Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Excellent smart detection
- Local and cloud storage
- Color night vision
Cons
- Requires access to AC power
- Need to wire cables into home could complicate installation
Our Verdict
The Blurams Outdoor Lite 4 is a great value at just $40, offering smart detection, color night vision, and video with 2K resolution.
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Blurams isn’t the first name that comes to mind in terms of security cameras, but don’t let that dissuade you. The Blurams Outdoor Lite 4 falls squarely in the “budget” category, but this outdoor security camera has a robust feature set that makes it an excellent value at just $40.
The boxy bullet-style camera is weatherized to an IP66 rating, which means the manufacturer maintains that it is entirely protected from dust and other particulate matter (that the first 6), and that the device can withstand being sprayed with a jet of water–but perhaps not a pressure washer (that’s the second 6). The Outdoor Lite 4 sports a pair of high-gain antennas for an extra stable Wi-Fi connection. That would seem to give you a lot of installation flexibility, but the camera must be connected to mains power, so you’ll need to mount it in proximity to an electrical outlet in or outside your home.
The Outdoor Lite 4 is weatherized to an IP66 rating for protection against water and dust.
Blurams
A pigtail on the back of the camera includes an ethernet port that allows you to wire the camera to your router if Wi-Fi isn’t feasible. The camera does not, however, support power over ethernet (PoE), which would keep your cable count to one if you didn’t use Wi-Fi. That scenario, of course, would require you to have a router or switch that also supports PoE.
Before you install the camera, you’ll need to set it up with the Blurams app. This is a simple guided process in which you select the camera model, log in to your Wi-Fi, and use the camera to scan a QR code in the app. Initially, the camera had no problem connecting to my network, but then it couldn’t connect to Blurams’ servers. The second time I tried, it completed the setup with no issues.
Once the camera is online, you can mount it to an exterior wall or eaves. Blurams supplies the screws and anchors to secure the mounting bracket, as well as some waterproof tape for the cable connections, which are not weatherized.
This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best home security cameras, where you’ll find reviews of the competition’s offerings, plus a buyer’s guide to the features you should consider when shopping for this type of product.
The Blurams Outdoor Lite 4 has both excellent black-and-white night vision and color night vision when its motion-activated spotlights turn on.
Blurams
The camera has solid specs, including 2K resolution and a 100-degree field of view. It’s equipped with black-and-white night vision as well as four high-power white spotlights that enable full-color video in the dark. Daylight video was sharp and detailed with accurate colors and both types of night vision were excellent, providing about 30 feet of illumination. The app offers an intelligent night vision setting that defaults to capturing video in black and white, but automatically switches to color when its motion detection triggers its onboard spotlight to ward off intruders.
The system can detect human and general motion in addition to sounds. You can calibrate detection sensitivity, configure activity zones to ignore motion in parts of its field of view, and customize when you receive alerts through scheduling and frequency settings. Detection was uniformly accurate, with the camera capturing a 12-second video clip of each triggering event.
You can save event-triggered video clips locally to an microSD card (not included). MicroSD cards with capacities up to 128GB are supported, and the videos are encrypted during recording, so you’ll need Blurams’ app to play them back if you remove the card from the camera. Add a BluramsGuard subscription and you can unlock continuous recording and the ability to share video clips. Paid plans are $4 a month (the first month is free) for 7 days of video history and 1 hour of clip cloud storage, $6 a month for 15 days of history and 3 hours of clip cloud storage, and $15 a month for 30 days of history and 5 hours of clip cloud storage. Annual plans are also available.
The Blurams app is well designed and makes it easy to control the camera and manage its security features.
Michael Ansaldo/IDG
The Blurams app is designed for easy control of the camera. On top of letting you view the live video feed, it lets you record video on demand, take screenshots, use two-way talk, and activate the camera’s built-in siren. It also lets you easily switch between videos stored locally and in the cloud. Captured video is displayed in a scroll below the feed pane. You can toggle between event clips and continuous video, load video from the microSD card or the cloud, and view footage by date. The camera can also be connected with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant to enable basic voice commands and viewing footage on the related smart displays.
With the Outdoor Lite 4, Blurams has once again hit the sweet spot between quality and affordability. Whether you’re just testing the waters before making a deeper commitment to home security or you already know you don’t need all the bells and whistles that come with pricier cameras, the Outdoor Lite 4 is a great option.
