GADGET GURU
Better cam batteries, cooking crisps and green-thumbed gadgets
AWith Guru Labs currently out of commission following an unfortunate and mysterious ‘leakage’, your white-coated hero is unable to give definitive answers here. Instead, let’s throw a big pinch of salt at some manufacturer claims and see which battery lies look the most plausible.
Swann’s Smart Security Camera (£130) is plenty cheap, but its battery life is poor, stated to offer you a month yet offering Guru, in his previous tests, about a week. Netgear states four to six months in ‘normal use’ for the entire range of Arlo cams. That’s not exactly amazing, particularly once you’ve subtracted a month or so for pessimism reasons or to account for those oiks constantly galloping around your perimeter, though it may be worth it for the somewhat superior imaging you tend to get from Arlo cameras.
The Ring Spotlight Cam Battery (£160) apparently perseveres for six to twelve months (or 1,000 notifications, whichever’s soonest) though given that it offers the option of second battery you’ll likely to be able to drag a fair amount more life out of it if you’re happy to invest.
For the real battery champ, we need to look to Amazon’s other security offshoot, Blink: the Blink XT2 (£100) can apparently keep on trucking for a couple of years on just a pair of AA batteries. Even if it doesn’t, that’s about the most convenient option for re-juicing, no? Guru would be more inclined to whip out the power drill and install a wired camera, but you do you.
The Blink XT2 (£100) can apparently keep on trucking for a couple of years on just a pair of AA batteries