IP camera review: Samsung Smartcam HD Pro SNH-P6410BN

Though it cannot pan or tilt, its other advantages more than make up for these deficiencies.

Installing the camera is easy. It has a Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) button, which lets you set it up quickly, providing your router supports WPS. But you will need to install a plug-in for your browser if you want to view the footage on a PC. This takes a few more steps to search for the camera connected to the home network.

You can record videos to microSD cards (up to 64GB). You can play back the recordings on the mobile app or PC, but oddly enough, you cannot record directly to the PC or smartphone.

Both mobile app and PC viewer support snapshots. Photos can be saved to the PC or smartphone.

Motion and audio detection will alert you even if nothing occurs within the camera's view.

The motion-detection feature is more advanced than in other IP cameras, letting you define up to three areas of the video image to monitor. This is useful if you want to focus on specific areas, such as a doorway or corridor.

For alerts, it supports push notifications for the mobile app, keeping you constantly updated. It also supports sending e-mail notifications.

In addition to two-way communication, a music playback function provides three pre-recorded melodies, to soothe a baby, for instance. If you prefer your own audio, you can record it for playback.

The mobile app has a clean interface and offers features such as snapshots, recording, two-way communication and motion detection. Surprisingly, it manages to pack all the settings inside it, removing the usual disparity between the IP camera's PC viewer and mobile app.

The app offers nearly all the capabilities of the PC viewer, providing wide customisability with its settings, such as motion-detection sensitivity, alert configuration and alarm scheduling. But its maximum resolution is 1,280 x 720. If you want to view the video feed in full high-definition at 1,920 x 1,080p resolution, you will need to use the PC viewer.

The camera's wide viewing angle of 128 degrees makes up for its inability to pan or tilt. In night-vision mode, the view is clear but extends only to 5m, which may not cover an entire room.

Image quality is sharp and accurate, with colours reproduced clearly in crisp images. The frame rate is rock solid, delivering low latency video streaming even on a 3G network. A wide dynamic range feature provides clear lighting even in backlit images, resisting creating silhouettes against bright backgrounds. The audio is clear, with little background noise.

With an affordable price, this camera has the best video image quality of the cameras and many substantial features in both the Web interface and mobile app. This is a good buy as long as you do not need pan and tilt functionality.

Background story

TECH SPECS

Type: Fixed position

Video resolution: 1,920 x 1,080 pixels (up to 30 frames per second)

Connectivity: Ethernet port, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi

Recording medium: microSD (up to 64GB)

Viewing angle: 128 degrees

Night vision: Yes

Two-way communication: Yes

WPS connectivity: Yes

Mobile app: Available on Android and iOS, free

RATING

Features: 4/5

Design: 4/5

Performance: 5/5

Value: 3/5

Overall: 4/5

This article was first published on June 25, 2014.
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