With a longtime status for high quality sensible lighting, albeit at a hefty value, Philips Hue is a well-known brand. A transfer into the saturated safety market could appear incongruous, however there are causes to purchase a Philips Hue Safe digicam. Belief, reliability, and seamless syncing with Hue lights will tempt some, however distinctly common specs, the necessity for a subscription, and the shortage of HomeKit assist make it a tricky promote for others.
Closing in on a month with the brand new Philips Hue Safe wired digicam, I’m impressed by the efficiency and the tight integration into the prevailing Hue app. However the want for a Hue Bridge and a subscription to unlock the most effective options is off-putting, and there are various extra reasonably priced choices in our best indoor and outdoor security camera guides.
Strong Design
{Photograph}: Philips
The Philips Hue Safe digicam is available in black or white with a magnetic mount and a 3-meter (round 10-foot) energy cable that slots into the underside of the digicam and is completely connected to the facility adapter on the different finish. It seems like an oversize Google Nest Cam. It feels sturdy and scores an IP65 ranking, which implies you should use it outdoors, although the massive energy adapter received’t match some out of doors sockets. There’s a greater, battery-powered, wireless Hue camera that’s higher suited to the outside, although it prices an additional $50 and now we have not examined it but.
I put in the Philips Hue Safe digicam in my workplace and opted for the model with the desktop stand, which value an additional $30. The sturdy magnetic mount makes it straightforward to regulate to your most popular angle and it slots into the weighted desk stand securely. There may be additionally cable administration on the underside, however I’m nonetheless not satisfied the stand is well worth the further outlay.
A easy QR code scan had my digicam up and operating inside a couple of minutes. This can be a 1080p digicam with a 141.2-degree subject of view that allows you to maintain tabs on a large space, although there’s some fish-eye distortion. The footage was crisp and clear, and I discovered the digicam coped fairly nicely with combined lighting and motion. There’s additionally strong evening imaginative and prescient in black and white. Connectivity-wise, the digicam helps Zigbee and each 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz Wi-Fi. I discovered it was comparatively swift to load the livestream and there was nearly no lag.
Movement notifications have been dependable and got here by swiftly to my Pixel telephone and iPhone 14 Professional. A helpful nonetheless body from every video offers you an thought of what the alert is about, so you’ll be able to resolve whether or not you could evaluation it. You possibly can livestream and set blackout zones, and all video is end-to-end encrypted, so solely you’ve entry. When you have a Hue Bridge ($60) and Hue lights, you’ll be able to set the digicam to set off them. For instance, you may need an intruder set off flashing pink lights.
I had the digicam in my workplace set off the Hue lights within the room and was capable of set them to totally different ranges based mostly on the time of day. It’s neat and works barely higher than a movement sensor, turning the lights off extra swiftly once you go away. The Take Motion button reveals choices to swiftly name an emergency contact or 911, activate shiny lights to see higher, and a slider to set off the siren and flash your Hue lights. You may also faucet the Discuss button for two-way audio, which provides first rate sound high quality and nearly no lag, making it straightforward to hold on a dialog.
Slick Integration
To get the most effective from this digicam you want the Hue Bridge and lights, and a subscription. You possibly can both pay $4 a month or $40 a 12 months for a fundamental plan that covers one digicam, or you’ll be able to pay $10 a month or $100 a 12 months for as much as 10 cameras. Each plans unlock video clip recording to the cloud (there’s no native storage choice), exercise zones, and AI-powered detection able to figuring out individuals, animals, packages, and automobiles. The Fundamental plan offers you 30 days of cloud storage and the Plus plan ups that to 60 days.
