[ad_1]
There are lots of home security cameras on the market, but only two that come equipped with a laser pointer to let you play with your pets when you’re not home. The first is the Petcube ($69.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) (now called the Petcube Camera), which we reviewed last year. The second is the new $199 Petcube Play, which greatly improves upon the original with 1080p video, night vision, cloud storage, and alerts. You can still buy the first-generation model for $50 less, but the hardware improvements here are well worth the extra coin.
The Camera
The Petcube Play is a 3.1-inch, 10.7-ounce cube with a transparent black plastic front panel and a metal body with a black, rose gold, or matte silver finish. The front panel covers the camera lens near the top, an infrared LED on the left, and the laser array at the bottom. The back holds a single, recessed micro USB port for powering the camera with the included adapter. A rubber square on the bottom keeps the Play from sliding around flat surfaces, and a standard tripod screw mount lets you attach the device almost anywhere.
The Play looks very similar to the original Petcube, but inside it’s much more advanced. The 720p camera has been upgraded to 1080p while retaining the same ultra-wide 138-degree field of view. More importantly, the camera has night vision with its own infrared emitter, which invisibly lit up my dark apartment when I checked it at night. These are vital upgrades that solve some of the problems I had with the original Petcube, and they come in a package that’s a full inch smaller on all sides.
Similar Products
Nest Cam Indoor
See It
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our Nest Cam Indoor Review
Nest Cam Outdoor
See It
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our Nest Cam Outdoor Review
Petcube
Check Stock
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our Petcube Review
Icontrol Networks Piper nv
Check Stock
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our Icontrol Networks Piper nv Review
Logi Circle
Check Stock
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our Logi Circle Review
Arlo Q
See It
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our Arlo Q Review
Zmodo Pivot
Check Stock
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our Zmodo Pivot Review
Petcube App
You need a free Petcube account to set up and access your camera, which is very easy to create. Currently, you can only have one Petcube device on your account, so you can’t set up multiple cameras to cover different rooms or different angles of the same room. It limits how well you can watch your pets if they have several favorite spots around the house, and hinders the usefulness of the camera for home security.
The same Petcube app that drives the original Petcube also lets you access the Play. It opens to a control panel that shows if your Petcube is currently online, along with favorite and recently accessed Petcube cameras (you can view other shared or public cameras, even if you don’t own a Petcube). Tapping the large camera icon in the middle of the screen takes you to the live view of the camera. The Care button on the left lets you access the Petcube Care subscription service (explained below), and the Share button on the right lets you share your camera feed with friends, family, or the public.
You can share your Play’s video feed with family members, friends, or even the general public over the Petcube app. People you add to your Family list can access the camera at any time, while people on your Friends list can be given access for set periods of time. Public camera access also requires setting an interval. You can decide if people who access your Play can use the two-way audio and laser functions. While these sharing features are helpful if you have a small handful of friends and family members you want to keep an eye on your pets, only one person can view the Play stream at a time, so you can’t get a whole crowd gathered watching your cat be cute.
Petcube Care
Petcube Care is a new cloud storage service that solves the remaining issues we had with the original camera. It can store 10 days of video for $10 per month or 30 days for $30 per month. Besides being able to store video in the cloud, Petcube Care adds activity alerts to the Play. You can set it to send you a push notification whenever it detects motion or sound.
Since the service is for watching your pets and not for guarding your home from intruders, the alerts aren’t quite as advanced or open to configuration as services like Nest Aware; you can’t configure alerts beyond three modes to record clips and send you a notification, record clips without sending you a notification, or not record clips regardless of activity. It also doesn’t tie in with any home automation systems. Because of this, it can seem a bit expensive compared with equally priced, more fully featured services available on other security cameras. And because it’s a cloud service, Petcube Care is also now available on the first Petcube camera.
Performance
The video quality of the Petcube Play is much better than the original model. The higher-resolution camera produces a crisp, colorful picture, though it produced some irritating light bloom from the lamps in my apartment. Night vision is excellent thanks to a very bright infrared LED, letting me watch my cat chase a laser across my couch in an otherwise completely dark apartment.
You can do more than just watch your pets with the Play. The camera features a microphone and speaker that let you listen and talk to your pets. The speaker is satisfyingly loud, and got the attention of (and confused) my Russian Blue, Pixel, easily. You can also tap and drag your finger over the video to shine a laser on nearly anything in frame, which always entertains Pixel. The laser lags a moment or two behind the video, so you can’t be particularly precise when remotely playing with your pet, but it’s still a welcome diversion for bored animals.
If you want to capture any of the cute things your pet is doing but don’t have Petcube Care, the Camera and Video icons let you save screenshots and video clips (of however long you want) directly to your mobile device. You need to be actively watching the camera through the app when saving photos and videos this way.
An Electronic Sitter for Your Pets
The Petcube Play fixes all of the problems we had with the original Petcube, thanks to its sharper resolution, night vision, and cloud storage/alert service. It’s roughly on par with our favorite home security cameras in features, with the addition of a laser you can use to play with your pets. The subscription service is a bit pricey and the laser is jerky, but it still excels as a pet-watching device that can double as an indoor security camera in a pinch. If you want multiple cameras, however, you’re better off with the laser-less Piper nv ($335.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) or Nest Cam Indoor ($154.97 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) . Or you can save some money by picking up a Logi Circle ($299.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) or a Zmodo Pivot ($179.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) .
4.0
(Opens in a new window)
(Opens in a new window)
View More
The latest security camera from Petcube, the Play, solves all of the issues we had with the original by adding a 1080p camera, night vision, cloud storage, and alerts.
[ad_2]
Source link : https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/petcube-play