REOLINK Video Doorbell PoE Camera – 2K IP Security Camera Outdoor with Chime V2, 4:3 Aspect Ratio, 180 Degree Diagonal, 2-Way Talk, Plug & Play, Secured Local Storage, No Monthly Fee

OK I am impressed…
I had bought into the whole Blink infrastructure, yea I know. Which was comically bad. The doorbell didn’t work as a doorbell after one of their many updates, which is kinda an inexcusable fail. The only person that could hear it “ring” was the person that pushed the button. Recorded video and detected motion OK, but was the worst of the Blink products at that. I had one on every outside door (5). Between that and their Floodlight, that doesn’t reliably work as a floodlight, I gave up, all going in the bin.That was a Black Friday impulse buy, and bought more of it, as it worked pretty well for what it costs for a while, then they updated it into uselessness. So, a little research this time around, and came across the Reolink, and well, by comparison, it’s night and day. As a doorbell, it does what you’d expect a doorbell to do, push the button and it rings, and with the Alexa skill, it rings everywhere, and in my house that’s a lot of places. It’s like noon in an old clock shop when someone pushes the button. Given that the problem it was intended to solve was a vendor who felt their product was so valuable that it required an in-person direct adult signature to deliver, and the old doorbell gave the false sense than I heard that there was someone at the door, well the Riolink was ordered, delivered and installed before that delivery was re-attempted the next day.So the Riolink costs a lot more than the Blink, but still, not all that expensive. I have also worked with Axis which is the polar opposite. The Riolink is cheap in comparison to those. But the Riolink has a whole lot more in common with Axis than with Blink. I mean it’s just a doorbell, but that doorbell has all the same kind of camera configuration options as the Axis cameras had. Not least of which, and maybe this sounds dumb, but the ability to just bring up the camera and watch it if you are expecting something. I don’t know how common that is for all the consumer doorbell cams between the bottom of the barrel Blink and the Riolink, but NOT being able to just camp on a cam seemed pretty ridiculous to me. And i can do this on a real screen, on my PC and not be restricted to a smartphone app.All this makes it way better, BUT that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It has some pretty impressive integration with Home Assistant, it has actual Ethernet conductivity, and PoE, and it has a pretty impressive image quality. Yea, I had to drill a hole because it wasn’t just batteries and WiFi, but I’d rather have wired or wireless any day, worth the effort. Oh and support for local storage.So, the nit picks…The included angle bracket isn’t enough and additional one to stack them up aren’t available, and unlike a lot of the doorbell cameras there is no aftermarket for such things. I ordered some made for the Arlo cam that many have adapted for this cam, we’ll see how that goes. Yea there are a lot of people selling 3D printed ones, but I’d rather just buy something manufactured, even if I have to adapt it.The included chime is a 1 to 1 thing, apparently you can pair to more than 1 chime but you can’t pair multiple doorbells to the same chime. It would be nice to have multiple chimes and multiple doorbells and they all just work with all, but I guess not. However the Alexa integration really makes that not so much of a deal as I have an Echo or a FireTV Cube in every room, so honestly the chime doesn’t matter so much. The down side of that is that you are no longer local if you are using that skill, from either side, you have to join the cams to the Riolink cloud service and then pair that service with Alexa which is also cloud.Oh and I had initially bought 2, the PoE version and the WiFi version, not really realizing that the WiFi version still needs to be externally powered. It does however also have an Ethernet port, which I wish also did PoE but it doesn’t. I had bought a bunch of 24V PoE injectors a while back hoping they would power my EcoBee thermostats (they didn’t, AC only apparently) but they work fine on the WiFi version of the Riolink, I guess even the included power adapter is actually 24V DC (not the 24VAC that is typical for doorbell wiring). So apparently AC/DC doesn’t matter, though did read somewhere that it’s 24V DC or 12-24V AC, so guessing that much more commonly available 12V PoE adapters wouldn’t work.Anyway, like I said I had 5 Blink doorbells, which are all getting replaced with these. I have tons of PoE ports in my house, so it’s just a matter of getting a cable from A to B. I will be trying Their cameras as replacements for the rest of the Blink stuff as well, so far I am impressed, a few minor gripes, but overall meets and exceeds…

A great investment! No monthly fees! EXCELLENT QUALITY!
This doorbell is fantastic!Unlike other brands that charge monthly fees just to use the device you already bought, Reolink doesn’t. Once you purchase it, it’s yours — no subscriptions, no hidden costs, just a solid, reliable doorbell that works the way you want it to.It’s also perfect for anyone who values privacy. Your data stays with you, not in some company’s cloud.The video quality is excellent, with a wide-angle view and crystal-clear images both day and night. I was especially impressed by the smart notifications — it can distinguish between people, vehicles, and animals, allowing me to fine-tune alerts to exactly what I care about.The chime setup is effortless: just plug it into an outlet, and it’s ready to go. Truly a “set it and forget it” experience.I went with the PoE version and couldn’t be happier. There’s something satisfying about having one single cable handle both power and data through modern, efficient technology.Storage options are flexible, too — you can record to the onboard microSD card for simplicity, or connect it to an NVR for a more robust setup.

This doorbell camera works great. Had to run a cable for Ethernet to my PoE switch. I find the Ethernet cameras are better as you don’t have to deal with batteries or WiFi issues. Using a third party application to record locally and no cloud being utilized. Supports ONVIF to work with many different systems. Picture quality is decent

This has the best 2 way audio i have ever experienced on a doorbell. I have it on a noisy street, and I have previously used Nest, Logitech, Ring (their most expensive model which was PoE), and Eufy. Nothing compares in terms of audio – its almost like as if it is a phone call with no background noise.