- The Xiaomi firm launches its Mi Home Security Camera 360 °, a connected surveillance camera sold for less than 40 euros.
- Easy to install and simple to use, it has the particular advantage of being motorized.
- Some shortcomings, such as sound quality and nuisance alerts, can put off.
Thirty-nine euros is today the price of a connected camera to monitor your interior from your smartphone. And it is Xiaomi, with its Mi Home Security Camera 360 °, which breaks the prices. At a time when many are thinking of equipping themselves, it seemed necessary to us to check whether this new surveillance camera was not just a simple gadget…
Five to six times cheaper
Renowned for its equipment with good performance / price ratios, the Chinese Xiaomi is best known in France for its smartphones or scooters. It is to forget that it fires all wood and also offers the public headphones, televisions, sports watches, tablets or computers. See connected toilets! No wonder he is attempting an offensive without the world of surveillance cameras… At 39 euros, his Mi Home Security Camera 360 ° stands out in this universe where prices are up to five to six times higher, as with cameras Netatmo or Nest, sold for around 199 euros.
Quick setup
In the shape of a ball placed on a support, the device is supplied with a simple USB cable. You will therefore have to look in its drawers for a classic AC adapter to connect it. We deplore the absence of a battery, an essential emergency buoy for this type of equipment in the event of a power cut.
With a fairly classic design, the camera has ordinary, to say the least, finishes. It is either possible to put it on a piece of furniture, or to fix it to the wall, Xiaomi providing a hanging system with two screws. Operating over Wi-Fi, the Mi Home Security Camera 360 ° connects to the Xiaomi Home app (in French). After the creation of an account (an operation notably necessary to receive alerts in case of intrusion), a QR Code allows to simply pair the device. There are still a few adjustments to be made, such as the monitoring period, the sensitivity and frequency of notifications, night vision, etc.
Rotate the press!
In addition to its price, the interest of the Mi Home Security Camera 360 ° is its rotary lens, motorized on two axes. From a directional cross in its application, one can thus take control and direct it 360 ° in a panoramic way, but also from bottom to top (with a lesser angle).
It is also possible to zoom in on a point of the image (16x, in Full HD) to carry out a verification, as when zooming in on a photo. In the event of intrusion detection, the camera is however content to emit an alert and unfortunately does not follow the ambulations of the person venturing into the room where it is installed. Pity. When the lens scans its surroundings, its movements are nevertheless extremely silent.
Free cloud video hosting
At each alert, the camera sends a notification, but also starts a video / audio recording. This is done on a microSD card (not supplied) whose capacity can reach 64 GB. It is the equivalent of ten days of recording in 720p and six days in 1080p. It is also possible to choose to record on the NAS network of your home. Or even directly in the cloud.
In this case, the Mi Home Security Camera 360 ° records eight seconds of video for free after each detection. This is obviously a real plus. Other market players in fact base their economic model on invoicing the storage of these famous videos. And it can cost up to 10 euros per month. These mini-sequences can be sent to a contact or saved to their smartphone with a single click on an icon. Still, with Xiaomi, we do not know in which "cloud" will spin our videos ... A small component to hide the lens when you are at home would also have reassured.
Untimely alerts…
Add that equipped with an infrared system, the Mi Home Security Camera 360 ° delivers perfectly usable night images. The quality of the recorded sound is however far from optimal. That of the sound produced through the loudspeaker of the camera (if you want to interact from your smartphone with a visitor) is mediocre.
Tested for several days, our low cost camera offers us real value for our money. Of course, it has limits. Let us add among those noted a serious problem of identification. Placed in front of a window, our Mi Home Security Camera 360 ° never stopped warning us that it had detected a person when it was only trees whose branches were moving in the wind…
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