Simplicam vs Netatmo Welcome

If you are getting false alarms often, you can configure the sensitivity and even choose which parts of the frame to watch and which to ignore (the app can divide the picture into 25 different zones, and you can select zone by zone which to watch and which to ignore).

When you get notified of movement, the Simplicam will be able to tell you who it is so you know if you can ignore the notification or not without needing to open the app.

This feature requires the subscription.

Some cameras only support Android or iOS, but that is very inconvenient for families that have members using both major mobile operating systems (you're still out of luck with Windows Phone unless you use its browser). Lucky, this camera has support for both Android and iOS. There is also a web app that can be accessed through any computer with internet access.

There are built-in infra-red LEDs that let you see through the camera even when its pitch black. They illuminate the center of the picture well, but the edges of the frame remain very dark, effectively reducing the field of view further at night.

You can configure your camera to turn on and off depending on a schedule you create. If the house is typically empty from 9am-3pm, you can set it to turn on then and when you go to bed. This cuts down on notifications, because if its on all the time it will constantly be sending you notifications and could feel like its invading your privacy if its always recording you when you're at home.

Subscription required for this feature

This camera has both a speaker and microphone, which allows you to have conversations with whoever is in/around your house at the time.

This camera comes with a wall/ceiling mount, and the stem is flexible allowing you to change the direction the camera is pointing even after installation.

All data is stored locally on an SD card - included is an 8GB card. Even better - the slot is push activated, meaning it will spring out when you push it in again. This is an example of the good attention to small details.

The SD card can only hold so much video though, and once storage space has run out it will overwrite any existing files. This means that if you want to keep any videos, it's important to regularly save them to another storage location (or insert a larger card).

At first glance, you wouldn't expect this to be a security camera. that means that it's easy to place it in plain sight without being an eye-sore.

While not a reliable source of security, the Netamo Welcome can sometimes get faces right. It has trouble differentiating between bearded folks, but other than that it does a decent job once it's sufficiently learned the different faces (it can take up to 2 weeks).

With the wide angle lens (130 degrees), this camera is set to record any action in front of it, as well as slightly to the sides of the main focal point. It also includes a night vision mode, where infra-red LEDs illuminate the darkness but aren't visible to human eyes. This is called night mode, and shows up in greyscale, but in decent enough quality to still be able to see everything that's going on in the frame.

There are fully integrated Android and iOS apps, as well as a web app (although the web app is limited in its capabilities). This is welcome news for any family which is split between Android/iOS users.

While some home security cameras only support mobile apps, this one allows you to view the important information in a web browser for your convenience (configuring the camera itself needs to be done through the app, but it's nice to be able to view the live steam on any computer and not just your phone).