August - Wi-Fi Smart Video Doorbell - Dark Gray

Product design is great. Video is crisp when camera decides to work. Install instructions are bland and skip some details. Wiring would be easier if they're color coded! Connectivity is the absolute worst! Placed wifi extender directly behind the doorcam and signal level falls between 67-70dBm. Which is just barely operational. Always receiving notifications about it constantly being offline and coming back online. When doorbell is pressed and you receive the notification to answer it, it just says connecting. By the time it finally connects whom ever was at my door is gone by then. So much for screen captures. It would be nice if all the features that were supposed to work actually worked! Please do something about this soon. I'll change my rating then.

This is one of those product categories that you don't fully appreciate until you own and use it. I installed the August Smart Lock, Smart Keypad and Doorbell Cam on the front door of my two-story home four weeks ago. I initially assumed that I would need to have someone do it for me, butfound that I was able to install and configure the Smart Lock to work with my iPhone and Apple Watch in just under 15 minutes, with the aid of well-considered August instructions, and just a Phillips screwdriver. The Doorbell Cam fit right over my existing analog doorbell wired location, and required only drilling a few mounting holes, and physically inserting the low voltage wires from the old doorbell into the new Doorbell Cam. This took another 20 minutes, tops, and the keypad addition rounded out my installation time to just under an hour. The August app configuration recognizing my Netgear router (located on the second floor) and the Lock and Doorbell Cam was as slick as any Apple user has come to expect. My wife and I literally no longer carry a set of keys. We've set the lock to open within 100 yards of sensing our iPhones, and to auto-close after 1 minute. It's a little nervous-making to trust how rock-solid August makes this work, and that's why I've waiting for four weeks to review the products. We've given our adult kids their own access codes, and the August software logs every entry and exit, with each user or guest name, date and time. If I'm away from home, I get a notification on my phone when the doorbell rings, along with a video feed of who is there and an option to talk to the person via the Doorbell Cam two-way microphone and speaker. I can look at a live video feed from the door anytime from anywhere. The August Smart Lock and Doorbell Cam combination is beautifully made, and August has obviously gone to great pains to make installation easy for the average homeowner, and functionality simple and straightforward for any smartphone user. I **highly** recommend this product.

I received my August Doorbell Cam today and was very excited to get it installed. I laid out all the parts so that I could see all that it came with. Two very cool adapters for special mounting situations were present. (1) an adapter designed to take the base from a square to a rectangle. This is used when you have a large, rectangular plate over the doorbell. (2) was a wedge that allowed the doorbell cam to be angled towards the visitor when your doorbell is mounted on the side wall rather than pointing straight on. I used the wedge myself. Before starting make sure to go online and read the instructions. The Quick Start guide is a bit lacking but they do tell you to go online and if you do you will be much happier than trying to wing it. In my case I had to mount the doorbell cam on a stucco wall at a 45 degree angle to the door. I used the wedge. Make sure not to overtighten the wedge to the wall as it can torque and make it hard to mount the doorbell cam. Another point I suggest to look for is the wiring. Note that the + wire goes on the left side and the – goes on the right. Match the houses hot wire to the left and ground to the right. Look close at the mounting panel for the doorbell cam and you will see the + and -. Once I got it mounted and tested the doorbell (and it worked) I followed the next part of the directions and downloaded the August App. Note: Press to setup a new August Lock. I know it does not make sense but trust me. Then when you setup your account you need to setup the house info and then you need to press the upper left icon for the menu. Select “Setup a New Device” to setup the doorbell cam. From there it is a breeze. I set mine up on a 5GHz network because my router is only 3 feet from the doorbell cam. If you are at a greater distance, I suggest using a 2.5 GHz as it travels much further without loss like the 5.0 GHz. Once this is done test it out and have fun.

I purchased the August Doorbell and August Smart Lock after reading about their pros and cons from various web sites. I knew from the beginning, this project would require patience and a strong wi-fi. So before I even bought the doorbell or smart lock, I bought a highly rated wi-fi range extender and installed it near my front door and confirmed that I could get a strong wi-fi signal and consistent high speeds (fast upload speeds are more important than download speeds). The August Door Bell Camera connects to wi-fi so you can remotely view the camera and it also works as a wi-fi Bluetooth bridge to communicate with the August Smart Lock. Without the bridge, the smart lock only works as a local device and you cannot communicate with it over the internet. August sells a wi-fi Bluetooth bridge stand alone device for about $80, I figured it was worth the extra money to get the doorbell camera and bridge all in one. I first installed the doorbell after downloading the instructions from August. The installation is straightforward and fairly simple. It took me about 45 minutes to completely install the doorbell camera. I waited another 45 minutes for the doorbell battery to partially charge (it seems the camera operates off of an internal battery and the low voltage doorbell wiring charges that battery). Once the doorbell camera had enough power I connected it to the internet via the August App. The app was extremely easy to follow and the doorbell camera was active immediately. WARNING: if you encounter any problems while connecting the app/camera/wi-fi, DO NOT PUSH THE RESET BUTTON that is located on the back of the doorbell. Call tech support first. Apparently, there is a known issue with the reset button that could cause the external speaker to become disabled. I installed the August Smart Lock next. The design of this lock is genius!. I had it on the door, synced with the doorbell, and working in less than 15 minutes. The app makes it simple. The picture and sound quality from the camera is impressive. The microphone is so sensitive I can hear everything that is going on in front of my house. The app responds immediately once somebody rings the doorbell or when motion is detected and within seconds I can see, hear, and talk to anyone at my front door. The smart lock is smooth and quiet and easy to operate remotely or manually. The secret to making this go smoothly : make sure your original deadbolt operates properly before installing the smart lock, make sure you have a VERY strong wi-fi signal, make sure you have high up/download speeds, and take your time. My August Doorbell Camera and Smart Lock are awesome! I couldn't be happier.

I looked around quite a bit before pulling the trigger and purchasing this camera. I spent a lot of time comparing the Ring brand and August, and decided August would be the way to go. At first I was disappointed that the directions that came in the box were extremely simple and did not go into detail about each step of the install, but it directed me to August's website for further instructions. The website guided me through some questions to determine the best installation method. The "dolphin" wiring connectors the camera came with were terrible, the opening on the connectors would never have fit my two wires, so I ended up using my own wire connectors. The $150 installation recommendation seems extremely too high for such a simple install. It might look like a lot when you get everything out of the box, but you only use about a third of the items, so attempt this install yourself before calling someone, it really is not that bad. Very simple tools are required and the built in leveler on the camera's module was one of the coolest things I've ever seen on a device, very clever! Online it said I'd have to wait 30 minutes for the camera's built in battery to charge up, but my camera was ready to go immediately after it was hooked up. The app was simple to use and get going. There are constant messages popping up letting me know I have a 30 day free trial, and when I attempt to find out exactly what is included in the trial they really beat around the bush with the details. This is the reason I went with August over Ring was because of the yearly subscription fees. It's my camera, my WiFi, and my house, why do I need to pay you to access it? I suppose I'll see what features get turned off at the end of the trial and see if it's worth paying for and continuing with. The camera quality and WiFi connection have been great. For those reviewing this item and telling you it doesn't get good connection I can almost guarantee it's their home network setup. I have a descent router and modem and a 50 Mbps package with my ISP, and my camera is clear across the house and yet I'm still able to stream and use the audio feature with no issues. I'm getting a signal strength of -48 dBm, download speed of 27.39 Mbps, and upload speed of 5.40 Mbps. Quality is great, response time is awesome, and so far the motion detection hasn't bothered me. August please don't require subscription fees for using all the features!