Swann Security Camera Review: Outdoor Wi-fi Spotlight Model

In this Swann Security Camera Review, we look at the design, features, and performance of the Swann Outdoor Wi-Fi Spotlight Camera.

For the past 30 years, you would hear about Swann and think about their industrial-, retail-focused camera systems built for companies and not the everyday household. Swann has a long history in the security market, and it shows, but it has tended to focus on CCTV systems in the past rather than low-cost security cameras for households.

Fortunately, we got the better end of the stick recently because Swann has updated its range of Wi-Fi security cameras for home users, and the new Swann Wi-Fi Spotlight Outdoor Camera is packed with features that can help to protect the outside of your home. Let’s take a deep dive into what the product has in store for us.

Swann, the Australian-born company, has revealed its Wi-Fi Spotlight Outdoor Camera to the market, and it’s certainly sturdy enough to cope with any element in the climate.

From its exterior, the camera is compacted within a very solid plastic casing that is rated IP66 for protection against strong rain, as well as dust and debris that might damage it in any way. The camera is attached to an equally sturdy mounting plate, and Swann includes a set of screws and plugs so that you can attach it to an outside wall if you need to (hence the ‘Outdoor’ in the product title).

The mounting plate allows you to adjust the angle of the camera so that you can get an exceptional view of the area that you want to monitor. It does require power, but the security camera company also includes a massive 60-foot extension cable to give you plenty of freedom if you need to place the camera high up on a wall or some distance away from an indoor power supply.

The extension lead comes with two connectors: the power and Ethernet. Wrapped together, you can use Ethernet to move the camera beyond the range of your indoor Wi-Fi if you need to. The camera does support 2.4GHz Wi-Fi networks, so that should be perfectly fine for streaming 1080p video.

Some people might prefer a completely wireless security camera with its own rechargeable battery in order to avoid all that cabling, but recharging a wireless camera might not be practical if it’s mounted high up on a wall or other structure, so the main power and Ethernet connectivity of the Wi-Fi Spotlight Outdoor camera will be the better option for many homes.

Throughout our review of the Swann Security Camera, we saw that the Wi-Fi Spotlight Outdoor model is fairly conventional, offering 1080p resolution and 110-degree viewing angles.

The video image is great, offering way better quality than the competition that, from time to time, shows a bit of pixelation or distortion. Still, with Swann, you can get every crisp detail to the second when it comes to capturing intruders, or just notifying you of a person at your door.

Aside from its quality, it’s really the camera’s additional security features that make it stand out. Along with the main motion-sensor, the camera includes heat and infrared sensors that provide night-vision that can extend up to 100 feet. There’s also a two-way audio system with a surprisingly sensitive microphone that can trigger the camera when it hears any sound, and also allows you to talk to people such as couriers, or yell at intruders via the app.

As the name suggests, the camera includes a spotlight that can be activated when it detects an intruder, and there’s a siren as well. The sensitivity of the various sensors can be adjusted via the Swann Security app in order to reduce false alarms, and you can also control the spotlight, siren, and other features manually, so that you can give someone a real scare by turning all the security features on at once.

Speaking of the Swann Security app, the app provides precise controls for the camera’s many features, including the ability to adjust the sensitivity of the motion-detection sensor, ‘person-detection’ that can tell people apart from moving vehicles or stray pets, and the volume levels for the microphone and speaker. You can specify how long the siren and spotlight are turned on for when the camera detects nearby movement, and also control them manually - perhaps to use the spotlight for a quick look around at night when you’re away from home.

An excellent plus that Swann holds dearly against all other competitors is that the camera provides free online storage for your video recordings for up to 7 days free of charge, and that it also has a small amount of internal storage that can keep an additional offline backup of your recordings stored on the camera for up to 2 days.

Swann’s Security app may have some rough edges when it comes to manually inputting certain features in and out, but the entire camera from the sturdy design, outdoor accessories to the extensive set of security sensors ensure that the Wi-Fi Spotlight Outdoor Camera is a great, affordable option for keeping an eye on your lawn or other areas around your home. The Swann Spotlight Outdoor Security Camera is a sweet value for money, providing an extensive array of security features and a tough, weather-proof design that is well-suited to outdoor use.

Also published on: https://www.plotnicki.ca/blog/swann-spotlight