- Verdict
The choice that exists for smart-home security cameras today is quite amazing and that’s only good for Aussies who want to protect their home with a strong deterrent and arm themselves with evidence if the need should arise.
For the last couple of weeks I’ve been testing Uniden’s entirely new App Cam range, kicking it off with the Solo X2k Bullet kit which is literally the one stop shop for all you need given the $199 price tag includes a solar panel for charging.
Setting up the App Cam Solo X2k Bullet
Out of the box this kit has all the things you need – except a screwdriver. Three simple screws into the bracket base, put the camera on and it’s mounted with ease.
The included Solar Panel is the same – it’s a slightly different mount, but not hard to understand.
Once you have the MyUniden+ app and an account setup, the pairing process to is very very easy – from there it’s just about aligning the picture to get the right angle.
The new MyUniden+ app.
This is a vastly different app – I think its really quite great. But I can imagine some existing Uniden Solo users seeing it as a leap sideways – sadly, you’ve just got to roll with it – this is the app!
If anything the app suffers from too much detail, and the cameras too many features.
It took me some time to find the motion setting schedule so that I wasn’t getting alerts all day and night – just night thank you!
For a new user I’d highly recommend taking your time to tweak all the settings, learn what they are, enable the functions that matter.
Uniden still offers their 7 days free cloud storage, but there’s a price to pay for more days, as well as a new AI subscription to get additional notification features. This is mainly useful for differentiating between people and animals, and cars etc.
I’ve just got the one camera setup in this home “unit” on the app, but encouragingly, you can have several sites – so I also have an office profile, allowing me to adjust settings per location.
Camera quality.
Excellent stuff here, very good clarity in the bulk of the foreground. On some morning shots I noticed a bright sunlight at the top of frame, and while it did render that area useless, the foreground was still excellent.
Basically it seems a lack of HDR might mean direct sun is a deep challenge for this one.
But there’s excellent colour night-vision and a spotlight that really lights the area up for you when motion is detected.
Two-Way audio works a charm, though it’s not full duplex so just one person speaking at a time please!
Overall
This is just fantastic value. $199 for an entire camera and solar panel unit is probably the best value on the market.
It’s a larger camera than it’s competitors, but if the three month battery life holds true, the value proposition continues.
Grab yours from Uniden
