Withings Home
Is This Your Business?Author: Kaitlyn Short
Withings Home is a compact home security camera that shoots in full HD with a 135-degree lens. Its cloud storage capabilities are comprehensive and provide a logical way to organize your home's video-captured events. The device also scans for air quality and sends detailed reports straight to your phone. It's an impressive consumer device for a reasonable cost.
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The Good
- Image Quality
- Cloud Storage
- Built-in Scanner
Image Quality
The image quality of the Home is considerable for how small the camera body is. You wouldn't expect much after first glimpsing the non-threatening device - fashionable, small, and with a decorative faux-wood finish that helps it blend into most interior design styles. But the camera can monitor an entire room from nearly any location (its lens is wide enough that you won't have to confine the body to a corner).
Cloud Insurance
The cloud storage that Withings offers is particularly useful not only as a security measure, but as a way to preserve your favorite memories. The software organizes the moments in a "diary" format allowing you to peruse moments by the day they were captured. You get two full days of storage free just by purchasing the camera, but you can get up to 30 days for only $20 a month (or you can choose a 10-day option for $8 a month).
Built-in Scanner
The built-in air quality scanner definitely makes this camera stand out among the rest. It scans a room and then sends the results in a graph format straight to your phone. It tracks the information over a series of days, letting you know what's changed and help you pinpoint what might be causing a dip in air quality. This makes it an ideal tool for households with small families (and small family members).
The Bad
- No Panning or Zooming
- Time in Business
- User Support
No Panning or Zooming
Though the lens on the Home is extremely wide, the device can't pan or zoom the image. You can do so digitally within the static frame, but this isn't very helpful when you need to explore new areas of a room. To adjust the perspective, you have to manually adjust the camera body, and there is no way to do this remotely.
Time in Business
Withings itself is pretty new to the industry and hasn't had time to perfect its security camera. They have been around since 2008 manufacturing a series of health monitoring devices; this security camera is a fairly new addition to the group. While their previous experience does bring about the innovative air scanning feature, this doesn't guarantee their expertise in the home surveillance field.
User Support
Addressing problems and seeking user support isn't as easy to navigate through on Withings site as it is on their competitors' websites. All problems are addressed in a kind of "FAQ" format, and any unique questions must be emailed in. Withings also does not offer free shipping, something that most of their competitors consistently guarantee. They are a France-based company with a less hands-on approach to customer support - this can be a problem when it comes to technical issues.
The Bottom Line
The Home is by far one of the more aesthetically pleasing home security camera units on the market. It is unassuming and decorative, all the while managing to be powerful and detailed in its image capturing abilities. The cloud storage system is very useful and intuitive, one of the most simple organization methods yet employed by security systems. This is a great starter camera for homeowners, and possibly for business owners with small office spaces.
