In our Ecobee Camera Review, We discuss a couple of other cool new additions in the Ecobee lineup, too, including a range extender that will boost the performance of their thermostats in large homes.
The Amazon-owned smart home brand, Ecobee, is launching a new smart camera to compete with Nest, Ring, and Samsung. It’s called the SmartCamera, and it’s an upgrade to their current Insight offering.
Let’s face it; security cameras are becoming more and more of a necessity in today’s fast-paced world. You’ve got to have protection from possible bad guys and maybe even your boss or co-workers watching your every move! But there’s too much to choose from out there.
I mean, how many do you need? And what will work best for our customer base? I have used so many security cameras that I thought the Ecobee Smart camera would be just like the rest. Boy, was I wrong?
Home security cameras are more popular than ever, with new ones launching every day. You need to either be cheap or smart to stand out from the crowd. Ecobee, the smart thermostat fame, has gone the latter route.
Read also: How Long Does the Average Security Camera Store Footage?
Why do you even need a home security camera?
Instead of an alarm going off, you can rely on your camera to capture footage of the intruder. That’s what I thought too. After all, the Ecobee camera is there for you.
The Bottom Line
Ecobee’s Haven home monitoring platform is compatible with the Ecobee SmartCamera, which is a versatile indoor camera with built-in Alexa, digital pan and tilt, and other features. It’s a great product, and you should buy it on Amazon.
Pros
- Sharp image quality
- Digital pan and tilt
- Built-in Alexa functionality, HomeKit support
- Works with Ecobee Haven
cons
- Does not support IFTTT or Google Assistant
- Requires subscription for recorded video and notifications
If you like Ecobee smart camera, please buy it from our link; we get a small amount, and the price you will pay is the same as the actual price.
Ecobee SmartCamera Specs
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi |
| Integrations | Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit |
| Field of View | 180 degrees |
| Resolution | 1080p |
| Storage | Cloud |
| Two-Way Audio | Yes |
| Mechanical Pan/Tilt | No |
| Night Vision | Yes |
| Alarm | Yes |
The Ecobee Smart Camera (Price:$99) Amazon’sChoice is the latest addition to its family of smart home devices and is the company’s first home security camera. It is an indoor 1080p smart camera that gives motion detection and works as an Amazon Alexa device that can do every action an Echo smart speaker can.
Image quality is sharp, and the Alexa function works very well, but ultimately you can get more features for the same price with our Editor’s Choice, the SimCam 1S. Still, the smart camera is a solid alternative for Ecobee safe place users.
Design and Features
Ecobee Smart Camera combines sleek design with innovative features to provide the ultimate protection and convenience for your household.
1. Elegant Design
The Ecobee Smart Camera boasts a sleek and modern design that seamlessly blends into any home decor. Its compact dimensions of 5.4 inches tall, 2.2 inches wide, and 1.7 inches deep make it unobtrusive and easy to place anywhere in your home. The glossy black faceplate against a white enclosure exudes sophistication and style.
2. Versatile Mounting Options
Whether you prefer placing the camera on a smooth surface or mounting it on a wall, the included silver stand offers flexibility and ease of installation. The added mounting screws ensure a secure setup for peace of mind.
3. Voice Control and Alexa Integration
The standout feature of the Ecobee Smart Camera is its integration with Alexa. With the convenience of built-in Alexa action and mute buttons, you can control various aspects of your smart home ecosystem. From playing music, and running Alexa Routines, to receiving news updates, the camera doubles as a capable Alexa device, streamlining your daily tasks.
4. High-Resolution Video and Wide Field of View
Capture every detail with the camera’s impressive 1080p video resolution at 30fps. Its expansive 180-degree field of view ensures that no corner goes unnoticed, providing comprehensive coverage of your living space.
5. Intelligent Pan and Tilt
Take control of the camera’s view remotely using the user-friendly mobile app, which enables digital pan and tilt functionality. Additionally, the auto-pan and zoom feature tracks and focuses on moving subjects, ensuring you never miss a moment.
6. Enhanced Night Vision
Equipped with three infrared LEDs, the Ecobee Smart Camera delivers clear night vision video. This feature ensures that your home remains under surveillance even in low-light conditions, maintaining your peace of mind 24/7.
7. Robust Connectivity
The camera’s dual-band Wi-Fi radio ensures a stable and reliable connection to your home network, allowing for seamless streaming and remote access.
8. Powerful Processing Capability
With a 2GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, and 4GB of flash memory, the camera handles video processing efficiently onboard, minimizing delays and providing smooth operation.
9. Haven Service Integration
Pair your Smart Camera with Ecobee’s Haven service for comprehensive home monitoring. By integrating with other Ecobee devices like thermostats, occupancy sensors, and door/window sensors, you can automate actions based on your phone’s location, receive motion alerts, and access up to 14 days of cloud-stored video footage.
10. Motion Detection and Alerts
The Ecobee Smart Camera’s advanced motion detection capabilities ensure that any unusual activity in your home is promptly detected. When motion is detected, you’ll receive instant notifications on your mobile device, keeping you informed and aware of potential events.
The Ecobee Smart Camera stands out because of its elegant design, Alexa integration, high-resolution video capabilities, and seamless smart home integration through Haven. This camera provides comprehensive security features combined with the convenience of a smart home hub, making it the ideal addition to any modern household.
Ecobee Smart Camera Homekit Secure Video
It was difficult to use setup on an Apple device, it kept getting hung up and would have to be reset. When you’re on your fifth try, you have to go through an old-fashioned telephone tree-style voice reset process, which is beyond frustrating, because those two touch-sensitive buttons held simultaneously do that for you.
We got it set up using the Android app, and then it showed up in the Ecobee app, and we were able to complete the HomeKit pairing steps from there.
Is Ecobee Haven worthwhile?
Yes, The Ecobee Total Home Security Bundle work very well. I like that the device performs multiple functions, from temperature tracking to motion detection and live video streaming. The Ecobee camera is well-designed, and its built-in Alexa speaker gives it more functionality than a standard security camera.
Does Ecobee SmartCamera Require Subscription?
If you do not subscribe to Haven, you can still employ the camera as a standalone device, but you would not receive motion alerts and events are captured in a snapshot mode instead of a video clip mode.
Haven subscriptions will cost you $5 per month for the Essential Plan, which offers support for a single cam, or you can pay $10 per month for the Extended Plan with unlimited cam support.
Plus to Alexa and Haven compatibility, the Smart Camera supports Apple’s HomeKit and Siri voice commands.
Note: Still, it doesn’t support Google Assistant voice commands or IFTTT applets that would allow it to interact with third-party smart devices, at least not yet.
The smart camera works with the same mobile application (for Android and iOS) we can use to control other Ecobee devices such as the Ecobee Switch and the Ecobee Smart Thermostat device with Voice Control.
The smart camera home screen contains tabs for all of your Ecobee thermostats, cam, and sensors. The cam tab displays the name of the camera, the last captured image, and a View Live picture button. Tap that to start a live stream with buttons for two-way audio talk and panning.
If you subscribe to Haven, you’ll also see snapshot and video record buttons. At the top of the screen, you can switch from a Live view to a History view that displays thumbnails with timestamps for all recorded videos.
Tap any thumbnail to view the video, download, or delete it. A gear icon in the upper right corner takes you to a settings screen to enable Autopilot, configure motion settings (activity, motion zones), and allow Window mode, which disables the infrared LEDs to eliminate glare when the camera is facing a window.
Back at the home screen, there are four buttons at the bottom. The Home button returns you to the home screen. The Activity button takes you to a screen where you can view events from all of your Haven devices, including camera motion events, arming and disarming events, and triggered sensor events.
The Vacation button is used to configure thermostat settings for when you are away on vacation. The Account button brings you to a screen where you edit your home information and location and anonymously donate thermostat data for research purposes.
What is in the box?
- SmartCamera with voice control
- Dual Mount Stand
- Power Supply
- Wall Mount Screw and Drywall Plug
- Quick Start Guide
- Mounting Guide
How to set up Ecobee camera: Installation and Performance
The smart camera is easy to install, but you’ll have to download the mobile app, create an account, and create a Home before you start. Tap the plus icon in the upper right corner of the home screen, select the camera from the list of products, and follow the instructions to power up the camera.
After 10 seconds or so, when the LEDs go from white to amber, tap Good to Go and select the camera when it appears in the device list. Select your Wi-Fi SSID and tap Next to have the app add the camera to your network and device list. Complete the installation by naming the camera, selecting a few settings (Window Mode, Autopilot, Notifications), and updating the firmware (if necessary).
It looks like someone took an Ecobee Smart Thermostat and put it vertically, with a matt white shell and glossy black front. Two touch-sensitive controls on the top turn off the microphone and use the built-in voice assist.
The Ecobee SmartCamera performed well in testing. I received instant notifications when the camera detected motion, and recorded video was immediately available on the History screen with a Haven subscription.
The image quality was sharp and colorful, with no obvious signs of distortion, and the black-and-white night video showed good contrast. I had no trouble viewing video from the camera on an Amazon Echo Show, and it worked flawlessly in my HomeKit scenes. Two-way audio was clean, and the siren was loud enough to be heard throughout my house.
The camera also worked well as an Alexa device, although its speaker lacks bass response and is not well suited for playing music. It always responded to requests to control Alexa-enabled smart devices and never failed to give me the current local news and weather when asked.
Author Experience
My husband and I were excited about the idea of this product too! We currently use the Amazon Cloud Cam, which we both love. Unfortunately, our main issue was that it was so cost-prohibitive. If a home has lots of windows and doors, a video system will fail after a while.
The Cloud Cam has great picture quality, but there isn’t much one can do if you have lots of pets or kids. For example, we are in the process of adopting a puppy and wanted a more reliable system for monitoring activity around our door that allowed us to assess whether anything I am going to happen the next time he came to visit.
The Ecobee SmartCamera is one of the few security cameras we’ve seen that can easily replace an Echo Dot. The built-in Alexa functionality makes it a formidable competitor for any Echo smart speaker, even if you don’t end up using the camera functionality.
In terms of value, the smart camera still works out to be $30 more expensive than the SimCam 1S due to its bundled smart thermostat, but that’s not an unreasonable premium to pay for an indoor security camera that provides home security features.
It appears that smart home security cameras are more popular than ever, with new ones launching every day. If you want to stand out from the crowd, you need to either be cheap or smart. Ecobee, of the smart thermostat fame, has decided to go the latter route.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for a versatile indoor security camera that does more than detect motion, the Ecobee SmartCamera is worth a look. It lets you use your phone to see what’s going on in your home and acts as an Alexa device that can give you the news and weather, play music, control Alexa-enabled smart devices, and more.
The camera delivers sharp video, but you have to subscribe to Ecobee’s Haven service to view recorded video and receive motion notifications.
It is a worthy addition to any existing Ecobee ecosystem. Still, you get more bang for your buck with our Editor’s Choice, the SimCam 1S, including face recognition, mechanical panning, free local video storage, intelligent alerts, and support for Google Assistant voice commands and IFTTT applets.
If you like the Ecobee camera, please buy it from our link; we get a small amount, and the price you will pay is the same as the actual price.
Frequent Ask Questions
Does Ecobee have a monthly fee?
Is there a monthly fee for Ecobee’s smart thermostat? No, the Ecobee smart thermostat does not require a monthly fee.
How does Ecobee ECO+ work?
It works by automatically adjusting the temperature for energy savings when it detects you’ve left and quickly restoring your comfort settings when you come back.
Is Ecobee making an outdoor camera?
You need to pay $5 per month to access a 30-day camera backup. It doesn’t call the police by itself (that might be OK for you). Ecobee doesn’t yet make outdoor cameras or smoke detectors.
Does the Ecobee camera work without Wi-Fi?
The Ecobee Smart Camera can be set up using an internal LAN network and HomeKit. To record video, receive the latest security and feature updates, and see live video from anywhere, it is recommended to connect your camera to a network with an internet connection.
How do I record my Ecobee camera?
Open your Ecobee app and select the camera you wish to record video from, then select Record. To stop recording at any time, tap Stop. Manual recordings have a maximum length of 2 minutes.
Is there a monthly fee for Ecobee?
Is there a monthly fee for Ecobee’s smart thermostat? No, the Ecobee smart thermostat does not require a monthly fee.
Buy Ecobee Home Security Camera
The Ecobee Home Security Camera is an affordable home security camera that is easy to install, easy to use, and has a built-in night vision feature. This wireless indoor security camera can be used indoors or outdoors and it is compatible with most major brands of alarm systems.
It has a long-range wireless range and its motion detection features are very good. The Ecobee Home Security Camera is a wireless indoor security camera that is easy to install, easy to use, and has a built-in night vision feature. It is compatible with most major brands of alarm systems.
The Ecobee Home Security Camera System is a wireless indoor security camera that monitors your home 24/seven. This product provides you with real-time, easy-to-use video and audio recordings of any area in your home. You can easily check on what’s happening at home at any time, even when you are away.
This system is ideal for homes with children or elderly family members. This system is designed to work with an Ecobee thermostat to help you stay comfortable in your home and save energy.
Ecobee SmartCamera Indoor WiFi Home Security Camera.
EcoBee’s SmartCamera is a wireless security camera that uses the latest in technology to provide an intelligent home surveillance solution. The smart camera includes a built-in motion detector, a night vision camera, and a speaker so you can hear and talk to visitors.
The EcoBee SmartCamera Indoor WiFi Home Security Camera also features a one-touch access key, so you don’t need to worry about forgetting the code. With its easy-to-use app, you can check the status of your cameras and remotely view live video from anywhere with internet access.
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