This week at CES, ADT have launched a trio of new smart home cameras, which work with HomeKit and Google Assistant. ADT purchased Lifesheild back in February last year which made them a ADT company which focused on home security systems and professional installation, now the company has rebranded as ‘Blue By ADT’ and while it still makes home security systems, it now makes outdoor and indoor cameras for smart homes.

The cameras

There are three new models in total, two outdoor and one indoor. One of the outdoor cameras is actually a wired doorbell, all three models cost $199.99, can recognise people’s faces and support two way audio. All three work with Apple HomeKit, Google Assistant, IFTTT and like everything at the moment, Amazon’s Alexa.

Support for Apple HomeKit and Google Assistant is delayed slightly from launch, both will be supported by Q2 2020. Both the outdoor and indoor cameras have a port for a microSD card, which supports up to 128GB cards, that is if you don’t want to use the cloud service from ADT, which you get one month free of video storage from initial purchase.

24/7 Professional Monitoring from ADT is $19.99 a month, which launches later this year – but all cameras come with free 24 hour storage anyway, regardless if you pay for the subscription.

Outdoor camera

The outdoor camera and the indoor camera look exactly identical and cost the same too, at $199.99, it has an IP65 rating, which means it has good protection against most weather. Video is rated for HD with 130° field of view with integrated night vision. Like most cameras, the ball joint mount can be used to adjust the field of view to best fit your needs.

The outdoor camera only uses WiFi and is battery powered, with no option to power up with a cable. Battery is rated at “3-6 month battery life (varies based on usage, settings, & temperature)”

Indoor camera

The indoor camera is visually identical to the outdoor camera which has all the same video resolution specs, just with a smaller base but being indoors it can also use it’s microphone port to detect smoke and CO, which is very useful to have in places in the house, which may not have a nearby smoke detector.

Also, the indoor camera has a battery as a backup, in case the mains power goes and its main power source is a microUSB at 5V. Like the outdoor camera, the indoor camera only uses WiFi to connect to your network.

Outdoor doorbell

As seen above, the most interesting product Blue by ADT has is the new video doorbell, which like all the other cameras has HD video, two way audio and also it has a button to press which will alert your phone and also will ring the new Blue Extender & Chime unit, which by the name extends your WiFi network so that the indoor and outdoor cameras can get a more reliable connection, but also acts as an audible chime for your doorbell.

The camera on the doorbell as a wider 180° field of view than the other cameras and uses existing doorbell cables for power and WiFi for connectivity.

Pricing and avaiblity

All three cameras from Blue by ADT are only going to be available in the US at the moment and are priced at $199.99 and can be pre-ordered on lifeshield.com with shipping before the end of January.

Source: Lifeshield (Blue by ADT)

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