So, the Wansview is the cheapest camera of the bunch. You could honestly buy six of them for the price of the Pawbo WiFi Pet Cam, which tops our list as best pet camera. But just because something is cheap, does not make it low-quality. A lot of the utility provided by the higher-priced models is the same utility provided by this device. It has a 720p HD camera that streams quality video, and it has a 120 degree viewing angle.
The Wansview is basically a mini security camera, and if you don’t need extra features, this might be the camera for you. Another group of users might not need features, but might want to put cameras in multiple rooms in a shop or business.
If this sounds like you, you might also want to read on.
FEATURES
Let’s go in-depth a bit more with this little Wansview:
Brand and Model History
The Wansview camera is part of the larger Shenzhen Smarteye digital electronics company in China. They were founded in 2002 and are one of the first batch manufacturers that do R&D, production, and sales of these cameras. Smarteye’s been around for over a decade now, and as per their website they say they’re now in the top 3 of Chinese IP camera companies when it comes to monthly production figures.
Smarteye makes 720p and 1080p cameras, as well as smarthome solutions and weatherproof cameras. They have a decent reputation online, and that’s also reflected in their reviews on YouTube and Amazon. The most encouraging thing I found online was a user who returned a Wansview because they had trouble connecting it to their WiFi network. The company contacted them quickly, and sent out a replacement camera which worked!
Good to see this kind of thing happening, especially with a unit that has such a low price.
CONS
Hearing sound is decent, speaking it back seems almost impossible. You can hear via a mic, but I don’t think you can speak to anyone in the room that has the camera in it. The jury is still out on this one kinda, as I can’t really tell if this camera was designed to have a speaker or not?
Camera feed can be hacked/eavesdropped on easily due to low password safety settings. I know, this is also not much of a negative, but some people care about this kind of thing. You can’t use punctuation or special characters for the camera passwords, so basic script-kiddie bulletin-board programs can hack into these easy. Unlike with other cams online, there aren’t any scary stories from users getting hacked, but with this kind of low bar for security there’s always a chance.
No feeding feature. Yes, it’s a $30 camera…so I don’t think many readers are expecting this kind of thing as a feature. But it bears mentioning. If you have a pet cam that’s easy to set up and has clear resolution…you might just be setting yourself up to watch HD video of your dog destroying your house. A treat-dispensing option provides a pretty fair incentive to keep a pet in a room, or at least in the general area. The fact that the unit could dipense treats also allows pets to sort of remain conscious of the object, which might make the animal behave. If you need something like this or want it as a feature, you have to look elsewhere.
No ”lazer tag” game. Again, this is a no-frills, budget item. I guess if we were to look at it in a positive light, if your pets are already well-behaved, but you just want to talk to them or check on them, this might be a good purchase. But obviously the level of interactivity offered by this device is much lower than with some others.
No Micro SD slot. This may be a deal-breaker for some, because if you’re using a camera for security instead of pet or baby monitoring, you’ll want to have SD card capabilities. If you have ”hardware recording” with an SD card, even if your feed gets interrupted or burglars disable the cameras, the foootage you’ve already shot will be saved to the SD card, at least theoretically. With this camera this isn’t an option.
Unit becomes hot to the touch rather quickly. Seriously…many reviewers mention this. It’s probably not a big problem for most users, but I feel like it should be mentioned. This camera gets warm and quickly! If you have it on for 45min or an hour, it will start to heat up. In an hour and a half or so it will feel like the bottom of your laptop.
PROS
Quick and easy setup. Like many of the other cameras, this Wansview has a pretty easy setup procedure. To get it going, they have a One Key Wifi Configuration that ”searches” for your router on it’s own. All you have to do is download the app and follow the prompts.
The apps work fairly well! Connectivity is actually not a problem with this device. Yes, I have to admit, i was surprised. But after looking on multiple sites and doing research, I can say it with authority; this $32 has a great app. There’s actually a few things at work here; they have QR codes set up that make app install super easy on mobile devices. They have their own PC/Mac desktop program called SearchPro that makes changing settings etc fairly easy. Finally, their customer service team is decent. Most people online say they get bact to customers in about 24-48 hours. For a $35-$40 plastic camera from China, this is pretty good customer service.
Wide vision! Decent tilting and panning features for the size of the camera. Make sure to place it in the corner of a room, up high if possible for the best results. I honestly thought with the size of this thing that it’s scope would be rather narrow. Nah. According to their literature, they say the camera has a 120 degree viewing angle, and honestly that seems pretty spot-on.
Night Vision capabilities. Even considering the size and price of this unit, they do pack in 4 IR LEDs with night vision up to 20 feet. To maximize your sightlines (obviously) if you plan to use the night vision features, the closer your camera is to the subjects the better.
Small size. Only 60mm by 60mm, this cam can be mounted basically anywhere. It comes with a little ”stand” that has a movable, poseable ”ball” on it. This lets you mount it on a wall or tilt it if needed.
Easily the bang-for-the-buck winner here. Basically, if you don’t need recording options or 2-way communication, this is your winner. We kind of can’t say too much about the price, it’s just such a good deal. For the price of maybe 2 phone chargers or 1 dinner in a restaurant by yourself you can have one of these. We see this camera being ideal for people who literally just need them for monitoring in real time. Specifically, those looking to keep an eye on pets or young kids.
Melissa
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