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Gabe Turner: Hi, everybody!
This is Gabe at Security Baron, and today we're talking about the Honeywell Lyric C2
WiFi Security Camera.
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Gabe: If you'd like to read our full review on the Honeywell Lyric C2 WiFi Security Camera,
Google "Security Baron + Honeywell Lyric C2."
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Gabe: If you have any questions, leave us a comment below and we'll get back to you.
Let's get started.
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Gabe: Honeywell is a company you may be familiar with, because just like GE, they've created
a lot of the products that have gone into everything surrounding us.
Nowadays, Honeywell sells a number of products for your smart home including thermostats
and home security cameras, which we will be reviewing today.
The Honeywell Lyric C2 WiFi Security Camera boasts the following -- 1080p full HD, two-way
audio, night vision, local and cloud storage, intelligent sound detection, and the fact
that it comes with four adjustable zones.
Before we do a deep dive using the Security Baron Necessary Features Test, let me tell
you my initial thoughts right out of the box.
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Gabe: Immediately grabbing the Honeywell Lyric C2 WiFi Security Camera out of the box, you
will note that it's quite weighty.
It's about the same size as most of the cameras that we've seen here, but it definitely feels
hardier despite the plastic exterior.
It has this interesting design around the lens, almost like descending teardrops.
It has this full-metal silver backing that holds the lens in the camera in place.
It has mounting at the bottom.
You have the rubber here so you can mount it to a wall or anything that you'd like.
What's really interesting is that it has this complete tilt.
You know now, if you were to mount it, you can do it this way or you can do it that way.
That's pretty good to know to have.
On the back of the camera, you've got this slot for the micro USB cord, that's how you
power it, and a really cool design.
You can actually plug it directly through and there's that exit for the wire in the
mount itself.
That's a nice little touch that they've added on the Honeywell Lyric C2 WiFi Security Camera.
Of course, in order to know whether the Honeywell Lyric C2 WiFi Security Cam fits your smart
home security needs, let's run it through the Security Baron necessary features test.
The Lyric C2 WiFi Security Cam comes with 1080p full high definition, and the clarity,
the video cast, everything looks beautiful.
It also runs at 30 frames per second which is great so you get a nice fluid view of any
motion.
Some of the cameras we've seen only run at 24 frames per second, and it is noticeable.
Additionally, you got 6x digital zoom so you can really square in or check out exactly
what you want to see in any particular frame from any angle.
It doesn't matter where it's happening, you have the digital zoom capability.
One thing we really liked was the 145-degree wide angle.
A lot of the cameras we've seen are 112, 120, or sometimes even 130-degree field of view.
The 145 in the Lyric really was noticeable and it captured everything going on in the
room which we placed it.
You add that to the 6x digital zoom, and you're not going to miss anything going on.
Overall, the Lyric C2 WiFi Security Camera's video quality meets or exceeds the Security
Baron Necessary Features Test when it comes to a stellar video.
Here at Security Baron, we think every camera needs two-way audio.
It's one of the elements of the Security Baron Necessary Features Test, and here the Lyric
C2 does not disappoint.
It has intelligent sound detection with this embedded microphone.
You can actually distinguish between a baby crying, CO2 alarm, or smoke alarm.
These are all options for to tell you what it hears.
On top of that, you can talk back directly in the app by clicking on the microphone.
You can speak and hold it like a walkie-talkie.
As long as you're holding that, it will play the sound that you'd like directly through
the speakers built in to the camera.
In terms of two-way audio in the Security Baron Necessary Features Test, we give the
Lyric C2 full marks.
Here at Security Baron, we think that night vision is really important because in our
worst nightmares, the reason why we might need a security camera happen at night.
Here we have to say that we're a little bit disappointed in the Honeywell Lyric C2.
While it does have four infrared LED lights, we don't know if that's enough.
It's supposed to be able to give you 32 feet of night vision.
We saw that at 8-10 feet, things really became blurry and it's hard to make out exactly what
is going on.
In terms of the night vision Security Baron Necessary Features Test, we can't give the
Lyric C2 full marks.
Another Security Baron Necessary Feature is cloud and local storage options.
Fortunately, the Lyric has both local and cloud storage options.
Out of the box, you get the past 24 hours of video clips for free in the cloud and you
get an 8-gigabyte encrypted micro SD card included for backup local storage.
You can upgrade those cloud storage options for $499 a month, or $4,999 a year.
With that, you get the past 30 days of video clips in the cloud with a maximum of 1,500
clips.
You can also upgrade your local storage from the encrypted 8-gigabyte micro SD card to
64 gigabytes of backup local storage.
Here at Security Baron, a necessary feature is Smart Platform Integration, and it might
be one of my favorites.
The Lyric C2 does not disappoint with the way that it works within the Amazon ecosystem.
You can sync it with the Alexa, enable the skills, and tell it to do various things.
Alexa show me what's going on with my Honeywell.
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Gabe: Look!
I'm on TV.
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Gabe: One thing we do really know is that it only comes with the Amazon Alexa ecosystem
integration.
It would have been nice to see a Google Home or an Apple HomeKit integration.
That's just something that if it's not branded from a particular company, we'd like to see
more functionality.
Overall, it works well within the Amazon Alexa ecosystem.
Here at Security Baron, artificial intelligence is one of our necessary features because it
gives us things like facial recognition.
The Lyric C2 WiFi Security Camera only has intelligent sound detection.
It can distinguish between a baby crying and a CO2 alarm, but that's about it.
We can't give it full marks in terms of artificial intelligence.
The Honeywell Lyric C2 WiFi Security Camera comes in a little bit more than $100, depending
on from where you buy.
Now, it is a pretty good value considering its Amazon Alexa integration, its really great
video quality, two-way audio, but at its price point, we would like the night vision to be
more in par with its competitors.
Generally, we give it full marks for its value.
Another Security Baron Necessary Feature is convenience.
Setting up the Honeywell was one of my better experiences.
I was able to take it out, plug in the little micro USB cord, and be up and running within
a few minutes.
Of course, I had to set up a Honeywell account, which is something new for a lot of us.
I set it up.
I didn't have any issues.
It paired with my phone really quickly.
Generally in terms of convenience, it worked pretty well.
Now convenience also plays into the app, so let's jump into that now.
The app is pretty bare bones.
From the beginning, you can just see the camera that's on.
I can click in there and me to start loading the live feed.
Doesn't take it long at all.
Here I am, watching exactly what's going on.
You can do a snapshot here, takes a picture of what's going on.
You can talk directly to the app.
Try to turn it on.
Try to tell it to talk.
It's a bit like a walkie-talkie.
Gabe on Speaker: Talk.
It's a bit like a walkie-talkie.
Gabe: And I can hear what's going on other side.
Gabe on Speaker: And I can hear what's going on other side.
Gabe: Cancel that.
Gabe on Speaker: Cancel that.
Gabe: Here are the four zones that you can set up.
Premium come out, checking your membership.
Here's where you add monthly or annual cloud storage.
You can set up the geofence.
We've read some reviews that the geofencing on this particular camera wasn't the best
and sometimes you will leave your space and it wouldn't actually arm itself.
We can't really speak that much on it, because it did work for us when we left this space.
This is a pretty straightforward, relatively intuitive app.
If I wanted to add more cameras or devices, I can do so right from the first page.
We want to show you the Honeywell Lyric C2 Security Camera video quality.
As you can see, the 1080p video resolution is on par with some of the better cameras
that we've seen out there.
What we really liked was the 145-degree field of view.
Most of the cameras we see that are stationary from 112 to 120, or maybe even 130 field of
view.
145-degrees is really great.
Of course no one can compete with the 350-degree pan of the iSmartAlarm, iCamera KEEP Pro,
but for a stationary camera, this is pretty excellent.
We also have a 6x digital zoom.
You can really lock in there, or any one particular thing that you'd like to see.
At 30 frames per second, you have a really fluid video.
Ultimately, we have to give the Honeywell Lyric C2 Security Camera full marks for its
daytime video.
We want to show you the night vision on the Honeywell Lyric C2 Security Camera.
As you can see right from the outset, it's not particularly clear.
It's much more blurry than some of the other cameras we've seen.
It's maybe due the fact that while it does have LED infrared sensors, they're only four
on the camera, whereas some of the other cameras that we've worked with, they have a lot more
infrared sensors.
Accordingly, the quality on the Honeywell Lyric C2 is not as great.
Even if I go into digital zoom, you can see the difference in how well, or rather, how
unwell [laughs] the image looks on the camera.
As you can see from the video, it just went out.
We're not exactly sure why it tends to go off pretty often during night vision, but
the fact the fact that it does keep to go off does raise some concerns for us here at
Security Baron, because you don't want a live stream of something happening in your home
at night to go off at night right in the middle of watching it.
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Gabe: I wanted to provide an overview of some of the things I liked and didn't like so much
about the Honeywell Lyric C2 WiFi Security Camera.
Of course, the daytime video quality was amazing.
The 1080p came through really well.
The 145-degree field of view was excellent.
It was really fun to take that view and to throw it on to the Amazon Fire TV directly
with the Amazon Alexa integration.
The smart platform integration when it comes to Alexa was great, and the video quality.
The flipside of that coin is that we'd expect more from the night vision, considering how
well it looked in the daytime.
The four infrared LED sensors didn't seem to capture anything that was happening.
Not from 32 feet as they claim, not even really 10 feet.
With that, we wish that we could have seen some smart platform integration with Google
or HomeKit, but it definitely worked well when it comes to Amazon Alexa.
The question we ultimately want to answer is if the Honeywell Lyric C2 WiFi Security
Camera works for you and your smart home security needs.
If you're looking for a reliable easy to set up camera with crisp 1080p, full high definition
video, the Honeywell Lyric might be for you.
If you're not in the Amazon Alexa ecosystem, or you place a lot of importance on night
vision, you may want to look in another direction.
If you appreciate this video, give us a like and subscribe to our channel.
As always, this is Gabe at Security Baron.
Be secure.
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