The Best Home Security Cameras, Based On Rigorous Testing

A home security camera lets you keep track of package deliveries, note when the kids get home from school or the dog walker grabs your pooch or, of course, they can help you keep tabs on—and potentially ward off—any bad actors near your property. Most of today’s top-of-the-line home security cameras offer crystal clear high definition, excellent night vision, flood lights and sirens and two-way voice communication. You’ll find all of that and more with my top pick for the best home security camera, the Ring Spotlight Cam Pro, which is user-friendly, reliable and has excellent battery life.

What you’ll also find is that it can be hard to figure out which security camera will be the best for your home or business, because there are just so many from which to choose. With the help of my tech-savvy son, I tested more than 20 different security cameras, like the clever Psync Cam Genie S and the affordable Arlo Essential Outdoor XL (2nd Gen), and put together this review of superb security cameras worth your consideration. Based on six months of testing, here are all the winners from the camera testing process:

A few of the cameras I tested just didn’t make the cut: It was too laborious to connect them to my home, they had too much lag time, they dropped their signal too often or their features (or image quality) weren’t good enough for further consideration. A few had their merits and might be the best home security camera choice for some users, earning a brief mention later, but each of the devices I cover in depth truly stood out for one or more reasons.

To make sure I was bringing more than one perspective to this subject, I also consulted a number of experts in home security, including David Ciccarelli, the founder and CEO of property rental company Lake; K. Campbell, a security consultant and principal at Blue Glacier Security & Intelligence; Mark Buskuhl, the founder and CEO of real estate firm Ninebird Properties; and James Koskela, the founder of lock security specialty company Zero Day Gear.

Best for:

• Detailed audio and motion detection notifications
• Long battery life and easy charging
• Getting sharp color night vision and customizable motion zones

Skip if:

• You need very high resolution
• You want to spend less than $200

I set up Ring’s Spotlight Cam Pro camera within about five minutes of unboxing it. Yes, that includes connecting it to my Ring app and getting the camera physically installed. Once the Spotlight Cam Pro was connected to that app, the degree of control I had over this camera was nothing short of impressive.

You can set a schedule, tasking the camera to detect and alert motion and audio by night but to be inactive during the day, to save you the bother of countless false alarms as people bustle innocently past your home. The camera can also set motion detection zones, ignoring a backyard spot where the kids always play but notifying you of motion around the side of the house, as other examples.

You can also adjust the camera’s motion sensitivity, so that, for example, a Japanese maple near your front door doesn’t set off an alert every time the breeze blows (yes, that was our exact situation). Or you can enhance the sensitivity so that even a small creature darting across your lawn will draw the Spotlight Cam’s notice—and its spotlight.

As the name suggests, this camera has some bright lights built into it. Two, to be precise, and they are plenty bright to light up a stoop, driveway, back patio or a good portion of your yard. When its lights are on, the video feed is full color, even at night; and when they are off, the black-and-white night vision looks crisp and sharp. I could easily read the words on boxes I’d stacked up in a fully darkened basement to test the night vision, and I could clearly read license plates on nearby cars when I installed the Ring Spotlight Cam Pro outside.

One of the best aspects of this camera is that it’s battery-powered, and better still, it has two battery slots but only needs one to operate. That means you can keep the other battery charged and ready and swap them out when needed, leaving your camera offline for eight or nine seconds based on my testing. That also means, of course, that you don’t need to worry about a hardwired installation, making this a great DIY security camera, as well as a great choice for use at a rental property.

The camera’s 1080p, full-HD video quality is good, though not great, at least compared to some of the 2K cameras I tested. The video sometimes pixelates briefly when there is a lot of movement on the screen. But it resolves to full HD fast enough that I can’t see this brief loss of focus being the difference between a burglar getting away with a break-in or you missing the UPS guy. And while this camera is on the pricier side at around $230, it brings peace of mind in a package that’s easy to install and control. You can also read more about it in my full Ring Spotlight Cam Pro review.

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Best for:

• Getting ultra high-definition video
• A huge 180-degree field of view
• Bright full-color night vision

Skip if:

• You want easy controls in the app
• You want a built-in spotlight

The Reolink Argus 4 Pro has the widest, clearest field of view in just about any security camera I’ve seen to date, save for those that pan from side to side. It uses two lenses set far apart (and makes the camera look rather like an owl). Thanks to the magic of AI, it stitches their fields of view into one 180-degree image—and it does so in crystal clear 4K ultra high definition. You can see every detail of your property and of the people or critters populating it, and that’s true day and night.

The camera features proprietary ColorX Night Vision technology that allows it to capture bright, full-color video even in the dark of night. Now, you might be saying: “Hey, lots of security cameras can do that!” Yes they can, but not without a spotlight. This camera captures clear, colorful video at night without a light. It’s pretty cool, but it also means the Argus 4 Pro is lacking the deterrent effect that a spotlight can be, which is one reason it’s a runner-up. I’d prefer an optional light to the omission of a floodlight, regardless of its necessity for video quality.

I’ve experienced some lag issues with other Reolink products, such as the Reolink Video Doorbell, but the Argus 4 Pro had very low latency, thanks largely to its dual band Wi-Fi 6 capacity. Even placed at a good distance from your router, this camera connects with ease and with speed. And as it’s battery and/or solar powered, you can place it just about wherever you want.

You’ll need to buy an SD card (or use one you have) to capture video unless you instead spring for the Reolink Home Hub, so factor in that bit of added expense with this already pricey camera. But you’ll be getting a camera with a quality of image and a field of view that are hard to match.

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Best for:

• Very easy installation and positioning of camera
• Generous 16GB local video storage
• False alarm reduction through AI

Skip if:

• You are worried it might be stolen
• You need a brighter spotlight

How long does it take to install a Noorio B210 2K Outdoor Security Camera? About as long as it took you to read the first word of that last sentence. Seriously: This camera can be installed on a metal surface (well, a metal surface with a high enough iron content) in a second flat thanks to its magnetic base. You just pop the camera and its magnetized ring-shaped base onto a metal fence, an electrical box, a refrigerator or any other magnetized or metal surface and it’s ready to monitor your space.

This wildly easy installation also makes it very easy to aim the lens, so you can position the B210 however you want for the best view. Granted, this magnets-only installation also means a prankster or a thief could pull down and steal your camera with minimal effort.

That said, the B210 can also be installed with an included screw mount, which could allay the concerns of easy theft. If you do indeed go with that screw mount option, it’s easy to appreciate the extra-long battery life, which can stretch as long as six months when the camera is not used heavily. In either case, you’ll appreciate the crisp 2K resolution and the broad 140-degree field of view.

Another very cool feature you get with the Noorio B210 is 16GB of, “unconditional local storage.” That’s enough memory to store hundreds of video clip recordings with no additional subscription needed—a rarity in a security camera. However, external storage of the recordings is not supported, so you can’t export them to another platform. The 16GB of storage space on the app is decent, and you can share clips to other Noorio app users, so this is an issue, not a critical flaw.

What you can do is control this camera with your voice via Amazon’s Alexa. Because it doesn’t require an outlet to work, it’s also reliable as an indoor camera, like a baby monitor or nanny cam.

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Best for:

• Getting solid camera for a good price
• Not worrying too often about changing batteries
• Getting crisp, clear audio in your video feeds

Skip if:

• You want minimal lag time
• You don’t want to pay for a subscription

If you want a good security camera at a great price, the Arlo Essential Outdoor XL (2nd Gen) is a fine choice. Truth be told, I’m not sure what the, “XL,” in the name is all about, as this is a fairly compact camera, but I have a few guesses. It might be about the extra long battery life, which can last for months, even as long as half a year. And that’s true even in cold climates; chilly weather seems to have little effect on the battery life.

The XL might refer to the high resolution of the 2K camera, which is sharp by day and by night and in full color even after dark when its spotlight is on. Or perhaps, “XL” refers to the noise-canceling audio that helps isolate the human voice from background noise so you can hear visitors, delivery people or prowlers with ease.