells,
like the 135 Eufy,
even the Ring video doorbell,
you're not going to get that free cloud storage
and the obliteration of monthly fees
to use some of the basic features.
This also allows you to select areas
and perimeters on your smart devices.
So you can know if someone intrudes upon a specific area
or perimeter on your property.
It's great, it's affordable,
and it might not be the perfect choice for you.
I'm just flagging the doorbells
that I've used and tested and the ones that I've liked.
And you've seen what works in my home.
But that doesn't mean that any of these are right for you.
If you have another brand that you wanna recommend,
or if you've feedback
on any of the doorbells that you're using,
I would love to hear about that.
I do all sorts of outdoor and indoor surveillance tests
that have included Blink and Nest products
and Net gear, Net view,
even some of the Arlo cameras,
like the one you see behind me
have all done very well in my test for different things.
But my needs are specific
as someone that receives an inordinate number of packages
at my home on a regular basis,
with a two year old daughter
and a house that,
with how it's situated
is a highly visible home on my block.
And I wanna make sure that my house is protected adequately.
So let me know what you think.
Drop me a line, leave me a comment.
If you like what you saw,
please feel free to subscribe,
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And don't forget to check me out on MATTSDAILYDEALS.com
where all of my other deals,
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are alive and waiting for you.
Thanks for watching.
Stay safe, stay healthy.
I love you, bye.