The most expensive Blink camera costs less than $100 and lasts two years on a couple of AA batteries. A good security camera will only require a simple and easy install. And no matter what video quality resolution your camera might have, it should still provide you with a clear picture. Lastly, no one wants to recharge their camera once per week. At least every other month is manageable, and every few months is even better. With such a long battery life, you might expect Blink cameras to be, well, kind of crummy. But, amazingly, they’re not! Blink’s cameras are also uniformly lightweight and pretty small in size, so you can hide them easily if you don’t want potential thieves to spot your spy. The Blink Outdoor is the highest-priced model at about $100 for the starter kit, and the Blink Mini is a wallet-dropping $35. While the Blink Outdoor’s operating temperature makes it suitable for most snowy or sunny locales, people who live in extreme environments might want to check the numbers. If your town regularly gets colder than -4º Fahrenheit or hotter than 113º Fahrenheit, then you’ll need a hardier outdoor camera. But, if it’s windy outside, the Blink Outdoor’s incoming audio suffers. This camera doesn’t have noise cancellation, so you’ll hear every gust of the wind running across the microphone. This camera has a bad habit of washing out faces in night vision mode, so you can’t tell your spouse from a burglar. The Blink Outdoor’s night vision also doesn’t stretch very far. Everything starts to look extra fuzzy when it’s more than about 10 feet away from the camera. Other than that, you’ll have a very similar experience with both. Both the Blink Indoor and the Blink Outdoor record in the same resolution, offer the same app settings, and have the same battery life. Set the Blink Indoor on a bookshelf, mount it above a doorway, put it in a toy box—take your pick. On the flip side, that power cord has some drawbacks. While the cord means you don’t have to go searching for extra AA’s, it also means you can’t put this camera anywhere you want. It has to be within reach of a power outlet, and you might have to awkwardly string the cord up a bookcase or across a room. The Blink Mini doesn’t work with Apple HomeKit either, but Apple fans are pretty used to that. But if you want a security camera that works with your Google Home, there are tons of other options out there. In the meantime, we’ll keep pleading with Jeff Bezos and Sundar Pichai to kiss and make up. The Sync Module 2 comes included if you buy a Blink “camera kit.” Without a kit, you’ll pay around $35 to buy the module separately.
Blink Outdoor: The Blink Outdoor camera runs for two years off two AA lithium batteries, and you don’t have to string a single wire. This Outdoor camera is weatherproof and easy to position on a wall, ceiling, or flat surface. Blink Indoor: The Blink Indoor is basically the Outdoor camera minus the weatherproofing. You’ll have the same HD recording, night vision, and two-way audio, but this model stays inside. Just like the Outdoor, it’s easy to install and has a two-year-long battery life. Blink Mini: The Blink Mini is the little sibling of the other two cameras. It has most of the same features, including 1080p resolution, night vision, and motion detection—but the Mini uses a power cord instead of batteries.
If you want a discreet, low-maintenance security camera that won’t cost an arm and a leg, then it doesn’t get much better than Blink. Blink cameras bring new meaning to the phrase “set it and forget it.” To decide which home security camera is the best, we looked at a balance of cost to features, innovative technology, smart home integrations, reliable video, and professional monitoring. Last we checked, you couldn’t post Blink footage directly to the Neighbors app from your phone. You have to save the video first and then upload it manually. If you want a “true” wireless camera (a.k.a. wire-free), then you’ll want to get the Blink Indoor or Blink Outdoor. They run off batteries and don’t have any cords. The Blink Mini camera uses a power cord.
