Lorex2K Wireless WiFi Smart Video Doorbell Camera w/No Subscription Fee - Smart Security Lighting, Night Vision, Battery-Powered, Motion Detection (Black)

After comparing several wired video doorbells (notably the Arlo Essential and the Eufy Dual,) I recently purchased and installed the Lorex 2K Wired Video Doorbell. I'll break this (very long) review into Pros, Cons, and installation Advice. I just installed this a couple of days ago, so I don't have much to say on how well it works yet, but here are my thoughts so far.Pros:- I like the look. I specifically got the black one as I preferred it over the white version. And of the ones I researched, I preferred the prominent colored lighting of the Lorex. The buttons on others are recessed and almost don't look like buttons at all. The button on the Lorex is very clearly a doorbell button.- It works with existing mechanical (or digital) chimes. Of the ones researched, only the Arlo (supposedly) and the Lorex worked with existing wired chimes. I got semi-conflicting reports, however, about the Arlo, so I was never sure if it really did or not.- Flexible, on-board storage. The Lorex comes with a 32GB micro-SD card that is stored directly in the doorbell device. You can actually swap this out for larger micro-SD cards up to 256GB, but I suspect 32GB is plenty. The fact that the SD card is in the doorbell itself is both a pro and a con. Pro: No additional device or hardware is required and it doesn't depend on cloud storage which almost always requires a paid subscription. And you can always replace it yourself if something goes wrong with the card. Con: The card is in the device so if a savvy bad guy physically removed the doorbell "smash and grab" style, you can't get the video. (You might get the notification, but you wouldn't be able to review it if they just removed the whole device. This is pretty unlikely, but something to keep in mind.) The wired Eufy has 8GB of on-board storage (from what I can tell,) but I couldn't tell if it was removable or upgradable. The wireless Eufy has larger storage size than their wired one, but it is part of an additional required device and I couldn't tell if it was swap-able/upgradable, etc. The Arlo has no storage and requires cloud subscription for storage and review of saved events.- Customizable features. Despite being an effectively standalone device, the Lorex Home app lets you customize several of the motion detection, people detection, lighting, and notification options, etc. I haven't had enough time to determine how well the functionality really works, but so far, so good.- High resolution camera (2K) with 4:3 aspect ratio and HDR. The camera looks great and despite the wide viewing angle (164 degrees,) it doesn't appear obnoxiously fish-eyed. My home entryway is fairly narrow and pretty deeply recessed with siding on both sides but the camera image isn't especially distorted. Not sure if the camera software is doing some post processing to achieve that, but it looks very good so far.- It requires NO subscription or cloud based storage. This is probably the single biggest "plus" for me and is why I limited my search to the Arlo, the Eufy, and the Lorex. I ruled out the Arlo pretty quickly, however, because much of the useful functionality is disabled unless you have a subscription, and I just didn't want that. I really like not having to worry about a subscription or cloud storage.Cons- The mounting brackets are plastic, a bit little flimsy in small but important details, and pretty fussy. The main bracket is *always* required and is mostly fine, but they provide optional angle brackets to pan or tilt the device to change the viewing area. I was hoping to use the tilt bracket to point it down slightly to increase the area of the visible ground so I could better see packages on the ground. Primarily due to my misunderstanding the directions, I didn't realize you still needed the main bracket regardless, and in the process I damaged the angled bracket to the point where it was no longer usable. (Basically it wouldn't stay firmly connected to the main bracket, to which the doorbell itself is attached.) See my install advice on the mounting process as well, but the only way to remove the main bracket once the doorbell is attached is the use of a pin in a hole in the bottom, and this was not working for me, which was more than a bit frustrating. It took me SEVERAL attempts to get the bracket detached. I do think this is a fixable issue if Lorex upgraded the bracket material (ideally to metal) and spent a little more effort on the engineering for these parts. I ended up going with just the default main bracket, and I may still reach out to Lorex to see if I can get a replacement angle bracket, but I was pretty frustrated by these brackets during the mounting process.For the record, I do think they are probably solid enough to secure the doorbell under normal circumstances, but this is still a weak point in my eyes.- The viewing angle (164 degrees) is not the best among the competition. As noted above, I was hoping to see more of the ground in front of the camera to be able to see packages. Most doorbell cameras have a blind spot immediately below the camera, and the competitors already start with a slightly larger viewing angle of 180 degrees. The only product that eliminates this issue entirely (that I know of) is the Eufy Dual which has an entire second camera pointed at the ground. If seeing the ground very close to the camera is a big deal to you, you may want to check out the Eufy Dual. I chose this product over the Eufy primarily on looks, hoping I could use the tilt bracket to improve ground visibility, but due to the issues above I could not so I don't (yet) know if using the bracket would truly improve it.- The setup of the doorbell once powered on can be a bit fussy, and has fairly limited feedback to know exactly what's going on and what is or is not working. The light on the doorbell button blinks in different colors based on what it's doing, but if things get out of sync, or it times out, it isn't very clear what to do next. The manual simply suggests "resetting" the device and trying again, which requires removing the doorbell from the bracket and removing the rubber cover over the reset pinhole. (Side note: Other reviews comment on how fussy the little rubber covers over the SD card and reset pinhole are as well. I agree. This is a design issue that could be better engineered.) A little more transparency into and feedback during the step-by-step setup process and better documentation would probably help this.- The chime setup is only configurable AFTER the device setup is complete and is done entirely through the app. So even when working properly, you cannot use your existing chime until you *manually* select it in the software. I wish this defaulted to using the existing mechanical chime right off the bat so even if the camera functionality and all the network stuff fails, you still have your original doorbell chime working. (It is, after all, a wired doorbell first. It should always fall back to that functionality first.)Installation Advice- For folks with existing wired doorbell chimes, especially if this is your first video doorbell, you should check your doorbell transformer to ensure it supports not just the minimum voltage (16V) but the correct amperage as well (20-30VAC.) My existing doorbell was installed with the house (about 14 years ago) and the transformer was 16V but only 10VAC. I read enough reports of people having issues during setup with transformers that weren't quite up to the task so I proactively updated the transformer. Do yourself a favor and upgrade if there is any question. It removes that as a possible failure point entirely.- Plan the installation of the actual doorbell unit very carefully. Make sure the surface you will be mounting to is flat and can easily accomodate the mounting holes of whichever bracket option you choose to use. If mounting to wood, I would definitely pre-drill the screwholes with an appropriately sized drill bit. (My doorframe trim is very dense/hard, so it was impossible to set the screws without pre-drilling. I started with a bit that was a little too small, and kept going up in size until I was able to set the screw securely without too much torque on the screw, but without stripping the holes.)- If you plan on using one of the optional tilt/pan brackets, make sure you know the correct orientation of your intended setup, as while you can remove the main bracket from the doorbell using the included pin, you *cannot* (as far as I know) easily remove the main bracket from the optional bracket once they are attached.- IMPORTANT: Do not attach the doorbell unit to the permanent main mounting bracket before you have powered on the unit and gotten the setup working successfully via the application. (Go ahead and wire the unit and power on, but leave it unmounted to the bracket. It is much easier to leave it unmounted and get the technical setup working before the final mounting, just in case you have to reset the device, etc.- The device supposedly supports both 5GHz and 2.4Ghz wireless connectivity. While the 5Ghz range is *theoretically* faster, the 2.4Ghz range is better at penetrating walls, etc. I had some dificulty connecting using the 5Ghz network even though my router is only about 15 feet from the doorbell, but it worked just fine using the 2.4Ghz network. The device is very responsive and the notification lag is minimal, so using the 2.4Ghz works just fine. If you have any network issues during setup, don't hesitate to use a 2.4Ghz network.If you made it this far, give yourself a pat on the back. I hope all this was helpful. Overall, I am pretty happy with the doorbell.

I am pleased with this doorbell as it does what it is supposed to do with good quality video and sound. I particularly like the adapter plates that allow pointing the camera at the person ringing the bell. As for installation, I had a technical problem with connecting to my WiFi modem that was not explained in the instructions. I had to resort to a tech expert to get that resolved. As for installing on the wall, I live in a steel building and there wasn't an existing doorbell, so the instructiuons were not helpful. I opted, instead of batteries, to install a transformer. I am very satisfied with how the unit is attached to the building.

I was using a Ring doorbell previously and I was dissatisfied with the monthly fee and the way it always started recording a few seconds after it saw the motion, often capturing only the rear side of the delivery people. The Lorex on the other hand saves the video starting starting from a few seconds before it saw the movement, so the Lorex video includes the whole delivery person instead of just his rear end.The installation was pretty straightforward: wire into the existing low voltage doorbell wiring. There was a slight issue though: the Lorex draws more current than the Ring so it would not work if the doorbell chime was wired in. Blue light would turn on and then the camera would just reset, never getting to the ready state. I had to bypass the chime to make this work. That means when someone rings the bell, my house doesn't make a sound. I am fine with that though because the device itself and the app ring just fine. If you're not electric savvy you might think it's broken.I really like the app, it has built in response so if someone rings my doorbell I can just automatically respond with a "go away" without having to go to the door.The video quality is incredible. I have to small porch lights, but this thing makes it look like daytime.Next, I'll probably get a fusion base so it can record all the time.

The media could not be loaded.  So first and for most it's hassle to set up I had to reset this thing 4 times before my phone would connect to it. I'm very tech savvy and understand how wifi works fairly well. So the issue is completely the app or the device. Either way once you get it set up it runs great battery life if quality setting are turned down will last but I was going to hardwire it so full quality on everything for me. Now I had heard some buzzing sound from the videos didn't think anything of it but then I got some crackling in some videos and calls. So I reset this thing didn't help. Eventually crackling stopped but the buzzing is actually coming from the doorbell itself the mic is picking it up I put the doorbell to my ear and sure enough I can hear it. Don't know if this normal or just mine but when you open it with alexa it's loud. If this gets sorted this will be my favorite doorbell I've ever owned. Only othe down side is it can't really see the floor but has a really good looking angle can see almost from wall to wall.

Love it for security, worked no problem with our existing doorbell transformer. The "HDR" isn't great with bright sun just washing out the video quality but generally it's good enough to identify people. For the price and lack of subscription fees, I'd say it's a buy

Quality is decent, as most features. However the sensor does not consistently record events. Sometimes things that has previously recorded, it doesn’t. As such, it makes me think twice as to how reliably it would capture an important event. It’s a shame an probably it can be fixed with a software update. I hope they do.

Sa marche no1, qualité super bonne, détection de mouvements marche bien, seulement savoir qu'il faut un carillon mécanique ou wifi, le fait que j'ai mit 4 étoiles c'est seulement parce que la programmation de la lumière marche pas, elle ne sauvegarde pas mais un de mes collègue a le meme produit et lui sa fonctionne donc je ne sais pas quel est le problème mais sinon c'est super

A great simple addition to our home with 24 hour a day monitoring. Simple 20 minute installation if you follow the instructions. Start by downloading the free Lorex app from the play store, turn power off to the doorbell, remove old doorbell button, connect 2 wires to new doorbell cam, turn power on and scan the scan code inside the box. Your all set after that. You need to be adventures and look through all the setting choices and features to enjoy all the benefits of the Lorex doorbell cam. You can share the features with a spouse or family member and they can monitor your home as well. Just have them download the Lorex app to their phone, and send them an invitation from your app. I debated installing a full camera system to our home but found the wide angle lens gives adequate front of the home coverage. The included 32gb micro sd card gives approximately 3 days of 24/7 recording in standard definition mode but i opted to install a 256gb micro sd card that gives approximately 25 days of 24/7 recording. No batteries to worry about, and rings your existing doorbell. Priced at under $100.00 is an inexpensive choice for added home security. No regrets.

I have tried other video doorbells before including the Amazon/Blink. This is BY FAR the best one. Just everything is better - video quality is crystal clear, comes with angled mounting brackets, easy setup, regular 2 wire connection that works with most existing doorbells and most important NO SUBSCRIPTION FEES. My unit came with a 32GB memory card that is upgradeable. The app itself is amazing and full of useful features like the timeline bar allowing you to quickly scrub through the entire recording history. The motion detection is actually smart and can differentiate between a car and a person coming to the door leading to a clean and not cluttered recording list full of meaningless recordings like other video doorbells do. Very happy with this and will definitely recommend. Makes me very interested in the rest of Lorex's home security solutions.