Skybell - Wi-fi Video Doorbell - Bronze

On January 5, 2018, we purchased our Skybell HD and a TP-LINK - Wireless N300 Wi-Fi range extender to ensure the Skybell required upload speed of 1.5 Mbps at the video doorbell location. Installation of the Skybell HD went just as shown in the Skybell HD installation video. After my wife and I installed the Skybell HD app on each of our iPhones, I walked around the front porch while she tested the motion detection settings of high, medium, and low. So far we like the low setting best. Motion detection works great, we both receive notices on our iPhones, and we can communicate clearly with the person at the front door. We enjoy telling family and friends about our new Skybell HD and showing them “watch live” video on our iPhones. Tip: we were experiencing a black screen after pushing the “watch live” button, but by lowering the image quality from 1080p to 720p (good), no more black screen. Recommendation: If your Internet Service Provider is Centurylink, upgrade your service to download speed of 20 Mbps and upload speed of 5 Mbps and ask for their C1100Z DSL modem. After numerous phone calls to Centurylink customer service and technical support and three DSL modems later we were finally able to upgrade our service to Skybell required upload speed of 1.5 Mbps.

I purchased the SkyBell it took no more than 10 min to install I LOVE it! SkeBell unlike Ring includes free Video / no extra cost plus will support 1080p for Amazing clarity. I work from home and receive many packages. Great to know when packages arrive. Plus when at home or away can answer the door from my iPhone or iPad and can talk and listen I would highly recommend this product. WIFI is required / hooks to existing doorbell wiring needs a separate resister / Radio Shack stocks or purchase on line under $1.00

Very nice doorbell camera & has clear video! I will recommend it to friends!

I was doing some research before purchasing and determined that this is a much better value than the competitors. The biggest advantage is that it requires no monthly subscription - once I started using it, I am under the impression that the videos are actually stored on the camera itself - that's why no subscription is needed to store the videos on the cloud. Installation is probably on the easy side - there were glitches, but I was able to figure that out - you basically connect your phone through Wifi to the doorbell, tell it what Wifi to use, then disconnect your Wifi connection on the phone and back to your normal Wifi connection to continue setup. Everything basically runs out of the app, and there is no website to allow access to the doorbell, which I wish they have. I don't have too many complaints about any of the general functionality. Optical quality is very good towards the center of the picture, but the sides are not so - not sure if this has to do with the fact that the sides shown on my doorbell picture are the walls which are very close to the camera. I get notifications on my phone but sometimes it takes a couple minutes for the captured video to show up in my app. The one thing that I still haven't exactly figured out is the sensitivity - it seems like it picks up more activities during the day than at night - I am not sure if this is actually the case or the lighting actually affects the sensibility.

I will start this review by answering the question they I could not find ANYWHERE on the internet. “How long is the delay between the doorbell ringing/motion until you receive a notification on your phone”? The answer: LESS THAN 1 SECOND! Well that’s for the doorbell. Motion takes about 3 seconds. I have been looking at various doorbell camera’s for a while now and I was quite skeptical about this product. I saw various videos about false motion detection but I decided to pull the trigger anyway. Out of the box it seemed too simple to work well. Either the instructions are not good or the detailed instructions were missing from my box. I have a digital doorbell so I had to buy the digital doorbell adapter to make it work. After you do that make sure you set the “indoor chime” option to digital in the settings otherwise it won’t work. The instillation is simple enough. The set up was a BREEZE. It literally took two minutes after I installed it to have it up and running. The picture quality is Awesome. You have the option to choose 480p,720p or 1080p! Pick based on your internet speed. 720 is what I use and it is nice. My friend has a ring bell pro and this picture looks SOO MUCH BETTER. He also can’t set the quality. The main reason this doorbell is not rated higher by most people is the motion detection issue. They have set the motion sensor to off straight out of the box. If you don’t have an ios device you may not be able to adjust the sensitivity of the motion detection. I have mine set to medium and I have yet to get a false detection. I haven’t been this pleased with a product in a while. The only way this could get better is if you had the ability to angle the camera in any direction. This is a small issue (I don’t think any doorbell can do this) which I EASILY overlook.

I very happy with this unit. I had originally purchased the ring brand video door bell but the unit was too big to fit my vinyl siding panels to lay flat so I purchased the skybell as this was round and compact enough to fit perfectly on the panels. The video is great day or night. I can view my porch deck area and zoom in and out to see a wide area. I get an alert on my phone then have to tap the message on my phone to see who's there. This lets me see who comes and goes without anyone ringing the bell. It would have been nice if the unit would automatically open the view screen on my phone when either someone rings the bell or it detects motion instead of me needing to open it. This is why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5. Otherwise I'm quite happy with my purchase. This cost me a little more than the older ring version but for compact unit it was worth it for me

As a doorbell (electronic peephole, intercom, bell sound & silencer), this works very well. Pros: 1. I can see who is at the door regardless of where I am (at home or outside). 2. I can talk with the person at the door -walkie-talkie style. And records the conversation. 3. The door bell can be silenced if I don't want to be disturbed. 4. Recordings are free and kept for 7 days. Cons: as a motion detection 1. false alerts occur & doesn't always catch deliveries being made 2. may need to supplement with other devices that can detect motion better Overall: it's not perfect but it's a very good doorbell and a keeper. I bought it when it was on sale and I used BB's price matching against a competing store.

The Skybell HD is everything I want in a video doorbell/front door security device. It streams crystal-clear video from my front door, records when motion triggers it and has a no-subscription 7 days of cloud storage. I knocked a star off because I believe that the wi-fi antenna built in could be a tad more powerful (I had issues streaming 1080p even though my router isn't all that far from the door, which was resolved by purchasing a wi-fi network repeater) and the app isn't the best in the world (though that can be fixed through updates). Overall, this product integrates well into my Samsung Smartthings ecosystem that I've got going in my house and nicely complements my existing camera network. I would definitely recommend the Skybell HD!