Eufy Security Indoor Cam 2K Pan and Tilt review: Full-room coverage with AI detection

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Eufy Security Indoor Cam 2K Pan and Tilt review: Full-room coverage with AI detection

Eufy Security recently released a pair of budget-priced cameras tricked out with cutting-edge AI features—the Indoor Cam 2K, which we recently reviewed, and the Indoor Cam 2K Pan and Tilt.

As you might deduce from the names, the main difference between the two is that the Indoor Cam 2K has a fixed viewing angle and the Indoor Cam 2K Pan and Tilt can rotate 360 degrees horizontally and pivot 96 degrees vertically. They otherwise have virtually identical specs and features, including a 125-degree field of view (without panning, in the case of the latter), 2K resolution, automatic night vision, 8x zoom, and two-way audio.

Like the Indoor Cam 2K, the Indoor Cam 2K Pan and Tilt comes with motion and sound detection, the ability to distinguish between humans and pets, and it can recognize the sound of a baby crying. It also supports Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple HomeKit—including HomeKit Secure Video, which allows for the analysis of recorded video clips on a local HomePod, iPad, or Apple TV, as well as encrypted video storage in iCloud. HomeKit support might come after the camera ships in mid July.

This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best home security cameras, where you’ll find reviews of competing products, plus a buyer’s guide to the features you should consider when shopping.

The camera supports up to 128GB of local storage via a microSD card (no card is included). Eufy also offers two rolling 20-day cloud storage plans. The Basic plan provides storage for $3 a month or $30 a year per camera, which is the best choice for up to three cameras. For four or more cameras, you’re better served by the Premier plan, which gives you a bulk discount for up to 10 cameras for $10 a month or $100 a year. A third option is to save clips to a third-party network-attached storage (NAS) device via Real Time Streaming Protocol. The Eufy Security companion app includes a setup guide for this method, but you might need to acquire a license from your NAS box manufacturer to record security camera footage to it.

indoor cam 2k pt 2 copy Eufy

The Indoor Cam 2K can rotate 360 degrees horizontally and pivot 96 degrees vertically.

Setup and usage

You control the pan-and-tilt camera with the Eufy Security app. It guides you through the process of pairing the camera to your phone and connecting it to your Wi-Fi network. You just need scan the QR code on the device and enter your network login credentials.

The camera appears on the app’s device screen with the name you gave it during the setup and a screenshot of its current view. Pressing the play button here opens the live feed. The layout is largely the same as with Indoor Cam 2K— live stream at the top, camera controls at the bottom—with the exception of big directional dial smack in the middle. Pressing any of the four cardinal points rotates the camera in that direction. It responds quickly and moves smoothly. You can calibrate the pan-and-tilt and adjust the rotation speed on a 1-5 scale in the settings.

In addition to controlling the pan-and-tilt yourself, you can set the camera to lock on to any moving object it detects by enabling motion tracking. This worked well in my testing, with the camera shadowing a family member or pet and following them anywhere they went. In a real-world scenario, this would allow you track the movements of an intruder, eliminating the blind spots created by a fixed-angle camera.

eufy app live Michael Ansaldo/IDG

You can pan and tilt the camera manually using the app or set it to automatically track moving objects.

Having experienced Eufy’s AI detection previously, I knew how accurate it could be, and it didn’t disappoint this time. People were identified as humans, and my dog and cats as pets. Detected noises and movement that didn’t fall into these categories were tagged as general motion and sound.

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