Revolutionizing Home Security: Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 Offers Affordable, User-Friendly Surveillance

Kent is primarily recognized in India for its extensive collection of water purifiers, yet the brand also offers a varied array of products within different household categories, such as kitchen gadgets, air purifiers, vacuum cleaners, and surveillance cameras. Focusing on its camera offerings, Kent has a modest selection, featuring security and monitoring cameras for vehicles along with a Wi-Fi-compatible model intended for residential use. Here, I am examining the Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 Wi-Fi Security Camera, which retails for Rs. 2,999 in India.

Similar to the Godrej Spotlight Pan-Tilt Home Security Camera that I previously reviewed, the Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 is tailored for home use and offers swift and easy access to a video feed through Wi-Fi connectivity and a specific app. The camera angle is adjustable, allowing it to survey various parts of your home for enhanced versatility, and I will discuss several other notable features in this review. Is this currently the best economical home security camera available? Continue reading to discover more.

Design and Specifications of Kent CamEye HomeCam 360

The Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 goes head-to-head with the Godrej Spotlight Pan-Tilt camera, providing a similar field of view and features. However, its design distinguishes it significantly. The camera is housed in a spherical module that enables it to tilt both vertically and horizontally, while the entire plastic exterior rotates on a stationary base.

This camera is equipped with a microphone and speaker located at the rear of the unit. This not only allows audio capture along with the video stream but also facilitates two-way communication, alert sounds, and an intrusion alarm function. A status LED on the front shows its power and connectivity status.

The underside of the Kent HomeCam 360 is rubberized for stability, and the camera swivels on this base

 

The Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 has a fixed rubberized base, providing grip, with the camera body rotating around it. There is a socket on the bottom that allows you to mount the camera on a tripod, wall, or ceiling; however, no mounting kit or bracket is included, requiring a separate purchase. Included in the package are a wall adapter and a USB Type-A to Micro-USB cable for powering the security camera.

The base features a Micro-USB port for power, along with a MicroSD card slot that accommodates cards of up to 128GB. The device is equipped with a 2-megapixel camera sensor capable of full-HD video recording. It offers a horizontal rotation of 350 degrees and a vertical tilt of 65 degrees. The specified field of view is 120 degrees horizontally and 95 degrees vertically, with six infrared LEDs to facilitate visibility in low light. The camera only connects to the Internet via 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and doesn’t support the 5GHz band.

Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 App and Features

Consistent with other Wi-Fi enabled home security cameras, the Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 operates via an app that allows users to view the video feed, control the camera, and access recorded footage among other functions. The Kent CamEye app is available for both iOS and Android platforms, and I utilized the iOS version for evaluating the app’s features and usability. If you own multiple Kent CamEye cameras, they can all be monitored and managed together.

Upon registration and account creation in the app, you can link your security camera to your home Wi-Fi network. Afterward, tapping the camera icon takes you directly to its live feed, allowing you to modify the camera’s angle, settings, activate the speaker and microphone (either together or separately), capture snapshots for storage on your smartphone, and more.

The app is user-friendly, with most features organized conveniently. For instance, enabling two-way communication or taking snapshots can be accomplished with a single touch. The D-pad for camera angle adjustment is also easily reachable, and typically takes just two to three seconds to activate and display the video feed.

Diving deeper into the app menus allows for enabling a privacy mode where the camera remains inactive and does not record. You can review saved recordings and images and see a history of alerts generated by the camera based on movement or sound detection. Importantly, the sensitivity of alerts can be customized. Enabling all features resulted in dozens of daily alerts when the camera was positioned at my front door, which is handy for controlling these functionalities.

The Kent CamEye app operates the camera and enables viewing of the live stream or saved footage

 

The Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 has the capability to upload recorded footage, particularly videos triggered by events, to the company’s cloud service. This premium feature starts at Rs. 150 monthly or Rs. 1,500 annually. It allows storage for up to seven days’ worth of event-triggered video clips, each lasting around 12 seconds. The subscription options extend to Rs. 400 per month or Rs. 4,000 per year to maintain up to 30 days of video history. A one-month subscription is included with each purchase.

I utilized the one-month subscription for this review, which enabled me to store and access historical footage from the cloud. Even after the subscription lapsed, I could still view some clips in the app and download them to my device.

According to Kent’s website, a paid subscription allows capturing and storing event-triggered videos to the cloud, which can be replayed directly from there. Nonetheless, all other functionalities, including recording and playback from the memory card, real-time live streaming, two-way communication, and privacy mode, remain accessible without a paid plan.

Additionally, the Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 can be integrated with your Amazon Alexa account via a skill, enabling you to access its video feed through the Alexa app or on an Alexa-enabled smart display like the Amazon Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen). This integration worked efficiently for me, although angle adjustments could not be made through the Alexa interface.

Performance of Kent CamEye HomeCam 360

Consistency is a critical consideration in the operation of any home security camera; you depend on its functionality during crucial moments. The Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 proved to be dependable on my 2.4GHz Wi-Fi connection, as I was able to quickly get it operational whenever necessary, supported by an app that is well-structured with key features readily accessible.

The Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 records in full-HD, producing clear, colorful visuals during daylight and transitioning to monochrome in low-light scenarios. The camera can automatically identify dim lighting and activate the infrared LEDs as needed, maintaining clarity with sufficient detail and recognizable faces, despite the absence of color. There were instances where the camera took a few seconds to adjust to light changes and recalibrate the video output, but this was not a significant issue.

The Kent HomeCam 360 includes a speaker and microphone for two-way communication, activated through the app

 

The full-HD footage recorded by the Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 was generally clear and detailed under most conditions when the movement was minimal and gradual, though rapid movements occasionally resulted in artifacts. Nevertheless, sufficient detail was still observable in faces, clothing, and small objects such as parcels and boxes.

There is the option to reduce the resolution to HD or SD if needed, which could enhance stability and detail with slower Internet connections or if longer recording durations to a storage card are required. This decision primarily impacted the visibility of text on items, but faces remained identifiable even at SD resolution.

Camera angle adjustments are highly flexible. With 350 degrees of pan and a 65-degree tilt range, the camera can survey nearly its entire surroundings. Although it generally took about a second for the camera to respond to angle adjustment commands via the app, the movement was mostly smooth and accurate.

The speaker on the Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 is quite loud, especially in siren mode. The alert sounds were sufficiently loud to be heard from various parts of my home, and the two-way communication function was clear and effective when near the camera. While the microphone at times captured a lot of surrounding noise, it could accurately pick up conversations when someone was speaking close to the device. Importantly, you can activate just the microphone without the speaker if desired.

The camera effectively records video footage of human movement when activated to do so, but it does not track moving individuals or objects. Nevertheless, saved clips were adequately clear for recognizing faces and items.

Conclusion

An effective Wi-Fi security camera serves as a straightforward and efficient solution for establishing a home monitoring system, and the Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 presents itself as a viable option. Despite facing stiff competition from alternatives like the Godrej Spotlight Pan-Tilt camera and Mi Home Security Camera 360, Kent’s device sets a standard by offering a commendable overall experience without significant drawbacks.

With an excellent companion app, features such as two-way communication, an optional cloud storage service for recordings triggered by events, and dependable performance, this ranks among the superior basic Wi-Fi security cameras available today. It is reasonably priced and definitely worth contemplating for your home security solutions.

Price: Rs. 2,999

Rating: 8/10

Pros:

• Extensive range of motion for comprehensive coverage
• microSD and optional cloud storage for event-triggered clips
• Performs well in various lighting conditions
• User-friendly companion app

Cons:

• Mounting kit not included with the purchase

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