Anker’s smart home brand Eufy is revamping its camera lineup with a new battery-powered SoloCam outdoor camera ($199.99), Floodlight Cam E340 ($219.99), Video Doorbell E340 ($179) .99) and Indoor Cam S350.
The new line’s signature hardware feature is its dual lenses, with a wide-angle camera and a telephoto zoom lens to better identify faces and license plates. But there’s also a notable new capability: inter-camera tracking and video splicing.
“This technology comes from the banking and traffic industry,” said Eufy spokesperson Brett White. The edge in an information session.
“Each camera can capture motion and track it, so now you get a spliced video showing each event on each camera.” The new tracking feature works with Eufy’s HomeBase 3, a hub for your cameras. HomeBase uses on-device AI to identify a person on each connected camera, stitch all the videos together, and then send just one notification and one video.
The Eufy HomeBase 3 ($149.99) also adds AI-powered smart alerts to cameras for free, including facial recognition and detection of people, pets, and vehicles. The HomeBase 3 now also comes with a 1TB hard drive. Locally stored recordings can be accessed for free without a subscription, and paid cloud storage is also available.
On-device AI and locally stored recordings are features that should appeal to privacy-conscious consumers, not just those looking to evade cloud fees, but keep in mind that Anker’s Eufy brand was the one that saw us caught up in a privacy scandal.
The new cross-camera tracking feature will be part of a free beta test at launch, and White says a final version of the feature will be released in “Q4 2023.” Pricing for the feature will arrive later this year, but it looks like it will be part of a subscription.
Older cameras that work with Eufy HomeBase 3 will also add this cross-tracking capability, so you don’t need to buy new cameras to get this feature. White says almost all Eufy camera devices, except for some wired cameras and wall light cameras, now have full HomeBase 3 compatibility.
Here’s a look at the new cameras:
Eufy SoloCam S340: $199.99
A battery-powered dual-lens outdoor camera with a built-in solar panel, the S340 features a wide-angle lens with 3K resolution and a 2K telephoto lens with an 8x hybrid zoom. It also has on-device AI and the ability to track and zoom on a subject with a 360-degree pan and 70-degree tilt. Color night vision, two-way audio, and a 100-lumen spotlight, plus four months of battery life and 8GB of built-in storage round out the specs. It is compatible with HomeBase 3.
Eufy E340 reflector camera: $219.99
The first Eufy camera with 24/7 recording capability, the new floodlight camera comes with a built-in micro-SD slot for local storage of up to 128GB. A wired camera with two light panels for up to 2000 lumens of light, it is designed to be mounted vertically on a wall. It has 360-degree coverage and can track a person in its field of vision. It works with dual-band Wi-Fi 6, has two-way audio, built-in alarm, lighting schedules, and adjustable brightness.
Eufy S350 Indoor Camera — $129.99
The new interior camera has 4K UHD resolution, 8x zoom and 350-degree pan and tilt. It can be set to “patrol” points of interest and AI tracking can keep a subject in view. It also has a privacy blind and is powered by a USB cable.
Eufy E340 Video Doorbell: $179.99
The successor to the Eufy dual video doorbell, the E340 features two cameras: a 2K camera with color night vision on top for person detection and a second 1080p camera on the bottom for package detection. The doorbell can be installed with a power cord or can be battery operated and, as the other cameras announced, handles up to 60 days of event-based recordings locally (8GB built-in storage), accessible without a subscription.
All four cameras are available starting today. on Amazon and eufy website.
Eufy cameras work with Amazon Alexa and Google Home, but only the Eufy Cam 2 line is compatible with Apple Home. White says the company has been in talks about Matter compatibility, for when the new smart home standard supports cameras. “It is a possibility, something we are analyzing, but nothing is confirmed,” he says.
