The Best Wireless Security Cameras of 2023

1. Lorex - Best for Night Vision

Editors Rating:

9.6 /10

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Pros and Cons:

No Monthly Fees

Lots of security camera shoppers share the same sentiment: They hate the fact that after buying the hardware, they need to pay a monthly fee to enjoy features even as basic as recording video. Unfortunately, that is usually the case for cloud cameras, which are cameras that store videos in the cloud instead of a local recording device.

With Lorex, however, most cameras come with a DVR or NVR that store videos locally. This means your recordings never leave your house and you don’t need a monthly subscription. Better still, instead of recording just motion events, Lorex cameras can record continuously 24/7.

There are downsides, of course. If the storage device is damaged, for example, it will be very hard to recover stored videos. With cloud storage, your videos are stored securely in remote servers so you can retrieve your videos anytime. If you’re willing to pay a small fee every month, though, you can get cloud backup from Lorex and get the best of both worlds of local and cloud storage.

Tons of Choices

One thing we absolutely loved about Lorex was the fact that you’ll never run out of options with this brand. From wire-free and wireless cameras to traditional CCTV systems, Lorex has it all.

You’ll also find a good variation of features from Lorex cameras. 1080p HD is the standard resolution, for example, but there are cameras with resolution as high as 4K HD. Some cameras also come integrated with special features, like built-in security lights, person or facial recognition, and smart detection of packages.

Smart Home Integration

Smart home integration isn’t Lorex’s strong suit, but some of its cameras, especially the wireless ones, can connect with Alexa and Google Assistant. With that, you can tell your cameras to arm or disarm through a smart speaker, or even livestream footage through a smart display.

If you’re looking for Alexa or Google Assistant-integrated Lorex cameras, we suggest looking for DVR and NVR systems labeled to work with either or both voice assistants. Otherwise, go with a Wi-Fi or wireless camera, as they most commonly support integrations.

2. eufyCam E - Best for Local Storage

Editors Rating:

9.2 /10

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Pros and Cons

Easy Installation

One of the advantages of wireless cameras is easy set up, and that was especially apparent with the eufyCam E we tested. We were able to set it up in five easy steps: Download the Eufy Security app, plug in the camera’s base unit, connect to Wi-Fi, pair the camera to the base unit, and then mount it outside.

It actually took us less than 20 minutes to install this battery-powered camera, and after running a firmware update, it was up and protecting our front door.

Discounted Packages Available

One downside of the eufyCam E is that it requires a HomeBase — sort of like a hub — to conserve battery power instead of connecting to Wi-Fi directly. On the bright side, if you’re looking to put up multiple eufyCam E cameras, you can save by buying multi-camera packs. One HomeBase can accommodate up to four cameras, and there are discounted options if you buy more than one eufyCam E.

Two-Way Audio

This may sound hard to believe, but lots of wire-free cameras don’t have audio. That’s likely because they want to save battery power, but it’s just not the same when your security camera footage is lacking sound.

The eufyCam E makes sure you get audio with your video, and on top of that, you can speak through your camera using two-way audio. With this feature, you can yell at trespassers to shoo them away, or greet guests as they approach your front door. You can also use two-way audio to instruct delivery drivers when leaving packages at your door.

3. Ring Spotlight Cam Battery - Best Outdoor Wireless Camera

Editors Rating:

9.5 /10

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Pros and Cons

Security by Lights

Making sure your home is safe requires a concerted effort from you and a dozen other devices. With the Ring Spotlight Cam Battery, you hit two birds with one stone. It is, of course, a security camera that can alert you to movement, stream live video, and record important clips. It’s also a spotlight. Coupled with the camera’s built-in motion sensor, the spotlight turns on automatically when it detects movement. That’s a great way to scare away would-be intruders.

The spotlight serves another purpose. Most security cameras use Infrared night vision to see at night. While effective and discreet, this turns your footage into black-and-white, which not everybody likes. If you prefer color night vision, the spotlight can illuminate the Ring camera’ surroundings at night, giving it 24/7 color video.

Solar Option

Battery-powered cameras are convenient, except of course when it’s time to recharge or replace their batteries. Depending on how much you use your Spotlight Cam Battery, you could be doing that every couple of months to every six months.

Ring made it a little easier by making the batteries rechargeable so you don’t have to buy new batteries every time, but if you’d rather not recharge the Ring Spotlight Cam Battery at all, there’s another option: A solar panel.

You can purchase a solar panel from Ring and keep the battery charged all-year long. Ring’s solar panels aren’t over-the-top expensive. You can get one for $60 if you purchase it separately, but if you buy the solar panel and the camera together, the panel costs only $30. Check out Ring’s pricing to learn more.

Rechargeable Battery

On the bright side of Ring’s battery-powered Spotlight Cam, the built-in batteries are rechargeable. While that means having to take down the camera every once in a while to recharge, you won’t need to purchase batteries everytime it runs out of juice.

LifeTime Theft Protection

We’d also like to just throw it out there that Ring cameras come with Lifetime Theft Protection. This means if your camera ever gets stolen, Ring will replace it for you for free.

4. Arlo Pro 3 - Best for Video

Editors Rating:

9.0 /10

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2K HDR Video

The Arlo Pro 3 has the best video quality out of any of the wireless cameras on this list. It’s 2560p HD compared to the industry standard of 1080p HD, plus, with HDR, our outdoor footage was free of glare and shadows. Especially if you’re using the Arlo Pro 3 outside as we did, expect video that’s as close to real-life as possible.

Night Vision Options

Due to the camera’s spotlight, our night vision was in color, although when we wanted to be less conspicuous, we opted to turn the spotlight off and depend on the infrared LED sensors. Either way, we could see clearly at night, whether it was in full color to greet our friends or in black and white to give directions to the takeout delivery men.

Works with Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple Watch

There were a bunch of ways to control the Arlo Pro 3 aside from using the Arlo app. If we were feeling particularly lazy, we did voice commands through Alexa or Google Assistant, pretty common integrations when it comes to smart security cameras. However, Arlo took it a step further than most. It also worked with our Apple Watch, so whenever the Arlo Pro 3 detected motion, we got alerted and could even speak through the camera right from our wrist. And during our three month trial of Arlo Smart Home, we made it so we only got alerts when the camera detected people or packages, making for less checking of our Apple Watch throughout the day.

5. Ring Stick Up Cam Battery - Best Wireless Camera with Alexa

Editors Rating:

9.5 /10

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How We Review

Pros and Cons

Smart Platform Integrations

Amazon owns Ring, so it’s not exactly shocking that the Ring Stick Up Cam Battery works with Alexa, their voice assistant. Using Alexa, we had our footage shown on our Echo Show 8 along with our Fire TV, even speaking through the devices. Whenever our Stick Up Cam detected movement, Alexa let us know along with our app notification. But the Stick Up Cam also works with Google Assistant, for those in the Google smart home ecosystem, as well as a bunch of other connected devices from brands like Dome and Geolink. All in all, we love how seamlessly the Stick Up Cam Battery fits into our larger smart home.

Privacy

If you’ve turned on the news in the past few years, then you’ve probably noticed that Ring has its fair share of security breaches, and they can be downright creepy. Fortunately, Ring has created a couple of privacy features in response that definitely made us feel better about the whole situation. For example, with privacy zones, we could block our bathroom from the camera’s vision so it wouldn’t detect any motion within the area. On top of that, we also had the ability to completely disable motion recording, audio and alerts, which was really good for those private nights at home watching movies. While Ring certainly has a long way to go to gain back customers’ trust, this is a step in the right direction.

Two-Way Audio with Noise Cancellation

Two-way audio is a feature we’ve come to expect from smart security cameras, but Ring takes it a step further with noise cancellation. When we used the Stick Up Cam Battery outside, we noticed that when talking to our visitors, we couldn’t hear the background traffic noise as much, making for more distinct and easy to understand audio. In New York City, there’s always something going on in the background, so we loved that the Stick Up Cam Battery had that in mind when it came to audio.