Blink Video Doorbell | Two-way audio, HD video, motion and chime app alerts and Alexa enabled — wired or wire-free (Black)

I love this product so much, if i need to get another wifi camera, it will likely be another blink.

I have not been compensated in any way, for this review.

Does everything ‘as advertised’.

First – the bad news:

it should be mentioned there are two parts: the ‘wall-mount bracket’ and the doorbell camera which attaches to the wall-mount.

This ‘mounting bracket’ is horribly designed for its intended purpose (i.e. Holding the doorbell camera against the door). Once the bracket is securely mounted to your door (or wall), it’s *extremely* difficult to attach the camera to it. Even when following instructions – it required a great deal of strength to snap it in place.

I successfully did it two or three times, but at some point, i accidentally broke the little plastic clips that secure the camera in place.

Ultimately, problem solved by running a length of invisible scotch tape around the mounting bracket’s edge, laying it on a flat surface (sticky side facing up), then carefully placing the camera down ‘onto’ the bracket, and finally folding the tape up and against the edge of the camera.

Once these two parts are together, then i take the assembly and ‘stick’ to the door using adhesive strips (made by a well known stationery & adhesives supply co (think ‘one more than ‘2l’.’))

i am ‘not’ mechanically inclined. If you put a wrench in my hand – i won’t know which end to use to screw in the nail! So take my word for it – using adhesive strips & scotch tape – if i could get this thing to stay on the wall securely – then you can too! As mr spock once said, ‘primitive but effective.’

in a couple pictures, if you look closely, you can see the tabs sticking out from beneath.

Also pictured (& you don’t need to look all that closely) is extreme closeup (camera flash on) so the tape is easily seen. However casual observation as you’re standing at the door (even if you ring the bell), the tape is easily overlooked against the black plastic casing.

So while it’s not ideal (indeed poorly designed), this bracket issue isn’t a deal-breaker – especially for such an affordable price.

Now the good news!

Omg! Where to begin! Battery use is nearly ‘non-existent’! Put it this way: i’ve had my unit working for over three months, running on the same batteries it came with.

I live in an indoor building, and with neighbours, deliveries, etc – fairly high traffic / motion sensor triggered video 25 times in the past 24 hrs, and 33 times the previous 24 hrs. So that’s just a little more than a 10-second video clip every hour.

For the past month – it’s been on high resolution (which uses more battery power), and longer clips both for ‘motion’ as well as ‘doorbell’ (this also uses more battery power).

So again – three months on the same batteries! Amazing! I should mention the batteries are lithium (after tax & shipping, about $ 4 a piece). But i don’t care. It’s a great system! I love it.

This incredible battery-life / add to that it’s ‘feather weight’ – i don’t mind using (& periodically changing) the adhesive strips – what? – ‘every 3 or 4 months’??

Blink doorbell camera works & plays well with alexa. Because my office & alexa are just inside our front door (i’m sort of the gatekeeper) – i don’t want people hearing they’ve been detected – so rather than alexa announcing ‘someone’s at the door’ – instead, i have my office lights flash red & white. I also have it make a quiet ‘ticking’ sound. On the other hand – my wife’s office is far away from our front door, so in her case, alexa simply says ‘someone’s at the front door’.

Of course – the ‘blink’ app stamps the exact time each video clip was recorded (see image).

– – – – – –

video storage: they have an affordable cloud service ($3 per month at the time of this review), but i got the sync module so i don’t need to pay for the extra cloud storage.

If my math is right – the extra cost for the sync module is about $ 36 – the same price you pay for a year of storage.

I strongly recommend the sync module over the pay service. Sync module works very well.

Important: blink doorbell only works with 2.4g wifi (i.e. It will not work on 5g).

I found this out the hard way, when i spent over a week, trying to figure out why i could no longer record video.

Side-note: during this ‘non-record week’, the unit did still chime – both when motion was detected, as well as when the doorbell was pressed. Just no ’10-second recorded video’ of the chime.

Because of this issue – i also discovered ‘blink’ has a good, responsive tech support. Just be aware you must wait at least 48 hrs for them to respond. But they do respond, and they’re very helpful. 🙂

back story: one day, i suddenly couldn’t record video, and sent them a service request. But before they got back to me – my camera was working again, and i couldn’t figure out why (i thought it ‘might’ be the 5g, but i wasn’t sure).

So by the time they got back to me – i sent them an email saying doorbell camera was working again, i’m happy and issue closed. Then (still not sure how/why it fixed itself) – i described my 2.4 / 5 g switch, and asked if that could have caused the problem? They replied ‘yes’ and explained that 5g didn’t work.

Again – this is ‘after’ i said it was working again (so at this point, they really didn’t ‘need’ to reply). And they replied anyway! Personable and informative.

Not a ‘big deal’, but if i had it to do over – i should have paid closer attention to color! My door is mostly light & pastel colors (see picture). But my doorbell is black, so aesthetically – it stands out a little more than it should. It’s already sort of bulky from the get-go, so i wish i’d gotten the white one.

So again – overall this is an excellent system (& very affordable too).

Get it! You’ll be glad you did.

If you are like me you are a happy existing blink camera user who is thinking about adding the door bell to your existing setup. I had a blink camera setup aiming at my front door so at first i was not too sure that i really needed the door bell. However for the cost i am very glad i got one. There are a couple of things to know:

(1) if you are an existing blink customer, you do not need a second sync module. All you need is the door bell and you can simple add it to your existing account (as easy as adding an additional camera).

(2) if you are planning on hardwiring the blink doorbell to your existing doorbells wires. . . . You still have to use 2 aa batteries to power the camera. This did not make sense to me as i figured my hardwires would power it, but sure enough after calling blink support i realized i needed to put the aa batteries in the camera. The hard wire will allow your blink doorbell to ring the doorbell in your home but will not power the camera.

(3) you can turn on motion detection or just have the blink door bell turn on when the door bell is rung. This is a nice feature. If you want to catch anyone that comes to your door (whether they ring the bell or not, you can simple turn this feature on in the app). If you want to save battery life and are only interested in door bell ringers you can turn motion detection off.

(4) it has two way audio, meaning you will always hear the person at your door. . . . But you can also choose to speak to the person if you choose. For me the audio the person at the door hears comes across a little staticky, but that could be my phone or the fact that i am using the corner mount.

(5) it has more of a fish bowl view so it catches a wide view (meaning it can cover most of your front porch)

(6) there is no additional cost to having the blink doorbell or camera system. Unlike other door bell systems out there, there is no additional cost to the blink doorbell. The app is free, cloud storage is free, downloading images or videos is free, etc.

If you are looking to set it up with just batteries and no wiring to an existing doorbell system, setup is a breeze (will take two minutes). If you are looking to hard wire it, it is still pretty easy. I am not a handy man and what i know about electricity will shock you (get my joke) but even i was able to hard wire it. Get the doorbell, you will be glad you did. Hope this review helped.

Blink gave me a surprise after i disappoint on google camera and can not find good one from apple 3rd parties. My requirements for security camera
(1) easy to install and just like doesn’t exist , to reuse existing doorbell dc power line is fine but don’t want to add lines/pipe for outdoor camera , don’t want an ugly line and product sharp. Blink doorbell score is 8/10, if amazon can improve its picture quality and use a sturdy metal case, better mechanic design, i will change to 10/10.
(2) can record suspect video by motion detection and record it. Blink 10/10
(3) low cost. Blink camera/doorbell support local storage by sync 2 module , 9/10, if amazon integrate sync 2 module in doorbell , maybe better as doorbell has dc power in most case.
(4) easy to manage by apps , more automatic running and be smart. Blink 6/10, it is still difficult to interactive with ios, to automatically on/off by phone location, schedule management is too simple. Google camera did better on this.

Google did not invest much on doorbell and camera market as well as amazon,but i google does better on wifi mesh and fiber networking.

We purchased our first blink home security camera july of 2018. We were going out of the country and wanted to make sure our 18 year old son closed the garage door and locked the house. It did the job and we felt better knowing while on the other side of the world we could monitor our home.
The following summer we were so happy with our indoor system, we decided to purchase 2 outdoor cameras with the 2 way audio, and were so happy with the video and audio quality, we bought another add on outdoor camera, the next month.
A year later we found the mini indoor cameras. We have one for a child’s bedroom and one for the playroom. The video and audio quality is great.
A year after that we bought another 3 outdoor cameras, again video and audio quality is great.
Just before christmas 2021 blink came out with the doorbell camera, and we purchased it. One, because it was blink and 1/2 the price of a ring doorbell camera. Two, because the doorbell that came with our new build home was so quiet, we couldn’t ever hear the bell ring.
In total we now have…
3 indoor battery powered
2 indoor mini corded power
6 outdoor battery powered
1 doorbell wired to exciting doorbell.

Cameras purchased…
July 17th, 2018
blink indoor home security camera system with motion detection, hd video, 2-year battery life and cloud storage included – 3 camera kit
https://www.amazon.com/dp/b018hc6pva/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_i_e4n35ajjxm4qayyn1s03?_encoding=utf8&psc=1

july 15th, 2019
blink xt2 outdoor/indoor smart security camera with cloud storage included, 2-way audio, 2-year battery life – 2 camera kit
https://www.amazon.com/dp/b07mn67bcr/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_i_2vzv3yz7f3x4f5wsf9sf?_encoding=utf8&psc=1

august 20th, 2019
blink xt2 outdoor/indoor smart security camera with cloud storage included, 2-way audio, 2-year battery life – add-on camera for existing blink customers
https://www.amazon.com/dp/b07m8dthgl/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_i_7xgz93g8ptggnhtnbgek?_encoding=utf8&psc=1

november 22nd, 2020
blink mini – compact indoor plug-in smart security camera, 1080 hd video, night vision, motion detection, two-way audio, works with alexa – 2 cameras
https://www.amazon.com/dp/b07x27vk3d/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_i_dl_0cvs1gzcpqpje577m0jv?_encoding=utf8&psc=1

august 3, 2021
blink outdoor – wireless, weather-resistant hd security camera, two-year battery life, motion detection, set up in minutes – 3 camera kit
https://www.amazon.com/dp/b086dkshq4/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_i_dl_9f09k8m142matnjy1c7p?_encoding=utf8&psc=1

november 29th, 2021
introducing blink video doorbell | two-way audio, hd video, motion and chime app alerts and alexa enabled — wired or wire-free (black)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/b08sg2ms3v/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_i_dl_jth38j37n7st707fmw4p?_encoding=utf8&psc=1

blink offers two subscription plans.

1 blink device
$3 per month or $30 annually

unlimited blink devices
$10 per month or $100 annually

you do not have to have a blink subscription if you do not choose to, but you won’t be able to store videos.

With the subscription you are even able to share your videos by text, or email. To neighbors, friends, family, and even the police department.

Cons/irritations
when an outdoor camera faces the sun at any point of the day, the motion detection will go off, until you adjust the motion activity spots in the camera settings. This can take a few days to work out the kinks.
Indoor mini cameras the motion activity spots don’t always work. Sometimes it will go off when there is motion in the grayed out zones, and sometimes not go off in the non-greyed out zones. This maybe human error on our part. We are looking for a longer cord for the mini’s to mount on the wall or ceiling. The are options to rotate the camera view, so that you are able to mount the camera wherever you need.

Overall we are happy with our blink system and hope the company continues to grow and come out with new products.

Compared to my parents very very expensive arlo system, blink is more reliable, and is more cost-effective. So much so, my parents have ditched the arlo camera system and have purchased a new blink system.

We highly recommend blink to anyone who would like to have a home video camera system that works, and won’t break the bank.
We love that you can start out small and work your way in to as much as you want/need.

I use this product as a means of security in my duplex and i use it for my front door, and i love it so much that i’m going to order another one for my back door as well.
The price was very much so reasonable, and i definitely got my money’s worth when it comes to this product.
I am a single woman living alone with just me and my small dog, so having this as an added way for protection and my personal security.
I absolutely love the night vision and how clear it is! I also love how very simple the installation was! I don’t own many tools or know how to use them… Lol, so when i found out that i didn’t even need any because of the battery option and not having to be only able to do a hardwire to use this product made me astatic!!!

After reading the reviews i was very hesitant me and my fiancé aren’t really good with electrical work. I wanted it to work as a door bell and camera. I love this doorbell. The directions provided weren’t the best. We looked up a you tube video and it was super simple. Everything we needed came in the box nothing was broke and we were even rough on some of the screw (men being men) and they were fine ( i read a review saying the head snapped off of their nails). The camera quality is amazing the night vision is good and its really sensitive to motion. I have indoor blink cameras and had to turn my door bed sensitivity down. The doorbell rings on your phone, inside the house, and on the doorbell itself. 10/10 would recommend for a cheaper ( but doesn’t look or act cheaper) doorbell security system.

I have been looking at video doorbells for a number of years, and have always found a reason to hold off buying them. Part of my reasoning is i already have blink xt2 security cameras, i already have a number of alexa devices, why would i want to add one more infrastructure to my smart home environment? Then i saw that blink finally released their version of a video doorbell and it was able to connect to both the old blink sync module (i have one of the old ones and have one of the free 2hours storage accounts pre-2020) and the newer sync 2 modules, as well as connect to alexa to do a number of things.

Let’s start the with basics. Installation is pretty simple, they even include a template to mark the wall for drilling and mounting. Two screws to mount the bracket to the wall. I also used a 30 ̊ bracket in addition to the standard back plate which comes with no directions but it is pretty simple to figure out. The system will allow you to connect to existing doorbell (16v – 24v) wiring if you have an existing doorbell chime, which i did not. Once you have the back plate mounted you can then hang the doorbell. Note: do not mount the door bell until after you have added it to your sync module and your blink app since you will need the barcode on the back in order to join it. Adding the doorbell to the mount does require you apply pressure towards the back plate, and then slide it down about 1/32′ to lock it into place. There are a number of reasons for this, including there is a gasket between the doorbell and the back plate that is there to keep moisture out, and you need to compress this while you slide it into place.

Once you have it up and running you can add it to your alexa devices using the blink skill and use any echo to work as your doorbell chime. I originally enabled them all realized that it made sense to only have a few of them respond when the doorbell is pushed because it was very jarring to have every room in my house blasting with a chime and the announcement of ‘someone is at your front door’. Also if you have an echo show you can preview the doorbell, and any of the other cameras on the display screen.

Overall the video and audio quality is good for what it is, and the android app works perfectly with the devices. It is easy to view recorded interactions, and download the files from the cloud to the phone. After installing this at my house i also added one with a sync 2 module at my girlfriends house, and she loved the benefits of having one, which all prompted her to have me add two more security cameras.

I would highly recommend this system, keeping in mind the following:

– you need to have a sync module to make this actually work because of how the video is accessed.
– you do not need a preexisting doorbell chime and transformer, but if you have one you can hook into it.
– if you do not have a doorbell chime can use an amazon echo device to work as one if not you will only get the notifications on your phone.
– no mater how you hook it up, you will need to have the batteries installed to power the camera, and currently there is no way to hardware and power the system even if it is hooked up to a doorbell transformer.

Update!! Customer service sent a new camera and it is working perfectly. Not sure why the other one stopped, but after going through the trouble shooting, they quickly decided sending a new one was the best option. I sent the old one back so hopefully they can figure out the issue! Very nice customer service.

Got this camera, seemed okay at first. Live video never worked but mostly picked up on motion. Missed a few people, but now it won’t connect and customer service is basically blaming my internet when i have zero issues with my other cameras all over my home or any other devices just their device doesn’t work all of a sudden.
What a waste of money. Go with a more reputable doorbell system

Yesterday i had my fourth porch pirate incident.

Today i have a blink video doorbell.

It took my daughter and me about 20 minutes to install it. That included unboxing, downloading the app, working our way through the app, trying to locate an electric screwdriver, the whole nine yards.

Hot tip for connecting it: at first, the doorbell wouldn’t slide onto the plate. Then i got in there and really forced the screws connecting the plate to the doorframe those final few millimeters. Then it worked just fine.

And it you’re wondering if it can easily be stolen: yes and no. Yes if someone wants to come along with a hammer or crowbar and rip the whole thing off of the wall. No if they just want to grab and go. Once you fix it to the plate, you need a special small key to get it back off. Don’t lose that!

The doorbell feature worked instantly. We had to poke around in the app to get the motion detection to work. That’s the part i’m actually interested in. I figure the video doorbell itself is the single biggest deterrent to more thefts, but actually getting someone on camera if they do steal something? Golden.

The motion detector has been in overdrive. Our house is very near the sidewalk and the area it encompasses is quite large. I expect a great many false alarms of movement detected nowhere near my front door or porch. I’ll have to check to see if there’s a feature limiting how many feet out motion is detected. If it’s not there, that would be a great addition.

So, my husband and i really disagreed about getting a blink doorbell. He was really against any video doorbell, but he relented and we agreed to get it. Well, it was extremely easy to install. It took me with my upper body strength of a kitten under two minutes to install. I synced it up and it was completely easy to get going.

Or so i thought. I ran into two issues: 1) we live on a very busy street, and the cars on the street triggered the motion sensor every five minutes; and 2) only the person pressing the doorbell could hear it ring.

After a few weeks, i had to admit that my husband was right. The blink doorbell was horrible.

Then, i set about problem solving.

For the first problem, i had already tried adjusting the motion sensor’s sensitivity by one setting, but when i did that, the doorbell didn’t even detect motion when someone went up to it and waved to it. So, i googled it and one suggestion was to get a wedge mount. I installed it this week and it worked perfectly. I have no idea how—i can’t tell the difference between the pictures it took before and after the wedge mount—but it works. Cars no longer set off the motion detector, and it detects when people go into our yard/porch. Perfect!

With the second issue, i looked for chimes like the one the ring camera has, but there isn’t one for blink. Then, i looked to see whether i could set it to alert through our echo and echo dots. We live in an old house that has no light switches, so we have smart lighting and use alexa to turn on the lights. I hadn’t checked before because i did not realize we wouldn’t be able to hear the door bell. Once i checked and found that you could enable the alexa skill to notify you when your doorbell rings, it was great. When someone pressed the doorbell, alexa says “there is someone at the front door.”

with those two adjustments, my husband actually said, “you know, i actually like this doorbell.”

the great thing with using the echo devices for doorbell press notifications, is that you can put your echo devices in do not disturb mode, so say your two-year-old is napping, you can set the echo in his room on do not disturb and the doorbell won’t wake him up. Brilliant!

If we didn’t already have several echo devices in our house, it would not have been a good purchase for us, as we could not hardwire it into an existing door chime. This is really best as an accessory to echo—it’s not a stand alone device.

Though, i’m not sure what the echo show really brings to the table. If you have a smart phone, you can see who is at the doorbell and communicate with them. Walking over to a specific echo show to do so, when you’re probably already carrying your phone, does not make sense to me.

I am a long-time user of blink, meaning i am in the ‘grandfathered’ set of customers with free, limited cloud storage for video. Overall, i think if you are already a blink customer, this is a good addition to your system.

Install: i needed one of those ‘wedges’ that turns the camera to face out and using that, the install was pretty simple. I agree with the people that noted that the back plate it comes with (which you still use when installing the wedge) is a little cheap and janky. But the wedge is more sturdy and the resulting install is probably a little bit more solid and better than if i had just mounted the flat plate to the wall.
You do need a good sized piece of flat wood to screw everything into. This is not going to mount well to raw siding, curved trim pieces around doors etc. You’d have to attach a small board to the surface of anything like that and then mount it to that board.

Power vs. Batteries: i have one of those wired doorbells that is old-school, with the metal strikers that hit little chimes, not a digital doorbell. This apparently matters because you need more power and a slightly larger transformer to drive one of those doorbells. In turn, that means the transformer has enough power to power the blink doorbell. If you have a digital doorbell you may (or may not) need to rely on the battery for the cameras. It all depends on how big the transformer for your existing, wired doorbell is. During the setup it asks you what kind of doorbell you have, and has a fairly sophisticated set of settings to make sure that when it sends a signal to the physical doorbell it is sending the correct amount of power to strike the chimes correctly.

Set-up: very easy and painless, almost exactly the same as setting up a regular blink camera. Put in the batteries, scan the qr code, it finds the camera, links it to your existing system/sync module and you are ready to go.

Motion sensor: if you are already pretty familiar with blink cameras, you know they can come with one of two kinds of sensors to detect motion. Camera based sensors that just detect changes in the picture and more traditional sensors that only detect actual, physical movement. The cheaper blink mini only has a camera based sensor, while the more expensive units only detect actual physical movement with a dedicated motion sensor. Both kinds of sensors can be triggered falsely by something like blowing leaves, but the camera-based sensors cannot distinguish changes in shadows and light from actual movement and so they have much higher rates of false detection. Unfortunately, the blink doorbell appears to only have the cheaper detector that can be fooled by changes in light. It does, however, have a more sophisticated, narrower grid of zones you can exclude from movement than the older blink mini. How much this matters to you is going to depend on where you plan to stick the camera – if you point your doorbell camera directly at a busy road and don’t lock out the parts of the image that covers the road, you will get constant alerts from every car that goes by, or every person walking on the sidewalk, etc. So think carefully about where the camera will sit and whether you want one of those wedges to tilt the direction of the thing to keep the camera aimed only at places where you actually want it to detect motion.

Video quality: very good, with a wide angle, almost fish-eye lens, so you get very good broad coverage of the area you are pointing the camera at. There is also a microphone that records sound while you are recording video and it seems to work ok as well. In theory you can use the thing to have a two-way conversation with whoever is at the door, but i haven’t tried that yet. I am, overall, very happy with the camera quality for the price here.

Sound chime/notifications: when you push the doorbell, a chime inside the module itself goes off. It is reasonably loud and lets the person ringing the doorbell know they definitely rang it. The light on the button also lights up briefly to confirm the chime was pressed. Would you, sitting inside the house, hear the chime the doorbell makes outside? Probably, if you are in a small, quiet house. Would you hear it down in the basement of a large house with the tv or music on? Absolutely not. So if you are not hooking this up to an existing doorbell with a properly loud internal chime, then you will want to have it hooked up to your alexa. I don’t use alexa so didn’t test that feature. You do get a notification on your phone, when somebody rings the bell, but i think most people will want either a hard wired connection or an alexa connected to this thing to make sure they always hear the doorbell.

What don’t i like?

I wish it had the same motion detection sensors as the larger blink cameras. I would have paid more to get that. Because it uses the camera to sense motion there are places where it really won’t give good results. So think very carefully about where you will place this, how often the wind will blow trees and create moving shadows within the motion detection zone, etc.

It is annoying that even when the device is hard-wired, the light around the doorbell button isn’t constantly lit. Just as if it were only running on batteries, it only lights up when you press the button. Not a huge deal in my installation, but if you don’t have a porch light on, your doorbell will not be obvious to visitors. It is particularly odd that they put a red led into the thing which apparently has no purpose other than in the initial setup. The design would be much better if the lighted ring around the button was always lit and then it flashed or turned red when you pressed it. It appears all of the hardware necessary to do that is in the device, but it is not programmed that way. I get that when the device isn’t hardwired you don’t want the button lit, but when it is powered it really should be lit in the dark.

For $50, this thing is ok. If you get it on sale, then it is a good deal, at least if you are an existing blink customer.

I am surprised that they killed off the little bit of free cloud storage for new customers. That can’t cost very much to provide these days and it was the key differentiator between blink and some of these other companies that provide more elaborate, high-priced options. Blink’s claim to fame is that it works well enough and is cheap. But if you have to pay a bunch of money for cloud storage no matter what, i would probably look at the more expensive options vs. Blink. It stops being a compelling value once you start having to pay for video storage.

I purchased a blink doorbell with sync module and mini camera. Setup required lots of adjusting the position, motion settings, and buying additional mounts. Judging from other reviews, you will end up needing to experiment and customize (i.e. Buy more stuff and do some work) depending on your install.

The installation was straightforward, but required more than simply screwing it to the wall. I had to do some minor woodwork (and then painting) to fit the larger blink where my standard button was. I replaced a hardwired doorbell and was able to connect it using my existing chime. Doorbell presses also audibly alert on my phone. The backplate was a bit flimsy, a couple plastic posts broke as i experimented trying to secure it, as it was not secure and could be easily removed by hand. Who steals a doorbell? I don’t want to find out.

Others had experienced similar problems, so i contacted support and they sent me an entirely new doorbell with improved backplate. I used this free doorbell with better backplate on the porch (by design you can still remove it easily with as little as a screwdriver), but it no longer just pops off. I then used the original doorbell next to my garage, so overall my main entrances are covered. The mini is for indoor use, you can point it out a window but the angles and reflection from the glass are problematic, so consider it only if you want to monitor an interior room. The chime can be set to use it as a speaker, or you can talk to your pets remotely.

All cameras field of view is large, and motion detection is acceptable, but somewhat disappointing. It’s basically everything or nothing. You can set activity zones and motion sensitivity, but i get alerts for street traffic no matter what, about 25 feet away. Not all traffic and only during the day – i believe it is sun reflection. I purchased a 10 degree vertical wedge mount which helps a little towards detecting only porch activity. The doorbell position at normal/recommended height is not enough to see the floor of the porch (i.e. If there are packages). My garage doorbell is at the same distance but at an angle (purchased an additional mount to get a 50 degree angle to cover the drive and yard) and it does not detect traffic. It will pickup something as small as squirrels. As for the doorbell, setting the sensitivity low enough to not detect traffic means that up close action as large as someone dropping off a package is not detected. I opted to get more alerts but silenced them on my phone, rather than miss a package. Alerts for all activity in a very specific area seems to be impossible.

Overall: customer service was great, and the cameras work as expected – if you are realistic about your expectations. The software is a bit buggy, but it’s usable and there’s hope that future updates will improve it. When the free cloud trial ended, i was able to restart the sync module to save clips locally, so i didn’t need a monthly subscription (but you need a flash drive).

We have a front door that drivers keep leaving packages at despite an easy to read ‘please deliver all packages to back door’ sign mounted at eye level in front of the steps to the door. We also have a non-functional front door with steps, railing, and door knob all removed that they’ve left packages under. Sometimes even on the door to our deck on the opposite side of the house from the driveway (with no sidewalk leading there). We got 2 of these doorbells to see where tf they go in the front of the house when packages are not delivered to the back door as directed, and to monitor the back door. The front door had a wired bell with a bad button so it barely worked. The rear door did not have one so we previously used a simple wireless doorbell. After missing a ups package that required a signature, we found the chime batteries were dead and decided it was time. With the blink cameras we could at least monitor battery life via the app, and get alerted to a delivery if we weren’t close enough to hear the chime. Or if the package was just dropped without ringing the doorbell.

We love being able to see what’s going on, or what activity there was near a door, and even get an alert when someone pulls into our driveway due to the range of coverage.

However, the documentation is confusing. With both wired to our existing chime the cameras report ‘external power ok’ instead of ‘battery ok’, so i’m not sure how to monitor battery life. Documentation on that is lacking, and the notification settings don’t match what i see in android 12. Documentation states the doorbell always runs on battery though, so the change in monitoring is confusing at first glance until you dig through faqs for the official answer:

the blink video doorbell closes the power circuit of your existing chime system, it does not provide power of any kind. If the chime system loses power for any reason, the doorbell only plays the blink chime sound and your existing chime will not activate.

I don’t recall if this was covered in the faqs/documentation i read before buying, but i found out during the install that i didn’t need to make any changes to the wired chime like with wyze (requires you to bypass the chime making it no long function so the doorbell can be powered) and other models. Install was so much easier than i expected, aside from having to run a new wire to our back door just to tie that doorbell into the wired chime. Now we’ll be able to add another doorbell to our side door to monitor the deck without any wiring, and the sync module saves us the monthly cloud fee.

Motion capture has been a bit weird. I have field of view blocked off from the house side of the front sidewalk to the top of the view to ignore the street and nearby tree branches. Yet we still get motion alerts from the occasional car passing by on the street. Seems more frequent at night, especially vehicles with reflective paint/stickers (police cars, school buses, etc). Front door view is kind of dark, despite a nearby street light, but i don’t want to turn up the ir intensity if it’ll generate more alerts from traffic. I also walked the dog across the entire front lawn (the whole area i have set to monitor) during the day and it did not trigger a motion alert.

In the end, it’s great getting the alerts we do. It was more than we got before, and the doorbell chimes should be more reliable now in addition to getting the phone alerts when out of hearing range of the wired chime. All for a reasonable price, with no monthly fees building up.

Edit 8/27/2022: the ‘false alarms’ for the front door camera due to headlights from passing traffic at night, setting sun, etc have been eliminated with an angled mounting bracket. With the doorbell angled down, those alerts have stopped. And its better anyway as it covers more of the steps down from the door.

The night vision isn’t great. And i have a bit of an overhang so when a person walks up to the door, as soon as they hit shade, camera takes a second to adjust.

It has a lit up circle to see where to press. But the chime only sounds outside—not inside. So, either have a bluetooth device to chime inside or order the interior blink mini. I ordered the mini but i do not want an interior camera there, as it will set off every time i walk by. So i set it and gray out areas of my livingroom to not record and it’s still recording. That is annoying.

The first time i checked the recordings i think i got 43 videos to check. The grayed out areas are still recording. I grayed out more areas and it still went on and records areas i grayed out when i turn a light on.

I think i’ll get an echo speaker to use as a chime and not the blink mini. I feel like i’m being spied on.

Doorbell works well for me in my conditions:
– minimum exposure to weather: 6 feet porch
– rely on backup module without subscription
– good internet speed and strong coverage in a well managed network

high power consumption: high activities (kids play on front yard), high ir intensity, high quality recording.

Must use lithium batteries or alternative rechargeable ni-zn to combat weather (the later last only 2/3 of lithium aka. Changing battery more often but saved on rechargeable).

*changing battery is the worst part bc of easily damaged back plate prongs. Blink support nicely sent out replacement but cannot expect more from plastic.

So i bought this product for my mom because she has someone who has been lurking around her property. It has been very good at picking up clear images but there is a delay. And i haven’t determined if the delay is her phone or if it’s the actual doorbell itself but there’s a delay nonetheless. There is also a delay when someone rings the doorbell there’s a laspe of 30 to 45 seconds before anything pops up so that you can speak to them at the door. She’s had packages dropped off by amazon and then got the alert after the truck is long gone. I did adjust her settings but it doesn’t seem to have changed one way or the other. She likes it so i did go ahead and get her the cameras that are associated with blink as well and a eco show so that she can view who’s at the door on there instead of on her phone. She stated that she does like the cameras but she doesn’t understand why there is a delay when someone clicks the doorbell and i don’t have an answer for her.

I’m usually not one to write a bad review because i feel as if it’s just me fumbling the bag but with the blink, i have found many other peole with the same problems (that are fixable) but with no answers anywhere online and the support just repeats what the websites faq already says. My biggest problem with this doorbell is how misleading it is. It does work as a doorbell. It does record when the button is clicked. It does record if motion is detected. It does let me view on my phone but theres a catch which is nowhere (very hard to find) clarified before purchase. On battery only, you can only view the camera if it notifies you that something is happening. Otherwise you cannot just view it whenever you want, unless you buy a seperate sync module and usb stick with enough storage to support constant footage. Or you can hard wire your doorbell but it still won’t let you live view unless you unsync the whole sustem through the app and resync it again. Instead of them telling you, you have to do that, it lets you just swap setup in settings without unpairing but that does not work. I tried researching and could not find answers at all and thought i was going to return the product. Once you get through the few problems there are with no support or proper informational help, the product is great. The camera quality is not much worse than rings which is fine considering the huge price difference. Motion detection is a little iffy but id rather it detect 1 out of 5 cars driving by then not detect a person walking up and taking my packages. Sensitivity is customizable but in my use lowering it makes it not pick up people very well. The app is decent, sometimes doesnt work but overall good. Product and app are good but setup can be terrible.

Overall is a good doorbell for the price range. Very easy setting up the camera with sync module 2 and link to alexa app. The only thing that needs improvement is night vision, it’s not as clear or in focus, have to increase intensity on ir to the max to see further in distance. Compare to other doorbell cameras within the same price range, this one is on the bottom list. The only reason i purchased this doorbell combo with sync module 2 is, to avoid the monthly subscription for cloud service, plus they were on sale. I did have other company doorbell for my front door which had much better 2k video, crystal clear night vision within the same price range, internal storage option and rechargeable battery. Blink needs to step up their game to compete with others, otherwise they will falling behind.

I have the doorbell and two mini cameras for my home security system and they really are great for what you spend. The one issue is connectivity with the sync module. This thing has a god-given gift for losing connection when i’m away from home. And it’s right next to my modem, and it’s less than 50’ from all of my devices, but i’ll go to check my cameras when i’m not home and, without fail, my sync module is offline. I’ve had to hard reset and power cycle about a dozen times in less than a month. If this is a device issue then i will gladly take a replacement. If this is normal, then blink needs some tlc

The hardware is pretty good. Instructions for mounting were really lacking. They don’t make it clear which way to mount the plate (it is kinda obvious, but not entirely), and you need the qr code on the back of the unit to get it up and running, but they don’t tell you this, so you get it mounted, and then have to pull it down…i had to do that twice because it asks for the qr code, then tells you that you need to do the sync module setup first and doesn’t store the device id of the camera, so you end up having to take it down again. The mounting holes are also not good for mounting on siding (we have cedar siding) as they’re too far apart, but that’s where my old bell (and hole for the wiring) was, so i could only screw in 1 screw, and you can’t tighten it too much or the flimsy base will crack. It also doesn’t make it clear that you need to hard wire and put in batteries (i had to google it to be sure) and can’t just run off the power from the wire.

The camera itself is good. The mic is super sensitive, to the point that it hears way too much road noise and wind in the saved video or live audio feed, which surprised me as we’re quite far from the road and the front door is sheltered from it. Some people say the camera isn’t as good as ring’s or others, and that may be true, but it’s definitely good enough, and has a surprisingly wide field of view.

The real issue for me is the app. I just never really know where to go for live view vs saved view, and end up capturing new live video when i don’t mean to just because i clicked into that part. Not a big deal, but it’s just not too intuitive. And, surprisingly, despite enabling the alexa skill, our echoes don’t announce the doorbell or let us talk to it (we don’t have echo show devices, but i figured the speakers would at least do something).