We’re only a few days away from CES, but there’s still plenty of new gadgets to come. After all, some companies don’t want to announce their products in the noise of the world’s largest consumer electronics show. Seattle-based Wyze is one of them. The company made a name for itself in 2017 by launching its highly affordable Security His camera. Then and beyond (think air purifiers, gun safes, vacuum cleaners), its camera products are still central to its identity (and possibly revenue). ). In fact, Wyze’s founders recently promised that next year the company will go back to basics and make 2023 the year of the camera. Starting today with the launch of his Wyze Cam Pan v3 for indoor/outdoor use.
The new camera features a completely new design that allows the waterproof wired camera to tilt a full 180 degrees in addition to 360 degree panning capabilities.
Image credit: wise
The previous version only had a vertical range of 93 degrees, but otherwise the two cameras have comparable specifications. These include Wyze’s HD sensor with color night vision that works surprisingly well, as well as the ability to track objects and people when the camera detects motion, 24/7 recording to a microSD card, and two-way Audio is included. With a little more flexibility, the new version can easily be mounted upside down on a wall or ceiling. One nifty feature, though not new, is the ability to set four waypoints to set the camera to continuously monitor a room in a pattern.
Wyze sent us our review unit earlier this month, and in addition to these basic specs, perhaps the most important update is that the new camera is extremely quiet. Wyze says the motor noise has been cut in half, which is very notable. And since you can now tilt the camera all the way down, the company also introduced a new privacy mode that tilts the camera downwards to eliminate the field of view. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it feels heavier than I expected, and it’s solidly built overall, although it’s fairly small.
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Like other modern cameras, the new system also supports Wyze’s subscription AI and storage services for automatically detecting and tagging events, starting at $2 per camera per month. It’s a start, but you get 14 days of free cloud storage without paying.) In my experience, this works quite well (I use it mainly at doorways to detect people and packages). I haven’t used it outdoors yet, but Wyze promises the camera is waterproof up to his IP65 spec. However, the company recommends that he use the $14 outdoor power adapter.
The latest version of the panning camera was $44 on Wyze.com (plus about $6 flat shipping) and about $50 with free shipping from a third-party vendor. The new version costs $34 (plus shipping) when ordered directly from Wyze. This could mean, for example, $40 back on Amazon. Given Wyze’s flat rate shipping rates, buying direct is usually better when ordering multiple units (assuming you don’t mind slow shipping). There are cheaper options, such as TP-Link branded Kasa, but Wyze may have beaten many of these competitors in terms of software smarts.
Image credit: wise
Let’s not forget that the Wyze Cam Pan v2 was one of those cameras with security flaws that took a long time for the company to publicly admit and just finished patching last year (Wyze I was not able to patch it, except for Cam V1, please don’t patch it due to hardware limitations). To exploit this vulnerability, a hacker would have had access to the camera’s random ID number over the local network. Security flaws are almost inevitable (and we’ve seen far more problematic issues with security cameras over the years). I’d like to think that Wyze has learned from this and stepped up its approach to security (and that app supports his two-factor authentication), but it’s something worth keeping in mind.
