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Safety and security products are among the most important to test hands-on, but some are harder to evaluate than others. A leak detector either works or doesn't, but what about a home security camera? What about a video doorbell camera?
Some video devices are better than others, sure, but many cameras are just different from their competitors -- offering unique features, aesthetics and overall approaches to indoor or outdoor monitoring. And that's what you want! A pet camera should work differently from a nanny cam. Similarly, a floodlight camera should include different features from a video doorbell.
But at the end of the day, we at CNET have to tell you our picks for the best cameras no matter the use case. Here's how we use hands-on testing in real-world scenarios at the CNET testing warehouse to determine which home security cameras and video doorbells are the best of the best for you.
Each time CNET experts conduct tests on a home security camera or video doorbell, we set it up using the included directions and test all of the advertised features in a home setting for about a week -- all with the device's intended purpose in mind.
For example, an outdoor camera should be weatherproof and have noise-dampening tech so you can hear the sounds you care about over rushing wind. That means we'll have to perform an outdoor sound check to see if we can hear talking and other sounds at different distances while watching the live feed.
Similarly, an indoor camera should include privacy features, such as a shutter. That means making sure that the features work as advertised and that the shutter, and whether it's open or closed, is appropriately easy to check. Finally, a video doorbell should have excellent two-way talk for chatting with visitors and delivery people. That means holding a conversation with another person on the porch, and listening for clarity and latency.
There are plenty of other unique features on different sorts of security cameras. Once the device is set up and the features are all laid out, it's time to make sure they work properly. Some cameras allow you to determine motion zones, where anything moving in a specific frame will result in a mobile alert sent directly to your phone. We'll move around the motion zone to see when we get an alert and when we don't. The aim is to discover how precise those zones really are.
Other such features include motion tracking for pan-tilt cameras (can the camera follow you passing by at walking speed?), two-way talk (can you hold a remote conversation that's clear?), live monitoring (how much latency does the feed have?) and event saving (are motion events saved in an easy-to-understand registry?). Plenty more features are out there, from facial recognition to motion-triggered messages, and each requires its own individual test to make sure it works as advertised.
After CNET experts test the unique features of the home security camera or video doorbell camera, the examination becomes a little more demanding -- particularly when it comes to a camera's resolution, night vision and latency.
Plenty of cameras advertise 1080p or 2K resolution but in practice capture muddy or pixelated video. To figure out how consistent a camera's vision really is, we do a vision test (the kind you might see in your optometrist's office) to see how clear the resolution really is at different distances. We'll stand a few feet from the camera, then step back once, then again to about 15 feet, then finally to a distance of 30 feet.
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Video doorbells are a type of security camera with their own unique features -- and you pretty much only put them in one place.
Chris Monroe/CNET
To see how reliable the night vision is, we administer the test again in the dark. Then we'll compare the results to direct competitors on the market, and offer our recommendation based on the results.
Finally, we tackle latency, since many people hope to use home security cameras and video doorbells to deter porch pirates or other would-be neighborhood nuisances (like the raccoons that treat your garbage can like a weekly buffet). If someone walks onto your porch, grabs a delivery left there and walks away, do you have time to receive the alert, pull up the feed and intervene with two-way talk?
Typically a duo of CNET experts will enact a mock porch piracy, testing the latency of the camera or video doorbell. Most cameras at this point aren't fast enough to catch a fleet-footed porch pirate in the act. But some are faster than others -- and the best ones capture and record the full act so you can see exactly what happened.
Once our CNET experts finish all the technical tests, it's finally time to give the security camera or video doorbell a score and final recommendation. It's here that we factor in the features, the performance, the overall user experience (again, we usually use them in a home setting for about a week) and a product's value.
To determine value, we have to compare the price to those of similarly featured devices on the market. In this category, a simple but reliable $30 smart cam outperforms a more full-featured $100 camera -- or a $200 video doorbell that checks every box can beat a $60 competitor that doesn't quite wow us the same way.
Of course, no security camera or video doorbell will be perfect for everyone, so we also factor in a variety of use cases and budgets. No matter the use case or the price, you can be confident that any security device CNET recommends will offer a great value for what's on offer.
Testing home security cameras and video doorbell cameras can be pretty involved, but it essentially breaks down into a few testing categories. Here's what we look at.
To see CNET's testing in action, check out our recommendations for the best video doorbells, the best home security cameras and the best outdoor security cameras. You can also watch us administer some of these tests in our video reviews.
