Vivint Smart Home is offering its customers a new video doorbell with several advanced features, including artificial intelligence that can detect the presence of a package left on your porch—and warn any thief who might try to make off with the goods.
The Vivint Doorbell Camera Pro boasts a 180- x 180-degree field of view, so it can capture a broad swath of your porch—vertically as well as horizontally. Its video resolution is just a bit higher than anything we’ve reviewed to date: 1,664 x 1,664 pixels, but video is streamed in 1080p HDR. Infrared night vision is also on board.
Vivint’s Smart Home app displays recently captured events. Tap the center of the clip to stream a live view from the camera, or Events to see a time-stamped list of videos for any given camera.
Vivint says its video doorbell can distinguish between humans, animals, and passing cars, and that it will send notifications only when people appear at your door or when packages have been delivered. The camera will continuously monitor any parcels left at your door, and it will warn anyone who approaches the package by flashing a red LED light ring and sounding a 65dB tone on its speaker to let them know they’re being monitored.
The new Vivint Doorbell Camera Pro has a 180- x 180-degree field of view, so it can capture packages left on your doorstep.
Like Vivint’s existing video doorbell, the Doorbell Camera Pro supports two-way audio, so you can speak with a visitor via your smartphone or Vivint’s smart home control panel.
Because it’s part of Vivint’s broader smart home system, buyers will be able to create automation rules that trigger actions on other devices when visitors are detected, or only when a visitor rings the doorbell. If a smart switch controls your porch light, for example, you could create a rule that turns the porch light on when someone rings the doorbell at night. The new doorbell can also use Vivint’s smart home hub and Ping indoor security camera as remote chimes.
The Vivint Doorbell Camera Pro will cost $249, a price that includes 14 days of clip storage for each Vivint camera in your home. This can be expanded to 30 days of continuous recording to local storage with the purchase of a $249 1TB Vivint Smart Drive.
A Vivint Smart Home starter kit consisting of a smart home hub, two door/window sensors, one motion sensor, a water detector, and a $100 credit for additional sensors. The kit costs $599, plus a one-time installation charge of $99 (the installation fee is sometimes waived if the company is running a promotion). Monthly service charges start at $39 and include professional monitoring. Customers who choose to finance their system purchase through Vivint will need to sign a service contract. No contract is required if you pay for the hardware up front.
Author: Michael Brown, Executive Editor, TechHive
Michael is TechHive's lead editor, with 30+ years of experience covering smart homes, home networking, and home audio/home theater. He holds a BA in Multimedia Journalism, authored the book Desktop Video Production, and was awarded Best Online Review by the Computer Press Association. Michael built a smart home in 2007 and used it as a real-world product-testing lab. Now living in the Pacific Northwest, he is converting his 1890 Victorian bungalow into a modern smart home. Michael has worked at CNET, PCWorld, Electronic Musician, and Maximum PC. As a freelancer, he contributed to New Media, Camcorder, MacWeek, and more.