Conclusion:

The wire free design of the EZVIZ Mini Trooper cameras is incredibly useful in certain situations. I can see these being very attractive for renters who can’t run hardwired cameras or someone who is just looking for a heads up that someone is poking around their stuff and wants an easy solution. You really can’t get much easier. But this ease does come with some drawbacks. Really everything is centered around one potential issue: the batteries. Since this is battery operated, the camera is operated at a low power so night vision is OK, but 25 feet of illumination can’t come close to the 100 feet their Husky camera offers. This can make mounting tricky because if you tuck one up under an eve, it may be too high to get much illumination at night. Also, this camera is only 720P. While this is plenty good if the subject is close, if they are too far away identification may be tough. And the last issue; actual battery life and the cost that represents. You certainly wouldn’t want one of these out facing a busy street; your batteries will likely be dead in less than a month. But knowing this limitation, if you are careful about placement or are putting them in places you don’t expect much recording to happen, you should be able to get 3 months or so use. If you were to fill the base with (6) cameras you’d be looking at about $144 in batteries per year. As a side note; EZVIZ confirmed there is a pending firmware update due in late December for the Mini Trooper to address some of the issues that came up in my review. Specifically the update is to improve battery life, battery reporting in low temps, minimize start up time to record and improve playback stability. They are also looking into adding motion sensitivity and zones but this isn't likely to happen until Q1 or Q2 in 2018. Hopefully these changes come sooner rather than later.



Currently this starter pack is available for around $149 and additional cameras are around $88 on Amazon.com. So a fully loaded base station would cost you $589. But if you did this, the included 8GB card would be useless for so many cameras, so add in another $45 for a 128GB microSD card and you are at $634 or about $100 per point. This really isn’t bad considering the feature set you get from the cameras and the app. What I think tips this towards expensive is the ongoing battery cost. For me personally, I would rather have one of EZVIZ’s 1080P PoE camera systems with NVR. Yes I have to run wires, but once that is done I am done. I don’t have to worry about changing batteries in the middle of winter. So for me; if you are a renter and can’t run wires or are not technically inclined and don’t feel comfortable running your own wires the EZVIZ Mini Trooper Wi-Fi security camera system is a good option and worthy of your consideration.



Pros:

» Easy wire free installation
» App is well laid out and has good features
» Accurate PIR motion sensor
» Overall cost per point
» Good image quality and night vision

Cons:

» Battery life and cost
» Might not be best option for cold climates

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