Logitech Hd Pro Webcam C920 Webcam

At a Glance

Expert'south Rating

Pros

SD slot for storing footage, which means no deject storage fees
First-class viewing angle

Cons

Connection issues were a constant business

Our Verdict

The camera itself takes good enough images, but the apps are disappointing.

There aren't many pies that Samsung doesn't have its fingers in these days. From smartphones to vacuums, Samsung has a version of pretty much annihilation y'all desire to buy, only with such an enormous latitude of products, it's difficult to sweat the details. I've used many a Samsung production that falls victim to a lack of focus, and the SmartCam HD Pro is a perfect example.

While information technology's a very capable security camera that promises to keep a close eye on whatever needs watching, the SmartCam Hard disk Pro (model SHN-P6410BN) suffers from an overall lack of imagination and attending. Throughout the course of my testing, the SmartCam presented enough problems that I was never quite sure if information technology would work, a frustration that overshadowed everything I liked near it.

Looks familiar

Samsung has a history of mimicking market leaders to go its products on shelves as quickly as possible, and in this case, Dropcam was clearly the inspiration. Unlike its competitor'due south matte-black metallic enclosure, however, the SmartCam's body is made of glossy white plastic. It doesn't necessarily feel cheap, but information technology'southward a far weep from a premium product, and I got the impression that it wouldn't hold up to much corruption. Setup using the included Ethernet cable was mostly painless (a WPS-supported router won't need one), though I needed to download a proprietary plug-in before I could brainstorm the procedure.

samsung smartcam 3up — Yous tin can mountain the SmartCam to a wall or stand it on a shelf.

A tiny lite lets you know that the camera is connected and running, and once it turns green, the SmartCam can operate solely over Wi-Fi. It rests nicely on its small stand, which doubles as a wall mountain, but the power cablevision sticking rather inelegantly out of the back limits its placement somewhat.

You tin meet what your camera is monitoring via the Android and iOS apps or over the web, and each is able to display streaming video in total 1080p. The video was certainly sharp and vibrant, just the overall clarity didn't quite seem up to Hard disk drive standards, and quite frankly, I didn't see a major difference in quality when switching to 720p. The photographic camera position tin can be slightly adjusted when using the stand up, but 128-degree viewing angle does a fantastic job of of showing a very wide area, with only minor fish-eying at the edges.

Video woes

While both the website and the mobile apps beam video with surprisingly little lag, each offers its ain set of frustrations. On the web you'll notice a more expansive array of professional options, including "avant-garde" move and sound sensitivity sliders that control how often you lot receive the appropriate notifications. There's not much of a middle basis, though—either I was bombarded with dozens of alerts every few minutes or I barely received any at all. My experiences with other security cameras and baby monitors utilized smarter notification systems correct out of the box, and I'd like to see Samsung accost this in the future.

samsung smartcam screen — The 128-degree viewing angle tin can see almost a whole room at once.

The mobile apps might not exist much to look at, but they do a overnice job of protecting your camera from prying eyes by utilizing a pair of passwords. However, connexion was a abiding issue; I spent a lot of time in the low-resolution relay fashion (sometimes even when sitting just a few anxiety away from the camera), and while difficult-wiring it to my router as suggested helped some, it still inexplicably struggled to get a stiff connection at times. And there were more than a few times when I couldn't connect at all, including one stretch that lasted several hours. A mid-review firmware update went off without a hitch, however, and the camera seemed a bit more reliable later on a restart.

My viewing issues weren't limited to the mobile apps, either. Halfway through my testing I stopped being able to log in to the SmartCam web portal on my MacBook, and every browser I tried continuously prompted me to redownload the plug-in that was already installed. Samsung's back up was picayune assistance, just it may have been a Mavericks-related issue, since I had no problems on an iMac running Mountain Panthera leo.

samsung smartcam screen2 — The mobile apps showed decent video when they were able to connect to the camera.

Mobile-only features like born lullabies and 2-style talk, although the speaker was rather muddled. Samsung does non include whatsoever deject storage options for the SmartCam, only if y'all want to relieve a clip locally, it does offer a handy SD carte slot. It'due south a decent solution that requires a bit more than maintenance than Dropcam's version, just it'll save you a bundle in recurring fees.