APPLE CHOICE
A smart security camera provides affordable peace of mind when you’re away from home
The popularity of security cameras has led to a bewildering range of products to choose from
There’s been plenty of publicity for smart speakers in recent months, especially with Apple’s HomePod about to go head to head with the Amazon Echo this Christmas.
But the real driving force in the smart home market is a lot more straightforward – it’s security. That’s hardly surprising, as we all want to make sure our homes are secure, and for many people the first smart device that they’re likely to buy for their home will be a security camera. The popularity of security cameras has led to a bewildering range of products that you can choose from – a quick look at maplin.co.uk shows 81 cameras from dozens of different manufacturers.
We can’t fit 81 cameras into a single issue of MacFormat, so we’ve rounded up the latest products from six of the most popular and reliable manufacturers. They may not be the cheapest cameras currently available, but they all provide a good range of features that will be useful for most homes.
The key feature, of course, is motion detection – the ability to spot movement in a room and warn you about a possible intruder when you’re away from home. A good security camera will also provide a night vision mode that allows them to work at night, or when the lights are turned off. All these cameras can use an app to send a notification to your iPhone or other mobile devices to tell you that they’ve spotted something – or someone, if they have face recognition features as well – and they can stream the live video image over the internet to your iPhone so that you can see what’s going on. But the cameras we review here provide plenty of other features as well.
Most cameras run off mains power, which means they just sit in one place within your home, but we’ve made a point of including Netgear’s battery-powered Arlo Pro as a more portable option. The Arlo is also weatherproof, as is Logitech’s Circle 2, which makes them a good option for outdoor use, perhaps to keep an eye on a garden or car park area. So take a look at these top cameras and decide which one will provide the best protection for your home.