There are several excellent home security cameras available for less than $100. As Yi Dome Camera X ($59.99) strives to stand out from the crowd, it succeeds to some extent. This low-cost home security camera includes motion detection, can differentiate among pets and people, as well as stores free, easy-to-access 6-second video recordings. However, it only accomplishes every one of these things well.
What you will see here?
Yi Dome Camera X: Design
A Dome X is a 5 x 3-inch domed cylinder which spins 340 degrees on the 2.5-inch circular base and therefore is identical to the Yi Kami camera. A 2.5-inch glossy black hemisphere covers the lens, which can tilt vertically 95 degrees & contains eight infrared LEDs.
In the base, there’s a micro-SD slot, a 6.5-foot power chord that plugs into a mini-USB connector in the back, and a tiny 1.5 x 1 x 1.75-inch USB power adaptor that won’t block nearby outlets. A Dome X 1080 pixel camera supports 128-bit WEP, WPA, and WPA2 security methods, as well as the option to generate a PIN to limit camera access.
Yi’s smartphone app (iOS and android) is well-designed, responsive, and simple to use. The icons are common and self-explanatory in most cases. The controls are easy to learn and operate.
Motion Tracking & Cruising
The Dome X, such as the Wyze Cam Pan, Yi Kami, and EZVIZ C6CN, can spin 340 degrees and track a person who walks through a room. In this aspect, I felt that the device performed admirably – certainly better than that of the Wyze Cam Pan. The Dome X, such as the C6CN and Kami, became confused and stopped tracking whenever a guy walked within around 2 feet of a camera.
For overall surveillance, You enjoyed Dome X’s Cruise function (which is comparable to Kami’s). When you utilize Cruise, the Dome X will rotate at a defined pace for up to 340 degrees and halt lasting 10 seconds at up to eight pre-programmed spots. If the camera detects motion when cruising, it will track and record it, then resume cruising once the subject has passed out of view.
The Yi app features controls that allow users to physically tilt & pan the camera, as is common with motion-tracking cameras. This allows you to see about the room.
Video Quality
The Dome X’s 2-MPs, 1/2.7-inch CMOS sensor & glass lens capture good daytime video, with no difference in image quality depending on whether motion tracking is enabled or disabled. Although features tend to also be pixelated & distorted, the exposure and color were decent, features were discernible, and motion blur is limited. In terms of capturing and recognizing intruders, the resolution was slightly better than that of the Wyze Cam Pan, however, the differences were negligible.
The Dome X illuminates a dark room with eight infrared LEDs; night-vision films were adequate (with and without motion capture), but it’s not as clear as the EZVIZ, C1C, or C6CN. Details were a little blurry (albeit not as much as the Wyze Cam Pan), & polarisation produced data dropout, yet faces were identifiable.
Audio
Half-duplex Intercom (just one person may talk at a time) and full-duplex, hands-free audio are the two forms of two-way audio (Both people can hold a conversation.). Both techniques worked well in my experiments, albeit there was a lot of static. However, the noise of the spinning motor was extremely loud in the motion-tracking films.
Motion Detection
The motion-detection feature of the Dome X is so good that when the camera identifies a person. The app almost always sends an alarm and records a video.
However, the Dome X lacks or has restricted motion detection controls compared to other cameras. The camera, for example, is unable to establish zones inside the camera’s view where motion should (and should not) trigger warnings. And its motion detection scheduling tool adjusts to only three-time points for the whole week. Albeit any time (such as 8 a.m. to noon) could be applied for several days.
The Dome X, according to Yi, can tell the difference between people and dogs when I switched on Human Detection. However, even with the sensitivity set to Low, the small black dog frequently register as a human. When we called the company, we were told that “the engineering group at YI is in the process of enhancing and refining the person detection feature,” but no date was provided.
Sound Detection
The Yi Dome Camera X, unlike most low-cost security cameras, detects strange sounds as well as motion. There are five levels on the sound sensitivity scale, ranging from 50 decibels (conversations) to 90 dB (dB) (very loud, harmful, dangerous). You get an “abnormal sound” notification and a video was shot to play when a tape of a baby sobbing and adjust as per the audio sensitivity to 60 dB.
Convenient Time-Lapse Recording
The Yi Dome Camera X can record time-lapse videos, but it does so in real-time and requires the operator to set it up manually. You can condense up to 12 hours of recordings into a 5- to 30-second clip. If you purchase a cloud service. Even if you will not have a cloud subscription, you can still compress for up to 6 hours.
Video Storage
Yi does not require a subscription to access a 6-second video of any detected movement or sound. Wyze, which archives 12-second clips to a cloud and allows unlimited access to 14 days of recordings, is comparable.
Those 6-second recordings are frequently all you need to determine what or who is in your house. I found it much easier to acquire to save these 6-second alert films locally than the longer recordings uploaded to the cloud.
Furthermore, the camera supports a micro SD card with a maximum capacity of 128 GB (not included): To review infiltration videos, you won’t require a cloud plan.
Yi has two plans if you desire cloud storage.
With up to five cameras, the Standard plan simply saves motion-detected movies. A standard, rolling seven-day plan would cost $19.99 for three months or $66 annually, a 15-day plan would cost $9.99 per month or $99 annually, and a 30-day plan cost $14.99 per month or $149 annually.
The Premium subscription allows you to upload 24 hours a day, seven days a week for a single camera. This could then be accessible via a timeline. A Premium rotating seven-day plan would cost $19.99 for three months ($66 per year), a 15-day plan is $9.99 per month ($99 per year), and a 30-day plan is $19.99 per month ($199 per year).
If you’re a cloud member, this will record for as long as the incident is moving. If you save to a micro-SD card, the amount of data you can save and store the data limit as per the card’s capacity.
Conclusion
The Yi Dome Camera X does have a lot going for it: HD video, strong motion tracking. A unique Cruising mode, complimentary 6-second warning videos, and a well-designed app, to name a few things. The EZVIZ C6CN ($69.99) has fewer features and capabilities. But it produces superior night footage and gives you greater control over the motion-detection settings. If you’re on a tighter budget, its Wyze Cam Pan ($29.99) offers lower-quality footage (although faces are still discernible) but a good range of capabilities. When making your decision, consider which features and functionalities are most important to you.
