Lorex Video Doorbell Camera Cost and Pricing

Since we’ve reviewed cameras and security systems from Lorex in the past, getting our hands on the Lorex Video Doorbell was quite the treat. At $129.99, this device is at a pretty low price when it comes to doorbell cameras, but it’s still only worth it if it’s high quality, of course. Here, we’ll tell you all the costs associated with the Lorex Video Doorbell and more importantly, whether or not it’s worth a penny, let alone $129.99.

Video Review

Lorex’s latest is the 2K video doorbell. Watch the video below to find answers to some of the most frequently asked questions.

The Pros

They say to think positive, so right off the bat we’re going to summarize what makes the Lorex Video Doorbell a decent option, straight from our review:

• 1080p HD video: The Lorex Video Doorbell had the video quality we’ve come to expect from doorbell cameras, showing us our guests clearly.
• Two-way audio: Aside from seeing our guests, we could also speak to them through the Lorex Home app, which came in handy when we told the delivery men we’d be right down. Chinese food, here we come.
• Infrared night vision: Even in the middle of the night, we could clearly see our front stoop from the Lorex Video Doorbell, which was reassuring when we heard a loud noise at three AM.
• Wide field of view: The camera’s 160-degree field of view showed us everything we wanted to see, from the park across the street to passersby.
• Local storage: Finally, the camera recorded straight onto a micro-SD card, so we didn’t have to mess with any cloud storage (or any additional payments, for that matter).

Lorex Video Doorbell and The Smart Home

If you’re not super familiar with our site, then you may not realize that we’re smart home enthusiasts. From smart security cameras to systems, we love being able to control objects with our voices, like we’re Matilda or something. But much to our dismay, the Lorex Video Doorbell didn’t work with Alexa or Google Assistant, our go-to voice assistants, so we had to control it the old-fashioned way— through the Lorex Home app. Oh well; we guess we can’t have it all.

The Costs

The Lorex Video Doorbell costs $129.99, and there were no additional costs after we paid for the device itself. All storage was local through the included 16 GB micro-SD card, although we could’ve paid to upgrade to 64 GB, and there’s no professional monitoring or cellular backup to keep the doorbell camera on in a power outage. Rather, we were 100% responsible for monitoring our Lorex Video Doorbell when we got motion-activated alerts.

Now, the lack of cloud storage meant that all of our footage went straight to that micro-SD card, so to view old footage before the card started rewriting itself after it got full, we had to upload everything to a Dropbox account for backup. Even though we’re thrilled that Lorex didn’t throw any monthly costs at us, it would’ve been nice to have an option for cloud storage. However, this is pretty typical for Lorex, as the majority of their cameras come with hard drives rather than cloud storage. So if you want a video doorbell with cloud storage as opposed to local storage, we’d recommend checking out Ring or Nest, which brings us to our next point…

How Does the Lorex Video Doorbell Stack Up?

Out of all the video doorbells that we’ve reviewed, the average cost tends to be around $200, about $70 more than the Lorex Video Doorbell. However, there are options that are cheaper, like the $99.99 original Ring Video Doorbell. Although this device has only 720p HD compared to 1080p HD with the Lorex device, it also has excellent infrared night vision, two-way audio with noise cancellation, which was really nice for us living in Brooklyn, and integrations with Alexa and Google Assistant, which Lorex lacks. So for someone that doesn’t mind the lower video quality and wants a video doorbell with cloud storage that’ll work with their smart home ecosystem, the Ring Video Doorbell makes more sense than Lorex’s video doorbell.

Of course, there’s also doorbell cameras with more impressive features than the Lorex Video Doorbell, but they come at a price. Take the Nest Doorbell, for example. At $229, $100 more than Lorex, the Nest Doorbell boasts 1600p HD video, two-way audio, infrared night vision, cloud storage, integrations with Alexa and Google Assistant, plus a feature called person detection. Unlike the Lorex Video Doorbell, the Nest Doorbell only alerted us when it detected, you guessed it, people, so we got to skip the notifications stemming from squirrels, delivery people on electric bicycles and the occasional street rat. For the extra $100, we think the Nest Doorbell is worth it, but only if you want those premium features.

As you can see, there’s a wide range of features and prices when it comes to video doorbells, but if you’re on a budget, the Lorex Video Doorbell is definitely a solid choice.

Lorex Return Policy

Let’s face it: as security experts constantly testing out the latest and greatest video doorbells, we’re as scared of commitment as Vince Vaughn in pretty much any movie he’s in. Sure, we test our doorbell cameras extensively over about a year, but when we’re done, we want to be able to return stuff without hassle, which is why we looked into Lorex’s return policy. As it turns out, Lorex offered us 30 days after purchasing their doorbell camera to return it; however, that only applied to purchases directly on their website as opposed to Amazon. While 30 days wasn’t enough time for us, we thought that was a pretty generous window to try their video doorbell out for ourselves.

Lorex Warranty

On top of its 30-day return policy, Lorex gave us a two-year warranty for the Lorex Video Doorbell, so it was nice to know that if we got clumsy and broke it somehow, we’d be covered. However, if we wanted to extend the warranty, that was an option as well through LorexCare. Basically, we could’ve paid to upgrade our warranty to three or five years. The cost depended on the cost of our device and which warranty we wanted, three or five years.

For the Lorex Video Doorbell, we had 60 days after purchase to add an extended three-year warranty for $9.99 or an extended five-year warranty for $17.99. That means that in that time period, Lorex would repair any defective products or even replace them if they’re defective, with no additional costs for products, parts or labor. While we didn’t opt to extend our warranty, this is a good idea for the risk-averse.

Shipping

Since we spent over $100 on the Lorex Video Doorbell, shipping was free. Our package got to our house from UPS in just a few days after we purchased it. If we spent less than $100, however, our shipping cost would have depended on our location in the U.S or Canada, with delivery times between five to eight business days through UPS Ground or three to five business days with Priority Processing for UPS Ground. Here’s more information on the shipping process and costs.

Payment Methods

We paid for our Lorex Video Doorbell over Paypal, but we also could have used the following methods:

• Discover
• American Express
• MasterCard
• Visa.

These are all the major credit cards, so you shouldn’t have any issues paying for your devices on Lorex’s website, which is verified secure by Norton and McAfee.

Lorex Company Background

You may have peeped Lorex in your local Costco or Sam’s Club, but how much do you really know about the company? Upon doing some digging, we found out that Lorex has actually been in business since 1991, making it a 29-year-old company as of 2020. Based in Ontario, Canada, the company sells video surveillance in both its home country and the United States. In 2012, they were sold to FLIR Systems for a cool $59 million1 before being sold to Dahua Technology Co., Ltd in 2018.

As far as PR goes, Lorex made headline news when their cameras were used in a jail in Santa Clara, California, capturing a fight between inmates. The backstory? When officials told Sheriff Laurie Smith that installing security cameras in the jail would cost over $20 million and take more than two years, she bought and installed the Lorex cameras herself2 in just a day. Talk about a quick fix!

Recap

Overall, we were happy with the Lorex Video Doorbell Pro as a basic doorbell camera. Sure, it lacked person detection resulting in some unneeded notifications, but at only $129, it was an incredibly affordable way to secure our front door. We also liked how it worked with the rest of our Lorex cameras, making Lorex a one-stop-shop for low-priced home security.