August Doorbell Cam Pro (Dark Grey)

I went with this because I liked the integration that it provided with my existing August smart lock. Most of the negative reviews that I saw were about video quality or about the cloud recording subscription. Since they have enabled free 24 hour storage and view for all videos recorded from the camera, I decided to ignore those and get this.Installation was straightforward and only took me about 20 minutes to replace my existing doorbell button with this. Where this really failed was with the firmware update; it took 3 weeks for a simple firmware update to actually complete and open up full access to this device. I reset the device a number of times and eventually contacted support about it who walked me through all of the usual steps and eventually told me the firmware update was stuck.Now that the update is finally completed, the video streaming finally works, and the entire unit is much snappier in response. I do like the fact that this doubles as a Wi-Fi bridge and let's me control the lock through Alexa, and from wherever I have internet access. I do like the product now that it's fully functioning, and it works really well to chat with whoever rings the doorbell and allows direct control of the lock from the video chat screen.Overall, the product loses a star for being a pain to get it updated. I was never fully informed if it was an issue with my unit, or if the sheer number of devices that were being purchased around the same time overloaded their update servers. At least now that it's working, I don't have to worry about it anymore, and I like the functionality.If you have an August smart lock, this is the smart doorbell you should get since it integrates directly with the lock. If you have a different brand of smart lock, then this doesn't really have an advantage over other smart doorbell kits out there on the market.

I rarely ever write reviews but I felt the need here as I want other owners to be aware of the pros/cons of this product. I couldn't find the email contact for August easily online so I will resort to Amazon in hopes that they read this. I purchased this Doorbell Cam Pro 2 because it paired perfectly with my August Smart Lock Pro + Connect. I am a big fan of the August Smart Lock Pro as it has worked flawlessly for me and the August app is actually very intuitive. On to the doorbell...Build Quality - no concerns there. I like the styling a lot and the wedge feature to mount the doorbell however you feel is appropriate for your front door space.Installation - super easy, just need some basic toolsApp Integration - if you own an August lock, I highly recommend getting this doorbell as it makes the most sense. You just need to be aware of the limitations of the product in this generation1st Complaint - won't work with digital doorbell kits: This product does not work with digital doorbells. I find this to be a bit ridiculous since I understand Ring does work with a good list of digital door chime kits. In order to install the August Doorbell Cam Pro 2 I had to go out to Home Depot and purchase a $20 mechanical door chime and uninstall my digital doorbell to replace it with an old school setup. Not to mention, my digital doorbell was flush mounted in my hallway and the mechanical chime is another large box protruding from the wall. Now, I'm not a programmer in the tech world by any means as I'm sure there is a large investment to accomplish digital doorbell integration BUT I believe that this puts August behind the competition in the current market.2nd Complaint - motion sensing is not great: I had to fuss with motion sensing significantly to find a sweet spot and to this day I still have not found it. I have the sensitivity turned up to 78% (0 - 100 scale) and there are many many times where I have had people come up to the door, including myself and friends, where it does not recognize any movement yet it recognizes cars in the street going by. This is the largest flaw of this product and particularly maddening considering the price I paid for it. I believe this may have to do with the camera not being as good as it needs to be. See 3rd complaint below....3rd Complaint - camera exposure isn't accurate: I have a front porch about 12'x11' (small) and it is in the shade constantly during the day. At night, I have an LED R30 floodlight above that lights the entire porch very well. During the day, the exposure is particularly poor in the shade. The camera is not smart enough to properly expose people's body's and faces in the shade when it is sunny just outside the porch. Case in point, I can pull out my iPhone 7 and simulate it in the exact position/environment as the doorbell and it will auto expose to a more correct image where the August Doorbell Cam Pro will not. I believe the camera and imaging technology needs to be improved for their next generation.4th Complaint - no motion zone creation: I did some research after I purchased this Doorbell Cam Pro and saw that Ring offers motion zone creation. This would be extremely beneficial so that I can avoid picking up cars in the street and adjust my motion sensitivity according to the specific zones I need alerts on.In closing, the doorbell cam is overall OK however I believe these features are necessary for it to be a GOOD or GREAT product. I hope that future updates and/or the next generation cam can address these issues.

Nowhere in the specs does it say you need minimum wired doorbell voltage...BUT you do. My voltage fluctuates 14.4-15.3, and the cam pro g2 doesn't have enough juice left to allow my physical doorbell chimes to ring; they just barely vibrate, UNTIL I turned off the cam pro 2 light in the settings. August support was easy to get, but basically told me that nothing can be done, call an electrician or something. 🙄 I figured out on my own to turn off the light on the doorbell in order to increase the through voltage enough for the home chimes to ring. Basically my transformer is on the brink...obviously not the issue with the doorbell camera.Everything else worked like a charm with setup and all. Now I'm left to try new chime set, cross fingers 14v is enough for it to ring, or pay $80/hr to have electrician fiddle with it.One complaint is that my house faces West, so pretty much all afternoon there is very bright backlight which really degrades the image quality. You cannot see the face of anyone until they basically stick it in the camera.UPDATE: 18 months in and it still works OK. I had to buy an August bridge to get consistent away from home lock/unlock and camera access.Huge advantage currently is cloud storage. I don’t pay for the eternal storage, the free short term works well for me. Most doorbells force additional per month cost.

UPDATE 3/21/18:August released an update last week (iOS version 6.6.10) that now gives everyone free recording (able to be viewed for 24 hours). So the lowlight screenshots are no longer an issue. You can also download the videos via the August app.Another thing to mention is that unlike Ring, August does not yet offer a separate chime for houses without an internal chime (like myself). Hopefully they will in the future because it would be very useful for houses that can't hear when the doorbell is ringing.One positive to mention is that the doorbell works wonderfully with the August lock. You can answer when someone rings the doorbell, and unlock/lock the door for the person during the call on the same app. And with the doorbell, you don't need a separate August bridge to remotely unlock your door.Lastly, connectivity has been improving since I first started using the doorbell. I think it has to do with their latest app updates, although I still have some issues with my wifi connectivity constantly fluctuating between -50 and -70 dBm (greater than -66 dBm is recommended), since the doorbell is outside the house. But I think this problem can be solved by using a wifi extender right next to the door.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Many times, even when motion is detected, the light doesn't go on so it just takes pictures in the dark, which reveals nothing about the person in the photo. This defeats the purpose of having a smart doorbell camera.2. Sometimes, the microphone doesn't work when I pick up when someone rings the doorbell. So I've literally had to watch people walk away since no sound was coming from the microphone.3. It's mandatory to purchase a recording system if you want it to take videos. Without paying for the recording subscription, the doorbell is practically useless because it just takes blurry photos of moving people in low light. The subscription is $50/year.4. Using Alexa and IFTTT is basically useless with this device. I don't have an internally wired doorbell system in my house, so I was hoping I could program Alexa or IFTTT to give me a notification on my Alexa when someone rings the doorbell. But all you can do with Alexa is say "Alexa show me the front door" and it will show you a live feed, which you can also just do on the August app without Alexa. All IFTTT can do for you is when someone locks/unlocks the door. There is no IFTTT function for when someone rings the doorbell. Pretty useless.

I bought 2 of these to pair up with my carport and front door in May and have not had any problems with them. I will admit that the radios, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, are pretty weak. Both doorbells are less than a foot away from the locks they are paired with having only a door separating them and the signal strength always reports as poor. This hasn't been an issue for me, they operate the locks flawlessly every time. I have a mesh Wi-Fi network with satellite routers within 20 feet of both doors which provides a solid 5ghz connection and reliable 500 Mbps internet service. The speed tests from the doorbells report 30+Mbps download and 5+ up. The video doesn't lag, doorbell calls are responsive and notifications are quick even away from home on TMobiles cell network. I would not recommend getting this if you would be unable to provide similar connectivity. The range on the Wi-Fi radios is pretty low. They'll drop down to 2.4ghz if a strong enough 5ghz signal isn't available. The speed tests suffer tremendously at 2.4ghz and it's during that time that performance isn't up to par. Most complaints I've read seem to be due to not having the proper infrastructure in place to support the low range radios in this product. Given that, I would only recommend this product to semi tech savvy people that can provide close and fast 5ghz Wi-Fi signal to the doorbell (I have a 3 router Orbi AC3000 mesh setup) and are able to supply at least 13volts through the doorbell wiring. So for my particular setup, this is a great product. If you have slow or spotty internet service or are not technically savvy enough to understand these requirements, I'd move on to something else as this will probably disappoint you.