Uniden Guardian App Cam 26
Is it worth the price premium?
Originally released back in 2014, the Guardian App Cam 26 is starting to show its age. The hardware is still passable, delivering HD recording with solid image quality and a neat two-way speaker, but the software shows its rough edges with a poorly designed interface in rather heavy need of upgrading.
Although its interface may need an overhaul, there were some things we definitely liked about the software. The mobile apps provide more power to customise and control the cameras event and recording settings than most comparable apps. With a lot of the competition, the apps are there mostly for viewing feeds and events, while the web interface did the heavy lifting of configuration. Uniden’s mobile app gives you more control over the settings than most, without needing to open a browser, though to get right down to the gritty stuff you still will need to access the (somewhat intimidating) web interface. And integral cloud service lets you view feeds on your mobile from anywhere.
The quality of the live stream was okay when we tested, and the same can be said of the night vision. Faces were recognisable (it’s still HD after all), and colour and saturation balance was good in both night and day modes, but there was notable compression loss.
Although it was a good product when it came out, the Guardian App Cam 26 is merely an average one today, failing to justify the price premium over the competition. It’s not a bad product by any means, but you can do better.