SECURITYCAMERAS
ISSUE 378|COMPUTERSHOPPER|AUGUST 2019 101
FOLLOŠINGTHEARLOPro 2, the BT Smart
Home Cam might come as something of a
relief: proofthat you can get asmart security
camera on the cheap.
In fact, not only has the Smart Home
Cam dramatically undercut its rivals, it’s
done so in quiteasensible fashion, which
leaves the core functionality untouched.
It’s not without its weaknesses, but for
those in arelatively crime-free environment,
it’s acheap wayofgetting alittle extra
peace of mind.
ADIFFICULTWATCH
Before we get on to what the BT Smart Home
Cam does, it’s worth focusing on what it
doesn’t do,because that will quickly tell
you whether you need to spend more cash
or not. Forstarters, it’s intended forindoor
use only: it’s pretty flimsy,has no weather
protection and only supports power via
Micro USB, rather than battery or the fancy
Power over Ethernet (PoE) offered by the
Ring Stick Up Cam.
Nor will it stream or record footage in
1080p.It’s 720p all the wayhere,meaning
streaming is noticeably less sharp,especially
in night vision mode,which could make all
the difference between the police identifying
an intruder or not.
While exposure and detail are pretty
good, the frame rateisless so.Sharing the
video with YouTube it’s encoded at 15fps,
leading to avideo that’s pretty bumpy.
To be clear,nobody should expect
Oscar-worthy footage from asecurity
camera, and even the best don’t always hit
30fps. But 15fps leads to choppyfootage,
and hopes of spotting intruders based on it
could be hampered as aresult.
Perhaps its biggest weakness, however,is
how it treats cloud storage.It’s there,and it’s
free,which is abig plus. The downside is that
video isn’t part of the package.Instead, when
it detects motion, it takes aphotograph and
uploads it to the cloud where it can be
reviewed for30daysbefore it’s deleted.
If you want video of captured motion,
you have two choices. First, you can start
recording to your phone the second you get
amotion alert. That has afairly obvious
weakness: by the time you’ve reacted, the
moment you wanted to capture footage may
have gone,sothe alternative is better: bung in
amicroSD card of up to 32GB capacity.With
amicroSD card in place,the Smart Home Cam
will record short bursts of motion-triggered
BT
SmartHomeCam
★★★★★
£50•From shop.bt.com
VERDICT
Adecentbudgetalternativeto premiumsmartcameras,
butthelackofcloudvideostorageisadrawback
video,where it can
be reviewed and
downloaded using
the app.
That’s all well and
good, but it also has a
pretty obvious drawback.
If burglars enter the house
and spot the camera, then
removing the evidence is simple.
Youstill have the static
shot in the cloud as a
backup,ofcourse,
but it’s not the
same as avideo.
That’s about it
forflaws, however,
because forthe price it’s hard to argue with
what you’re getting. The 720p stream lacks
alittle detail compared with its 1080p rivals,
of course,but it’s obviously better than
nothing. And, as the camera supports
two-wayaudio,ifyou do spot intruders in
your house you can confront them remotely.CHILD FRIENDLY
There’s no siren but, given the general
flimsiness of the camera itself,that’s probably
agood thing, unless you want burglars to be
convulsed in fits of laughter until the police
arrive.Infact, while you can’t blast them withasiren, you can
remotely playarange
of lullabies and jingles,
revealing that you can
also use this as ababy
monitor,should you be
so inclined.
The BT Smart Controls app
is relatively barebones, but it gets
the job done and is easy to set
up.Itsupports up to 10
separatecameras,
which you can
label as you please,
and lets you set a
schedule to disable
motion detections, in
case the idea of being watched all the time
makes you uneasy.Sometimes we found the
app would take alittle time to respond,
however,especially when trying to access
previous days’ cloud photosnaps.
Still, forall of the above drawbacks, you
have to consider exactly how cheap it is
compared with the competition. Compare the
£50 price with how much some of the more
sophisticated weatherproofedkit costs, and
you can see why it might be fine to accept a
fewdrawbacks. The Ring Stick Up Cam goes
for£179 and then requires a£25-per-year
subscription to store video.That’s per
camera, with an £80-per-year subscription
if you want unlimited cameras.IN FORAPENNY
The D-Link DCS-2802KTiseven more
expensive,going for£300 forapack of
two cameras. Admittedly this is quiteabit
more sophisticated, and includes a
premium cloud storage package forvideo
right there in the box. The point is that at
£50, you shouldn’t expect the world from
the BT Smart Home Cam, but it’s remarkable
how much it can offer at such alow cost.
No,the frame rateisn’t great, but then
you’re looking forsecurity,not to capture
your most treasured memories.
Unfortunately forBT, however,there’s
more than one cheap smart camera around.
The Neos SmartCam is even cheaper,atan
almost unbelievable £20, and can save video
to the cloud forupto14daysatnoextra
charge.It’s still rather basic hardware-wise,
and also falls well short of 30fps recording,
but unlike the Smart Home Cam it can
manage 1080p.Ifyou’re after abargain,
Neos’s camera is the superior choice.