Okay, 1 year using and 1 year to learn so as to give a real review, it's not some 4k ultimate video recording doorbell, but the video is clear enough and dollar for dollar it might be one of the better 1080 doorbells, it does have some issues I found work arounds for and some I couldn't, the reviews you read saying it's very slow to motion alert you are not just hard to please customers, it is an issue, It is slow to alert you thru the app on your phone, why I have not a clue, the work around is if you have Echo Dot or Echo Show and you know how to set up routines, have Alexa tell you when that device detects motion, I found it lightning quick, why that works faster I don't know, lol, remember I'm doing honest review on how things worked for me. I also discovered you can have Echo Show or Echo Dot be your chime so again if you understand Alexa routines, and you have alexa devices, you will never have an issue hearing when someone rings your blink Doorbell, don't forget to link your Blink app and the Alexa app to ensure the above things work for you, okay on to issue I can't find a work around, Blinks idea of battery life reminds me of auto manufacturers MPG estimates, we all know in the real world it's not going to happen, sure, if you dial down all the features, you might get half of what Blink says, but then I ask you, why have it, we buy them to use them right ?, so I have found average battery life even using the suggested energizer ultimate lithium, is about 6 months, not 2 years and don't care how they or their paid reviewers try to spin it, it's not going to happen even if you dial all the features down, making it a waste of money, and yes I'm using the sync module which is supposed to help battery life, maybe it does, can't answer that but real life, no B.S. spinning, your not going to come close to their battery projections, my only work around for that is the batteries are easy to change and I understand and can deal with this, Speaking of the Blink module, I use it for local storage and I also use the pay for cloud storage, that's another non work around issue, far far to many features are LOCKED OUT, if you don't pay for the Blink subscription, Now if you don't care about saving videos and you just want to know who is at your door regardless if you are home or away, this will alert you, it will display to you video of who and allow you to talk to them also and I must say it does a good job at it and you don't need the blink subscription and if you do have the Blink module and a usb stick in, it will save those for you, at short lengths, but it will do it. Overall it is a good security device, and although obviously it is far from the better ones. From a pure value Perspective I would highly recommend this, , easy to install, no wires, pretty much can put it where you want it, Again it does everything pretty well, One of the best prices out there, just understand it has shortcomings, but also understand it's price, and it will certainly do the job for you, this isn't a trashing review, I tried my hardest to be real and actually recommend it, it just doesn't function at the upper levels of some of the others, but it doesn't have the upper price tag , plus I am actually going to buy another, remember, you can put them about anywhere, I actually have one stashed at the front of my house, not by the door, it gives me a full frontal view of my home when I am away, sure it is a Doorbell but it is a camera as well and at this nice price why not, weather elements have not hurt mine a bit in the 13 months I have had them, including the one not by the door and pretty open to rain, snow and cold, it has held up well, still ticking, no signs of wear, so another plus

Updated review from 1 star to 4. Be sure to check your Amazon purchases with this doorbell... it was on there 3 times. I deleted all of them (they charged for zero - by the way), and then resubscribed. It worked right away. I would still recommend adding a power supply so that you can get realtime feeds over the WiFi whenever you want (not just when someone pushes the button).

First, it's a good doorbell when it works. I had the free 1 month of premium features, and when someone pushed the button I got a notification on my phone. Then when the free stuff was about to expire, it took me to Amazon to get a subscription if I wanted any of the services any longer.... of course I did, that's what I got it for. So, I set up the best service it has, and guess what, everything stopped working as soon as the free period stopped and they started taking money. Maybe there's a quick fix to this? Maybe not. Until the service resumes, it stays at 1 star, as it is useless now. See top - FIXED. Now 4 stars, only because needs full time power to get instant doorbell check without someone pushing the button.

The Blink Video Doorbell, coupled with the Sync Module 2, has been a game-changer for my home security setup. The array of features, including a two-year battery life, two-way audio, HD video, and seamless integration with Alexa, make it a standout product in the market.

The video quality is commendable, and the motion and chime app alerts provide an added layer of security. Setting up and syncing with Alexa was a breeze, adding convenience to my smart home ecosystem.

However, I encountered a minor hiccup during installation"”the bracket provided to mount it to the door did not fit properly. I had to resort to some modifications to ensure a secure and snug fit. While it didn't significantly hinder the overall experience, it's worth noting for those who prefer a straightforward installation process.

Once past the installation hurdle, the Blink Video Doorbell has lived up to its promises. The wired or wire-free flexibility is appreciated, and the two-year battery life is a definite plus for those who want a low-maintenance solution.

In conclusion, the Blink Video Doorbell is a feature-rich and reliable addition to any home security setup. The minor bracket adjustment required during installation might be a consideration for some, but the impressive performance and convenience it brings to the table make it a worthwhile investment in the realm of smart doorbells.

I first bought this in October of 2021 and my impression was, "it's good enough for the price." I've had two years and quite a story to tell, so get comfy. The short version is that I'd definitely recommend it, especially if Ring is a little too rich for your blood, but there are some caveats to be aware of.

The first complaint I had with it was the sync module that it came with for storing the video clips. Put simply, there's really no using this without the subscription plan. Blink had told me the doorbell will sync with the module without a plan, but I never got that to work properly. I'm not mad; if I wanted a standalone, cloud-free solution, I had a myriad of other options besides Blink. Just be aware you should get a plan for it. It's a service first, a product second, if you follow. Something else to be aware of before we move on is to keep that little tool they include with it for dismounting the doorbell from the bracket. You can still remove the doorbell without it using a small screwdriver, but it's a pain. Whatever helps you hold onto that little metal key, go for it.

My second complaint was the "motion zones" feature where you set blind spots so it doesn't get set off by every passing car. Trouble is, this never worked. I just resigned myself to scrubbing the clips everyday of anything that wasn't someone coming to the door and/or ringing the doorbell (the clips automatically erase after a set period of time, so you could simply wait it out rather than taking my proactive approach). What did work in this menu was the privacy zone. It's like the motion zones, only it puts a gray box over a designated area that's "baked in" to the video. The way I had the doorbell positioned, it was possible to see the keypad to my door. I didn't like the idea of that info being on the cloud, so I grayed it out.

My third complaint is the most important one: fogging. This thing fogged up at the slightest drizzle. It would clear up with the sunshine, so I didn't think much of it. About a year and a half goes by and not only did it fog up again, but it stayed fogged up. I took a look at it and found the fog was on the inside. It looked like a mineral build up. This left a big, fuzzy blind spot in the center of the video, which rendered it almost useless. Faces were clear so long as they stood close enough to the door, but this was hardly ideal. I couldn't find any teardowns or anything that would help me get inside the camera and treat the lens from the inside, so I simply dealt with it, keeping my eyes open for other options.

In December of 2023, I got another doorbell on sale for about half off. My thought was I'd pop the old doorbell off its mount and put the new one in its place, relegating the foggy one to another door (better than nothing). Trouble is, in the two years since I bought that first doorbell, Blink made improvements to the design. For starters, the batteries are no longer exposed. They're behind a panel and in fact I couldn't see any exposed circuitry like on the old one. I guess enough people had complained about the fogging for them to do something about it, though it remains to be seen if this one will have the same fogging problem (it's only been installed for about a week as of this writing). Unfortunately, this redesign meant I couldn't use the old mount, which angled the doorbell about 30 degrees so its field of view would encompass the whole porch. My solution was to move the doorbell to the opposite side of the door since it was closer to the knob and you could still see the stairs and walkway leading up to the door.

As for value, I'm happy to say it's reached a point where, as far as I care, it's paid for itself. Even if I had paid full price for the second doorbell, it would be worth the peace of mind. I caught a porch pirate. The whole reason we got the doorbell in the first place 2 years ago was because our neighbors had the car broken into. All was quiet thereafter, until a few days ago when a package arrived from Amazon. I got a notification while I was on break at work, so I scrolled through the clips and there they were pinching my package in broad daylight.

I won't share the screencaps, but I caught this person red-handed walking (awkwardly) up to my front stairs, leaning over, grabbing the package, and walking away. I got three whole clips of their vehicle as well, a very conspicuous looking red coupe with mismatched orange body panels. I downloaded the clips to my iPad, went to the Police station a few blocks away, gave them all the pertinent details, and showed them the clips. The officer asked me to email it to him, and informed me that they might know the suspect. Apparently, they'd gotten some reports of suspicious activity, but couldn't prove anything had been stolen. I'm still waiting to hear back from the officer, but hopefully justice has been served. If anything, I hope the thief found a good use for the parchment and foil pans.

I am a long-time user of Blink, meaning I am in the "grandfathered" set of customers with free, limited cloud storage for video. Overall, I think if you are already a Blink customer, this is a good addition to your system.

Install: I needed one of those "wedges" that turns the camera to face out and using that, the install was pretty simple. I agree with the people that noted that the back plate it comes with (which you still use when installing the wedge) is a little cheap and janky. But the wedge is more sturdy and the resulting install is probably a little bit more solid and better than if I had just mounted the flat plate to the wall.
You do need a good sized piece of flat wood to screw everything into. This is not going to mount well to raw siding, curved trim pieces around doors etc. You'd have to attach a small board to the surface of anything like that and then mount it to that board.

Power vs. batteries: I have one of those wired doorbells that is old-school, with the metal strikers that hit little chimes, not a digital doorbell. This apparently matters because you need more power and a slightly larger transformer to drive one of those doorbells. In turn, that means the transformer has enough power to power the blink doorbell. If you have a digital doorbell you may (or may not) need to rely on the battery for the cameras. It all depends on how big the transformer for your existing, wired doorbell is. During the setup it asks you what kind of doorbell you have, and has a fairly sophisticated set of settings to make sure that when it sends a signal to the physical doorbell it is sending the correct amount of power to strike the chimes correctly.

Set-up: Very easy and painless, almost exactly the same as setting up a regular blink camera. Put in the batteries, scan the QR code, it finds the camera, links it to your existing system/sync module and you are ready to go.

Motion Sensor: If you are already pretty familiar with Blink cameras, you know they can come with one of two kinds of sensors to detect motion. Camera based sensors that just detect changes in the picture and more traditional sensors that only detect actual, physical movement. The cheaper Blink mini only has a camera based sensor, while the more expensive units only detect actual physical movement with a dedicated motion sensor. Both kinds of sensors can be triggered falsely by something like blowing leaves, but the camera-based sensors cannot distinguish changes in shadows and light from actual movement and so they have much higher rates of false detection. Unfortunately, the blink doorbell appears to only have the cheaper detector that can be fooled by changes in light. It does, however, have a more sophisticated, narrower grid of zones you can exclude from movement than the older Blink mini. How much this matters to you is going to depend on where you plan to stick the camera - if you point your doorbell camera directly at a busy road and don't lock out the parts of the image that covers the road, you will get constant alerts from every car that goes by, or every person walking on the sidewalk, etc. So think carefully about where the camera will sit and whether you want one of those wedges to tilt the direction of the thing to keep the camera aimed only at places where you actually want it to detect motion.

Video quality: Very good, with a wide angle, almost fish-eye lens, so you get very good broad coverage of the area you are pointing the camera at. There is also a microphone that records sound while you are recording video and it seems to work ok as well. In theory you can use the thing to have a two-way conversation with whoever is at the door, but I haven't tried that yet. I am, overall, very happy with the camera quality for the price here.

Sound Chime/notifications: When you push the doorbell, a chime inside the module itself goes off. It is reasonably loud and lets the person ringing the doorbell know they definitely rang it. The light on the button also lights up briefly to confirm the chime was pressed. Would you, sitting inside the house, hear the chime the doorbell makes outside? Probably, if you are in a small, quiet house. Would you hear it down in the basement of a large house with the TV or music on? Absolutely not. So if you are not hooking this up to an existing doorbell with a properly loud internal chime, then you will want to have it hooked up to your Alexa. I don't use Alexa so didn't test that feature. You do get a notification on your phone, when somebody rings the bell, but I think most people will want either a hard wired connection or an Alexa connected to this thing to make sure they always hear the doorbell.

What don't I like?

I wish it had the same motion detection sensors as the larger blink cameras. I would have paid more to get that. Because it uses the camera to sense motion there are places where it really won't give good results. So think very carefully about where you will place this, how often the wind will blow trees and create moving shadows within the motion detection zone, etc.

It is annoying that even when the device is hard-wired, the light around the doorbell button isn't constantly lit. Just as if it were only running on batteries, it only lights up when you press the button. Not a huge deal in my installation, but if you don't have a porch light on, your doorbell will not be obvious to visitors. It is particularly odd that they put a red LED into the thing which apparently has no purpose other than in the initial setup. The design would be much better if the lighted ring around the button was always lit and then it flashed or turned red when you pressed it. It appears all of the hardware necessary to do that is in the device, but it is not programmed that way. I get that when the device isn't hardwired you don't want the button lit, but when it is powered it really should be lit in the dark.

For $50, this thing is ok. If you get it on sale, then it is a good deal, at least if you are an existing Blink customer.

I am surprised that they killed off the little bit of free cloud storage for new customers. That can't cost very much to provide these days and it was the key differentiator between Blink and some of these other companies that provide more elaborate, high-priced options. Blink's claim to fame is that it works well enough and is cheap. But if you have to pay a bunch of money for cloud storage no matter what, I would probably look at the more expensive options vs. Blink. It stops being a compelling value once you start having to pay for video storage.