The Wyze Cam and Wyze Cam v2 are the best home security cameras for two reasons: they work well and are inexpensive. Wyze is back with the Wyze Cam v3, which comes with several improvements, including waterproofing, color night vision, and better mounting options. Best of all, the Wyze Cam v3 is priced the same as its predecessors: just $20.
Read the rest of our Wyze Cam v3 review to learn about all its new features, and how they work.
Price and availability
Wyze Cam v3 was originally offered for $19.99 in November 2020, but pandemic restrictions limited its release.
Design
Like previous models, the Wyze Cam v3 is a simple white cube, measuring about 2 inches on all sides, though this time the camera has rounded edges. The front of the camera is black with a telescoping bracket at the bottom that lets you easily adjust the camera to the orientation you want. The mount can be screwed into a wall or ceiling, but the company also offers disks and double-sided tape if you don’t want to fix it permanently.
Because the Wyze Cam v3 is waterproof, it has a slightly different design than the Wyze Cam v2 model. For starters, the v3 has a hardwire connection to a power cord on the back of the camera. It connects to a 6-foot microUSB cable (included) and a USB adapter plug. It gives you more flexibility for mounting the camera outdoors, but not as much as the Wyze Cam Outdoor (a completely wireless model that is on our list of the best outdoor security cameras).
Video and audio performance
The Wyze Cam v3 has several improvements over its predecessor. While the camera has the same resolution, it has a wider field of view (130 vs. 110 degrees), a lower aperture (f/1.6), a higher frame rate (20 fps daytime/15 fps nighttime vs. 15 fps daytime/10 Wyze Cam v2) of fps nighttime, and improved night vision thanks to a doubling of the number of IR LEDs.
In addition, the Wyze Cam v3 features simultaneous (or full-duplex) two-way talk, and the new speaker is loud enough to make an 80-decibel siren call.
One of the Wyze Cam v3’s newest and most impressive features is its color night vision. (Confusingly, you have to turn off the night vision setting in the app to use color night vision.) While not as accurate as daylight, the color night vision is very close. I could easily identify the blue flower pot on my front porch, my orange pants, and the house across the street. The camera’s motion sensitivity was strong enough that it was able to track me from about 40 feet away, even at the 39% setting. Audio was average; I could hear what I was saying from about 8 feet from the camera, but it was very confusing.
The daytime video was much clearer; I could see every little leaf on the tree outside the house, and the colors of the fall leaves were quite vibrant. As with the nighttime video, the audio was a bit intermittent from a distance of 8 feet, but still audible.
One limitation of Wyze Cam is that the maximum length of any video it records is 12 seconds, with a five-minute cool-down period between each clip. However, if you subscribe to Wyze Cam Plus ($1.25 per month per camera), you can get unlimited length videos with no cooldown period. If you want longer videos but don’t want to sign up for a subscription, you can insert a 32GB microSD card into the camera (with a waterproof door at the bottom), which allows you to record continuous video, as well as time-lapse video.
The app
The Wyze app is simple and straightforward. The home screen shows a thumbnail view of all your Wyze devices and what the camera is seeing. Select the camera and you’ll get larger thumbnails, as well as sound, recording, and settings controls.
Here you can set up motion detection areas, event recording schedules, alarm settings, and more. The motion detection area is very basic, as all you can do is draw a rectangle. blink’s app is more sophisticated in this regard, allowing you to create irregular shapes.
Similar to Alexa Guard, you can set Wyze Cam to listen for smoke alarms; if it hears something, it can send you an alert.
As with the previous Wyze Cam, you can view a synopsis of Wyze Cam v3 on an Alexa-enabled smart display.
Video storage costs
In addition to the low cost of the device itself, one of Wyze’s other attractive features is its affordable cloud storage costs. For beginners, you can get 14 days of rolling cloud storage for free.
If you insert a microSD card into the Wyze Cam, you can enable continuous video recording. Another option is a subscription to Wyze Cam Plus ($1.25 per month per camera), which lets you record video whenever there’s action, with no cooling-off period between clips. You can also get people, package and vehicle detection, and in 2021, pet and face detection.
