Dropcam Pro Review; The Best Video Monitoring Solution On The Market

Dropcam used to have just one camera and it was an excellent video monitoring solution, and made its super easy to use. It’s plug and play setup took less than five minutes and the video quality was much better than similarly priced products on the market. On top of that it was a very simple and modern designed camera, meaning it would blend in with the environment. Now, there is a new Dropcam on the market and that of course is the Dropcam Pro. It is the new flagship model and it comes in at around $199. Not only does it have a fresh coat of paint, but it packs an upgrade with specifications and features. Will the Dropcam Pro become your go to video monitoring solution? Keep reading to see our full thoughts on the Dropcam Pro.

The first thing you notice, is that the box is much smaller and is more vertical than the one for the original Dropcam. Less packaging and more smarter use of packaging is always a plus. You still get the super easy setup that Dropcam has become known for, but know you have another option besides for just being able to set it up with your computer, thanks to the addition of Bluetooth LE or Bluetooth Low Energy, you can set it up right from you phone. The Dropcam application for mobile makes this very easy to do. All in all, it is a very simple plug and play process, once the status light goes green you are good to go.

In terms of design, the Pro variant gets a fresh coat of paint, in fact it is now in the color black. This will let it blend into the environment even better, but it is the same durable build that we’ve seen on the original. The camera itself is housed in a black plastic mold and then this slides and locks into the black metal stand. On both models, either the Pro or the Original, you will notice the black plastic mold of the camera is the same, and while you still get the sturdy metal stand, the difference here is the color. I will say the black paint coat makes it look more stealthy and a little more sleek. The status light is still on board at the top of the camera, green is good and yellow means a lost connection or it is not good. If you were worried about branding, don’t be, you get a small and silver Dropcam logo underneath the lens of the camera.

The Dropcam Pro not only got a new paint job, but it got a large bump in the hardware and feature sector. Let’s start off by talking about the camera lens, on the Dropcam Pro you get a lens that incorporates a six-element, all-glass lens, plus this is paired with a larger image sensor. The end goal here is that the image quality is greatly improved and for the price, it really does knock out the competition. In comparison to the original Dropcam, it gives you 2x sharper video during the day and 7x better performance in low-light conditions. This brings us to night vision which is greatly improved, this is of course thanks to the new six-element lens. You can also see more thanks to a 130 degree field of view, so in the same room, you can now see farther in all directions. Thanks to the better lens, the zooming quality is improved and one of my favorite features is the pinch to zoom, which now support 8x zoom. With the Dropcam Pro is does something called Zoom and Enhance, which increases the quality of the image. You may notice at first it is a little pixellated, but once the software does it’s job, it will enhance the live feed and increase the sharpness of it. One of the coolest new features with the Dropcam Pro is Activity Recognition and this is just one of the many reasons why it is more than a simple webcam. For instance if you have your Dropcam positioned in your front hall, it will begin to notice that mail comes in at a certain time or that someone leaves for work at a certain time. It will begin to notice this and see these patterns, and it will send out a notification alerting you of this activity. You can turn this feature either on or off and it works with Cloud Recording. You can also set Activity Zones, which can be set to be turned on for certain hours, this will allow you see when the garage door opens and get a notification as soon as it is opened. Or for the matter, as soon as anyone of your Activity Zones is triggered.

The great thing about Dropcam is that it works with several home automation system platforms, like SmartThings and Wink. In fact Dropcam Pro was a launch partner and launch product for Wink, a new home automation platform, that is owned by Quirky. The idea of Wink is that it’s one application that makes home automation simple, this will allow you to connect many smart devices all in one application. The Dropcam interface in both Wink and SmartThings is quite nice. Furthermore it is great to see that Dropcam is embracing these new systems and hopefully soon to be standards, and allowing their products to work with these.

The bottom line about the Dropcam Pro, is that it is the best video monitoring solution on the market. For the price of $199.99, it really does blow the competition out of the market, it is the market champion. It is really good as it mains piece, which is of course being able to monitor your house while you are out. It provides reassurance at the least, but the quality of this video is remarkable. It really is an improvement over the already great original Dropcam, this all glass lens makes the stream more vivid, colorful, sharper, and more life-like. With Zoom and Enhance you can see your dog on the opposite of the room, and the 130 degree field of view also makes this happen. Setup literally could not be easier, you don’t even need a computer even more to do it, if you smartphone has Bluetooth LE, and either way it is 5 minutes or less to get that stream going. And lastly, it is a just a really well made product that will fit into almost any room no mater the style. The Dropcam Pro is available now and it retails for $199.99, Click Here To Get Your Dropcam Pro Or To Get More Information About The Product! We would like to thank Dropcam for providing us with a copy of the “Dropcam Pro”.