The Circle 2, Logitech’s second iteration of its Circle residence safety digicam, is just not a single digicam however two separate fashions: the Circle 2 wired (about $180 at Amazon) and the Circle 2 wire-free (about $200 at Amazon). Each cameras are designed for indoor/out of doors use they usually share the identical core options. We reviewed the wired mannequin, and if it’s any indication, each additionally dramatically enhance on the shortcomings of the original Logitech Circle.
The Circle 2 wired—which gained Apple HomeKit compatibility after we put this evaluate to mattress—is an entire beauty makeover of the unique. The ball-and-charging-ring design is gone, changed with a cone-shaped digicam unit on an articulating stand. The broad, flat face and triangular physique give the digicam a a lot sleeker look than its predecessor. However don’t be fooled—it’s rugged, too, with an IP65 weatherization ranking. Which means it’s impervious to mud, it might probably stand up to blasts of water from a backyard hose, and may tolerate temperatures from -Four levels to 122 levels F.
The Circle 2 consists of vital upgrades to the core expertise as nicely. It boasts a 180-degree area of view—a giant bump from the unique’s 135-degree angle—and as much as Full HD 1080p decision, bettering the primary Circle’s 720p max. Holdovers from the unique embody movement detection, as much as 15 ft of night time imaginative and prescient, and two-way audio.
The Logitech Circle 2 can be utilized indoors or open air.
Out of the field, the Circle 2 comes with 24 hours of free storage on your surveillance video clips. In the event you’re utilizing a single digicam,you’ll be able to lengthen that with a Circle Secure subscription for $Four monthly or a Circle Secure Premium subscription for $10 monthly ($100 per yr). The Premium subscription can even unlock superior security measures, together with individual detection, smart-alert filters, and the power to set movement zones.
Multi-camera households with as much as 5 Circles can select a Circle Secure Primary Dwelling plan for $7 a month or $69 a yr, or a Circle Secure Premium Dwelling subscription for $18 monthly or $179 per yr.
Logitech additionally provides a trio of equipment for the Circle 2, every offered individually. A Window Mount ($40, or $20 right now on Amazon) affixes the digicam to any window pane, with the intention to monitor outdoors your own home with out having to truly place the digicam open air. A plug mount ($50, or $30 on Amazon) allows you to plug the Circle 2 immediately into outlet with out the ability twine. A weatherproof extension ($30) lengthens the ability twine for indoor or out of doors use.
Setup and utilization
One of many strengths of the unique Circle was its exceedingly simple setup, a function the Circle 2 shares. All that’s required is to connect the digicam to its stand, plug it in, and observe the Logi Circle app’s prompts to pair the cameras and join it to your Wi-Fi community. In lower than 5 minutes, I used to be a streaming feed of my lounge.
Michael Ansaldo/IDGYou may customise movement zones to slender detection areas.
This wired mannequin comes with a 10-foot energy twine, so there’s a variety of latitude for placement on cabinets or tabletops. The digicam additionally features a wall bracket, screws, wall anchors, and cable clips for mounting to inside or exterior partitions.
The 180-degree area of view is lots for an average-sized room, although you get a good quantity of fisheye distortion in smaller areas. The digicam defaults to 720p, however I toggled as much as 1080p for comparability. Each resolutions delivered a vibrant, crisp picture however there was considerably extra reside video lag in Full HD. Night time Imaginative and prescient, which switches on routinely in low mild, offered good distinction and element. There’s even a “window” setting you’ll be able to activate when utilizing the digicam with the window mount, which turns off the infrared LED to keep away from reflection within the glass.
The Logi Circle app shall be acquainted to customers of the unique Circle. The digicam streaming feed shows in full-screen, with a chronology of time-stamped movement detected occasions down the fitting facet. These occasions are denoted by coloured “bubbles” that point out how a lot exercise was detected: grey for reasonable and blue for prime. You faucet one to view the captured video of the occasion.
Michael Ansaldo/IDGThe Circle 2 can distinguish between human and non-human motion.
My favourite function of the unique Circle was the Day Transient—a time-lapsed compilation of the day’s movies you possibly can generate with the contact of a button. I’m completely satisfied to say it nonetheless has a spot on the backside of the timeline.
My foremost grievance with the primary Circle was that it lacked the superior security measures and customization choices of its worth friends. That has been largely rectified, although you should pay for a Cloud Secure Premium subscription on prime of the value of the digicam to entry them.
Maybe one of the best of these is Particular person Detection. The function, which will be toggled on and off, distinguishes between people and non-humans shifting inside the digicam’s area of view. The algorithms behind these kinds of options aren’t foolproof, however the Circle 2’s implementation was correct 99 % of the time. Solely as soon as throughout my testing did it misfire, incorrectly figuring out considered one of our cats as a homo sapiens.
Occasion detection alerts additionally now embody a snapshot of the triggering occasion or scene pushed straight to your gadget’s residence display screen, so that you don’t need to open the Circle app to find out the notifications urgency. Circle Secure Premium subscribers obtain a zoomed-in snapshot with any Particular person Detection notification.
One other welcome addition is sensible zones, which let you prohibit movement detection to particular areas, similar to round doorways and home windows, by defining a field over these components of the picture. Most cameras have you ever do that by both deciding on squares on a grid overlay or by manually drawing an oblong form across the space.
Circle 2 makes use of the second methodology, however permits you to customise the form by grabbing the handles on a bounding field so you’ll be able to contort it into any variety of geometric shapes. This makes it so much simpler to slender your detection areas by shaping them round furnishings and different obstacles. You may solely set movement zones utilizing the Logi Circle net portal, although, not within the cellular app.
Superior occasion and alert filters are the third perk of a Circle Secure premium subscription. These comprise a number of choices relating to what you’ll be notified about and the way typically. You may tailor the frequency of your notifications to be each one, 15, or 30 minutes, choose to obtain alerts of excessive exercise solely, and use geofencing to routinely deactivate alerts when your GPS detects that you just’re at residence, amongst different options.
LogitechA window mount, offered individually, permits you to monitor the outside from the within of your own home.
The Circle 2 additionally introduces sensible residence integration by way of Logitech’s POP Smart Button and Amazon’s Alexa. I used the latter to inform the digicam to activate and report video, and it labored and not using a hitch.
Backside line
It’s somewhat disappointing that you need to pay for a premium cloud subscription to make the most of what are sometimes commonplace options—different cameras just like the Neatmo Presence and Honeywell Lyric C1 embody movement zones and sensible movement detection within the their worth—however whether or not that’s a downside is greatest determined by your funds.
There’s no knocking the digicam’s capabilities. The Logitech Circle 2 efficiently addresses all of the shortfalls of the unique Circle. The place its predecessor felt like little greater than a life cam, the Circle 2 is a bona fide safety digicam that may go toe to toe with the strongest models in the class.
Editors’ observe: This evaluate, initially revealed September eight, 2017, was up to date on Could 1, 2018 with particulars on Logitech’s new subscription plans. TechHive’s editorial coverage is to not change our authentic evaluate rating after publication except there was an error in our authentic evaluate.