So ths Zebora is a rock-solid barebones camera with good picture quality. Unlike a lot of the previously reviewed units, the Zebora Baby Monitor was not engineered for pets in mind. (Just in case you couldn’t guess by the product’s name!) However, don’t let this dissuade you from giving the Zebora a long hard look in your quest. It has a sturdy and svelte design in piano black, has good tilting and panning features, and ha a fairly legit 960p resolution and picture quality. The price is very good; Amazon has it listed at $79. Yes, you could buy 2 of these for the price of a few of our previously-reviewed units.
What you don’t get, of course, is a lot of the extra pet-specific features like the almost-ubiquitous ”lazer tag game” or treat-dispensing features common on other units. Zebore seems to make up for this lack of features here with a very very big plus for a lot of users; the app seems to work well. Connectivity and setup for a large majority of users seems to be fairly seamless. Again, for most, this is a pretty big deal. Most people just want their stuff to work. Read through our guide as we run through the features, setup, and design of this unit. It may be a good choice for you, who knows!
FEATURES
This machine is the epitome of connectivity and control. It doesn’t have many pet-centric features, but if you have well behaved pets or are mainly looking to monitor a baby or something, this may be a good choice. Here’s more about Zebora:
Brand and Model History
Zebora was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, and their listed phone number is in the 978 area code, meaning you can actually call them and speak to someone in the United States about their products. In a group of cameras basically all manufactured overseas, this is nothing short of a small miracle. They are ambiguous about their supply chain, but they say they are spread across multiple countries like Spain, Japan, China, and the USA. They also offer other products besides cameras; they sell some noise-canceling headphones as well as an iPhone screen protector among other things.
CONS
No feeding feature. Sadly, a lot of the value of a pet cam isn’t really about surveillance. 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 laser game feature. As with the feeding, this product wasn’t really designed for pets in mind. 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.
App is not available for Windows Phone users. It’s a small caveat, and no other cameras in this guide have Windows Phone apps. But it should still be mentioned.
PROS
Online users report almost no problems with setup and use of this unit. VERY BIG plus. Seriously, this cannot be overstated. The Zebora team’s use of QR codes and a ”setup wizard” combined with robust performance of the app make this product a good buy. This is even before taking into account any sort of hardware features or comparisons with other units.
Online security is actually pretty decent. The elephant in the room with a lot of these WiFi-connected cams is that theoretically, they’re fairly easy to hack. This Zebora cam has a 24-character camera ID, and you can use both letters and numbers. This isn’t the sexiest of features, but it might keep people from looking into your home. Seriously.
Has motion detection and alarm! This machine, as one might be able to surmise, isn’t a dedicated pet cam. It was developed with security and monitoring in mind. All that being said, when the camera detects movement, it turns on on its own and begins recording. Now, if you have pets, you don’t want to get 21 emails a day every time your dog walks into the living room. This Zebore immediately starts recording, but saves the footage on the app. This is opposed to putting it in an email and sending it to you. The camera has an alarm with an audible noise feature as well. Sounds like we’re splitting hairs here, but sometimes it’s the little things.
Has some fairly advanced video recording features. You can record video remotely and have it save to the SD card, or initiate recording ”live” from the app, and/or take a ‘snapshot’ with the live feed running from the app. This second option is fairly interesting because you don’t need an SD card. The camera even lets you download videos you have on the SD card to the app. Even setting up SD card in-camera recording is pretty easy. You can set it up to record at a certain time every day, or record when the alarm goes off (say, when the motion sensor trips on.)
Decent warranty. Zebora provides a 1-year warranty and it’s own tech support.
What a camera, and what a great company. This is sort of a textbook example on how to integrate hardware and software. It’s also a textbook example on how to set up your company so that it combines the technological advances, manufacturing efficiency, and cost savings of overseas production with US and EU knowledge and technical support. Even though this unit sits at #3 in its overall sales category in Amazon (meaning they move a lot of units) there are almost no negative reviews of the product online. Specifically, setup and connectivity issues are basically nonexistant. Obviously there are some downsides to this device. Namely, most of the pet-centric features that live on the other devices do not show up here.
A lot of people with young or rowdy pets may need the treat dispensing features, lazer games, and chat features that the other pet cams have. If so, this is obviously not a good choice for you. However, if you just want to see your pet when you’re not home, or talk to it, this may be your device. The solid connectivity + the low price + the good desgn of the item ensures a quality product. Recommended.
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