YI Home Security Camera, 1080p 2.4G WiFi IP Indoor Surveillance Camera with Night Vision, Motion Detection, Phone App, Pet Cat Dog Cam Works with Alexa and Google Assistance
93
Adams Parker
Product Images
Product Features
- Optional 24/7 professional-grade, video alarm system - The smart camera-based security system utilizes vision AI and 24/7 professional monitoring services to detect potential intruders and distribute verified video in real time via an app that replaces the outdated panel system.
- Smart AI Detections: YI cloud storage comes with the latest in Smart AI capabilities which can distinguish Person, Vehicle, or Animal accurately and reduce false alarms significantly (Subscription Needed)
- Reliable Wi-Fi Connectivity - Access your camera with YI Home App on mobile device at anytime, anywhere; support for 2.4Ghz (5Ghz currently not supported) Wi-Fi band
- Cloud & Local Storage: Store all your footage using the YI Cloud service, keeping it safe and available even if unfortunate events occur; for local storage, micro SD-cards up to 64GB are supported (micro SD-card not included)
- Works with Alexa and Google Assistant
- Optional 24/7 professional-grade, video alarm system - The smart camera-based security system utilizes vision AI and 24/7 professional monitoring services to detect potential intruders and distribute verified video in real time via an app that replaces the outdated panel system.
- Smart AI Detections: YI cloud storage comes with the latest in Smart AI capabilities which can distinguish Person, Vehicle, or Animal accurately and reduce false alarms significantly (Subscription Needed)
- Reliable Wi-Fi Connectivity - Access your camera with YI Home App on mobile device at anytime, anywhere; support for 2.4Ghz (5Ghz currently not supported) Wi-Fi band
- Cloud & Local Storage: Store all your footage using the YI Cloud service, keeping it safe and available even if unfortunate events occur; for local storage, micro SD-cards up to 64GB are supported (micro SD-card not included)
- Works with Alexa and Google Assistant
Product Specifications
| Product Dimensions | 3.15 x 1.26 x 4.49 inches |
| Item Weight | 4.8 ounces |
| ASIN | B01CW4AR9K |
| Item model number | 87025 |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Date First Available | December 23, 2016 |
| Manufacturer | YI |
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Good system//1.5 year update. Initial review and 1.5 year update.After one full week of usage, I’m ready to review the YI 1080P camera system. Take that description with a grain of salt, because you get more than just a simple camera at a price that’s almost stupidly low. Over the next few paragraphs I’ll go over the included hardware, features, setup and value and compare each of those aspects to other systems on the market. Start your engines.So let’s talk about the included hardware. Each camera comes in a small box similar to a new cell phone. They are so small that you will believe that they’ve forgotten something. Nope, inside that tiny box is everything for a single camera system. Open it up and you’ll get the camera itself which is attached to its own base and, again, like a cell phone, a micro USB cord and outlet plug. This means that if anything ever happens to your power cord, you can get a spare very quickly. You’ll also get some literature on setup and all that, which is pretty standard. There is no base unit like Arlo has. It’s just a camera, similar to the Piper/Nest/most other systems. The quality of the hardware is also very decent. We all know the quality difference between Lego and Duplo, an iPad and a $60 tablet, a Yugo and a Honda. These cameras are decent quality. Maybe not at Nest standard, but good all the same. They are not Duplo or Yugo but won’t break the bank like Nest will. That about sums it up for the hardware or included materials. As I stated earlier, the box the camera comes in is super small, so if you order two cameras like I did, you’ll be underwhelmed at the size of the box they come in. Don’t worry, good things come in small packages too.Moving on to features. These 1080P YI cameras come with a boatload of features. You can of course view them from your phone in and outside of your wifi network, so if you are at work and want to check in on your home, you can do that. They have two way audio so you can talk with someone or mess with your cats while you are away (not that I’ve ever done this…). Is it nighttime? No problem, these have very decent night vision capability, so they can see in pitch black darkness. Did something move over there? These sense motion and record it. Is something in the room always moving, like a fan but don’t want that to set off the motion detection? You can select a specific area of the room to detect motion in, and not other areas, so if you have animals like cats or dogs that roam around during the day, set the selection area higher so it won’t detect them. You can also set the motion sensitivity and alert frequency. Maybe your cat is chasing a reflection on a wall from an open window and you don’t want to constantly get an update every few seconds. You can set the frequency lower and get fewer notifications. You can also take videos or pictures of what your camera sees at will. Of course all of this motion and recording can be set up to be stored on the YI servers or be saved to a micro SD card (not included, but you can get a 32 gb Samsung from Amazon for $12) for further review. Have a set schedule? Maybe you don’t want it to record motion at night, but you are gone for ten hours during the day. Set it up to record while you are gone. You can of course turn it off at will from your phone. There’s also a crying baby setting. I don’t have a baby, nor am I going to borrow one to test the feature, but it does exist. I’m guessing that it will listen specifically for that type of sound and send notifications specifically for it. You can also add a bunch of cameras to a single system and jump between those cameras at will. YI also makes a camera that can move and pivot 360 degrees. I have no idea if that camera would integrate into this system, but I bet it would. Most other good systems on the market have something along these features, so its par for the course here. The lack of a giant siren that the Arlo system has can be seen as a downside, but none of the other major systems have these either, so take that how you want.So what about setting these things up? How hard is it? What’s involved? Well, this can be accomplished in just a few really simple steps. The first thing you want to make sure of; that your phone you are using to set these up is on the same network as the cameras will be. I run two separate wifi networks, a 2.5 and a 5ghz. These cameras will currently only work on 2.5 ghz, so I had to jump over to the other network, no big deal. So first, download the YI Home app and start it up. Let the system guide you from here. It will show you everything you need to know, but it’s pretty basic. Next you’ll hit a small plus button to add a camera. Plug in your YI camera and wait. It will take about 30 seconds to turn itself on and it will begin talking. Click on the app that you’ve heard the camera speak and your phone will display a barcode. Simply show this barcode to the camera and it will log into the network. That simple. Then you simply set up the preferences I spoke about in the features area above. It’s so simple that a child could do it.Value. Here it is. If you’ve read this far, you know what’s coming. This system represents a value that cannot be ignored. I bought it figuring that if I didn’t like it, I’d force Amazon to take it back. At $60 a camera, I figured I’d either get a great deal or return it to get something else. Luckily, I got a fantastic deal. For two cameras and two micro SD cards I’m well under the cost of a single Nest/Piper camera or the dual camera Arlo system. The features and hardware quality are a serious contender against nearly any other system on the market. Look, I know how it appears; cheap Chinese made cameras with an app system that can’t be good, with features that probably don’t really work. All of that is wrong except for the “cheap” part, and that doesn’t apply to the camera build quality. This system WILL impress you. It is however a more basic system in terms of its compatability with other things you may have in your home already. I doubt that it will integrate with Alexa or any other system. It’s its own thing, and that’s not bad. The value is clearly there though and is easily seen once you directly compare this system to just about any other system on the market. There is no reason to take my word for it, so go and view a couple of youtube videos and watch for yourself. You can read any of my other reviews, and I think you’ll find a common theme; value. I always look for the value in something, especially in lower priced options. Sure, the Nest cameras are nice. Yes, the Piper system is good. But at $60 a camera, are those systems worth $x more? No, not to me they aren’t. I bought two cameras and the only thing I regret is not buying another one. Maybe I’ll remedy that right now….1.5 year update!!!So what’s life been like with this camera system over the past year and a half? Well, the road is bumpy and there are some faults, but overall, for the price you pay, it’s a decent system. Let’s start with the good.The software seems to receive updates every few months, so that shows that the developers continue to work on the system. The overall quality of the equipment is still good, no complaints here. I did try out their premium service by paying for a subscription, and it worked well, but I didn’t continue it as I just didn’t think it added any value.The bad stuff. Well, interacting with the system while away from home is mixed. Occasionally I just can’t access the cameras, and it isn’t like I don’t have good signal. The system is laggy and it can take quite a while to get a live image to show up on the phone. Sometimes you simply can’t get one no matter how hard you try. I usually just wait a few minutes and try again.There was a period of time a while back where no notifications would show up about movement detected. I’d randomly open the app and see a pile of movement notifications that the system never let me know about….that angered me a great deal. So I unplugged the cameras and logged out of the system to try to reboot the whole setup and it didn’t work. It took a whole update from the company to finally get notifications back.And the last problem I have with this system, is that sometimes it will tell me that there was movement on one of the cameras and when I go to look at the video, it gives me an error that simply says the video isn’t playable. This doesn’t happen often, maybe around 5% of the time or so, but still, that shouldn’t happen, ever.I deducted two stars from the review because of these failures. I’m still using the system and I do think it’s worth the money you pay for it, but it’s far from perfect. It’s a great way to get into home security for low cost, but if you want something with more stability, look to higher priced options.
When I bought this camera I was pretty happy with the quality of the video and especially the fact that I could store videos on an internal micro SD card. The quality is not as good as Nest cams, especially noticeable difference in quality in night vision mode, but not awful either and definitely usable. There are a few things, though, that you should know when buying this camera.SETUPIf it works, it is easy enough, but for some reason I had to repeat the process several times for each of the Yi cams (I bought 3) before a WiFi connection was established. However, the fact that it only works with 2.4Ghz band and that the password cannot contain any special characters, forced me to isolate these cameras from the rest of my home network (probably a good idea for any IoT device).FUNCTIONIf using SD card and not the cloud service, videos are recorded and can be accessed on the mobile app’s interface, which is not too great if going back in time for more than a couple hours. Otherwise is works reasonably well. The issue is that it is not easy to use the timeline to navigate to events in past days and there are some weird quirks like ability to slide the time scale into the future. Not a big deal, but somewhat awkward.Once set up, the cameras worked well for several weeks, but after a while all of the cameras eventually stop connecting to WiFi for no particular reason and at different random times for each camera. Having the reset the indoor cams, while annoying, is not a big deal, but the outdoor one is a bigger issue especially if it is mounted in a place hard to get to. In the end, my Nest cams seem to be working fine for years and I never had to reset their WiFi connection even though on the same WiFi as the Yi cameras. Furthermore, six months into one of the cameras losing the WiFi connection (not the first time), I went through the reset process countless times only to end up being told each time that WiFi connection could not be established and to restart the process. At the same time another camera which I reset just to make sure and it worked fine without any glitches – something happened to the one specific cam. I have given up after not being able to fix the issue with the manual firmware update as per the support page instructions.OTHER ISSUESThere does not seem to be a way to download a video from the SD card unless you take the card out and connect it to your PC. The videos are spread over many folders which are times stamped, but not very easy to access having to open that many folders looking for a specific video clip. I also realized that the SD card contains the wpa_supplicant.conf file which stores your WiFi password in clear text – is a big deal? You decide for yourself. On top of the fact that the WiFi password cannot contain special characters it makes it even more of a security issue.COMPARED TO NESTMuch cheaper than Nest cam but basically a clone of the Nest. Does allow to store video locally without having to pay the subscription fees which you are forced to do with Nest if you want the store footage, but video is not easily downloaded to a different device without pulling the SD card out. The Nest has wider angle and is much clearer in night vision mode. Other than that the quality of video is comparable at 1080p and quite usable.If it wasn’t for the fact that I less than a year I had to reset each of the 3 cameras I own multiple times and that one of them failed completely, I would rate higher. This may be a cheap alternative to Nest (again, the comparison is drawn naturally since it has more than a striking resemblance to the former), especially with video recording ability, but may also not be as stable and reliable in the end.
Short review:I bought this camera as a baby monitor device and got so dissapointed by the (lack of) detection, both of motion and baby crying. I made several tests, placed it in differents rooms, with differents lights, but only got motion detection in one out of six tries. Crying dection never worked, neither far from nor close to the camera. To be sure it was not a faulty device I bought a second one and had the same problem: several tests and it rarely detcted motion and never got the baby crying.Still I give it 2 stars because the good overal quality of the product: the image and sound are great for its price, the installation is extremely easy and the app is really friendly and intuitive. I do recommend it for general surveillance, but for baby care simply avoid it.Full Review:I was looking for a baby care device but thinking about how my wife and I are always connected with our smartphones I though that a wifi camera would do the job: no need for a new device to manage, charge and take with us around the house. Just connect the camera to ours phones and since we’re with them all the time we would be ready to go.I did several resarches for a not too expensive model (I would not give 500$ in a camera if I can buy a decent baby monitor for 150$ or even less), so I found this Yi for a reasonable price of 50$. I read many reviews and the overal score of the product picked my attention. More resarch and videos later and I decided gave it a try.Bought one from one seller but mistakenly bought a second one from another seller. “It’s not a problem” I thought, “I will just return the second one upon arrival”. Got the first in a week and the next day got the second one. So I proceed to test the thing myself.I got impressed by the quality of the packaging. For an obscure china brand the box is really neat. Got the cam, quickly read the instructions and downloaded the android app. The installation is easy peasy, give the wifi name and password in the app, it will genrate a QR Code and once scanned by the camera it will log itself into the network. The app is ready to interact with the camera. Even a kid who can read can do it by himself.Cammera configured into the app let’s launch it. Again I got impressed by the quality of the image. The IR function was also great, even in a pitch black room I could clearly see everyting. The two way sound channel also amazing, its built in microphone was strong enough to capture the slightest sound in a room and the speaker also had a good volume level. Until then I was amazed.So I tried the motion detection and then I got dissapointed. Tried several times, moving, passing, even dancing (yeah, seriously) in front of the camera. Like I said, only one in about six tries it correctly detected the motion. I tried changing room, turning the lights off and on again, but it did not help, the motion detection failed most of the time. Already down by this I lose all my hopes for the baby crying detection and as I already expected it wasn’t any better. Tried several sounds and videos of babies crying, and the camera not even once detected it. Didn’t matter the distance, near or far, I could rear well and clear the baby crying on the phone app, so the camera was able to capture it as well, but it never triggered an alert.The few times the motion detection worked the app registered an alert but the phone did not get any notification. Manually viewing the alert log on the app I saw the notification alerts of the few times it got the motion. It was supposed to send a notification to the phone by push, as a new text, but this feature never worked. Read everywhere on the manufacture’s site and the very few info there simply did not help. It looks like those who visited the site didn’t solve theirs problem either as we can see by the opinion pool of each solution proposed: most of the people were dissatisfied with the solutions given.Maybe that was a faulty product, So I decided to open and try the secod one I had mistakenly bought (I had not yet returned it). Did the exactly same scenarios, with lights on, lights off, near, far, differents rooms, and had the very same results: about one out of five or six times I saw the alert for motion detection on the app only (and never got any push notification) and baby cry detection never raised an alert either. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app, delete and reconfiguring the camera, changed all the possible options in the settings, followed every instruction on the manufacturer site, but it simply did not work on any of the cameras.This was a major dissapointement because, like I said, I was looking for a baby monitor and motion and crying detection is a must. Still, although dissapointed with the product I have say that it’s overal quality is impressive. The easy setup, the image and sound, the IR option, the application, everything is really well built. It’s just a shame that the two main features which I bought it for did not work; I had high expectations for it. Looks like I will go for a traditional baby monitor anyway.This camera might serves as a single and not expensive surveillance system, but don’t expect too much from it’s detection and alert system, you will be dissapointed – like me.
Good Camera (UPDATED REVIEW). The media could not be loaded. 1st Edit (January 28, 2020) 3 StarsREAD INITIAL REVIEW FIRST!!!After 8 months of use, I decided to update my initial review, and change my rating from 5 to 3 Stars. Let me explain why:1. Kami from Yi: Yi decided to have a new line of products, focused on security (wireless and wired Cameras, a hub to avoid using Wifi for motion sensors and door sensors). It was such a strange and dumb decision, that actually two of Kami’s cameras are physically identical to the New Yi Dome X (good camera BTW) and to the Outdoor camera. Only difference? That now it not only uses 2.4 Ghz, but also 5 Ghz Wifi. That’s it! But now, instead of having to buy just new Yi products, to add to your system, you have to pay more money, and… USE ANOTHER APP!!! After some months, Yi made an update that made the Yi Home app, compatible with all Kami devices (including their hub and Zigbee? Z-Wave devices?).This shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Kami is just a new line of Yi Products that should have been a part of the Yi Ecosystem from the beginning.2. Amazon/Alexa compatibility: After an update, now you can use your Echo Show devices and you Firestick to see your cameras. Only problem? This doesn’t work. To the point where this skill is rated 1 star. On my brand new Echo Show 8, the video feed freezes and gets stucked in Buffering (see attached photograph).3. No Google Home compatibility, IFTTT or SmartThings: Not everyone has an Amazon/Alexa ecosystem. Other companies have all this compatibility (Wyze for example).4. Home and Away mode: You can now change mode through the app. Only problem is that without IFTTT or SmartThings compatibility, in case you have an alarm system, you have to go into the app to set it manually and not automatically.If Yi wants to keep up with competition, it need all this compatibilities or make a Camera door ring bell, Siren, smart lock with keypad, etc. Right now, this is not the case, so Yi is being left behind. I’ve read rumors (and even filled one of Yi’s surveys through email about this, but until then, they need to make things happen).5. Desktop App with no upgrades: I understand almost everyone uses their phone. But watching 8 cameras, is impossible to do at the same time through your phone (you should be able to see 4!!!). Desktop app is the same as ever and has no updates. If you have a desktop app, please update it.6. Outdoor camera still can’t change sensitivity: From my first review, you can read that the Outdoor camera is WAY too sensitive (there’s even a video). Every night I had the Siren trigger because of bugs/insects. This makes this function useless. You should be able to set the trigger for this, for X amount of seconds of continuous movement, not only sensitivity. I had to turn this off completely. If it worked, it would be an AWESOME function, actually really useful.7. Baby Monitor: Through Kami, Yi had a crowdfunding campaign for this. I supported them, and will be updating when I get it (march, according to the Indiegogo campaign page)———————————————1st REVIEW (May 14, 2019) 5 StarsSo, I’ve waited quite a while to write this review. I didn’t know where to do it, so I’ll copy/paste it in all of Yi’s Cameras I own (1080p, Outdoor, Dome, and 3), since I’ll write this review as an individual review for each type of Camera, and as a whole camera system.1080p (4/5): At the moment of this writing, this is the best bang for the buck. You can get 4 of this for $118! or one for $29. The good thing about this is its simplicity and price. The fact that you can also mount this on the ceiling with screws makes it even better. One of the things you should take into consideration, is that even though this mentions its specs as a 112 degree FOV… it’s more of a real 90 degree.I mounted my cameras on corners of my home, so I was expecting to see both walls… which I didn’t or barely did. I discovered that there’s a setting called “Lens distortion correction”, that can make your FOV wider, sacrificing distortion (obviously), helps quite a bit, but 112, compared to other options (like the Yi 3) is on the lower side of specs.Night Vision is good. Quite contrasty, which I have to admit looks better to the eye, but won’t give you all the information something with a wider Dynamic Range can give you (like the Yi 3, again).This comes with “Baby Crying Detection”, which I haven’t tried, but soon will, as I bought this one to work as a WiFi baby monitor placed on top of my son’s crib.As all of the other Yi cameras, this has Motion Detection Alerts, which can also be switched On or Off with a Schedule, and you can change the frequency of the alerts.I bought the Cloud service for 5 cameras, Motion Based recording, which works OK… and also use 32 GB micro SD Cards, to store things locally. One of the downsides of ALL the Yi Cameras I own, is that for some reason I can’t record 24/7 on the micro SD card locally, and motion based on the cloud. That would make a lot more sense. Another downside, is that if you record 24/7, you can’t know where there’s movement in the recording, you have to scroll bit by bit, potentially missing things you might want/need to see. I guess most would want motion based recording, but take this into consideration if you buy the Cloud Service.Outdoor (3/5): Good camera, with good night vision (which for an Outdoor camera is a must). This also comes with an option to sound an Alarm if motion is detected (on a Schedule if you need, or always). This should sound for the whole time the motion is detected, not for only the 3 seconds it lasts. And the Alarm is not as loud as it should be. You should be able to change this to the amount of time the movement/motion happens (even though you only get 1 notification in the app).Night Vision is something that should be better in future firmware. It’s not that the night vision is bad, is that it triggers alerts when a bug flies in front and close to the camera. Even a bug flying for half a second at night, will trigger the Alarm and the notification. Even at the Lowest Sensitivity, it gives too many False Positives. Which is obviously a problem. (I’ll try to attach a video about a simple insect trigerring the alert and Alarm).The camera, since it’s designed to work on outdoors, works as expected. Rain (lot’s of it), wind, sun, etc., and still going strong. Please take into consideration that this cameras has a short cable, so placing it far away from the electrical outlet will create a need for an extension or some other option.Dome Camera (4.5/5): This is the one that has the most features. It can pan and tilt (go up/down or right/left). It can follow movement (called “Motion Tracking”) or it can scan from one spot to another (you choose the spots, called Bookmarks). The only reason I‘m taking 1 star off is that it has the same FOV as the 1080p and when you have it one spot, and motion is detected and it starts to follow movement… sometimes, when it tries to go back to its original position, it won’t. It’s not that big of a deal, but it’s something that annoys me, and it makes the biggest selling point of this camera, not so good (Motion Tracking), since you have to once in a while place the camera again where you want it to be focused normally.Night mode is similar to the 1080p Camera, which again, is quite contrasty.For the amount of features, this would be the best Yi camera, but if you can place your camera in a corner of your house, paying for this model and not the 1080p (or even the 3), won’t make much sense.3 (5/5): This is the newest option from Yi. It has a much better night vision (a little on the flat side, but you get more information), MUCH better FOV. This also has, instead of the Baby Crying alert found on the 1080p, Abnormal Sound alerts, which you can set from 50dB (conversations), to 90dB (harmful/dangerous sounds), in 10dB steps. I have set mine at 60dB.One of the best features on this model, is that you can not only set Schedules for alerts, but Schedules for the camera to be on/off. This is awesome for some privacy in our Master bedroom.All these features, at the time I’m writing this, come with a $49 price per camera… which for my needs, was justified.The Yi 3 is a modern camera, with better technical specs and probably technology that the other cameras I own. I really don’t know if a firmware update could bring the 3’s features could migrate to past models or if it’s something about processor/chip capacity.ALL CAMERAS: Unfortunately these are not Smart Cameras, so there’s nothing to do with Alexa, Google Home or something like Samsung’s SmartThings here. Everything is handled via the App, which as far as I’ve seen, the interface is pretty much the same as every other camera. They have the GREAT advantage that you can have your information stored on a Cloud based system or in the SD card (which at least IMHO, it’s a great PLUS).Yi Ecosystem: One of the things that Yi has overlooked, is that the Yi App/Software is designed to work with one camera, not as a system. So for someone like me, that has 9 cameras (1 Dome, 1 Outdoor, 2 1080p and 5 Yi 3’s), it becomes a little bit of a problem. For example, I don’t have the chance to turn ON all camera’s setting an Away mode, or remove notifications in a Home mode… or any type of combination. If I need to turn on all cameras, I have to enter into the settings of each camera, one by one. This doesn’t make much sense. You can’t see two or several cameras at the same time… you can only see one.NOTE: Yi Home Camera 2 and Yi Cloud Cameras, are the models I didn’t need so I don’t have any opinion or anything to mention about them. At the moment of this writing, version 2 is not available anywhere.
Muy muy bien para checar tu hogar desde tu celular está muy bien, además que puedes hablar y se escucha desde ahí