A smart security system is one of the best ways to ensure your home is safe from theft and intrusion when you're away. Sadly, many of these cost a lot and are usually associated with a mandatory subscription, which adds a financial burden that's not always justified.

In many cases, an outdoor security camera can be enough to keep an eye at home when you're away, and potentially call law enforcement or a relative to come check on your yard if something's up.

Amazon's Blink Outdoor is one of the more affordable options on the market at an MSRP of just $100. It's rare to pay the sticker price, though, as it's almost always on sale and can quite often be snatched for much less.

In addition, it's easy to set up and offers reliable motion detection, night vision, and two-way audio. Sadly, it only works with Alexa and has a few shortcomings, but nothing that would stop me from buying it all over again if I had to.

Design, hardware, what’s in the box

Like many cameras on the market, the Blink Outdoor requires the Sync Module to function. Thankfully, it's bundled with the purchase, together with the mounting kit and the batteries. This means you can install the camera as soon as it ships and don't need anything else, besides a drill and a screwdriver.

The camera itself is compact and discreet, making it hard for potential intruders to spot, especially thanks to its shiny piano black finish. It's straightforward to attach, as the mounting mechanism is clipped to the camera's back, and easy to tilt. This means you can lack precision when drilling holes, as it's simple to adjust the viewing angle even after mounting it. However, keep in mind that the camera isn't motorized, so you won't benefit from a 360º viewing angle like some others offer.

The clips help maintain the camera in place, even when it's windy or rainy, but also make it easy to unmount when it's time to replace the batteries. Talking about them, each Blink Outdoor camera is powered by two AA 1.5V lithium batteries, and since it's a wireless camera, there is no need to worry about a cable, helping it blend more discreetly with its environment. Blink says the batteries can last for up to two years, which is impressive, and even if they end up dying after half that, it's still an extensive amount of time without having to think about replacing them.

Mounting the camera is very easy, depending on the surface you're attaching it to. For wooden surfaces, you'll just need a screwdriver, as the provided kit includes two woodscrews that don't require additional drilling. For concrete and other types of walls, you'll have to use a drill and get the appropriate anchors, as these sadly aren't provided in the box. Once your holes are ready, you can simply attach the mount to the wall and tighten the screws.

As mentioned above, the Blink Outdoor needs a Sync Module to work. The latter is small and comes with a wall adapter and a USB-A to microUSB cable. Thankfully, it connects to your network using Wi-Fi, meaning it can be placed in another room, and doesn't require you to use an Ethernet cord to connect it. It features a USB-A port, useful to plug in a drive to record snippets locally, without the need for a cloud subscription. Lastly, the Sync Module is small and light, helping you place it somewhere where you can easily forget about it.

Software, features, video

In terms of features, the Blink Outdoor comes with two-way audio and motion detection, which are both controlled through the app or Alexa. The camera itself and the Sync Module both connect to your network using a 2.4GHz connection, instead of a more modern 5GHz radio. Nonetheless, this lets you place it virtually anywhere you want, without having to worry about any cables, since it's also powered by two AA batteries. Weather also won't be an issue, as the camera is IP65-certified and can operate within -4 to 113° F.

The Blink outdoor is controlled using the Blink app, which was far from being the most modern one on the market. Its design is quite outdated, and the interface isn't very user-friendly. Despite that, it's packed with a bunch of options that help you control your cameras the way you want, such as arming and disarming your system, which turns on all cameras at once — you can have up to 10 cameras per module — but also set schedules to do this automatically.

For each camera, the app lets you monitor the battery level and outdoor temperature, as well as set the motion detection settings. These can be as simple as defining the sensitivity, but also specifying detection and privacy zones, to avoid recording your neighbor's house or receiving unwanted alerts when the wind shakes the trees in your garden. The level of customization is quite extensive, and I have to admit after spending some time setting it up, I've never received a false alert — except when the neighbor's cat passes literally in front of the sensor. Additional settings include receiving a notification as soon as motion is detected and the clip length for each motion-triggered recording. You can also adjust the video quality, IR intensity for night vision, and audio level. Lastly, there's an option to deactivate the status LED, which I particularly appreciate, as it helps make the camera even harder to notice for intruders.

The app's interface is divided into various tabs, which let you access the cameras and arm them, replay recordings, edit the settings, update your profile, and interact with neighbors that are part of your community.

The home screen is where you can access the cameras part of your system. For each one of them, you'll see a snapshot taken when setting it up. The interface is confusing because it appears like a live snapshot, while it's just a still captured previously. You can obviously watch the live feed by tapping the camcorder order. From there, you can also tap the microphone icon to speak with people in your yard or even record a video. The 1080p video quality is decent, especially during the day. It's clear enough to distinguish people and objects. It's definitely not the sharpest, but it's acceptable, especially given the Blink Outdoor's price. Things are far less clear at night, even when the IR light automatically kicks in, which makes it harder to identify people. You'll have to gauge what the purpose of your security camera is: If you want it to let you know when someone is trying to break it, the Blink Outdoor is more than enough. If you need to see as clearly as night as during the day, you'll want to consider adding the floodlight accessory.

When it comes to audio quality, the Blink Outdoor always records static noise, even when you can't hear a thing in real life. It's annoying, but doesn't prevent you from being able to communicate with people through its built-in microphone and speaker. Voices can be heard clearly, even though the speaker's volume could be higher. Sadly, there is no built-in siren, meaning that you'll have to either scream at intruders through the speaker — you probably want to avoid that — or connect it to a third-party siren through IFTTT. I went even further with mine, as motion activates the sprinklers to shoo them away. Unfortunately, this integration is really poor, in a sense that it doesn't take any of the sensitivity and zone settings into account, meaning it triggers much more often than it should. Worse, it even detects motion and triggers the IFTTT applet even when the system is disarmed, which doesn't make any sense, especially since the app acts normally and doesn't send any notification.

The Blink Outdoor is also compatible with Alexa, since both are part of the Amazon ecosystem. It works perfectly with Echo Shows to live stream content from your yard. However, it's not natively compatible with Google Assistant and won't be able to stream to Assistant-powered smart displays. There is a way to arm your system using Google's digital helper, though, thanks to a simple IFTTT applet.

Should you buy it?

If you want a reliable and affordable outdoor camera with customizable zones and local storage, the Blink Outdoor is the one for you. If you want the sharpest image quality, a built-in light, and bells and whistles, you're better off with an Arlo. Lastly, keep in mind that the Blink Outdoor is an Amazon product, and therefore doesn't natively work with Google Assistant. It's probably not the best option if you have a Nest Hub.

Buy it if…

• You want a good security camera for a fair price
• You want to be notified reliably when motion is detected, without unnecessary alerts

Don’t buy it if…

• You want bells and whistles
• You need it to work with Google Assistant