Jaybird X3 review – CNET

The Good The Jaybird X3 wireless sports headphone is smaller than the X2, has improved battery life, costs less and sounds excellent for an in-ear Bluetooth headphone. It’s sweat resistant and comes with a compact protective carrying pouch.

The Bad Don’t lose the charging accessory or you’ll have no way to charge the headphone; not as comfortable as the Bose SoundSport Wireless; noise-isolating design may be a safety issue for runners.

The Bottom Line The Jaybird X3 is a significant improvement over the X2 and one of the top Bluetooth sports headphone currently available.

Visit manufacturer site for details.

The Jaybird X3, the third iteration of the company’s popular sweat-resistant wireless sports headphone, is probably the best headphone the company has produced.

What’s new about it? Well, for starters it’s smaller than the X2. Also, its inline remote has been redesigned, and its battery has been upgraded from NiMH (nickel-metal hydride) to lithium ion to deliver up to eight hours battery life playing music at moderate volume levels.

On top of that, Jaybird, now owned by Logitech, says it’s tweaked the 6mm drivers inside the earbuds. I will say these are among the best sounding wireless sports headphones out there right now. And at $130, they cost $50 less than the initial price of the X2. (The headphones will launch in the UK and Australia in “the next few months” for £109 and AU$179, respectively.)

The X3 comes in four colors: Military green (shown here), black, white, and red.

David Carnoy/CNET

As for other improvements, the fins that help secure the buds in your ears have also been redesigned for the better, and Jaybird now includes a clip to attach the headphone to the back of your shirt that’s similar to the one found on the Bose SoundSport Wireless.

I’ve never liked Jaybird’s cord-shortening accessories, but for those who do like them, they’re back. A set of are included along with plenty of eartips — silicone and foam — and chances are one of the tips will allow you to get a tight, comfortable seal to maximize sound quality. The only downside to this design is that this is a noise-isolating earphone, which means it seals out a lot of ambient noise, preventing you from hearing traffic while you’re running. Headphones such as the Plantronics BackBeat Fit and Bose SoundSport Wireless have open designs and allow some ambient noise to filter in.

It’s also worth mentioning that Jaybird includes a little charging accessory that connects to a Micro-USB cable, which you then clip onto the inline remote. It’s one of those items that’s easy to lose (the accessory has a little lanyard built into it), but Jaybird reps told me it went to this charging method because sweat and grime from people’s hands sometimes ended up in USB charging port on the X2 and caused the headphone to fail. The only problem is that if you misplace the accessory, you can’t charge the headphone and you’ll have to call Jaybird customer support to send you another one (Jaybird says that till the end of 2016 you’ll be able to get a replacement for free, but after that you’ll have to order the accessory through the company’s website for a small fee).

What you get in the box.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Jaybird’s more expensive Freedom headphone has a similar charging scheme, but the Freedom’s charging accessory incorporates a built-in battery to extend battery life, and the Freedom’s inline remote is too beefy (there’s a battery inside it). The X3’s earbuds house the batteries and the inline remote is smaller and lighter, making it less noticeable when you’re running.

Emicro One Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Cars get stuck in traffic. Buses and trains don’t get you all the way to your destination. Walking is slow, and bikes take up too much room. If you need to get from A to B in a hurry, a folding electric scooter can kick some serious ass.

The Emicro One is the folding electric scooter that won’t break your back. While many portable electric vehicles can tip the scales at well over 30 pounds, this itty-bitty scooter weighs half that. It’s so small, and looks so much like a regular kick scooter, people stop me on the street to ask about it.

And yet, this tiny scooter can carry a 220-pound person and/or travel up to 15 miles per hour. Those numbers are all pretty competitive for a folding electric scooter in 2016. You can buy it direct from Micro for $1,000, £750 or AU$1,500 in the US, UK or Australia.

What’s the catch? There’s no throttle on this scooter: you have to kick.

Up close with the lightweight Emicro One…
See full gallery

1 – 4 of 10

Next
Prev

Pros

• Light weight: It’s not as light as a kiddy Razor scooter, but at 16.5 pounds (7.5 kg) it makes most electric scooters feel unbearably heavy. With most scooters, I feel I need to unfold them ASAP so the wheels can carry their weight. I can carry the Emicro without issue.
• Low deck height and free-spinning wheels mean you can keep kicking like a regular scooter long after the Emicro runs out of juice.
• Curved handlebars make it easy to steer, without being so wide that you bump into pedestrians on the street.
• A powerful 500W motor means this tiny scooter can actually carry you up shallow hills — so long as you kick harder too.
• Its simple folding mechanism shrinks down fairly fast. Pick it up and press the buttons on either side to fold. You’ll still need to disengage a quick-release lever to shrink the handle, though.
• Fast charging: Just one hour to fully charge.
• A handy built-in kickstand is strong enough to take a beating if you forget to retract it. I speak from experience.

The Emicro One.

Josh Miller/CNET

Cons

• Some parts aren’t durable: With months of normal use, we managed to break off the quick release lever on the folding mechanism, dislodge one of the handlebar height pins, and twist the rear brake off-axis. One of the rubber grips is also starting to tear. The scooter still works fine, though.
• It only goes fast if you work at it: Instead of using power buttons and throttle levers, the motor activates when you kick. You’ll go about three times faster — or further — than you would without the motor, but that’s a lot of kicking to stay at top speed.
• Sidewalk or smooth streets only. There’s no real suspension on this scooter to absorb the bumps, merely a set of air-core tires. My feet and gums practically feel numb after a teeth-chattering ride on San Francisco’s terrible downtown streets. On the sidewalk, it’s not so bad.
• Short range. Emicro quotes 7-10 miles on a charge. I got more like 5-7 miles, but I’m a heavy guy — a lighter co-worker got 9-10. Still, that’s less than most scooters.
• Easy to slip and slide. Like a Razor scooter, the smooth rear tire means it’s easy to slide out — particularly when the streets are wet. I’ve also fallen when trying to turn too tightly, since the front wheel spins 360 degrees.
• The four-dot battery life indicator is fairly inaccurate. It’s not nearly as bad as on some other scooters, but I still don’t know how far I’ll get on one to two dots-worth of charge.
• Low handlebars. They’re adjustable, but don’t lift high enough for tall people.

Yep, it’s small.

Josh Miller/CNET

Trade-offs

• Kick-sensitive motor means you have to keep kicking to get up to speed instead of simply pressing a button — but you get exercise you wouldn’t get with other electric scooters.
• You can fool the kick sensor by jerking back on the handlebars every so often to maintain speed, but sometimes it confuses the scooter and slows down instead. Plus, it sometimes activates accidentally over bumps. Nearly crashed a couple times due to unwanted speed boosts.
• Rear foot brake doubles as an electric brake, slowing you down faster than friction alone, but it isn’t as efficient as the front electric brakes I’ve tried on other scooters.
• You’ll only fit one foot on the scooter’s small deck. Good for kicking, but no place for your other foot to relax.
• Fixed handlebars feel solid, but don’t fold down smaller like many other scooters.

Bottom line

The Emicro One isn’t really suited for roads, which (obviously) limits its mobility. Plus, I’m a little worried about its durability, long-term. But if you commute by sidewalk, it’s an impressive little machine that’ll pull harder and go far faster than you’d think. It’s fun to ride, and it definitely makes heads turn.

If the Emicro One isn’t for you, though, don’t go away. I’ll be bringing you more folding electric scooter reviews to CNET in the weeks ahead. Perhaps you’d like the Fuzion V-1000, for instance?

Sony Xperia X Compact review – CNET

The Good The Sony Xperia X Compact is a small, 4.6-inch phone with a beautiful display, an excellent camera and good battery life.

The Bad Only the Japanese model is waterproof, and the fingerprint sensor is disabled in the US. There’s a bit of lag when editing pictures or taking low-light photos.

The Bottom Line Sony’s Xperia X Compact is a small phone with an excellent camera, but it lacks some creature comforts, like waterproofing and, in the US, a fingerprint sensor.

View full gallery

For some people, the Sony Xperia X Compact will fit like a glove.

Josh Miller/CNET

The Sony Xperia X Compact is a rarity — a small phone with a big, terrific camera. That’s 23 megapixels’ worth of snapping power in a body small enough to fit into almost any pocket. And to me, the pint-size X Compact seems a pretty good fit.

Coming in at $449 and £379, the X Compact is large on charm. (No mention has been made of the X Compact coming to Australia, but hope springs eternal. In the meantime, its US price works out to AU$587, converted.) But the odd exclusion of conveniences found on the X Compact in other countries is a real head-scratcher. For example, buyers in Sony’s home country of Japan get waterproofing and a fingerprint sensor, but UK residents don’t get the H2O resistance, and US users get neither.

If you’re an Android fan looking for a small-screen phone, your choices are few. You’d do right with the Xperia X Compact, so long as you can accept the omissions.

If iPhones are just as good for you, the SE sticks to the same pricing scale — though it has a much smaller display. You can also upgrade to the similarly sized iPhone 7 or cheaper 6S — but you’ll definitely pay more.

Design and basics

No joke — the first thing you notice about the Sony Xperia X Compact is that it’s small. Or at least, it looks small. The screen is 4.6 inches, a filament smaller than the iPhone 7 (4.7 inches). But its chunky body and thick bezel mean there’s actually more phone in your hand than you’d guess. Still, the X Compact is wonderful to use one-handed.

You will either love or hate its blocky, flat looks — no camera bump here. In a market dominated by superthin phones made of glass and aluminum, the Compact X’s thick plastic demeanor is refreshingly unique, especially in Mist Blue.

The 720-pixel display is bright and sharp, and it handles direct sunlight like a pro. Battery life was a solid 11 hours, 28 minutes in our video loop tests. Some of that longevity comes from it the fact that it runs Android 6.0.1.

Just how small is Sony’s 4.6-inch Xperia…
See full gallery

1 – 5 of 13

Next
Prev

The X Compact handled daily-tasks without a problem — posting social media, messaging and watching the occasional “Carpool Karaoke” video. Gaming (FIFA Mobile, Clash Royale) on the X Compact was a breeze, but made me yearn for a bigger screen.

If you own a PS4, Sony’s preloaded PlayStation app connects you to the console as a remote or even a second screen.

Microsoft Surface Dial Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Microsoft’s new collapsible all-in-one desktop PC, the Surface Studio, is made for designers and optimized for the new “Creators Update” to Windows 10. To keep you fully immersed in a project, the company also unveiled a new haptic feedback accessory dubbed the Surface Dial that puts a clever twist on workflow interaction.

The Surface Studio’s haptic “Surface Dial” accessory.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The device, shown off at an event Wednesday, is roughly the size of a hockey puck and connects wirelessly to the Surface Studio, but it also works with the Surface Book and the Surface Pro 4.

Along with the keyboard and mouse, the touch-sensitive Dial adapts to whatever application you’re working with to add a third level of contextual control.

For example, Microsoft’s Surface Studio introduction video showed an artist using it to scroll through project notes on the desk.

After that, she placed it directly onto the display, which turned it into a virtually rotating color palette for the various paintbrush colors.

Along the way, the knob’s haptic feedback vibrates to let you know it’s working.

You can also engage the Surface Dial in more passive environments, too, such as volume control for music apps like Spotify or quick vertical scrolling down websites.

Microsoft Surface Dial redefines a creative…
See full gallery

1 – 4 of 15

Next
Prev

You might assume the Dial would come bundled with the $2,999 Surface Studio, but no such luck. Unlike the mouse and keyboard, it’ll be sold separately in the Microsoft store for $100 starting November 10. No UK or Australian details have been released yet, but that converts to about £80 or AU$130.

Microsoft Surface Studio Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

With last year’s Surface Pro 4, Microsoft’s vision of a tablet that could replace your laptop finally came together. Now, it’s setting its sights on your desktop.

The $2,999 Surface Studio, unveiled in New York today, is a desktop PC aimed squarely at artists and designers in need of high-end horsepower and a pixel-perfect display. Just 13 mm thick, Microsoft calls the Surface Studio’s 3:2 ratio display the thinnest LCD computer monitor ever built — and one that boasts 13.5 million pixels on its 28-inch touchscreen (compared to 8.3 million pixels on a 4K screen).

Surface Studio all-in-one has the thinnest…
See full gallery

1 – 4 of 31

Next
Prev

The Surface Studio’s haptic “Surface Dial” accessory.

Sarah Tew/CNET

With a “zero-gravity hinge,” the monitor is designed to fold down to a 20-degree angle on your desk — similar to a drafting table — and optimized to take full advantage of the new “Creators Update” to Windows 10 which brings, among other things, a new 3D update for Microsoft Paint.

The display also features “TrueScale,” which is aimed at offering designers a real-size, “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” view of their images and creations.

We’ve seen tabletop creation stations before, but Microsoft hopes to set the Surface Studio apart with a haptic accessory called the Surface Dial. Like a magic metallic hockey puck, the touch-friendly dial is designed to sit beside your keyboard for fine contextual controls in whatever program you’re using. You can even put it directly on the screen to create your own rotary selector dial.

Of course, you’ll need to shell out an additional $100 for that Surface Dial — unlike the mouse and keyboard, it’s sold separately. In addition to the Surface Studio, it’ll work with the Surface Book and the Surface Pro 4.

The Surface Studio packs a sixth-gen Intel i5/i7 Core processor, a 4GB Nvidia GeForce GPU, up to 32GB of RAM and a 2TB hard drive. Along with a single dedicated power cable, ports include four USB 3.0 jacks, a Mini DisplayPort, an SD card slot and an Ethernet port.

Hands-on impressions

There are a lot of all-in-ones already. But even so, the Surface Studio looks really nice. Its lines, and its chrome arms, give it a look like an industrial iMac.

But what makes the Surface Studio different is its folding-down action, and its wild accessory, the Surface Dial. In a reclined tablet mode, the Dial is a metal wheel that attaches to the Surface Studio display and becomes an interactive art tool, picking colors or adjusting elements on the fly. It’s also a tabletop tool.

In tabletop mode, the Surface Dial and Surface Pen offer double-handed creation controls.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The new Surface Pen also seems refined, aiming for an even more pen and ink feel than the last Surface Pro 4.

Really, though, this is all about the Surface Dial, a wild new idea that instantly excited people from its on-stage demos. The metal dial can be an on-screen tool as much as a desktop one, and looks like the other-hand tool designed to work alongside the Pen in everyday Surface creative use.

And using Surface Dial? Well, it’s a haptic-feedback wheel. Not all apps will be a perfect fit. I tried it, and its gentle buzzes felt less tap-tap-tappy than an Apple Watch: think more like an Xbox One controller. Its sticky base attaches to the angled Surface Studio display, but I kept worrying it would fall off.

Preorders for delivery by the end of the year start today, and Microsoft says quantities are limited. UK and Australian details were not announced, but $2,999 converts to around £2,450 or AU$3,915. The Dial’s $100 price is roughly £80 or AU$130.

Updated 1:10 p.m. ET: Added hands-on impressions from CNET senior editor Scott Stein.

Microsoft Surface Book i7 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Microsoft’s ultimate laptop is now even more ultimate.

Joining the all-new Surface Studio all-in-one and current Surface Pro 4, the new Surface Book i7 two-in-one is a juiced-up version of Microsoft’s original Surface Book (which is still part of the Surface family) for people who found those configurations lacking in graphics performance and battery life.

Pushing pixels with twice the graphics performance of the prior highest-end Surface Book is an Nvidia GeForce GTX 965M GPU with 2GB of GDDR5 memory. Microsoft claims the graphics processor as well as its sixth-gen Intel Core i7 processor delivers twice the performance of the current highest-end MacBook Pro 13.

Related Links

• Microsoft’s Surface Studio: A desktop creation station with a magic dial
• Microsoft’s Surface Books get massive battery life boost

To handle the performance bump, the Surface Book needed a full thermal redesign on the inside, including the addition of a second fan and a set of hyperbolic cooling fins. The other major internal change: More batteries.

Even with the increased performance, Microsoft claims the additional batteries bring the Surface Book i7’s runtime up to 16 hours. (We got 11 hours and 24 minutes when we reviewed it the first time around.)

Other specs appear pretty much unchanged:

• 13.5-inch PixelSense display with 3,000×2,000-pixel resolution (267 ppi)
• Two full-size USB 3.0
• Full-size SD card reader
• Mini Displayport
• Headset jack

CNET Senior Editor Scott Stein got a little hands-on time and confirmed that little has changed on the outside from the original:

If you remember the Surface Book last year, that’s what the new Surface Book is…with a thicker base. The slightly thicker base isn’t as super-razor-thin as last year, but it gives a similar feeling overall. The rest, as they say, is performance tests. But the little gap between the hinge when the Surface Book is shut remains the same as last year, like it or hate it.

The Microsoft Surface Book i7 is available for preorder from the company’s store starting at $2,399. That converts to approximately AU$3,150 and £2,000 in Australia and the UK, respectively. Microsoft expects to start shipping by mid-November.

Microsoft Surface Book i7 brings powerful…
See full gallery

1 – 4 of 32

Next
Prev

Ezviz Mini Plus Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

You can attach the Ezviz Mini Plus to a magnetic surface.

Ezviz

Security device manufacturer Ezviz may not be a big name in the smart-home space, but I found a lot to like about its ultra-affordable $70 Mini camera when I reviewed it last year.

Now the team is back with the $100 Mini Plus, a next-gen model that promises to be even better than the original Mini. Complete with 1080p high-definition live video streaming and a 135-degree-field-of-view lens, the Mini Plus boasts a better resolution and a larger viewing angle than its predecessor. It also works with IFTTT via the Ezviz channel, which gives you free rein to link your Mini Plus to Amazon Alexa products, connected LEDs and a smattering of other smart-home gadgets.

The Ezviz Mini is the budget security cam you’ve been waiting for

This cute camera costs just $70 and streams video in high definition.

by Megan Wollerton

Close

Drag

The Mini Plus does share a lot of similarities with the first-generation Mini (check out the video above for more details on the Mini). It comes with a microSD card slot if you favor local storage — select the $120 option when you check out on Amazon, and you’ll get a 16GB microSD card with your purchase. You can find Ezviz’s Mini Plus at Home Depot, Best Buy and other chain retailers as well. And like the Mini, the Mini Plus does have a magnetic base for effortless mounting on a fridge, filing cabinet or another magnetic surface.

If local storage isn’t your thing, you can opt in to Ezviz’s event-based cloud subscription, CloudPlay. Unfortunately, prices have gone up to $6 per month/$60 per year for seven days of storage or $11 per month/$110 per year for 30 days of storage (the previous rate was from $5 per month/$50 per year for seven days and $10 per month/$100 per year for 30 days). You do get a month’s worth of free seven-day cloud storage with the Mini Plus, but that’s disappointing since Ezviz offered Mini customers a full year of free cloud services back in 2015.

Ezviz’s $100 Mini Plus, $80 Mini O and $130 Husky cameras.

Ezviz

Ezviz is clearly trying to become a more prominent name in the smart-home market, but I’m not totally sold on the Mini Plus over the last-gen Mini. You can still find the Mini on Amazon, currently for just $67.87, and it covers a lot of the same ground as the new version, just in 720p HD instead of 1080p. The IFTTT channel even works with the original Mini cam, so you aren’t limited to the Mini Plus for connecting to smart products from other manufacturers.

Related Links:

• The $70 Ezviz Mini security camera is big on value
• Ezviz Mini Cube home camera scans either outdoors or inside
• New Ezviz camera boasts a high IQ for a low price
• Ezviz promises new ‘affordable’ security systems in 2016

In addition to the Mini Plus, Ezviz has also rolled out two other cameras — the $80 Mini O and the $130 Husky. The Mini O is a baby monitor with motion detection and HD resolution — head over here to check out more of our baby monitor coverage. The 1080p HD Husky comes with a 16GB microSD card and is designed for outdoor use; Ezviz claims it works in the “snow, rain, sun and heat.”

I’m tracking down review units of the Mini Plus and Husky cams now to see how these budget options compare to pricier DIY models.

35 connected cameras for a safer smart home…
See full gallery

1 – 4 of 36

Next
Prev

TP-Link Talon AD7200 Wireless Wi-Fi Tri-Band Gigabit Router review – CNET

The Good The Talon AD7200 features 802.11ad Wi-Fi and can deliver extremely fast speed to devices that support its high-end tech. It works with all current devices albeit at a lower speed.

The Bad It’s bulky and expensive. Currently there are few devices that can take advantage of its super-fast speed.

The Bottom Line For the small percentage of you with 802.11ad clients in your home, the Talon AD7200 is a good futureproofing purchase, but is otherwise not worth your money.

View full gallery

The TP-Link Talon AD7200 router is quite bulky.

Josh Miller/CNET

The TP-Link Talon AD7200 is unlike any router I’ve used before: it’s the first 802.11ad router that can deliver up to 4.6Gbps Wi-Fi speed on the 60GHz band, while at the same time serving data on the more traditional 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands. That’s three different bands, all operating at once. A first for a consumer router.

OK. So what’s 802.11ad?

In a nutshell, it’s a new Wi-Fi standard that operates on the 60GHz frequency band, has incredibly high ceiling speed — up to 7Gbps, compared with the 1.3 Gbps most users experience today — but extremely short range (about 30 feet at most) and can’t penetrate walls, meaning, devices will only work if they’re within the line of sight of the router. The new standard is meant to supplement the existing 802.11ac, which is slower but has much longer range. So conceptually, all 802.11ad routers will have access to the superfast 60GHz band, but also work as a normal 802.11ac router, which is the standard most routers on the market use today. (For more on the 802.11ad, check out this post.)

Note: The Talon AD7200 doesn’t support the full speed of 802.11ad, but just at 4.6Gbps, which is already crazy fast.

What do I need to take advantage of 802.11ad?

To get the full benefits of the 802.11ad standard with the Talon AD700, you’ll need at least two clients (a smartphone, laptop. etc) that support 802.11ad.

Unfortunately, there are very few of these kinds of laptops, smartphones or tablet etc. currently on the market. Fortunately, I had access to an 802.11ad-compatible laptop, the Acer TravelMate P446. I used a network cable to connect the router to a file server and then copied the file to the Acer via Wi-Fi. While the transfer took place in seconds, it still did not reach the full speed of 802.11ad, topping out at 1Gbps (the same connection speed as the connected file servers.)

There are a few reasons for this:

The router and a the laptop could only connect at a maximum of 2.3Gbps using the 60GHz band, which was the top Wi-Fi speed of the laptop itself.
The router was physically connected to the file server using a Gigabit connection which tops out at 1Gbps, effectively bottlenecking the wireless performance of the router

Still, it’s refreshing to confirm that 802.11ad devices are at the very least Gigabit speed capable.

CNET Labs 5GHz Wi-Fi performance

Arris SBR-AC3200P

652.5

247.7

Linksys EA9200

577.8

242.7

TP-Link Talon AD7200

574.2

192

Asus RT-AC68U

521.4

336

Linksys WRT1900AC

520.67

340.7

Asus RT-AC3200

513.7

289

Linksys E8350

511.1

304.6

Asus RT-AC87U

504.4

278.6

Netgear R8000

482.2

241.6

Linksys EA8500

437.8

272.4

Netgear R7500

381.7

242.4

Legend:

Close range
Long range

Note:

Measured in megabits per second. Longer bars mean better performance.

Since there are so few 802.11ad clients, why should I care about this router?

Faster is always better, and the Talon is futureproof. When 802.11ad devices are more readily available, the Talon will give you the option of wirelessly connecting them together at extremely fast speeds, as long as they are in close proximity to the router. Imagine being able to quickly connect your laptop to a big-screen TV and instantly stream 4K video to it. That’s why you’d care about this router.

iSmartAlarm iCamera Keep Pro Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Watch iSmartAlarm’s iCamera Keep Pro pan to follow motion activity.

iSmartAlarm

The majority of today’s DIY home security cameras come with fixed wide-angle lenses. That means you can’t pan or tilt them to capture motion happening outside of a specific field of view. But what if you want your camera to actually follow the action?

iSmartAlarm might have your fix. The security company is in the midst of an Indiegogo campaign for its latest device, the $200 iCamera Keep Pro — an updated version of iSmartAlarm’s first-gen iCamera Keep.

Available for preorder now on Indiegogo for the reduced price of $79 in the US and roughly £80 in the UK, iSmartAlarm expects to ship the earliest batches of iCamera Keep Pro’s to US backers beginning in March 2017 (April for folks in the European Union).

iSmartAlarm

Here’s a rundown the iSmartAlarm iCamera Keep Pro’s basic specs and features:

• 1080p live streaming
• 30 free 30-second cloud video clips
• 30-foot motion detection range
• 30-foot night vision range
• 140-degree lens
• 350-degree pan and 40-degree tilt capabilities
• Activity zones that let you designate custom motion detection areas
• Time-lapse of events
• MicroSD card slot for local storage (card not included)
• Companion app for Android and iOS
• Sound detection (can supposedly “hear” smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and alert you)
• Compatible with Amazon’s Alexa
• Compatible with IFTTT
• Works with broader iSmartAlarm security system

Related Links:

• iSmartAlarm’s next-gen security camera does more for less
• A promising little camera with a lot of room to grow
• Do-it-yourself home alarm system changes the security game

Everything in this list looks good, but iSmartAlarm certainly isn’t the only company offering this sort of camera. Traditional internet protocol (IP) camera brands like Foscam have offered pan and tilt functionality for years.

The newer 360-degree Zmodo Pivot cam is also fairly similar to the iCamera Keep Pro. At $150, Zmodo’s Pivot has 360 degrees of built-in motion sensors that detect activity even when the lens isn’t pointed in the right direction. That’s where its 360-degree panning capabilities come in — the camera rotates to the right spot and records activity.

Zmodo’s 360-degree Pivot camera banishes blind spots

The Zmodo Pivot security camera can auto-pan to capture 360 degrees of motion events.

by Megan Wollerton

Close

Drag

35 connected cameras for a safer smart home…
See full gallery

1 – 4 of 36

Next
Prev

Interestingly, iSmartAlarm’s Indiegogo page says, “The iCamera KEEP Pro is the first DIY smart home security camera to offer Motion Tracking.” Its original iCamera Keep had the same pan and tilt capabilities as the new Pro version, but it wasn’t able to follow activity automatically. That makes the Pro’s motion tracking a first for iSmartAlarm, but I don’t agree that it’s new for the broader DIY security industry.

There’s still a month left on iSmartAlarm’s iCamera Keep Pro campaign and the team has already nearly doubled its original $50,000 funding goal. I’ve asked iSmartAlarm for a model to test out, so check back to see how it compares to Zmodo’s Pivot.