Eufycam 2 Pro Duo Pack

Never found a good product in the past when it comes to wireless surveillance cams. Or bad battery, or high cloud service subscription costs, or no integration with HomeKit, or bad picture.

With the release of the Eufy 2K, I saw all my needs fulfilled and went on a deeper investigation. A few ambiguities remained. Unfortunately for the first time in my life I was disappointed by Coolblue's customer service: no satisfactory answer from them. Maybe people still have this problem. I will write it down in my review.

In another review on the non 2K version of the Eufycams I read a bug related to motion notification. This would only be triggered when moving sideways. Doesn't work (anymore) with the 2K version. The movement is properly registered in every possible way and the recording starts if desired. The Eufycams are linked to Apple HomeKit at my house. The motion detector also triggers my garden lighting in this way. This really works great every time.

Then I wondered if the cams could be mounted "out of the box" on a house wall. Finally, they should be rotated 90° to visualize the garden path running parallel to the house. This is not possible with the magnetic holder, the 'screw holder' succeeds in this. However, you have to remove a small piece from the screw (cut, melt) in order to be able to turn the camera holder further. Works fine BUT not at night using the IR leds. The installation manual also warns about this: the IR LEDs are so bright that your wall appears strongly lit in the dark and the path to be monitored is no longer visible. The IR LEDs can be switched off. With external (infrared) lighting, monitoring in the above manner can be achieved.

In the Eufy app, the cameras can be set to generate a notification in every possible way. At home, not at home, at certain hours, etc. When set to "with thumbnail", the AppleWatch user also sees a photo of the object that triggered the movement. Very important added value if you are often at the wheel. Attention, a disadvantage for HomeKit users: the AppleWatch shows you a notification, but no photo of the trigger like the Eufy app does.

In terms of notifications, HomeKit (paired with a hub) and the Eufy app are about equally fast. With the Eufy app you can have a conversation with the camera within ten seconds after notification. Here we immediately come to another disadvantage for HomeKit users: listening is possible via HomeKit, but unfortunately not speaking. Too bad, because thanks to my Netatmo doorbell I know that "two way" audio is supported by that platform.

The following statement is not 100% sure, but here it looks like: The cameras seem to opt for a connection via WiFi if this is stronger than the connection to the Homebase. I have a camera that is 100m (with several walls) away from the Homebase. Good wifi in that spot and perfectly stable connection with the camera as a result. Another camera is close to the Homebase, with one wall in between, but previously bad WiFi. That camera also gets a strong connection and works very stable.

Reviewing the battery consumption is still too fast. Linked to HomeKit, I certainly don't seem to be getting the 365 days promised. The cameras that are located in places where there are between 10 and 20 notifications on my domain daily, have already dropped to 93% battery capacity after a week. One guards the carport and it is only triggered when getting in and out of the car. It still has a nice 98% after a week. Naturally, a lot of testing and adjustment was done in the first two days, including assembly and associated perils. In any case, not many alternatives will do better today. It's perfectly usable.

In a fairly green environment, the stark white camera catches the eye very clearly. This can be an extra problem in theft-prone areas. On competing sites there are black covers for sale to wrap the cams with. There are two of them on the way at the time of writing.

The anti-theft siren is very noticeable in a residential area like ours. When testing this system, I immediately got some curious looks. If you live next to a busy job, this will certainly not suffice.

All in all a wonderful system. I initially wanted to fully integrate them into Apple HomeKit to save recordings with HomeKit Secure Video. However, the Eufy app with its local recordings works much better (and cheaper) than HomeKit Secure Video. Certainly the lack of thumbnails on the AppleWatch with HomeKit and the lack of two-way audio also in HomeKit makes this system less interesting.