Sens8 - Review 2022

If you lot're looking for a domicile security camera that does more than simply provide live and recorded video, check out the Sens8 ($169.99). This slick-looking photographic camera not only delivers sharp 1080p video, only is equipped with temperature, humidity, motility, and sound sensors that volition allow y'all know exactly what is going on at home when y'all're not there. It also has 8GB of internal storage and will link to your Dropbox account if you want to store video in the cloud. It lacks some of the features of our Editors' Pick, the $199.99 iSmartAlarm iCamera Keep Pro, only functions well as a standalone camera if you like the environmental sensors.

Design and Features

With its tapered aluminum enclosure and slender contour, the Sens8 is one of the more attractive security cameras we've seen. It stands 7.2 inches tall, ii.7 inches wide, and two.seven inches deep, and sports a matte silver finish with black accents. The front of the enclosure holds a 1080p camera that captures video at 30fps and has a 127-caste field of view. It uses a single infrared LED to provide up to 20 feet of night vision. Only beneath the camera is a move sensor, and around dorsum is a power button.

The top of the photographic camera holds a speaker and an ambience lite sensor, and there are humidity and temperature sensors in the base along with a ability jack, a microphone, and an LED indicator. The LED is solid blue during normal operation, solid red when the internal battery is low, and flashes blue when the camera has lost its connection to the router.

The internal lithium polymer battery is rechargeable and volition provide upwardly to 90 minutes of reserve ability in the event of a ability outage. Inside is an ARM 9 processor, an 802.11n (2.4GHz) Wi-Fi radio, and a 95dB siren. There's also 8GB of eMMC storage for recorded video, and yous tin link the Sens8 to your Dropbox account to automatically eolith recorded video and snapshots in the cloud.

Unlike cameras like the iCamera Proceed Pro and Nest Cam IQ, the Sens8 does not interact with other smart home devices and does not support Alexa phonation commands or IFTTT recipes, but it does back up geofencing and volition automatically arm and disarm itself based on your location.

It is controlled using a mobile app (available for Android and iOS) that opens to a home screen that displays the outdoor temperature (based on your location), the indoor temperature, and the electric current indoor humidity level. If you tap the outdoor reading you'll see a brief clarification of the electric current weather, and tapping one of the indoor readings displays historical temperature, humidity, sound level (dB), and low-cal level (Lux) graphs. Just below the three readings is a Health Index rating based on the room'southward current humidity level compared with the minimum comfortable indoor humidity level of 45 percent.

The center portion of the dwelling house screen contains a video console with the last captured paradigm and a play arrow. Tap the arrow to launch a live stream you can view in full-screen mode by turning your phone sideways or by tapping the four-fashion pointer button at the lesser. Also at the lesser of the screen are buttons for taking a snapshot, sounding the siren, initiating 2-fashion sound, accessing the photo album, and changing the video resolution. Oddly, there is no video tape button.

Back at the dwelling house screen there are Style, Events, and Me buttons at the bottom. The Mode push takes you lot to a screen where y'all can Arm and Disarm the action notifications, create an Arm and Disarm Schedule, and enable Auto-Arm, which uses geofencing to arm and disarm the system based on your location. Use the Warning Rules button to plow on the siren and notifications for the movement sensor and gear up temperature, humidity, and sound thresholds that will trigger an alert. The Events button displays a listing of all detected activities with a playback button to view the recorded video. You tin share video clips via messenger, email, and Facebook, or delete them from the list. The Me button takes you to a screen with Device Settings for Wi-Fi, Time Zone, Siren Sounds (at that place are three), and Firmware Updates.

There'south also a My Profile option where you lot can link to Facebook and Twitter accounts, reset your countersign, and enter emergency phone numbers. Utilise the Link to Dropbox option to have video and photos directed to your Dropbox account.

Installation and Operation

The Sens8 was like shooting fish in a barrel to install. I downloaded the app, created an business relationship, and tapped Aye when prompted to add together the camera. I followed the on-screen instructions to plug in the AC adapter and place the camera on a flat surface. I pressed and held the power push button for a few seconds, and waited another 2nd or two for the yellow LED to begin flashing. Next, I selected my home Wi-Fi SSID, entered my password, and hit Connect. I was prompted to turn my phone's book all the fashion up and position the speaker of my phone shut to the forepart of the camera. My phone began making a swishing sound, which the app explained was its style of communicating with the photographic camera. After x seconds the light turned solid bluish and the camera was paired with the app. I named the camera, updated the firmware, and was done.

The Sens8 provided crisp 1080p video with first-class color quality when displaying a live feed, and black-and-white night vision video appeared sharp and well lit out to 20 feet. Recorded video looked only as expert as the alive feed and at that place was no obvious barrel distortion. The camera's motion sensor worked well, every bit did the other sensors: room temperature and humidity levels matched upwardly with readings from a Nest Learning Thermostat, and audio detection had skilful range. Two-style sound was loud and clear, and the siren was loud enough to exist heard throughout my firm.

The camera e'er followed my arming schedule and the Car-Arm feature never failed to arm the camera when I left the firm and disarm information technology when I returned.

Conclusions

The Sens8 is an attractive home security camera equipped with multiple sensors that monitor motility, audio, temperature, and humidity levels in your home. It streams live video and records motion- and sound-activated video and stores it locally or in your personal Dropbox binder. Live and recorded video appeared sharp in our tests, motion detection was accurate, and the camera'due south temperature and humidity readings were spot-on too.

That said, it's not the best choice for anyone looking to incorporate a camera into a smart home environment as information technology does non interact with other connected devices or respond to IFTTT triggers or Alexa voice commands. For that you'll demand a camera similar our Editors' Option, the iSmartAlarm iCamera Keep Pro. Not only does information technology support IFTTT and Alexa commands, it delivers splendid 1080p video, uses local and cloud storage, and offers lots of neat features including time-lapse recording, motion tracking, and mechanical pan and tilt.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/review/19311/sens8

Posted by: treadawaygrathand.blogspot.com

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