Have you toyed with the idea of getting a home security system but worried about the cost? Well, Blurams may just have the answer you’ve been waiting for. The Outdoor Pro security camera offers affordable home monitoring that includes AI facial recognition, web connectivity for live 24/7 monitoring and cloud recording, and night vision, all for less than $75. Is there a catch? This is our Blurams Outdoor Pro review.
Specifications
- Retail Price: $71.99 ($55.99 with our discount code until 6/30: BLURAMSCODE)
- Power Supply: 3 Meters Cable DC 5V/2A Micro USB
- Operating Temperature: -20℃ – 60℃
- Viewing Angle: 129° wide angle
- Image/Audio Enhancing: 3D Noise Reduction, 4X digital zoom, Distortion correction
- Image Sensor: 1/2.8″ 2MP CMOS Sensor
- Video Streams: 1080P
- Night Vision: 2*high-power infrared LEDs (850 nm) with IR cut filter & >7m distance & Super LoLux 0.1Lux/F2.0(COLOR), 0.01Lux/F2.0(BW)
- Alert Information: Sound/Motion/Human Detection
- Microphone/Speaker: Hands-free Two-Way Audio
- Local Backup Storage: Up to 128GB Micro SD
- Cloud Storage: 1 month 7 days all-day plan for free then Standard and Premium plan available
- Supported App: Mobile: Android/iOS (Windows Phone not supported) in 1 integrated app and PC Web App
- Video Coding: H.264+
- Wireless: IEEE 802.11b/g/n
- Protocols: 64/128-bit WEP, WPA/WPA2, WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK, WPS
- Weather resistance: IP65 rating
A Real World Review
First off, I want to note the context of this review. Usually with the products I take on, I already have a great deal of experience. I write from a comparative standpoint. Today’s review is different. While I know a lot about cameras as a creator, I’ve never used a home camera system before. Like many of you reading this, I had toyed with the idea of a home security system for some time but never bit the bullet to invest. The Blurams Outdoor Pro system is my first foray in security cameras, so that’s where I’m writing from.
This gives me the unique opportunity to write from the same place many readers will find themselves in. As one of the most cost-effective options on the market, the Blurams Outdoor Pro offers a suite of compelling features: Full 1080p capture, motion and sound activation, night vision, facial recognition, and more for less than $60 per camera with our discount code. How are they pulling that price off? There has to be a catch somewhere, right?
I won’t leave you hanging: there is a catch, but it’s minor, and if the end result is an excellent camera system that doesn’t cost a fortune, I think it’s worth it.
What Does It Offer?
As the name implies, the Blurams Outdoor Pro is an outdoor IP camera. It’s made to be mounted and includes the hardware and mounting guide you’ll need to make that process easy. It’s made of plastic but is IP65 rated, so it will be safe in the rain — just don’t shower it with a hose or you’ll risk water damage. It’s not the smallest camera in the world, but I don’t mind that. It’s unobtrusive, but also, I kind of want a potential home intruder to see that they’re being recorded.
The camera connects to your home network, which enables one of its most important features: 24/7 cloud storage. Each camera supports SD cards up to 128GB, but the camera is also able to save up to a week’s worth of recordings to Blurams cloud service. The cameras come with a 30 day free trial, which becomes $4.99 a month ($49 a year), per camera. You can increase your storage capacity up to 15 or 30 days at an additional cost that tops out at $14.99 or $149/year per camera. I like this because, well, if I were a home intruder, I might just decide to wreck or steal a visible camera. Cloud storage saves the burglar from running away with the evidence that could put them away.
The cloud plan also provides facial recognition capabilities to each camera, which is truly neat. Using the smartphone app, I was able to register my family and it would reliably recognize them if it could get part of their face. When motion detection would trigger, the notification sent to my smartphone would identify them by name.
The WiFi implementation also means that these cameras offer Alexa integration, which enables live monitoring, or web monitoring anywhere you have a connection. I personally love being able to pull up a live video feed no matter where I am, especially if I have packages being delivered. I could even see picking up a couple more of these cameras to use inside the house, especially to keep an eye on the kids while they’re home with the sitter.
The night vision mode is also excellent. It’s very reactive to light, so light colors underneath a porch light tend to glow, but you can clearly make out details in faces and objects.
The motion and sound detection is also quite good. The system will automatically activate when it detects movement or hears a sound beyond normal wind noise. It reliably picks out people within the scene and will send a notification identifying it as a family member or an unknown “somebody” having activated it. I’ve found this especially interesting at night time with different animals that might make their way into our yard, though I’ve had to customize notifications so I’m not woken in the middle of the night.
If you do happen to get cued in to something bad happening, each camera also has a built in alarm that you can trigger. It’s loud and there is no way an intruder or pesky animal won’t hear it and likely go running.
What’s especially nice is that virtually all of this is available without paying for cloud storage. Notifications, motion and sound activation, live monitoring, smart integration… all of them work out of the box. I’m not able to mount my camera sufficiently out of reach, so I value cloud storage, but if you’re able to, and also don’t mind sacrificing facial recognition, these could easily be one-off purchases to reliably monitor your home.
Installation and Impressions
Installation is where we find the “catch” for the Outdoor Pro. One feature these cameras don’t offer is a built in battery. That means they need to be plugged into a wall or wired into your mains. Mounting the camera is incredibly easy — just screw in the mount, but the lack of battery can be a dealbreaker if you don’t want to drill through a wall or work with wiring. In my case, I have outdoor outlets, but even then, if I were a burglar, I’d just unplug it which again reinforces the value of cloud storage. I wish there were a version of this camera that offered a built-in battery, even if it cost more.
That said, as a newcomer to home security cameras, I’ve been very impressed. Before trying the Outdoor Pro, I had no idea you could get these kinds of features with this kind of image quality for so cheap. It’s been a real eye opener.
As a 1080p camera, the image is crisp and clear. It uses a tiny sensor and is made for security, so you shouldn’t expect 60 FPS or immaculate detail, but it’s leagues better than I anticipated and could easily grab a clear picture of a face or whatever area you’re recording.
The web integration and notifications systems really turned out to be the most important parts for me. Receiving notifications that I could then pull up immediately on my phone offered exactly the kind of reassurance I was looking for. What’s more, I found that I used it beyond pure “home security.” The doorbell rings and it’s a solicitor? Now I know it’s safe to ignore. Waiting for a package and worried the delivery person won’t wait for your signature (or is mistreating your packages when no one is looking)? The Outdoor Pro notified me while they were walking up my sidewalk, giving me enough time to meet them.
For the money, it’s honestly been phenomenal.
Final Thoughts
The lack of battery aside, the Blurams Outdoor Pro is an impressively full-featured package for the money. As a newcomer to home security cameras, I was very impressed at how easy it was to get set up, the video quality, and the wide suite of features it offered. Without exaggeration, I would have expected a system like this to cost twice or even three times as much. The Blurams Outdoor Pro is an incredible value and an excellent choice for you first home security system.
