Wyze Doorbell Review

When it comes to video doorbells, you get what you pay for. The Wyze Video Doorbell is one of the cheapest on the market, but with that low price, it makes some sacrifices in video quality. That said, it does come with some nifty features like theft deterrent and customizable chimes.

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• Wyze Video Doorbell
• Wyze Chime
• Wallplate
• Wedge (horizontal, 30°)
• 4 wire caps
• 2 bracket screws
• 2 screws and expansion tubes
• 2 extension wires
• Fuse
• Quick start guide

For around $50, the Wyze Doorbell looks how you would expect. It’s tiny (only 1.5 inches wide, 3.25 inches tall, and 0.625 inches thick) and a little cheap-looking. It kind of looks like a toy doorbell you would find on a Fisher-Price playhouse.

We’re not sure that a visitor to your home would actually recognize the little domino-shaped box as a doorbell. The doorbell button doesn’t really look like a button, other than the little bell icon. It’s smooth and square. Very un-button-like.

It would feel strange just tapping on the thing hoping that it was a doorbell and not just a weird-looking security camera. It does have the little bell icon, but we would probably opt out and just knock.

The thing we disliked most about the Wyze Doorbell is that it’s wired. That means that if you don’t have the wiring for a doorbell already, you’ll need to bring in an electrician.

If you already have the wiring, installation is as easy as connecting a few wires, plugging the chime into the wall, wiring the chime, and setting up the Wyze app and Wi-Fi. This process just took us a few minutes.

It doesn’t really matter what it looks like as long as it performs, right? We weren’t too thrilled with the Wyze Doorbell performance, either, but it does have a few handy features.

We’ll just say it: the field of view isn't great. The Wyze Doorbell aspect ratio is 3:4 and that adds up to 120° on the vertical and just 88° horizontally. 

Many top video doorbell cameras, like the Arlo Essential, Eufy Doorbell, or a Ring doorbell camera, have a field of view of 140º to 180º, giving you a good view of your yard beyond the porch. But you’ll spend three times as much for those video doorbells, so it’s all about getting what you paid for.

The Wyze’s view is good enough to watch your porch. For many folks’ needs, that’s good enough.

The video was also grainy. You could still tell who the person was, so that's something. We tested it right next to a Ring Doorbell that had a much clearer image, but of course, it sported a much heftier price tag. 

This smart doorbell cam does have color night footage thanks to an LED light that turns on when it senses movement. Without the light, the footage is black and white. Color footage makes things more recognizable. You’ll know if that’s your cat or the neighbor’s knocking over your porch decorations with just a glance.

We weren’t too impressed with the clarity of the night video, though. Faces were grainy, and if you have any outdoor lighting, like holiday lights or walkway lights, the camera was easily blinded, making the images washed out.

The Wyze Video Doorbell has a nice feature that lets intruders know you’re watching them—whether porch pirates or others up to no good. When it senses movement, it lights up to alert those around it that, yeah, this is a camera and you’re being recorded. Are you feeling lucky, punk? Okay, maybe we’re personifying this little doorbell, but the feature is still cool.

Like with most video doorbell cameras, you need to upgrade to a monitoring plan to get some of the coolest features. Luckily, Wyze’s plan is super cheap. Wyze Cam Plus is only $1.99 per month. With it, you get access to some nifty features:

• Fast-forwarding
• Person, vehicle, pet, and package detection
• Unlimited video lengths (instead of just 12 seconds)
• Cloud storage for 14 days
• No cooldown period (without a subscription, the camera will wait 5 minutes between recordings)
• Discounts on other Wyze products

The Wyze Video Doorbell comes with a chime that makes it easier to hear when someone is at the door. That’s right; it doesn’t ring your home’s mechanical chime. You have to replace your existing chime with Wyze’s, which means more wiring. We were bummed that there was an extra step to installation.

The chime is pretty cool, though. Using the app, you can change the chime to over a dozen different sounds beyond the normal “ding-dong.” We recommend changing the chime to an animal noise. You’re sure to smile every time someone comes to the door.

While the Wyze Video Doorbell isn’t the best on the market, it is the best of the cheapest doorbells. If you’re looking for an affordable video doorbell that does the job well enough, and you have wiring already in your home, we say take the plunge.

If you want to shop around, we’ve found the best video doorbells.

We have tested dozens of video doorbell cameras over the years. So, for our hands-on Wyze Doorbell review, we had heaps of experience to lean on. We compared the tiny tech to its competitors, pored over hundreds of customer reviews, talked to Wyze representatives, and evaluated other experts’ opinions.

Read more on how we review products and services on our methodology page.

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