I’ve been a fan of Wyze smart home products, including their security cameras, for a lot of years.
For the last few weeks, I’ve been testing the newest camera from Wyze, the Wyze Cam v4 ($35.98, wyze.com or Amazon), which brings some new and upgraded features over the v3 for the same price.
Specs
The Wyze Cam v4 features 2.5K Quad-HD resolution (2,560 x 1,440 pixels) with color night vision, wide dynamic range for better colors and a larger sensor for a clearer image.
The camera has 4 infrared LEDs to provide illumination for night vision. The video is captured at 20 frames per second during the day and 15 frames per second at night.
The v4 can be used indoors or outdoors with IP65 weather resistance.
The camera has a speaker and microphone, so you can have a two-way conversation through the Wyze app on your phone or tablet. It has a more powerful amplifier and better microphone than the v3.
The v4 has a motion-activated LED spotlight and the camera can play a siren, warning tone or speak the message, “You are being recorded,” when motion is detected. The speaker can sound a 99-decibel alarm and has echo and noise cancellation.
Like other Wyze cameras, the v4 has a microSD card slot so you can add a memory card for 24/7 continuous recording without a subscription. The v4 supports up to a 512-gigabyte card.
Wyze has added support for Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, but still only on the 2.4 GHz band.
The v4 still uses a microUSB cable for power. The v4 includes a 6-foot USB cable and a USB power adapter.
Wyze has included a tool-free magnetic mounting method with a metal disk you can stick to any flat surface. The v4 has a strong magnet in its adjustable base.
Setup
Wyze has changed the way the cameras are set up and configured. The v3 required you to hold up your phone in front of the lens so the camera could read a QR code from the app.
The new way has fewer steps and uses Bluetooth. It is a definite improvement.
You’ll need to download the Wyze app and set up an account before you can set up the camera.
The app transmits the information about your Wi-Fi network name and password to the camera.
During the setup, you’ll get to name the camera and set up the settings for notifications. If you have multiple cameras, they will all appear on the app’s main screen.
App and subscription
You’ll need the app to have any interaction with the Wyze cam. You can see each camera on the app’s main screen. Touching the thumbnail brings up a live video view from the camera.
With the v4, you get a list of recent events which you can review. What you see in those events depends on whether you have a memory card installed or if you subscribe to Wyze’s cloud storage service.
Wyze has a few subscription levels.
First is the basic plan, which is free. That gets you real-time remote viewing of your video feeds, a still image of any motion notification and a five-minute cool-down between motion event captures. Your images stay online for 14 days.
Cam Plus is $2.99 per month per camera or $19.99 per year. Cam Plus includes real-time video viewing, plus unlimited length video clips of captured events stored in the cloud for 14 days. You can also rewind or forward through the clips and view your video feeds and live views through a browser on your computer.
Cam Plus also includes AI detection that can alert you when the camera detects people, packages, vehicles or pets. We have a neighborhood cat who patrols through our yard, and the camera tags his visits correctly as a pet each time.
Those notifications are also handy for when you get a package delivered. The Wyze AI is pretty good.
There is also Cam Protect for $3.99 per month per camera or $39.99 per year, which includes all the Cam Plus features plus adds friendly facial recognition and the ability to arm/disarm the cameras so they can act as a security system. That system is monitored by a 24/7 emergency response service and you can be notified by text or phone call if the alarm goes off.
Security concerns
Wyze has had more than one security slip in the last few years, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention it. The latest involved some 13,000 users who were able to view thumbnails from other users’ cameras. Some were able to access video feeds from those cameras.
This happened because of some work being done to bring the system back from an outage.
I did receive an email from Wyze explaining the issue:
“The incident was caused by a third-party caching client library that was recently integrated into our system. This client library received unprecedented load conditions caused by devices coming back online all at once. As a result of increased demand, it mixed up device ID and user ID mapping and connected some data to incorrect accounts.
“To make sure this doesn’t happen again, we have added a new layer of verification before users are connected to Event Videos. We have also modified our system to bypass caching for checks on user-device relationships until we identify new client libraries that are thoroughly stress tested for extreme events like we experienced.”
Wyze is not the only tech company to have security slips. I personally still use their cameras, but all my Wyze cams are monitoring areas outside my home.
I think Wyze is a company trying hard to do the right thing. Their cameras are high quality, easy to set up and use and are very competitively priced.
Conclusions
The v4 responds very quickly in the app. Touch the thumbnail and you’ll see the live video stream in less than three seconds. The picture is clear and the sound is much improved over the v3. I love gadgets that just work. Set it up and it’ll be there when you need it.
Overall, the Wyze Cam v4 is a worthy upgrade. Better resolution is something we all want in a camera. The color night vision is impressive, and the better audio components and LED lighting are a welcome addition. I love that Wyze is taking the time to refine the setup process to make it less complicated.
For the price, these cameras can’t be beat. Buy a microSD card along with each camera and you can see how you like the functionality before you decide if you want to pony up for a subscription.
Jim Rossman is a tech columnist for Tribune News Service. He may be reached at jrossmantechadviser@gmail.com.
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