WUUK, a US-based company who has done an Indiegogo campaign a few years back for a doorbell, now has a version 2, which you can buy directly from them - the Smart Doorbell Pro 2K kit. This is actually a higher end kit which features a high-end camera on the doorbell and a base station, which can be used as a base station for multiple different cameras that they also now sell. Let's get into it and see what's inside the box.
It features all different kinds of adapters, I like that! We also have the doorbell itself, it's not the biggest doorbell, so it shouldn't be too intrusive. We also have two doorbell mounts, one straight which will go in the middle of your door and one angled so you can actually mount this to the side and just kind of have the camera pointing towards where your entry is. It's nice to have two included, and they both feature 3M tape on all over the back of it. As you can see, here there's also screw holes so you can mount it using screws, which is a nice option. And over here we have a base station as well. It actually is super light, it doesn't weigh anything at all, it almost feels like it's empty.
The base itself features a USB, an ethernet, power and a little reset switch, so you can pair your devices. This is actually pretty cool because this can be used as well to control up to eight devices which could be multiple doorbells or their own cameras. So you could even create your own little mini CCTV system without the need to connect it to the Internet or the cloud and pay all the licensing fees, which is a pretty cool option if you want to go that way.
So this is version 2 of this doorbell, and it features what they call a 2K camera so it has a bit more resolution than the previous version. In the manual box we have a user guide, a little template for drilling holes in your wall, if you want to mount the unit using screws. We also have a little SIM removal tool which is used to remove the device from the wall, from the little latch at the bottom. It has an ethernet cable to connect your base station to your ethernet router or switch. This by default comes with a battery but you can also tap it into your existing doorbell and these are the cables that support that. There's also a USB Type-C cable here, I believe this is just to charge the device itself. Also you have world adapters: you've got US, EU and UK plugs.
Setting it up is really easy, just follow the instructions on the screen, part of the account creation leads you through setup, as well as mounting tips. At first I recommend not mounting it permanently, see if the location works and view is good and use it for a few days, then mount it for good. When paired there may be firmware updates, make sure to do them straight away for both doorbell and base station as there may be some security vulnerabilities. If you have a large household it's easy to add extra users for your housemates or family but users need to register first. I wish there could just be an email that was sent to them with the invitation, so you can do the registration and join the system. Currently you can't turn down the doorbell sound on the outside but WUUK said that they will add the functionality to turn that off completely in the future firmware.
The version 2 has a smaller-rated battery, but I'm not sure if that's a big deal. We've had it running for approximately two weeks and it still has 89% battery left. There are a few issues and observations we found. Camera records with a bit of a delay, so you can't see the first bit of the clip when somebody comes to the door. This may be important for those living in flats, but since there's a US brand, there you're more likely to have people come up your driveway so there's much more time to react for the camera. For those who are shy or generally don't want to speak to the person on the other side of the door, there are pre-recorded replies that can be used rather than speaking in person: "Hi there! You can just leave it, thanks!" Generally the camera works well. In our testing there is a small delay from the moment the doorbell is pressed but that is reasonable, and from the receiver side you'll need to press the "speak" button to answer, which is at first unusual but that is good for privacy, just in case there's a sensitive conversation happening when answering the door.
The camera angle is also not perfect. Even though we have it mounted completely vertically, it is still looking up a little bit at the ceiling. I wish they made it a bit more vertical instead so we could see things below such as somebody leaving a package. Another thing that we've noticed is notifications - they don't always come through. Sometimes delivery is dropped off without somebody ringing the bell and it is logged in the system and you can see the clip in there, but just nothing comes through on your phone. Another feature which is useful in some households is the ability to track when somebody leaves the house. Because this camera triggers or motion you actually see when your kids leave the house, maybe they're not supposed to or maybe they have some friends coming over and they didn't click the button. So you get a bit more control. Also you can record manually if you connect straight to the camera and press "record", which is a nice little feature. Lastly, I have one more concern: this device is actually really easy to steal, as long as you have a little SIM removal tool, which is basically anybody out there nowadays. It is locked to your account which makes it pretty pointless to do so.
Overall I am pretty happy with the device, and I think anyone in need of a doorbell without a subscription should keep this one in mind.
Check out their full list of products here.
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