Kent might be best known in India for its range of water purifiers, but the company also sells a diverse set of products across various home appliance segments, including kitchen appliances, air purifiers, vacuum cleaners, and security cameras. Talking specifically about the company’s camera products, Kent has a small range which includes security and monitoring cameras for cars as well as a Wi-Fi-enabled model for homes. The Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 Wi-Fi Security Camera is the product I’m reviewing here, and it is priced at Rs. 2,999 in India.

Much like the Godrej Spotlight Pan-Tilt Home Security Camera, which I had reviewed earlier, the Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 is meant for your home, and promises quick and convenient access to a video feed using Wi-Fi connectivity and a dedicated app. You can also adjust the camera angle to look all around your home for more flexibility, and there are many other features worth talking about, which I’ll elaborate on in this review. Is this the best low-cost home security camera you can buy right now? Read on to find out.

Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 design and specifications

The Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 competes directly with the Godrej Spotlight Pan-Tilt camera, and offers a similar range of vision and features. However, its design is considerably different. The camera sits within a ball-like module that allows it camera to look up and down, and the entire plastic casing can rotate on a fixed base.

The Kent CamEye Home Cam 360 has a microphone and speaker, both of which are on the back of the device. This allows the camera to not only pick up audio along with the video feed, but also enables two-way communication, alert chimes, and an intruder alarm feature. The front of the camera has a status LED which indicates its power and connectivity states.

The bottom of the Kent HomeCam 360 is rubberised, and the camera rotates on this fixed base

 

The Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 has a fixed base with a rubberised surface for grip, and the rest of the camera’s body rotates on that base. A socket on the underside allows you to mount this camera on a tripod, wall, or ceiling. No kit or bracket for mounting is included in the box and one will have to be purchased separately. In the sales package, you get a wall adapter and a USB Type-A to Micro-USB cable to power the security camera.

On the base, you’ll find the Micro-USB port for power, and a MicroSD card slot that supports up to 128GB capacity cards. The device has a 2-megapixel camera sensor with support for up to full-HD video recording. The camera has a horizontal rotation range of 350 degrees and a vertical rotation range of 65 degrees. The field of view is specified as 120 degrees horizontally and 95 degrees vertically. There are six infrared LEDs to enable visibility in darkness. The camera connects to the Internet using only 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, and the 5GHz band is not supported.

Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 app and features

As with other Wi-Fi-enabled home security cameras, the Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 works with an app that allows users to monitor the video feed, control the camera, access stored footage, and more. The Kent CamEye app is available for iOS and Android, and I used the former platform to test the features and functionality offered by the app. If you have multiple Kent CamEye cameras, they can all be controlled and monitored together.

Once you’ve registered and created an account through the app, you’ll be able to link the security camera and get it connected to your home Wi-Fi connection. After this, tapping on the camera icon will take you to its video feed, and you’ll be able to adjust the camera angle and settings, activate the speaker and microphone (either simultaneously or separately), take a snapshot to save to your smartphone, and more.

The app is very easy to use, and has most options and functions in convenient places. For instance, you can easily activate two-way communication or take snapshots with a single tap. The D-pad to adjust the camera angle is also directly accessible, and it usually took just two to three seconds to activate the camera and show the video feed.

Going deeper into the menus and settings lets you enable privacy mode, in which the camera does not activate itself or record footage. You can also access your saved recordings and images, and look at a list of alerts generated by the camera based on motion or noise detection parameters. Usefully, the alert sensitivity is customisable. Turning on all settings generated dozens of alerts per day when the camera was placed in front of my main door, so it’s nice to have this kind of control over the various functions.

The Kent CamEye app controls the camera, and lets you view the live feed or stored footage

 

The Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 can upload its footage, particularly event-triggered video clips, to the company’s own cloud platform. This is a premium feature and prices for storage space start at Rs. 150 per month or Rs. 1,500 per year. You can store up to seven days’ worth of video clips triggered by some event, and these clips are around 12 seconds long. The paid tiers go up to Rs. 400 per month or Rs. 4,000 per year to store up to 30 days’ of video history. A one-month subscription is included with each purchase. 

I was able to use the one-month plan for this review, and it allowed me to store and view older footage from the cloud. Even after the plan expired, I was able to view some clips within the app, and download them to my smartphone.

As per the information on Kent’s website, a paid subscription allows you to capture event-triggered recordings which are saved to the cloud, and also play them back directly from the cloud. However, all other functionality, including memory card recording and playback, live streaming of the video feed in real time, two-way communication, and privacy mode are available even if you aren’t subscribed to a paid plan.

It’s possible to link the Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 to your Amazon Alexa account through a skill, which then lets you access the video feed from within the Alexa app or on an Alexa-enabled smart display such as the Amazon Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen). This worked well for me, but I wasn’t able to adjust the camera angle when using the Alexa link.

Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 performance

An important factor in the functioning of any home security camera is reliability; you need the device to work when you need it. The Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 worked reliably for me on my 2.4GHz Wi-Fi connection. I was able to get it up and running in a matter of seconds whenever I needed it, and the app is well designed, putting important features within easy reach.

The Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 records a full-HD video feed, which shows in full colour during the day, and in monochrome when it’s dark. The security camera is able to automatically detect low-light conditions and activate the infrared LEDs as required, and this worked reliably for me with most details and faces identifiable despite the lack of colour in the feed. There were some occasions on which the camera took a couple of seconds to react to lighting changes and recalibrate the video feed, but this wasn’t really much trouble.

The Kent HomeCam 360 has a speaker and microphone for two-way communication, which can be activated through the app

 

Full-HD footage captured by the Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 was sharp and detailed in most conditions if movement was occasional and slow, but quick movements did cause some artefacts. This wasn’t really a problem as there was still plenty of detail to be seen in faces, clothing, and small items such as boxes and packages.

You can, of course, reduce the resolution to HD or SD if necessary, which might make the stream more stable and detailed with slower Internet connections, or if you need more hours of footage to be recorded onto a storage card. This largely tended to affect the legibility of text on items such as boxes and packages, but faces were still recognisable even at SD resolution.

The camera angle can be adjusted across a wide range. With 350 degrees of panning, it’s possible to look almost all around where the camera is placed. The 65 degrees of tilt range combined with the wide viewing angles of the camera itself allow for plenty of flexibility. Although the camera took about a second to react to commands from the app to adjust its angle, movement was easy and precise for the most part.

The speaker on the Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 is loud, getting quite noisy and at its loudest when I activated the siren mode. The chimes were also loud enough to be heard from different parts of my home, and two-way communication was clear and convenient when standing near the camera. The microphone picked up a lot of ambient sound, but was able to more precisely capture speech when someone was talking near the device. Usefully, you can activate only the microphone without the speaker if needed.

The camera suitably captures video clips of human movement when it’s set to detect this, but it cannot track a moving object or person. Saved clips were still clear enough to recognise faces and objects though.

Verdict

A good Wi-Fi security camera is a simple and efficient way to set up a home monitoring system, and the Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 is a decent option to consider for this. Although this device faces strong competition from products such as the Godrej Spotlight Pan-Tilt camera and Mi Home Security Camera 360, Kent’s offering sets the benchmark by offering a good all-round experience with no significant flaws.

With a good companion app, useful features such as two-way communication, a paid subscription cloud storage option for event-triggered video clips, and reliable performance, this is among the better basic Wi-Fi security cameras you can buy right now. It’s well priced, and is definitely worth considering for your home security needs.

Price: Rs. 2,999

Rating: 8/10

Pros:

• Wide range of motion for wide coverage
• microSD and optional cloud storage for event-triggered recordings
• Works well in all lighting conditions
• Excellent, easy to use companion app

Cons:

• Mounting kit not included in the box

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Godrej is among the most established names in the business of home security in India, with a wide range of products including door locks, personal lockers, video door phones, alarm systems, and CCTV camera systems. Among the company’s more recent launches is the Spotlight range of home security cameras, which is a foray into the Internet-of-Things space. That means Godrej will have to compete against popular tech brands such as Xiaomi and Realme. I’m reviewing the Godrej Spotlight Pan-Tilt home security camera, a compact Wi-Fi-enabled device that works with an app on your smartphone.

Priced at Rs. 3,499, the Godrej Spotlight Pan-Tilt home security camera does exactly as its name suggests; you can not only view the camera feed remotely, but you can also adjust the field of view by panning or tilting the camera using the app. I’ve had a chance to use this new IoT home security camera from Godrej, and here’s my review.

The Godrej Spotlight Pan-Tilt Home security camera has a microSD card slot to store recorded footage

 

Godrej Spotlight Pan-Tilt Home Security Camera design and build quality

Godrej currently has two Wi-Fi-enabled home security cameras in the Spotlight range – a fixed version, and this one, which as the name suggests, is able to pan and tilt mechanically when controlled via the app. The cylindrical camera is attached to a vertical ‘stem’ from one side, and this attaches to a circular base that holds the electrical components and Micro-USB power port. The entire base turns to pan left or right, while the stem allows the camera module to tilt upwards and downwards.

The camera can be placed on a tabletop or mounted on a ceiling when clipped onto an attaching plate (which is included in the box). A lengthy USB cable and power adapter are also included, allowing for some flexibility in positioning the Godrej Spotlight Pan-Tilt camera. Interestingly, Godrej states that the camera can be powered even with a power bank, so it can be used on the go or away from a power outlet.

The device has a microSD card slot on the underside of the camera unit, which supports up to 128GB cards for continuous video recording. At around 400g, the camera is fairly heavy for a device of its size. It isn’t rated for water or dust resistance, so you’ll need to be careful if you’re mounting it in a semi-exposed, dusty, or humid area.

With a 2-megapixel sensor, this camera is capable of recording video at up to full-HD (1920×1080-pixel). The field of view is 110 degrees, and the camera can pan up to 350 degrees and tilt up to 90 degrees. This gives it the ability to look all the way around itself. There is also night vision through an IR filter which allows it to function in the dark. A built-in microphone and speaker let you use it for two-way communication.

Godrej Spotlight Pan-Tilt Home Security Camera app and features

The Godrej Spotlight app (available for iOS and Android) is used to set up and control the Godrej Spotlight Pan-Tilt home security camera. The setup process was fairly simple and took around 10 minutes to complete, following the on-screen steps. Once done, I was able to watch the camera’s video feed and configure other settings. The app can be used to watch and control multiple Godrej Spotlight cameras.

Jumping straight into the camera view, it takes four to five seconds to activate the camera from standby and show you a live feed with the date and time overlaid. It’s also possible to switch between SD and HD resolutions for the feed, view it in full-screen mode on your phone, and activate the microphone on the camera so you get a live audio feed along with the video.

The Godrej Spotlight app is available for Android and iOS, and lets you control the camera and view the feed

 

The app has an on-screen D-pad to pan and tilt the camera with, and you can save angles to quickly jump to. You can also take screenshots, record video to save onto your smartphone, turn on two-way communication to speak to someone near the camera, configure the motion detection settings (to capture screenshots or video clips when motion is detected), and configure continuous recording settings (if a microSD card is inserted into the camera).

You can also set up cloud storage through the Godrej Spotlight app. This lets you access recordings even if the device and storage card are stolen or damaged. Cloud storage is a premium feature, and you’ll need to subscribe to a monthly Rs. 99 plan for unlimited space. Godrej does offer a seven-day free trial. It’s worth noting that this doesn’t mean you can record continuously and store everything; the cloud plan can only be used to store clips recorded because of motion detection.

You can log in to your Spotlight account to access your camera’s video feed and settings from a desktop browser, if you prefer. On one occasion during this review, the app froze and refused to load anything despite rebooting my smartphone. Only uninstalling and reinstalling the app fixed this issue.

Godrej Spotlight Pan-Tilt Home Security Camera performance

As with any home security camera, the hope is that you don’t need to use it at all. However, if that need does arise, the Godrej Spotlight Pan-Tilt camera gives you quick and reliable access to its video and audio feeds. This is, of course, a Wi-Fi enabled camera, and you will need a stable and reasonably fast Internet connection for everything to work properly. Godrej states that the Spotlight camera is only compatible with 2.4GHz Wi-Fi networks, and I didn’t have any trouble when it was connected to my home network.

The Godrej Spotlight camera can be powered even using a power bank, according to the company

 

The Godrej Spotlight Pan-Tilt home security camera provides a colour video feed in well-lit conditions, and automatically switches to a monochrome night-vision feed when needed. The video feed is clear and detailed at HD and SD resolutions, both in daylight and in the dark. It’s useful to be able to take screenshots or video recordings to save to your smartphone, in case you don’t want to use a microSD card for continuous recording.

Although there was a bit of blur in the feed when panning or tilting, the picture was about as good as you could expect for a home security camera. It’s sharp enough to recognise faces and objects, or even read text. On the whole, the Godrej Spotlight Pan-Tilt camera worked as expected when it came to its core functionality.

Pan and tilt movement was easy, but there was a noticeable delay of about a second between issuing a command and the camera responding and moving in the right direction. Two-way communication is a useful touch, although there is a bit of delay in the transmission of audio on both sides. This isn’t something you should be using as a substitute for video calls; rather, only use it for occasional functionality as a door phone or intercom.

The speaker on the Godrej Spotlight Pan-Tilt camera is quite loud, and there is also a built-in alarm function that should scare off intruders, once it’s set up and activated. The camera chimes loudly when turned on and connected to the Wi-Fi as well as during the setup phase, which can be very annoying. The microphone quality is decent, but there was always a slight hum to be heard from household appliances such as ceiling fans, or sounds coming in from an open window.

Verdict

The Godrej Spotlight Pan-Tilt home security camera is simple but effective at its core functionality, and offers just about everything you would expect from such a device. A wide range of movement means you can have the camera look all around wherever you place it, which is a nice bonus. Stable network connectivity and app support let you access the camera from anywhere, and additional features such as microSD and cloud support offer flexibility when it comes to storing footage.

Although there are slight delays in transmitting both video and audio, these issues are quite small relative to the generally positive experience I had with the Godrej Spotlight Pan-Tilt camera. There are more affordable options with similar features such as the Mi Home Security Camera 360 and Realme Smart Cam 360, but the quality of this product coupled with the reputation of Godrej as a security solutions provider make this a device worth considering.

Price: Rs. 3,499

Rating: 8/10

Pros:

• Wide range of motion and field of view
• microSD and cloud storage supported
• Clear video in well-lit and dark environments
• App is well designed, camera works through desktop browser too

Cons:

• Slight delay in transmitting audio and video

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