Blink Outdoor 2K+ - Small Upgrades. Big Value

If  you've ever read any of my home security camera reviews, you'll know there are two things I come across all too often that really get my goat;

1: Having to pay a subscription to store recorded video from your own camera...

And 2: Having to pay a subscription to access all the features the camera has to offer.

There is a way around those two pet peeves however. Make both the camera and the subscription really cheap.

So Amazon might have me on a technicality with the latest camera from Blink.

People often ask me to recommend a home security system and I'm always a bit reluctant to do so because it really comes down to each individual use case. Someone living up a long drive on a lifestyle block in the country is going to have vastly different requirements to someone in a row of semi-detached town houses.

But if doing it on a budget is your primary concern, it's pretty hard to go past Blink.

Blink cameras, floodlights and doorbells all come with simply-designed, easy-to-install mounting hardware, the outdoor devices carry an IP-65 weather resistance rating and most items are fairly compact, so won't ruin the aesthetic of your outdoor decor.

In fact, the Blink Outdoor 2K+ comes in either black or white, so that helps too.

The name gives away the important upgrade here; the Outdoor 2K+ provides much higher resolution footage than the previous generation, which makes identifying visitors (or indeed, uninvited guests) so much easier.

The improved sensor also allows the Outdoor 2K+ to shoot colour video in much lower light than before. Once full darkness descends, it'll switch to black and white but the colour-capture window is definitely much longer now.

The 2K boost means a zoom boost too - a 4X close-up is probably enough to give you a fair idea of which package you were expecting has just arrived.

Like other Blink cameras and doorbells, the Outdoor 2K+ gives you the option of two-way audio through the Blink app. The difference being, now there's noise-cancellation so everyone is more likely to be heard over strong wind or traffic sounds.

Apart from the nifty and versatile mounting gear included in the box, I also love that Blink has gone with two Energizer lithium AA batteries to power the Outdoor 2K+ and that they're included too. That's up to 24 months wireless use before you need to swap them out, which makes the rechargeable performance of some other wireless cameras look quite pathetic, to be frank.

Just like most Amazon devices, setting up a Blink is child's play - although here's the first important catch; unless you have one already, you will need a Sync Module Core as well. This is the little wireless connection box that talks to all your Blink devices and links to your Wi-Fi network on their behalf. I definitely prefer this kind of setup over multiple cameras all connecting directly to your router, fighting each other and all your other IoT devices for network space. But a Sync Module Core is still an extra expense.

The other main caveat when going with Blink is that subscription thing I mentioned at the top.

To put it bluntly, the Blink Outdoor 2K+ is one of the least functional cameras out there... unless you have a subscription - which is free for you to try for the first 30 days.

Without a Blink Subscription Plan (starting from NZ$4.95 a month or NZ$49.95 for a whole year) all the Outdoor 2K+ will do is detect movement, notify you about it and give you the option to stream live footage from the camera for a maximum of 5 minutes at a time.

It won't record. It won't save the recordings it hasn't made in the cloud. And it won't tell you if it's looking at a car as opposed to a person either. Oh, you can't share those recordings that didn't get made or stored either.

A plan unlocks all those features - storing videos both locally and in the cloud for up to 60 days. There's a straight-forward choice between the Basic and Plus plan - Basic covers just one device, Plus - unlimited. And signing up to either plan gets you 10% off any Blink device and here's the important thing - they often seem to be on special anyway.

As much as it goes against everything I believe in to pay a subscription to use the basic functions of a thing you've just bought, even the Plus plan is only NZ$150 for an annual sub. Over a year, that's hardly anything and features like cloud storage and person/vehicle detection are pretty cool.

If you want something that's easy to set up (and add to), will run wirelessly for up to two years on one set of batteries and most importantly, will come in well under most budgets, Blink is a very difficult option to ignore.

    

Click here for more information and pricing on the Blink Outdoor 2K+.