SwannBuddy 4K Wireless Video Doorbell Review: Flexibility and Security Combined

The SwannBuddy 4K from Swann offers remarkable flexibility in its installation options. For homes with existing doorbell wiring, the device can be installed as a wired unit, eliminating concerns about battery life. However, if your home lacks doorbell wiring, this versatile product can also be installed wirelessly, utilising its internal, rechargeable battery to perform all the same functions as its wired counterpart.

Beyond its adaptable installation, the SwannBuddy 4K is an excellent video doorbell that enhances both security at your front door and convenience when you’re away from home and need to communicate with visitors.

SWANBUDDY 4K WIRELESS VIDEO DOORBELL REVIEW – PACKAGING CONTENTS

The packaging includes the Chime Speaker unit powered by 2x AA Batteries (also included) and a 32GB microSD card for local recording. It’s worth noting that many competitors like Ring sell chime units separately and rarely include a microSD card. Swann’s inclusion of these items ensures you have everything needed right out of the box.

SWANBUDDY 4K WIRELESS VIDEO DOORBELL REVIEW – DESIGN AND FEATURES

The SwannBuddy 4K boasts a straightforward installation process. Once set up, it’s ready to enhance your home security.

After getting through a very simple installation, the SwannBuddy 4K is ready to go. The Video Doorbell supports up to 4K resolution with 165-degree vertical view so you can see the whole visitor’s body from top to bottom. It has Night Vision, 2 Way Audio (so you can talk and listen to your visitors), and has motion detection with an option to smartly detect people, vehicles, pets, and packages – though this requires a monthly subscription called Secure+ Plans.

For motion detection, you can customise through the app how sensitive you want it to detect motion, and how far. It’s set with a percentage, however, so I was doing some trials and errors when I first set it up. You can also set motion zones to block certain areas in front of your house and combining both of these options should eliminate false detections. I unfortunately still see passing cars being detected and recorded even though they are not part of the motion zones.

To tackle this, you have to play around with the Motion Detection slider so that it doesn’t detect as far. At home, 24% seems to hit the sweet spot but it may vary with your home settings. This shows how far the sensor can detect heat and motion though.

You can also set to sound a Siren when motion is detected but unless you diligently change your Modes every night (you can also schedule them) and have the premium subscription, you shouldn’t bother as it may trigger false alarms (or annoy yourself if you have to take the wheelie bin out in the streets at night and forgot to switch the Mode out).

What I love about Swann is that they give you Cloud recording for free even if it’s just one day (which is normally enough to check for any thefts or unwanted events). Sure, you’ll get 60 days of Cloud Recording if you subscribe to Secure+ Plans but with local recording support (through the included microSD card), you probably don’t really need anything else.

According to Swann, the video doorbell should run up to 3 months but this depends on how many motions it detects on a daily basis. There are settings to further improve battery life (and you can see how much battery you have remaining) like lowering your Live View Quality, Sleep Period (setting the camera to sleep for X period of time after a motion is recorded), etc. To charge, you can simply use a USB-C cable to charge the video doorbell and yes, you have to take it out of the cradle to charge.

When someone rings the doorbell, you can view it quickly from the app. You can then press and hold the speak button to speak but there are also presets that you can use if you don’t feel like talking directly. This is normally a premium feature on Ring or Arlo doorbells hiding behind subscription so I’m really pleased with Swann for giving this for free. The Chime Speaker unit will play a melody when someone rings the doorbell and you can choose between the included 6 chimes (ranging from ordinary doorbell sounds to short songs).

The doorbell itself also has a speaker so the visitor will also hear the doorbell directly from it. Plus, you’ll get a push notification on your app that someone is ringing your front door.

You can view the recorded videos directly from the app. Simply select the day from the calendar picker and the app will list all the recorded videos thumbnails in a nice, list form, sorted. The default view is always Today but I find that sometimes the app doesn’t automatically refresh to Today when I open the app (and it can get confusing when the top title still says today even though it is not).

Simply tap on a thumbnail video and the app will download the recording from the local storage to your phone, where you can play and share. It’s very easy to use and also intuitive.

SWANBUDDY 4K WIRELESS VIDEO DOORBELL REVIEW CONCLUSION

I really like SwannBuddy 4K Wireless Video Doorbell and this is coming from someone who has used a variety of more premium video doorbells from Ring and Arlo. The SwannBuddy 4K is quite affordable, has local storage option (with the storage card already included), free 1-day Cloud recording, and pretty solid with the notifications and app intuitiveness so far. There are also many options to tweak the device further to make sure you get the perfect angle, the perfect distance to detect motion, and the perfect settings to save your battery (or go for higher quality and security). The choice is yours and there is plenty without letting you get overwhelmed with it all.

Sure, it doesn’t have the sharpest video quality (but enough to see who the visitors are) and running it on battery would require you to charge it every now and then (maybe once a month or so depending on your house traffic) – but this is a problem to all video doorbell that offers this option. The good thing is that SwannBuddy 4K also supports hard-wired.

SwannBuddy 4K is available now for purchase through Australia retailers and Swann Online Store. It retails for A$299.95.

Disclosure: SwannBuddy4K Wireless Video Doorbell (SWIFI-4KBUDDY) review sample was supplied for reviewing