Y-cam EVO Indoor HD Wi-Fi Security Camera (Pack of 2)

Product Information

The HomeMonitor Indoor HD shoots, you guessed it, HD-quality video. It’s not 1080p Full HD – it records 720p through a wide-angle lens and, unfortunately, the quality isn’t great. The Hub is the brains behind everything, also doubling up as a siren. Y-Cam has done a good job here, and the box feels tough and weighty. It needs to be plugged into the mains and via Ethernet into your router. You can also wall-mount the Hub; if you do, I recommend placing it high up so that it’s harder to tamper with. I’m a little sad it doesn’t have the facial-recognition powers of the Netatmo Welcome, which lets the camera know to ignore registered, safe people, but its location recording powers partly make up for that deficiency. Location recording is an optional feature that lets you instruct the Y-Cam to start recording when you leave your flat and stop when you return, by using your phone’s GPS. The Y-Cam app is one of the most intuitive I’ve used. The app’s central home screen features a grid user interface with dynamic icons to every Y-Cam camera connected to your network. A slide-out panel offers shortcuts to your account settings and recording library. The Y-cam Plus subscription provides a whole host of additional benefits to help you monitor and secure your home. With a Y-cam Plus subscription, the integrated sim card is activated and will ensure that your alarm remains connected when your internet is down and will also send text and phone call alarm notifications. Y-cam Plus will record 30 days of alarm and video activity logs and fully managed 30 days video storage when using Y-cam indoor or outdoor cameras.

The issue is Y-Cam’s cloud is a little on the slow side. Too many times I’d get a motion alert, launch the app – tested on Android – and be forced to wait a good two or three minutes for the live feed to launch. The same issue cropped up when I tried to stream old recordings, which regularly took up to five minutes to start playing. The problem occurred when I connected the Y-Cam Evo to my home and work fibre networks and on a variety of different routers.

Cube Range

The second con – if it is a con – is that there’s no alternative choice of storage. You can’t put a memory card inside the camera as you can with the You can access all of the alarm settings and features via the Y-cam App (available for iOS and Android). The system can be activated and deactivated using your SmartPhone.** Using sophisticated on-camera technology, Home Monitor detects motion in its field of view and then immediately springs in to action. Set up multiple custom motion zones, on areas such as doorways, to make sure you only get alerted when you want to be. The fact that you get seven days’ worth of free encrypted cloud storage for captured footage on the Evo is fantastic, and I wish more companies would follow Y-Cam’s example – all too often home-monitoring solutions, such as the SwannOne Smart Home Control Kit, place cloud storage behind expensive paywalls. Set up your HomeMonitor™ to match your lifestyle with the ability to easily customise when you want it to be active, with 7 days, 24 hour customisable schedules.

The resolution indicates the size of image that is captured by the camera, the larger the image the clearer the image will appear. Higher resolution cameras are ideal when viewing footage on a large TV screen. Lower resolution cameras are perfect for viewing high definition video on your smartphone or tablet. Upgrading to Plus is well-worth it. Home broadband isn’t hugely reliable and you’d be surprised at how often your Hub loses connection. With mobile data, you know that your home will remain protected and that you’ll definitely get alerts. And, once you’ve upgraded, you get the 30-days of cloud storage from your cameras, which largely negates the fact that Y-Cam withdrew its free cloud storage offering. HomeMonitor uses the latest and greatest in Wi-Fi technology available ensuring the fastest speed and widest range possible - letting you use the full power of your network.Moving the wireless router to a different position may help. Try walking around with the router while monitoring the signal strength to get the best signal. If a window/door sensor is triggered, the Hub starts to beep, giving you enough time to deactivate it if you’ve just entered the home. Motion sensors trigger the alarm immediately. The Hub is exceptionally loud, playing a siren that cycles between low- and high-frequency sounds. You also get a warning in-app, so you know that your alarm has gone off no matter where you are in the world. The external siren is even louder, attracting attention outside your home, too. Brilliantly, as it’s solar powered, you don’t have to worry about the batteries running flat. Set up your camera with our easy online step-by-step guide taking you through the entire process. No installation software, router configuration or technical wizardry required! You can see your camera live online in under 60 seconds! Capture events before they even happen! Using the cameras internal memory your HomeMonitor™ camera can record up to 10 seconds before motion is triggered so you never have to worry about only capturing half a clip and only knowing half the story.