Review: Dropcam Echo
Now that I’ve tried the new Dropcam Echo, however, I find that it works well enough and the price, $279 with unlimited monitoring via the web or the attendant iPhone app, is acceptable if a little steep.
You will never be this happy.
The Echo is a small wireless webcam with built-in microphone. This means you can listen in on a space as well as see it. It includes free email alerts that notify you when something moves across the camera’s field of vision but the online DVR service costs $9 a month. What you are really buying here is the service and the camera, an OEM model, isn’t the real draw.
Setup is dead simple: you plug the device into an Ethernet port, configure it via a web interface, and then unplug it. It sits on your wireless network and all you have to do is plug it in and point it at whatever you want to guard. I have mine pointing out the upstairs window. It’s very exciting.
The camera’s viewing angle is very good and low-light performance is acceptable although not perfect (things get murky at night, but that’s to be expected. The device is not really weatherproof so you don’t want to leave it in the bushes near your neighbor’s house.
What is this good for? Basically it’s a great home monitor for watching your cat, the babysitter, or your front door. It’s not an ideal outdoor monitor nor is it particularly useful in my case simply because I want to be notified immediately when someone is at the door and see who it is with a quick move of the mouse (which Vitamin D excels at). Dropcam’s notifications are a little to slow for this. However, for example, you are a dwarf who wants to be generally notified if someone is skulking around your gold pile, this might work.
My only concern is that there are better and more feature-rich devices out there. However, at $199 for the lower end Dropcam model and $100 extra for audio, the Dropcam is a compelling option for the budding paranoiac.