Lorex - 2K QHD WIRE-FREE SECURITY SYSTEM - White

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The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Select reviewers may receive discounted products, promotional considerations or entries into drawings for honest, helpful reviews.

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Almost perfect closed-loop, easy to use DVR

  • Tech Insider Network Member

  I have to preface this review with that I am well familiar with Lorex DVR/NVR’s, having installed them at my significant other’s home and my office. I am also not new to the whole remote web-based monitoring cameras out on the market, having used one of the earliest web-connected webcams for the last 8+ years to monitor the interior of my home. I was excited to use this wire-free camera from Lorex especially since I had tried some of the other models on the market and were rather disappointed with certain hit or miss features. My primary attraction to the Lorex is that it has local storage and that it’s a QHD system that is remotely accessible from inside and outside of the home network. My current internal cameras are all web-connected but I am also paying for a subscription service for the connected storage and not much else. Setup: The setup could not have been easier. Charging the batteries took some time, I’d say 5 hours roughly. I put the batteries into the cameras before plugging in the two included MicroUSB cables into the back of the camera’s to charge them. This meant that while I was charging the batteries, the base station could not be plugged in and powered up. I did find another micro USB cable and charger and plugged in the base station for the initial setup. The base station can be connected to the internet via ethernet or wifi, The cameras connect to the base station via a second private wifi network that the unit creates. Once the Lorex Home app is downloaded on your mobile device, and you are signed in. It is a matter of pressing the ‘sync’ button on the back of the base station to put it in pairing mode. Follow a few prompts, and you are done in about 2 minutes. Altogether, setting up the base station and the addition of the cameras took about 5 minutes. Battery Life: The battery life I found was acceptable, though depending on the settings of your video capture, be it “performance mode” (1080P), “High Performance” (QHD mode), Low Power, or custom mode, your battery life will vary. That said the High-Performance QHD model is best used with a powered connection, as the app states record in 2K (1440P) with no duration limitations. On average I found a 2-3% drain per day in performance mode (1080P), so the unit will need recharging every 30 or so days. Recharging can be done by either pulling the battery and charging it outside of the unit or plugging the power into the back of the camera. Weather Protection: This one will be controversial since the weather protection is IP65. It’s dustproof, but only waterproof to light sprinkles of low-pressure water. If you are going to use it outside and expect it to perform like a normal DVR/NVR, you will need a continuously powered optional ‘outdoor power connector”. The wires that come with the unit are not outdoor rated to be continuously connected to the power connector. As it is, the weather sealing on this unit is only good for the occasional sprinkle. That said unless you have it located in a place where it’s shaded from the elements and you can wire this one permanently to be powered as a regular camera, this best left to be indoor or well shaded in an outdoor area. Motion Detection & Storage: I was very happy with the motion detection and capture ability of the camera. While my internal always-on internet-connected or the DVR/NVR cameras are constantly streaming/recording their video to the world/storage, these Lorex cameras only capture when motion is detected. Which means you are not going to use a whole lot of data storage. Even so, the person detection mode on the camera coupled with the activity zones do a rather good job of capturing motion. My only gripe with motion detection is that it does not work when facing a wall and or shooting through glass. The camera is best limited in storage. It comes with a 32GB Western Digital Purple NAS line MicroSD card. Thinking that 32GB may not be enough, I’d say perhaps, depends on what you are using it for. Since the camera does not record continuously, and will only record when motion activated, the camera storage is not utilized all that much. 32GB will go along way. In a week of use, I used only about 2 GB of storage and most of it was from the higher motion-sensitive located camera. Talking about video quality, there is a noticeable video compression used for storage, whatever compression they are using it is effective in keeping video quality high without taking up too much space. There are artefacts and ‘edge sharpening in the higher QHD mode, which make it looks a lot sharper, and probably is a higher quality video but, but I personally like the performance “1080P” mode, it enough to be able to identify objects size and shape. You do not need to be able to read a license plate from a distance. Optical quality: I estimate the resolution on the sensor to be around 4MP (the Lorex manual and specifications do not call it out), which would make for a QHD sensor. The camera image quality is more than adequate for the sensor size. I found the picture quality sharp, the image vibrant and it has a wide field of view, overall I have no complaints. The night-time auto-iris that turns on with a click works rather well to light up an image indoors. Night-time outdoor image quality is not very good due to the limited distance on the IR LEDs, but that is a limitation with most systems. The camera’s feature a “security light” which when turned on, shines a white LED’s when motion is detected. I found that the change between turning on the LED light and turning off the auto-iris and night mode tends to blind the image for a micro-second. I found it better to try to use ambient light as much as possible or turn off the LED security light feature - depending on your use requirements. In my case, I found the camera pointing towards the street works great in colour mode, while the interior ones are perfect to use the infrared mode. App review: The Lorex app that accompanies this camera is definitely improved compared to the other Lorex apps I use to connect to my DVR/NVR. This one allows you to change the multitude of settings, from motion detection sensitivity to activity zones on the phone. I liked the app allowed you to capture picture and videos as needed while remotely having a conversation with a person via the phone app. I also liked that I could turn off all the lights (status light / LED lights / IR lights) via the app. The app is the central part of the experience and I’ll say the ease in reviewing captured footage as well as scrolling through the timeline is a win for me. The app also lets you see how strong the wifi between the base station and the cameras are for optimal placement. Conclusion So what would be this good for? This is great for quick discrete recording, be it at home or in the office. I plan to use this around the house as the cameras can be easily moved around the home. Originally, I wanted to cover the front door due to the increased number of break-in incidents in my neighbourhood. The location I needed to install the camera was on the top of the steps to my front door, the motion detection did not work due to the close proximity to the wall, and further, the mount was a bit insecure. I put the camera inside in the second position on the window sill (picture enclosed), but that did not work as motion detection does not work through the glass. I may have to go for another solution for my front door, maybe the new Lorex wired Door Bell camera with local storage. That said, I’ve always had camera’s inside my house to monitor activities and these new Lorex cameras will replace my internal cameras, thus saving me the cost of the monthly online storage and retrieval. I am looking forward to seeing if this system can be expanded with additional cameras as needed. It would be just lovely to add 2 more camera’s. The image quality is fantastic and the app experience is great. I like the way the cameras operates and the ease of use. Pros: * Easy to activate, use and live with. * Centralized local storage that is remotely accessible, and remote notification of motion activation * Love the 2-way microphone/talk feature and the loud alarm siren feature that can be remotely activated. * Image quality, image colour rendering, image resolution and wide image field-of-view in “performance” 1080P mode are good enough for surveillance requirements. You can run QHD should you need a higher resolution but you need to plug it in. * Amazing and highly functional Lorex Home app for controlling and viewing your cameras Cons: * Motion detection does not work when facing a wall or shooting through glass * The wall mount is horrible. One can quickly remove the camera by just tugging on the camera. If you mount it accessible outside, people can steal it, if you mount it discrete it would be hard to get to it for recharging the batteries. * Weatherproofing is a bit weak, the base cover for the batteries and the USB slot on the back of the camera is not very weatherproof. IP65 is okay if you have good shade from the elements to keep the cameras outside.

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  Posted 4 years ago by TheStigenator

• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  Great System, Know Your Needs

  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • Top 250 Contributor

  This is not my 1st rodeo with Lorex, but my 4th Lorex system that I have either helped purchase and install or just help purchase. The first was an HD Analog System (helped purchase and installed), then a PoE HD System (helped purchase and install), and then a Wire-Free HD system (purchase only). This is the first system that I purchased and installed for myself. No Subscription Necessary This was a must for my needs and one of the reasons I always recommend Lorex, especially if you want a wireless or a wire-free (battery operated) system. Lorex is one of only two high quality systems that I know of that don’t require a subscription or hide features behind a paywall. They are also our northern friends...go Canucks! Battery Charging Initial charge took about 5 hours, so factor that in when you are planning your install. The charger is rated at 5V/2A and the batteries are 3.6V/6250mAh/22.5Wh and are limited to charging at 4.2V. The base station will use one of the chargers and cable...fyi for camera recharging. I cannot find anywhere in the included material how long to expect the charging time to take nor how long the battery charge should last; the product material only states what settings will cause more battery drain. Obviously the settings you choose and how much traffic there is will determine some of this, but there is no average expected time...2 months, 6 months, 12 months? Storage My system has been active for 101 hours at the time of writing and the battery level is 93%, storage level is at 300 MB used out of 29.72 GB formatted. Note: I have only installed 1 camera at this time to test and get a feel for what to expect on motion settings, field of view, etcetera,. before determining the placement of the second camera and final location of this first one. I don’t see the need for a larger MicroSD card (32GB included!) for two cameras. If more cameras are needed (see Product Support below) then it may be prudent to add storage. But that would just be for how long you want to keep footage. If you delete it monthly which is easy to do, then you shouldn't have any worries. Event Log The Timeline feature is great for a wireless/wire-free system. That is something typically reserved for wired systems with continuous recording. This is a hybrid of that since there isn’t continuous recording and just jumps to the flagged times motion was recorded. Unfortunately it always starts at the first record of the day each time you open the Timeline, but it isn’t hard to jump to the time frame you want. Picture Quality The day time picture quality is really good. There are three camera mode settings 720p, 1080p, and 1440p(2K). 720p to 1440p is a big jump in quality, 1080p to 1440p is negligible in snapshot, but video is a little crisper still. I guess given the area you are monitoring this could be different and the higher resolution could be more noticeable. 720p definitely looks like 720p. The brightness of the image does not change with either of the three resolutions and given that the 1440p resolution uses HEVC to compress, it doesn’t use much space. 1080p compresses to H.264. Note Windows 10 does not by default have a codec for HEVC (it is a $1), but VLC Player can watch it, but I have heard sometimes there are issues, so I paid the $1. No issues when watching on a mobile device. Night-Time Color is where things get a complicated and I’ll come right out with it, if you don’t have an external light source near your camera, then I wouldn’t bother with Night Time Color, just keep Night Vision on. I am in a subdivision, but rural setting, with 45+ft between each home and most have a only a front porch light on and a front yard pole light, so not a lot of ambient lighting in the area. Even with the Built-in LED light activating when motion is detected, its just not strong enough to give a good color picture. The deterrent setting is really all that it is useful for and no discredit to Lorex here, this is a battery operated system. Any high lumen light would drain the battery very quickly. My current camera placement is the corner of the garage door opening with a dual directional LED Security light over my garage, so with it on, the Night Color is excellent, however, the viewing distance of the camera is decreased. The detection is still active further out than the viewing distance, but the object/person will not be clearly seen until they come closer to the camera. Night Vision picks up way more detail in the total area; it's just in grayscale. So, while the box does say Color Night Vision, just know there is an imaginary asterisk that should state, best results achieved when used with a primary light source. I feel like there was something in the product manual about this. Person/Motion Detection Honestly I am still learning its quirks. Person Only works just fine and you can tweak the sensitivity. I am struggling when it is supposed to detect All Motion...especially/mostly with vehicles and I feel it has to do with a combination of the MotionZone settings, which is the ability to select only a certain area that will trigger motion recording. I think there might be a bug with the MotionZone, as it works as it should when in Person Only, but not in All Motion, as it continually sends notifications for zones I have blocked out. It confused me so much I thought I had it backwards as what was zoned for recording and not recording. My camera placement might help in this as it is just at the minimum height level, but I didn’t want to commit to fixing it to the side of the house until I tested it a bit more...glad I did. Lorex Home App Since this is the only way to interact with the system, which is new for me being used to installing wired systems, there are a few things to note. 1) Sometimes it can be very slow to open a motion notification and launch the recording, but the average is around 10 seconds. 2) If there are multiple notifications over a short time period sometimes it will open an older unviewed notification than what was selected and sometimes going into Live View stream just opens a recent notification that was unviewed. 3) Needing to login each time is pointless on a mobile device. I have Fingerprint set to default login which definitely speeds up the process, but if I need/want to get into the app quickly on my personal device that already has a security option setup, then I shouldn’t need to login each time to the app; even if my personal device is unsecure. 4) Privacy Mode/Notifications...when you want to walk outside your property and don’t want to be blasted with notifications you have two options...turn off notifications or turn on privacy mode. Privacy Mode shuts down the entire system until you turn it back on, so don’t forget! A snooze feature would be great with personalized timer function. Privacy function is better as it won’t even record so it will save battery on the cameras; notifications off will still leave you with 135 unviewed notifications and use battery more than normal. Product Support Currently there isn’t any! And I get that currently this product is not technically launched as I am being asked to review this product before official launch, but I did have some questions and I reached out to Lorex Support via Web Chat. First this product is nowhere to be found on their webpage, even though Best Buy has a product page, so I started a Web Chat. They knew nothing about this system, thankfully the help desk inquired a little further up the chain and was told this is a Best Buy Exclusive for a few months and is only being sold there. I can understand the exclusivity, but not having product support yet is a little crazy. Lorex has a lot of products, which is both good and bad. Good there are a lot of options to meet your needs. Bad, they are not all interchangeable or compatible, so trying to find that out is pretty hard. My main questions for the Web Chat was to find out if these cameras 1) will work with their Solar Panels? 2) Is the Lorex Home Hub to be compatible with their new line of entry and motion sensors that are compatible with the Lorex Home Center? 3) How many cameras does the Lorex Home Hub support? Because they have not been prepped on this product, my questions could not be answered. Verdict Yes, for quality of cameras, images, great 2 way audio, customization in app and utilization of camera outdoor and indoor, which I feel are what most people would be after. On the fence, because of the MotionZone and ALL tracking issue for my needs. The issues I have with the app are not a deal breaker, but I will have to mess with the camera location a bit more to see if that changes how the system reacts to my preferred motion settings.

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  Posted 4 years ago by MnstrMike

• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  This Could Work

  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • Top 1000 Contributor

  Does this provide adequate security? For this product, my answer is yes. Could it stand some improvements? I answer that with a bigger Yes! Pros Image Quality: For a camera based solution, the 2k video quality is great. I don’t like using the regular 720 (regular HD) because the graininess is more than I would like to see. I’m willing sacrifice space on the microsd card for picture/video quality that I can live with. Night vision is okay, but better aided by a light source. Field of View: I had the camera facing the other side of the living room and was able to capture myself in the shot. This is definitely an added benefit for those who value capturing as much as possible. Options: There seems to be decent amount of choices available to customize your setup. Along with the ability to select the image quality, users are able to adjust motion detection, light, and audio recording. 2 Way Speaking: Being able to talk and communicate through the camera is useful especially needing to communicate with someone outside or in a different room. Memory Card: The included memory card is of a sufficient size although I foresee desiring storage larger than 32 GB. Free Service: There’s no additional out-of-pocket expense incurred by the user because everything is locally available. Apartment Friendly: Renters and leasers are very restricted in security options, and Lorex has designed portable/versatile system that accommodates our needs. Light/Alarm Feature: The light is very bright and the alarm is loud which is essential for deterring unwanted guests. Cons App implementation is disappointing and holds back this product from reaching its full potential. Live Feed: Gaining access to the live feed through the app is slow (about 20+ seconds). A more instantaneous view would be more acceptable. AI Assistant: I’ve made multiple attempts to connect the system to Google Assistant for my Nest Hub, but it was to no avail. Overall, I liked this system, but it should be paired with an existing system that you have if possible for extra security.

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  Posted 4 years ago by HBCUgrad13