The Wyze Cam v3 is an excellent camera for monitoring the inside or outdoor of your home. It only costs under $40, making it easy to suggest it as our new Editors’ Choice Award winner for affordable security cameras. Since releasing its game-changing home security camera a few years back, Wyze has constantly upgraded its flagship product, adding an outdoor version with the Wyze Cam Outdoor while keeping its outrageously cheap pricing. The best features of those two cameras are now seamlessly combined in the Wyze Cam v3, which makes it one of the most versatile and affordable security cameras on the market today.
The camera has seen a minor upgrade, which is a roughly 2 x 2 x 2 inch cube with edges softened and the black face changed from a circle to a square. On the interior, bigger alterations are to be discovered. The addition of color night vision is the most important of these.
Wyze Cam V3 review: Design
The Wyze Cam v3 is a simple white cube with edges that are roughly 2 inches wide. The bottom of the camera features a telescoping mount that creates it easy to tilt the camera in the direction you like. The face of the camera is black. The mount can be screwed into a wall or ceiling, but the business also sells magnetic discs and double-sided tape if you don’t want to attach it permanently.
The v3’s power source is hard-wired into the back of the camera, and a 6-foot microUSB cable links it to a USB adaptor socket. It gives you more mounting options for the camera outside, albeit not as much as the Wyze Cam outside, a totally wireless gadgets that is on our list of the best outdoor security cameras. The Wyze Cam v3 does, however, have one disadvantage in that, unlike the v2 model, it cannot be equipped with the Wyze Sense, a compact module that enables you to link the camera to motion and door/window sensors. It doesn’t matter if you don’t already have one because the Sense is no longer available.
Camera
The Wyze Cam V3’s CMOS Starlight sensor manages to capture passable-looking 1080p video when keeping an eye on things. Although there is sufficient detail to allow for object recognition, the 20 fps capture rate struggles with moving objects, which causes additional blurring. However, in our experience, the issue only arises when there is less ambient light present. Another issue is dynamic range, which results in overexposed highlights. ..
The Wyze Cam V3 is a high-quality night vision camera that produces crisper details and better color night vision than most other models. It is affordable, making it the perfect choice for anyone looking for a quality night vision camera.
Wyze Cam V3 review: Wider security features
The Wyze Cam v3 is a great camera for those who want to keep an eye on their property without having to be there. It has many features that make it easy to use, and it even sends notifications when there is danger nearby. ..
This demonstration demonstrates that the company has a deeper understanding of the security and privacy requirements of users. They enjoy the option for local storage via its microSD card slot, even if there is 14 days of cloud storage that saves 12-second clips. Because it can record time-lapse videos of practically any length, just like the Wyze Outdoor Cam, we advise making use of the microSD card. Two-factor authentication, a built-in siren that can be activated through the app, and a choice to electronically turn off the camera through the Wyze app round out the features.
Video and Audio Performance
The camera has the same resolution as the Wyze Cam v2 but a wider field of view (130 vs. 110 degrees), a lower aperture (f/1.6), a higher frame rate (20 fps day/15 fps night), and better night vision because it has twice as many infrared LEDs. Additionally, you can read our review of the Wyze Cam V3 here.
Despite the poor audio quality, the color night vision was accurate. We could see the house across the street, our orange pants, and the blue pots on our front porch. The camera’s motion sensitivity was sufficient for it to start following us from a distance of roughly 40 feet even at a 39% setting. At a distance of around 8 feet from the camera, we could make out what we were saying, but the audio quality was subpar.
We could clearly see every single leaf in the trees outside our home throughout the day, and the fall foliage’s hues were very vibrant. Audio from a distance of 8 feet was somewhat choppy, similar to the night video, but still audible. The Wyze Cam has a restriction that any movies it records can only be up to 12 seconds long with a 5-minute break in between each clip. However, if you choose Wyze Cam Plus, you’ll receive limitless video lengths and no cool-down times. A 32GB microSD card can be inserted into the camera to enable continuous video recording and time-lapse videos if you want longer videos but don’t want to subscribe.
Wyze Cam V3 review: App
The Wyze app has a lot of helpful features for home security, but it can be difficult to connect to some of them. For example, the camera’s screenshot is displayed in the Home tab; you must tap the screenshot to connect to the camera and authenticate it before you can view through it. Additionally, you can adjust the video resolution, record or take a picture of what is on the feed, sound the siren to frighten someone away, turn on two-way talk audio, or turn off the camera on the same page. However, some of these features require a Wyze Cam Plus subscription in order to use. If you don’t want to subscribe, some of these features may not be worth your time.
The camera system on the Samsung Galaxy S8+ allows you to customize its settings to make it more efficient and effective. You can set rules that control when a camera turns on, when alerts are sent out, and how notifications are delivered. Additionally, each camera feed is divided into 144 detection zones so that you can focus its notifications on specific areas of the screen.
Overall, we found the Wyze app to be easy to use and navigate. However, we did have some issues with notifications and how they were displayed. When we tapped an event notification, it sometimes wasn’t very clear what it meant. We would need to switch to the events tab to see all of the notifications that were sent.
The new event won’t appear until you refresh the page, at which point you can tap it to return to the live stream and scroll back to the previous motion. Why the notification doesn’t take you right to this screen is currently unknown. If you have a real smart home, you can use an Alexa or Google Assistant command to turn on or off the Wyze Cam v3 or use IFTTT to have its motion alerts turn on your smart lighting. ..
Price and availability
The Wyze Cam Plus subscription service allows you to detect people and record for as long as you like without it, the camera can only record for 12 seconds at a time.
Conclusion
The Wyze Cam is a reasonably priced, reliable, and offers two weeks of cloud storage at no cost. If you like, you may also utilize a microSD card for local storage. There are certainly more advanced cameras available, but Wyze continues to dazzle us with its high-quality, low-cost smart home products.
