SKYBELL
SkyBell is a video doorbell that allows you to know who’s at your door whether you’re at home, at work or on the go. When a visitor presses the button, SkyBell sends you a live video feed so you can see, hear and speak to the person at your door from select iOS and Android mobile devices. SkyBell is the only video doorbell with a Motion Sensor, “On-Demand” camera access, invisible night vision and is made in the USA. SkyBell replaces your current doorbell, attaches to your transformer for full-time power, connects to your home’s door chime and securely connects to your home’s Wi-Fi network.
Good notices:
– Install and setup is relatively straight forward.
– Video comes up on the app quickly, generally within a second or two. This was a major complaint in first version.
– Push notification (on iPhone 6+) is near instant.
– IR illumination works in darker situations.
– Decent field of view from the camera.
– Motion sensor works.
– Old doorbell still rings when Skybell button is pushed.
Bad notices:
– The included small wire nuts/connectors are completely useless. The opening is too small.
– The set screw is ridiculously tiny.
– The video quality is not great. It looks like bad webcam photos from the 90s. See photo below.
– The motion sensor has some false positive issues. During the day in the morning, probably from sun peeking in and out of clouds. Another reviewer has reported this same issue.
– The motion sensor takes 10 seconds to trigger, which means it tends to miss UPS/FedEX drivers, who tend to just drop the box and run, and fail to trigger the motion sensor.
– When you open live feed, the audio is piped through by default.
All in all, a solid improvement over the first generation. Some of the issues will be worked out over time via software, and others will have to wait for the next hardware revision. It’s not perfect, but probably the best of its kind on the market right now.