Logitech Circle 2 review

Maintaining a tally of your property has by no means been really easy, or so low cost. Gone are the times of cumbersome and costly CCTV cameras which needed to be professionally put in. As a substitute all you want is the newest IP safety digicam that connects to your Android/iPhone smartphone by way of an app and away you go. 

One of many newest to affix a rising line up is Logitech’s Circle 2. It’s much like the first Circle unit, however with a couple of supposed enhancements together with higher battery life and climate proofing for outside use. Two variations can be found (wired and wi-fi) however we examined the marginally dearer wi-fi mannequin. 

Both the digicam could be mounted indoors on the swivel base or an outside bracket is supplied as normal full with two screws and two wall anchors. There are additionally plenty of elective extras out there from Logitech for various kinds of mounting. These embrace a window mount (useful for watching the backyard with out mounting the unit exterior) and a plug in mount for maintaining a tally of a pet. 

Design and construct

Placing the digicam collectively is comparatively easy. Three predominant components are supplied within the funky lime inexperienced coloured field, together with a chargeable battery, digicam lens and a swivel base with a fast launch plate that matches into the again of the unit. 

The lens merely screws into the rechargeable battery base, relatively like a lens for a DSLR digicam (it’s a must to line up the arrows), whereas the swivel base means you may modify the digicam to any angle fairly simply. Charging for the Lithium Ion battery is by way of a micro USB port which connects to a common USB plug. Spare batteries are additionally out there an elective further if it’s good to hold the digicam working whereas recharging. 

Just like the Nestcam IQ, reviewed here, the Logitech Circle 2 is a solidly constructed white-coloured digicam. Nevertheless, it’s slightly larger than the Nestcam and barely extra bulbous in form. 

Set up and use

In terms of organising, simply obtain the Logi Circle Android or iPhone app and hit the arrange button. It is going to then ask you what kind of digicam you’re utilizing and try to pair with it by way of Bluetooth (throughout the course of a blue gentle across the exterior of the lens shall be flashing). 

Importantly, throughout the arrange course of the digicam does should be related to the mains and have full cost, in any other case it gained’t be capable to pair. The digicam can then could be managed by way of the app or, usefully, you should utilize the online as a substitute (http:circle.logi.com). 

As soon as the digicam is efficiently paired the color of the sunshine across the lens modifications to white indicating it’s related, whereas the sunshine on the again of the unit is both strong amber if it’s charging or strong inexperienced if absolutely charged. When the battery is working low you will note a flashing pink gentle across the lens.

Recording choices

In terms of offering all the newest safety choices, the Circle 2 is especially nicely geared up. On board is a 180-degree lens for a panoramic view of your property. Alternatively, it’s attainable to decide on narrower ‘vast’ and ‘extremely vast’ modes. It’s additionally attainable to report footage in Excessive Definition, because of 720p and 1080p settings (720p is the default setting).

Both you may view footage in dwell mode (albeit with a slight lag) or, because of the digicam’s movement filtering, you may watch particular recordings when the digicam detects motion. Recording time is adjustable between 10 and 60 seconds and recordings are proven within the sidebar of the app alongside with the time. There’s additionally a ‘each day transient’ choice, adjustable between 6 seconds and 60 seconds, which can present you edited safety ‘highlights’ for a selected time period.

Wish to freak your canine out by speaking to them by way of the Circle 2? Or maybe you need to discuss to a supply driver on the door? Press and maintain down the microphone button and converse into your telephone. Sound will then come out of a small speaker on the machine, though it’s actually not very loud even on most setting. 

Nightvision mode permits you to report footage in the dead of night whereas a zone editor allows you to attract a picture of an space you need to get alerts for, akin to a entrance door. Though a lot of the digicam’s options are free, it’s attainable to subscribe to Logitech’s Circle Protected from £three.99/$three.99 a month if you’d like added performance. 

This consists of as much as 31 days of storage (only one day is supplied as normal), a number of movement zones or individual detection – a characteristic much like that of the Nestcam IQ the place the cameras tells you if it spots a member of the family.

Efficiency

In terms of indoor use, the Logitech Circle 2 does a reasonably first rate job. Arrange is easy and film high quality is mostly of a really top quality, particularly in 1080p mode. Nevertheless, except you have got an excellent wifi connection then it might be greatest to take a look at the wired model as a substitute. 

Whereas we didn’t expertise too many issues in a house workplace, utilizing the Circle 2 additional away from the broadband router brought on the sign to drop out on a number of events (extra so than with different safety units from firms akin to Nest and Blink.)

Moreover, utilizing exterior within the again backyard was a selected downside, not simply due to the bigger distance to the router, however due to the swivel mount supplied. This didn’t appear fairly robust sufficient to carry the load of the digicam when pointing all the way down to the bottom. 

An extra downside is that as a result of the Circle 2 makes use of a chargeable 6700 mAh Li-ion battery you’ll need to take it off the mount at common intervals for recharging. Logitech claims that the rechargeable battery lasts for as much as three months, nonetheless that does appear slightly beneficiant from our expertise.

Verdict

With the Circle 2 Logitech has proven it’s greater than a match for Google-owned Nest. It’s an clever digicam with baggage of helpful options, akin to two-way audio, excessive definition recording and nightvision, all with out having to pay an extra subscription. 

It additionally appears to be like fairly good and is each straightforward to arrange and use, because of a good accompanying app. Our solely reservation is round efficiency which could possibly be slightly higher. Whereas there aren’t any points round image high quality itself, it struggles generally to select up a wifi sign. Moreover, when used exterior the swivel mount and fast launch plate supplied aren’t splendid for mounting exterior.