It’s always great news when a new contender blazes a trail into a product space with minimal competition – where big companies already reign supreme at the tippy top, with few alternatives – and that’s what happened yesterday when ecobee introduced its new Smart Doorbell Camera. The company already competes with Google Nest with its own eco-friendly smart thermostats, and now it’s taking on the Amazon Ring doorbell cam with its own Smart Doorbell Camera designed to tie into the growing ecobee IoT.
The newly announced ecobee doorbell camera records in 1080p with “enhanced low light vision” and uses a 175-degree vertical field of view, meaning it can see everything clearly from the floor to the sky directly in front of the camera at all times of day and night. This lets the viewer on the opposite side of the doorbell camera (looking through it via the Smart Thermostat Premium or any device connected to the ecobee app, like a smartphone or an Apple Watch) see packages dropped on the porch, or in more extreme cases, detect potential threats hiding on the opposite side of the door.
Designer: Jonathan Hayes (via ecobee)
The Smart Doorbell Camera has a slick outward appearance featuring a machined-glass front panel surrounded by aluminum alloy, and according to ecobee it is even rated for IP65 waterproofing and dust protection. Its battery-free design means it’s meant to last for a long time without any need for regular maintenance, even in extreme environments where the elements can pose a problem. It’s protected both from extreme heat up to 113 degrees Fahrenheit and extreme cold down to -13 degrees Fahrenheit.
Activity Zone customization lets you manage your security notifications better than other smart security cams, so you only get notified when a certain event is triggered. This is thanks to “multiple layers of intelligence, including advanced radar verification and computer vision” that can allegedly pinpoint very specific motions, or when people are at a certain distance from the Smart Doorbell Camera.
If you don’t already have a subscription to ecobee Smart Security, which connects all ecobee security devices together and offers access to the ecobee app, don’t fret: the ecobee Smart Doorbell Camera comes with a trial that lasts for two months, after which you can subscribe for $50 a year. The ecobee Smart Doorbell Camera is already available on the ecobee website for $159.99.
