ecobee SmartCamera – Indoor WiFi Security Camera, Smart Home Security System, 1080p HD 180 Degree FOV, Night Vision, 2-Way Audio, Works with Apple HomeKit, Alexa Built In

A capable Smart Camera, but it really requires the monthly Haven subscription to be useful
I’ve got to say I really like the SmartCamera. The video is clear, the night vision works well, and the 180° field of view is really nice. The virtual pan it does while following someone’s motion makes it seem like the camera is really physically tracking them (when “Person Detection” is enabled).The camera integration with Haven (for storing and showing recorded video) is really good. I’ve had no issues with it at all. Upload seems to be happening just fine (I have good WiFi coverage and a fast pipe into/out of the house). Playback is quick with no hiccups. With Haven I can get a notification on my phone when it detects motion, as well as look at past saved clips (2 minutes lone) in the history view.A nice thing is that the thumbnail image in the history view is from the point of detected motion/person, even though the saved video starts about 5 seconds before that. However, sometimes I see that the thumbnail is about half a second too soon – I have a bunch that just show a person’s arm (as they were walking into view), whereas half a second later the whole person would be in the frame.A downside is that the Camera seems completely useless without the monthly Haven subscription. I used it that way for a week before I activated the Haven 1 month trial. There seemed to be nothing I could do outside of looking at the camera live. It might have been nice for there to be at least the most recent detected activity available if Haven wasn’t in use. I plan to let the Haven subscription expire after the free month to again compare the available features without it. For instance, I’m pretty sure the ‘Activity’ tab on the app only appeared after I enabled Haven.I was also very surprised the ecobee.com account portal (non-app) doesn’t include the camera at all. That means the only way to view the camera it is with the phone app.The built-in Alexa is fine, but we really don’t use it. The camera is in the front hall, and it sometimes picked up us talking to the Echo in our kitchen, so we ended up muting it’s Alexa to avoid that .2 minor negatives:(1) the camera gets pretty warm. It pulls about 3.5W continuously while monitoring (during the day; I don’t have the measurement from night vision mode).(2) it makes a loud click when turning on and off the night vision infrared lights. Turning on the lights near the camera makes it turn off the IR LEDs and make the noise. Depending upon where the camera is located, this noise could be annoying.I also had a minor issue setting up the camera. When my phone would switch to the temporary WiFi ssid the camera created, it would detect no Internet access and switch to phone data, causing the setup to timeout. Simply make sure your phone doesn’t do that (turn on airplane mode, then re-enable WiFi, and then setup the camera).

Not up to their usual standards
I’ve been using the Ecobee System for 7 years across almost as many houses. Their thermostats are second to none and I always recommend them for their ease of use and interoperability. So I was very excited to move into my new home and upgrade to a Premium thermostat to start using the new smart home items. Unfortunately these cameras are not up to their usual standards.I’d love to comment on their capabilities, video quality etc. But I have yet to make it past the install steps. The first thing you need to do is a 10 minute update. No problem, except the camera will often disconnect mid way through causing all sorts of issues. Every time it fails, it’s another 10 minutes. It’ll make it to the end of the process and then send an error message “Something went wrong on our end”.I called tech support and they’re super helpful. The poor woman was on the phone with me for 40 minutes before leaving for a meeting. She gave me things to try after hanging up, but nothing. At one point the process totally broke my two factor authentication forcing me to use my recovery password and then delete an reinstall the app. I’ve wasted over two hours on this and am sending it back.

ecobee is my go to for smart home security and HVAC control. Always great quality products and great customer support.

I’m a fan of ecobee because of their quality made products. However, the subscription based storage is unacceptable. I know the subscription is not just for storage but also for other features of the camera that will be activated, such as fire alarm monitoring.