When comparing Icontrol Networks Piper NV vs Netatmo Welcome, the Slant community recommends Icontrol Networks Piper NV for most people. In the question“What are the best home-security cameras?” Icontrol Networks Piper NV is ranked 2nd while Netatmo Welcome is ranked 7th.
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Pros
Pro IFTTT functionality
Pro Built-in siren
The siren is very loud - rated at 105dB (louder than a snowmobile or motorcycle). It's loud enough to scare off virtually any intruder.
Pro Tracks the weather
With a temperature and humidity sensors on-board, the Piper NV can give you a good idea of what the interior 'weather' is like. It can also track outdoor temperature, and will warn you of local weather alerts.
Pro Great Android/iOS apps
The apps are simple to use, and designed to make sure the most important stuff can be accessed the quickest. Any important actions will give you feedback from the Piper NV itself so you can rest assured each action goes through.
Small details are included in the app as well - from adjustable motion sensitivity (for shadows, animals, and other small movements) to a trusted circle of contacts that will be notified each time an alert is triggered.
All features worked as advertised, notifications were delivered quickly, and the camera is very responsive to actions performed in the apps.
Pro Talk & listen supported
The Piper NV has both a microphone and speaker, letting you have a conversation with a person in front of the Piper while you are elsewhere with your phone. This can be handy for conversations with babysitters, deliverymen, or even talking with your children when you're away.
Pro Great video quality
The 1080p camera allows for up to 10X digital zoom. Without zooming, the picture is very crisp and clear which is immensely helpful when figuring out who is on the camera and what they're doing. The digital zoom will reduce this clarity, but allows for a close-up inspection of any small details.
The device can also tilt and pan - unique features that let you get the best angles of view.
Pro Night vision tracks even in pitch black
The NV in Piper NV stands for night vision. This product included infra-red LEDs that illuminate pitch black rooms so that the camera can still see (although human eye's can't detect this light).
Pro Wide-angle lense
With a full 180 degrees of vision, this camera can be placed on a wall and see everything around it. Because its fish-eye design, the edges of the image will be slightly warped, however this is required for such a high field of view.
Pro Can be set up to control light within a household
Z-Wave controller is built in.
Pro Built-in motion detector
Has a proper IR motion sensor, so does not image analysis to detect motion. This is very useful as it avoids the false alarms that many other camera are subject to when clouds change the lighting conditions.
Pro Locally stored data
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).
Pro Inconspicuous design
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.
Pro Facial recognition
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).
Pro Versatile video
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.
Pro Multi-platform
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.
Pro Web app included
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).
Pro Recognizes who enters a household and notifies via companion app
Cons
Con IFTT NO LONGER SUPPORTED
They cancelled all their IFTT integrations and hung all their customers out to dry.
Con No web app
Web apps can be handy if your phone is dead or misplaced at the time. They also allow access from any computer using just a login and password, which can be useful if you've run out of data on your phone and are out of Wi-Fi range. This also means that Windows Phone or Blackberry devices won't be able to control the Piper NV.
Con No removable local storage
There is no removable local storage available on the Piper NV - all media is immediately uploaded to the Piper cloud. This online storage is free, but is limited to 1000 clips before it starts overwriting old clips. If the camera is offline when a clip recorded, the video is stored on the device and uploaded once online again.
Con Limited positions available
There is no included mount, and it isn't supposed to be pointed at windows or areas with too much light. This limits where you can place it, as it has to be on a table or ledge of some sort, and facing in a specific direction.
Con Visible light when in night mode
When night mode is enabled, there is a glowing red light. This defeats the purpose of its stealthy design, and feels obtrusive when you are walking around your house in the dark - almost like something is watching you (because you are indeed being watched).
Con Sub-par camera quality
While rated at 1080p, the quality of the video doesn't quite match that of other 1080p home security cameras. This might just be optics they used, but the overall quality of the video leaves some to be desired.