Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Extremely straightforward to put in and arrange
- Pan/tilt permits digicam to observe a large space
- Users can select between native and cloud storage or use each
- Compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Home
Cons
- Night imaginative and prescient is simply efficient to ~25 toes
- Might be too giant for some fixtures, so measure earlier than shopping for
- QR Code on bulb is just too small, making it exhausting to seize with a telephone digicam
- Not suitable with Apple HomeEquipment Secure Video
Our Verdict
The Lorex 2K Wi‑Fi Lightbulb Camera is likely one of the best methods so as to add sensible house safety features to your house. Screw it into a light-weight socket, join it to the web, and also you’ve bought a robust pan/tilt digicam to assist defend your house.
Price When Reviewed
This worth will present the geolocated pricing textual content for product undefined
Best Pricing Today
Price When Reviewed
$69.99
Best Prices Today: Lorex 2K Wi Fi Lightbulb Camera
$54.99
The Lorex 2K Wi‑Fi Lightbulb Camera is a $69.99 pan/tilt safety digicam with an built-in, general-purpose, dimmable LED gentle supply designed for householders who need a fundamental, no-hassle path to including safety cameras to their houses.
That ease-of-use comes with a number of tradeoffs; however when you’re in search of one thing easy that may get the job accomplished, Lorex has you lined.
If you put in the Lorex 2k Wi Fi Lightbulbcam outdoor, it is going to must be in a luminaire that provides some safety from the weather.
Lorex
Installation
Actually, “installation” appears too sophisticated a phrase to explain setup for the Lorex 2K Wi‑Fi Lightbulb Camera. Pick a light-weight fixture with a typical E26/E27 socket and screw within the unit simply as you’d with a typical lightbulb. Most customers will need to use a ceiling fixture, however the Lorex app permits you to flip the digicam lens’ orientation when you want to make use of a flooring or desk lamp. Note that the digicam/bulb should be put in in a weather-protected luminaire when you set up it outdoor (extra on that in a bit).
You’ll discover loads of comparable lightbulb/digicam combos, however none that carry the fame and historical past of such a longtime model as Lorex.
Download the Lorex app for iOS or Android, activate the sunshine fixture, and scan the QR code on the unit to attach the app and arrange a Wi-Fi connection for the unit. The QR code is extremely small, so be sure you’ve bought a plan (or at the very least a stepladder and a flashlight) earlier than you begin your scan.
Once the set up is full, the Lorex 2K Wi‑Fi Lightbulb Camera seems to be like a barely overgrown lightbulb.
Hardware
You can flip the digicam’s video stream when you set up it the wrong way up in one thing like a torch lamp.
James Barber/Foundry
The Lorex 2K Wi‑Fi Lightbulb Camera seems to be like a typical bulb at first look, however this can be a substantial system—measuring about 7 inches tall and greater than 3 inches vast. The backside half homes a 2K (2560 x1440 pixels) motorized pan/tilt digicam that sweeps a full 360 levels. Its stationary discipline of view is 107.9 levels diagonal, 92.2 levels horizontal, and 50 levels vertical).
The gentle is a 400-lumen, 6,500 Okay LED ring, which is roughly the brightness of a 40‑watt incandescent. That makes the unit appropriate as an accent gentle or for porch temper lighting (though its shade temperature is comparatively cool for that objective), but it surely’s by no means able to lighting up a driveway.
The bulb carries an IP65 weatherization score. According to our IP code guide, meaning it’s impervious to mud ingress and that it’s protected towards water projected in jets from any route. As I’ve already talked about, the bulb’s LED factor should be lined if put in outdoor. Put it a clear sconce or another kind of indoor-outdoor fixture. The digicam’s pan/tilt motor is remarkably quiet, and its whole housing is a sturdy plastic that ought to maintain as much as years of use.
Video high quality
Lorex’s app has all of the options you’d anticipate finding for a contemporary safety digicam.
James Barber/Foundry
Like many sensible house units we’ve examined, the Lorex 2K Wi‑Fi Lightbulb Camera is proscribed to a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi connection. Its 2K video, captured at 15 frames per second, options glorious picture high quality, with particulars that stay clear when utilizing its digital zoom. Motion detection successfully identifies folks and automobiles once they enter the digicam’s discipline of view.
Lorex doesn’t embody a microSD card, however customers can add their very own (as much as 256GB). Of course, limiting your self to native storage implies that you possibly can lose entry to your video in case of theft, accident, or pure catastrophe.
As a backup, Lorex additionally gives a cloud subscription plan that offers customers entry to the final 30 days of dwell recordings for $2.99/month or $29.99 12 months. If you need to use a number of Lorex 2K Wi‑Fi Lightbulb Cameras or pair them with Lorex video doorbells or safety cameras, you’ll must pay $9.99/month or $99.99 12 months for as much as 10 units in a single location.
Night imaginative and prescient is shade throughout low‑gentle, shifting to IR black-and-white imaging when pitch darkish. The seize works properly as much as 20 to 25 toes; previous that, particulars fade. It’s usable, however not the enhanced-video high quality acquainted to viewers of TV crime reveals.
App and AI
You’ll must scan this tiny QR code if you arrange the Lorex 2k Wi Fi Lightbulbcam within the Lorex app.
James Barber/Foundry
Lorex touts its use of on-device AI (i.e., video is processed regionally, vs being first uploaded to the cloud) to distinguish between folks and automobiles when movement is detected, at which level it is going to ship an alert to your smartphone. The digicam additionally helps two‑means audio and there’s an onboard siren ought to you’ll want to deter an unwelcome customer from hanging round. The app has a clear and easy interface, however you may dig all the way down to entry myriad choices.
A privateness slider on the app’s house display screen disables the digicam when you’re going to be in discipline of view for prolonged time and don’t need something recorded. You can invite shared customers to put in the app, after which they’ll acquire entry to all of the options of your put in unit.
Two-way audio permits you to maintain a dialog with anybody who approaches the digicam, and there’s a menu of responses that lets a pre-recorded voice inform a customer issues like “We’ll be there shortly” or “Please leave the package at the door” when movement is detected.
You can select from 5 ranges of movement sensitivity, and you’ll restrict movement alerts to the presence of individuals or automobiles. You may also alter the audio sensitivity of the digicam’s onboard microphone by decibels.
The built-in gentle is managed by a slider that reveals up on the house display screen simply above the video picture. There’s additionally a sleep button on the house display screen that provides a wide range of time spans to pause notifications. If you’re an Apple Watch consumer, the Lorex app sends notifications to your wrist and customers can pause them from the watch display screen.
Lighting
The dimmable built-in LED gentle bar produces a most of 400 lumens of brightness, roughly equal to a 40-watt incandescent bulb.
James Barber/Foundry
Think of the sunshine fixture as an adjunct for the digicam greater than a standard gentle bulb. Lorex designed the sunshine primarily to optimize the digicam’s means to seize video. The unit’s 400-lumen restrict retains it from being an efficient major gentle supply in a basement or darkish hallway. If you’re utilizing it indoors, you’ll need lamps or different overhead lighting sources within the room for on a regular basis use.
While it’s an efficient gentle supply for nighttime video seize outdoor, don’t examine this product to such floodlight/digicam combos because the Ring Floodlight Cam Pro (2,000 lumens), the Eufy Floodlight Cam E40 (additionally 2,000 lumens), and even the Eufy Wired Wall Light Cam S100 (1,200 lumens). Understand its limitations—in addition to its advantages, given that every of these three units should be hardwired to your house’s electrical infrastructure—and also you’ll possible see previous its limitations.
There are loads of low-cost, no-name 2K cameras that screw into a light-weight fixture. Some of them even have gentle bulbs. A couple of also have a restricted vary of pan and tilt the Lorex. What you gained’t get is the fame and historical past of a longtime model like Lorex, a priority that appears way more vital to contemplate with house safety methods than, say, a conveyable Bluetooth speaker.
The pan/tilt digicam has a privateness mode that covers its lens.
James Barber/Foundry
That characteristic additionally makes the Lorex 2K Wi‑Fi Lightbulb Camera a compelling possibility for renters. There’s no drilling or screws concerned, and no extras cables. Unscrew the unit if you transfer and be arrange at your subsequent tackle in a matter of minutes.
This evaluate is a part of TechHive’s in-depth protection of the best home security cameras.
Should you purchase a Lorex 2K Wi-Fi Lightbulb Camera?
The Lorex 2K Wi‑Fi Lightbulb Camera provides a safety system to the type of gentle fixture that everybody already has at their house. A easy swap can add with high-end sensible surveillance, at the very least considerably discreetly camouflaged inside a bulb. Image high quality is above common, and options like native storage, voice management, and an on-demand lens cowl for privateness exhibit considerate design.
Some customers will probably be much less impressed with its different efficiency metrics. The brightness of its onboard LED lamp would be the greatest sticking level for a lot of, and the digicam’s night time imaginative and prescient fades with distance. Outdoor installations are restricted to luminaires that supply some safety to the digicam. Finally, setup is usually a delicate nuisance as a result of tiny QR code on its base.
Overall, nonetheless, this unit is a winner. You get a rotating, speaking safety digicam that screws in like a light-weight bulb for lower than $70. There’s no simpler strategy to get into sensible house safety.