Eufy Security S100 Wired Wall Light Cam Review: A Big Bold Outdoor Security Solution – SlashGear

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Eufy Security S100 Wired Wall Light Cam Review: A Big Bold Outdoor Security Solution – SlashGear

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Most of the time when you want to pick up a security camera to replace one of your exterior lights, you end up with just that — in order to add one feature, you remove another. Eufy went a different way. Eufy built a light that replaces your exterior light that also has a camera. That’s an important distinction to make because it fundamentally changes the equation for you.

This floodlight camera seems to have been designed as a light first, camera second — which has its pluses and minuses of course. The main plus is from a decor standpoint. Cameras are generally not as attractive as lighting solutions. But it’s not a perfect system, as the design itself limits its potential for placement.

This review was conducted using a Eufy Wired Wall Light cam review sample provided by Eufy. For purposes of testing, the light was mounted on a portable rig with electricity, so the camera was fully functional and could be repositioned for various tests as required.

Built for a purpose

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Right off the bat, this wall light is huge. There is no doubt about what this device is, nor about who made it. The wall light comprises two halves of a large post containing a light on top, a light on the bottom, and a narrow band of grey casing containing the camera in the middle. Each of the lights can rotate 360 degrees to face any direction, and the light fixture itself can be adjusted from side to side over an area of about 30 to 20 degrees. This allows you to position the camera to face where you want it to, plus you can rotate the lights to shine on what needs it the most.

The camera itself is mounted so that it aims down by about 15 degrees. This is about ideal placement for replacing a porch light, ideally six to eight feet off the ground so you can see visitors. This light is huge though and obviously meant to be mounted on a wall, rather than a ceiling.

The downside here is you lose some flexibility in where you can install this light. Cameras are typically more useful when placed high in corners to get a very wide field of view; that isn’t going to be the case here. The other downside is the Eufy branding on the light fixture itself. If you don’t mind being a Eufy billboard, you’ll be good to go.

Installation and setup

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Installation is pretty simple. You can mount this to a round electrical box, or you can surface mount the light—hardware is included for both options. This is a wired light, so obviously, installation is also limited to places where you have (or can run) power, so choose wisely — or get one of their solar-powered cameras instead.

Eufy recommends you plug in the wall light before mounting it anywhere. The light has a micro USB port (with included cable) that you can plug in, allowing you to go through most of the setup with your feet on terra firma. Of course, this is 2023, and any accessory actively using micro USB instead of USB-C is automatically suspect. You only have to use it here, and then you can move on, so Eufy gets a pass, but seriously Eufy, let’s update that tech.

During this process, you’ll set up the light and connect it to Wi-Fi. To do that, you enter your Wi-Fi credentials and the app generates a QR code that the camera scans. After that, it’s time to mount the light to the wall.

The light is mounted in two parts. First comes the base, where you screw your electrical wires into a connector, and mount the base to the wall. Then you pop the light into the base and secure it with a tiny bolt on either side. That’s it. Overall, installation is pretty simple; just remember to kill power to the cords you’re using before you try to wire it up or you may end up killing the camera or worse.

The all-seeing eye

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The camera sensor on board is a 2K sensor that allows you to record in 2K or in 1080p (2K by default). That resolution is quite good during the day, making subjects easily identifiable from as far as 20 feet away. Color and detail are sharp and accurate to that 20-foot mark, which is really good for the industry.

At night, the camera is equipped with night vision as well as two large lights for illumination. The transition from color to night vision is remarkably fast, which is a nice touch. If you see something crawling across the deck in the video feed, you can flip on the lights to see what it is in better detail and the transition is quite good. At night, when you’re using IR, you start to lose a lot of detail, which is why the ability to flip on the lights and switch to color vision quickly is key.

Well designed app

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The Eufy security app is pretty well designed and laid out. Clips are recorded and stored encrypted on the device. Clips can be anywhere from 10 seconds to 12 seconds long. There is no option to scrub through footage where no event occurred, but you can download any of the clips which decrypts them and makes them available outside of the software.

One nice part about the software is the ability to set up privacy zones. Most cameras will let you set up detection zones, but Eufy goes further, actually allowing you to black out the video in any area you don’t want to see. It’s really easy to set up, and it gives a lot of confidence that you will not see anything you’d rather avoid recording. In addition to setting up privacy zones, you can also set up motion detection zones, so you really can micromanage your camera.

Events are recorded when motion is detected. The AI on board tells you what it saw, but at present, the camera seems as likely to register a dog as human as it would a human. That’s not ideal and certainly flies in the face of the “Intelligence” part of “AI.” All the same, motion detection is quite good. The camera can even pick up reflections in nearby windows or glass doors, so it can record clips when someone is approaching from the opposite direction. That’s not useful in a practical sense, but it goes to show how accurate the AI is.

The ‘Let’s Party’ feature

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The lights on the Eufy wall light are large and bright, making them ideal to be placed near a door in the front or back of your house — even if you already have a Eufy doorbell camera. In addition to standard white, you can change the color of the lights to any color on the color wheel. You can also enable Dynamic Lighting which will cycle the colors from the light like a dance party. Indeed, one of the presets is called “Let’s Party.”

This is pretty cool, but it comes with a limitation. You can set a daily schedule to alternate the light pattern if you want, but you’re limited to a single alternate light pattern during scheduled times, with a different pattern when off the schedule. For example, you can set the light to be white normally, but between 6:15 and 7:15 in the morning and between 5:00 and 6:00 at night, you can set the lights to the “Let’s Party” sequence. Of course, you can change the pattern any time you want, but only having two states feels a bit limited.

All the same, you can’t complain about the fact that these lights actually change color while most security camera lights on the market today stick to a single tone. This gives the lights a fun and quirky personality and lets you change the lighting seasonally or whenever you want.

A word on security

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Eufy, and its parent company Anker, were recently scrutinized due to largely false claims about how videos captured by Eufy cameras were transmitted and stored. Eufy suggested that all videos captured were encrypted and stored locally. Back in November, a security researcher by the name of Paul Moore discovered that was not the case. After a couple of months and a shocking lack of communication, Anker promised to fix all of that in all Eufy cameras and began work on encrypting Eufy data streams. So, the question is, should you be concerned?

The answer is a very wishy-washy, “It depends.” Since this camera is placed outside your home, there can be little expectation of privacy, and there’s little out there that needs to be private. This is not a camera in your child’s bedroom. Take that into account with the fact that Eufy promised to update all its cameras with local storage and encryption and for the moment, it’s safe to give Eufy the benefit of the doubt. But it’s also important to know that some privacy-related issues occurred somewhat recently — so be sure to properly weigh that into your thinking when considering a purchase.

Eufy Wired Wall Light Cam Final Verdict

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Overall, this is a very nice, easy-to-install camera that you can add to your smart home collection. It’s not for everyone though. You will want to make sure you are replacing a wall light on a vertical surface with plenty of clearance above and below the electrical box. As long as you meet those criteria, you’ll be in good shape.

The camera is sharp and clean, and it doesn’t detract from the overall design though the ability to aim it is compromised a bit. If you have a very specific spot you want to monitor, you may or may not be able to aim this camera properly. But from a wider viewpoint, this is a nice camera, with very bright and fun multi-colored lights all part of the package, so it’s easy to recommend. Just make sure you don’t point the camera at anything you want to keep private.

You can buy a two-pack of these lights for $252 or a single one for $119.99 on Amazon, on sale as of this writing.