Neos Smartcam Review - Home Security Camera

AD- Neos Smartcam gifted for review

Have you heard of the Neos Smartcam? Ever since the girls were born I became a little more conscious of home security. I always hated the idea of sitting downstairs watching TV whilst the girls were upstairs alone. What if they were unwell? What if they sneaked out of bed when we weren’t looking? What if someone broke in and went into their rooms? When the baby monitors got put away, the home security cameras arrived, and my mind was finally put at rest. But home security cameras cost a fortune right? WRONG! This week has seen the launch of the Neos Smart Cam Home Security Camera – a discreet, easy to install, app based home security camera that retails at just £19.99! Having tried a few different brands of home security camera over the years, we decided to put the Neos Smart Cam to the test in our home – could it really be as effective as others on the market with such a low budget price tag? We were asked to carry out a Neos Smartcam review Here’s how we got on.

Table of Contents

About the Neos Smartcam Home Security Camera

You’d be forgiven for saying you haven’t heard of the Neos Smart Cam before, as the product is relatively new to the market, and we were lucky enough to road test it prior to general release.

The Neos SmartCam is an indoor 1080p full HD smart home camera that comes with motion detection, two way audio, night vision and auto arming as standard, and when motion is triggered, not only alerts your phone, but records 12 second motion clips which are saved in the cloud for 14 days (completely secure via end to end encryption). The clips can be downloaded and saved to your phone should you wish, meaning you can forward the most funny of captures to family and friends.

The Neos Smart Cam is small and discreet in size (measuring just 4.5cm across and 5cm in height – making it smaller than most smartphones) and the cube can be moved and tilted on it’s access to configure the optimum viewing angle and position. The silver part of the base simply slots down, and then you can tilt and swivel the camera according to your preference.

The Neos SmartCam is mains powered and comes with a 1.8m USB power cable (with a 1.5m extension cable available from the Neos shop if you require more. It is also wall mountable, magnetic compatible with both Apple and Android Devices.

The Neos SmartCam can be used for multiple purposes, from keeping an eye on your pets, monitoring your prize posessions or being alerted to movement upstairs when the children are sleeping. It’s also a great way for those who travel regularly to check in with their family when they are away from home.

With two children who seem to like being awake more than they do asleep, we’ve been putting the Neos Smart Cam to the test to monitor the girls bed time antics!

Our Neos Smartcam Review

Getting set up for our Neos Smartcam review was incredibly straightforward. Before you start you simply need to remove the SmartCam from the box, ensure you have a working 2.4GHz Wifi network (including details of the network name and pass code) and a spare power socket where you want to place the SmartCam. You then simply download the app (we were using an Apple device) and follow the instructions to sync and link your device.

We carried out our Neos SmartCam review in two different locations – both in the living room and upstairs. Upstairs, we decided to place our camera by our bedroom door, wanting to be alerted when we were downstairs if either of the girls had got out of beds, whilst being able to see the doors to both of their bedrooms. Both girls had video HD baby monitors in their rooms for quite some time, and as they are getting older these have now been put away, however I do miss the reassurance of being able to visually check that they are content and asleep without disturbing them, or on the contrary being alerted if they are unwell.

Getting the Neos SmartCam into the right position was very straight forward, simply using the stand to tilt and turn the camera until it was at the desirable angle. The only slight issue may be that you are somewhat restricted to location based on where your nearest plug sockets are. As the partner of an electrician, sockets were never going to be a concern in this house, however you do need to have a plug within a reasonable distance (just under 2 metres) of the device.

If you want to check in on your chosen location, you can login via the app into ‘live streaming’ mode. The 1080p Full HD camera is of excellent quality, and you can see clearly a high level of detail within the images, as well as being able to zoom in up to 8 times by pinching and stretching the screen. The Neos SmartCam is also night vision enabled, which for us is a real positive as that is the time when our house seems to come to life!! The night vision quality is excellent, and although obviously black and white, we were still able to clearly see the girls when they were moving around.

For us, the motion / noise sensors were a real positive. Erin, who quite regularly tries to sneak downstairs for a ‘very important chat’ at around 9pm, triggered the motion sensor quite a few times when slowly sleuthing her way towards the staircase (she may be ninja silent but that didn’t trick the Neos!). The two way audio allowed us to quickly encourage her to get back into bed, without waking or disturbing her sister.

Overall, we’ve been really impressed during Neos Smartcam review, in fact, there’s not much to critique about it at all. My only constructive criticism would be that it would be great if it didn’t have to be connected to the mains all the time, perhaps with some battery life that needed recharging occasionally so that you had a little more flexibility of location. It’s also worth noting that the Neos SmartCam is indoor only, therefore isn’t one that will track visitors to and from your home. Whilst it would be great as a cheaper alternative to a baby monitor, it is worth noting that the angle or direction of the camera cannot be rotated or moved remotely via the app – you do need to physically move it should you wish to change the angle. That said, pointed above the cot, this would still do the job with noise and motion sensors to alert you if your baby wakes.

Overall for the price of just £19.99 I really don’t think you can go wrong with the Neos SmartCam, it’s a small but powerful little camera which makes home security far more affordable than it has been before, and boasts many of the features included in more high value devices.

With the ability to sync a number of individual cameras to the app for home security all around your home, the Neos SmartCam allows the ability to protect your home without breaking the bank in the process.