There are so many options for security cameras on the market now, and if you want to load up
your own home, it can be a costly endeavour. Blink has been a quirky little brand offering lower-
spec’d devices that come with some sweet benefits and a sweeter price point. But now they are
upping the game with 2K, and I got the chance to take the Blink Outdoor 2K+ for a spin.
Design and Style
I have never been the biggest fan of the style of the Blink cameras. The unique but weird square
shape is odd. Having said that, the biggest strength the design has is the tiny size of the
devices. This means they tuck away nicely.
As with all the other Blink devices, you can run these on standard AA batteries, or you can plug
them into a power plug, or you can even keep them charged with solar panels. Using the AA
batteries, you can strip the batteries in a couple of months. There are longer estimates floating
around, but if you are using all the sweet features and if it captures images regularly, you’ll strip
them faster. That’s still impressive for a couple of off-the-shelf batteries though.
Camera quality
The big deal here is the increase to 2K image quality as well as huge improvements to night
vision.
The 2K looks bloody good. Given the price point, this surprised me. But you know what 2K
images look like; it was the night vision I was intrigued by. Well, it turns out the night vision is
fantastic! You can use the classic black and white night vision, and the 2K+ does a good job
allowing a surprising amount of detail. It’s slightly fuzzier than during the day, but good.
Then there is the option for colour vision in low light. Now this one is interesting, because with
some testing in different amounts of low light, including dark in the middle of the night, it did a
shockingly good job of picking up the shreds of light it could get to produce a much better image
than I expected. It was certainly fuzzier, but the detail and colour were shockingly good. Looking
at feeds in the middle of the night, I would have thought it was twilight hours or something.
The microphone isn’t fantastic, but it’s good enough. Admittedly, I want my security camera
showing what is happening more than hearing what is happening. But still an important note.
App locked features
Blink does offer a range of features behind a surprisingly affordable subscription. The price
comes in at $4 a month for a single device, or $12 a month for unlimited devices. That gets you
features like notifications triggering when it sees movement, cloud storage for 60 days, person
recognition, and thumbnails for videos.
There are new features under an AI subscription for $7 a month for one device or $20 a month
for unlimited devices. Currently that allows for AI to give video descriptions, which is super cool
if you need to look through hundreds of video clips.
Should you upgrade?
Blink continues to provide some reasonably priced security cameras that are super easy to set
up and use. The Blink Outdoor 2K+ is no exception to this, and with some of the features on
offer here, it is a damn good excuse to upgrade.
It's not the greatest camera, but given the price, it's a bloody easy and affordable way to start playing with personal security setups!
If this is your price range, you will be very happy with the Blink Outdoor 2K+
