A common trait of Xiaomi products is their affordability, so it should come as no surprise that their Mi Home Security Camera 360° 1080P carries a very attractive price tag. This camera also turns out to be quite capable, making it an extremely good value for money security camera for any home.
Xiaomi has a diverse and impressive portfolio smart home products. I haven’t really been keeping up-to-date with their line-up. I’ve known about the Mi Home Security Camera, but never really paid much attention to it until it came bundled with Google’s new Nest Hub.
The Mi Home Security Camera is a surprisingly capable camera. It does Full HD 1080p video recording, has motion detection, works at night with built-in IR LED, and can be used as an intercom with its built-in speaker and microphone. It also pans and tilts. It does pretty much everything you’d expect to need from a security camera.
Along with other Xiaomi smart home products, the Mi Home Security Camera is managed through the Xiaomi Home mobile app. It is through this app that you setup and configure the camera, as well as monitor and playback video.
The setup is a little interesting. Instead of the mobile app scanning a QR code on the camera, the Xiaomi Home mobile app displays a QR code for the camera to scan and connect itself to your home network.
I’m quite pleased to see that the live monitoring and playback functions on the Xiaomi Home app work very well. In fact, videos are started with lesser delay, and real-time monitoring has less latency, than what I’m used to seeing in other products. The low latency makes the intercom function practical to use. Other actions like pans and tilts respond quickly too.
With the Xiaomi Home app, you can easily integrate this camera into a variety of other home automation routines. The user interface is simple and easy to understand, and it’s fairly straight-forward to setup if-this-then-that rules in the app.
One thing that Xiaomi lacks is support for a cloud recording service. I’m quite alright with that. The Mi Home Security Camera can record to a clever hidden local microSD that’s on the camera ball head itself, and gets tucked out of sight when the camera is pointed at certain tilt angles.
Why does Google have a promotion that bundles the Mi Home Security Camera with the Nest Hub sold here? This camera can be linked to Google Assistant, and you can stream video from the camera to your Nest Hub! It’s a convenient way to start live video monitoring on your Nest Hub, or even a Chromecast connected TV, just by voicing your command.
Wall mount brackets and a Micro-USB cable is included with the Mi Home Security Camera. The power adapter is not included.
The Mi Home Security Camera retails for around S$55, depending on where you buy it.
Conclusion
The Mi Home Security Camera 360° 1080P is excellent value for money, doing most things you’d expect a security camera to do.
Pros:
- Good Full HD video quality
- Pans and tilts
- Reasonably low latency video
Cons: