It’s interesting how over the years the number of smart home devices in our home has grown with a majority of our lighting integrated, smart speakers in key rooms to control things and for music/questions, and we have a good set of security cameras outside to keep an eye on things all of the time and some inside for when we are away. But one of the most quintessential “smart home” devices the video doorbell still hasn’t been added into the mix. It isn’t that I haven’t wanted one, but for a long time I was holding out trying to find one that could integrate without Blue Iris camera setup but there haven’t been much for options, and companies have been trending more and more to their own ecosystems so I decided why wait any longer let's make the step. So let’s check out the eufy Security Video Doorbell Dual camera which has a second downward-facing camera to keep an eye out for and on packages.

Product Name: eufy Security Video Doorbell Dual

Review Sample Provided by: eufy/Anker

Written by: Wes Compton

Amazon Affiliate Link: HERE

 

Specifications

Dual Camera

Front Camera 160°, Package Camera 97°

Video Quality

Front Camera 2K (2560 ×1920), Package Camera 1080p (1600 × ️1200)

Smart AI Support

Package Detection

Waiting Detection

Human Detection

Motion Detection

Radar Detection

PIR Detection

Audio

Two-Way

Video Storage

Motion-activated event recording. HomeBase 2 contains 16GB local storage (lasts up to 90 days).

The recording duration estimation model is 25 recordings per day; each recording lasts 15 seconds.

Power

3-6 months (Battery life is based on user scenario)

Connectivity

802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi connection @2.4GHz

Weight

With HomeBase: 3.67 lb (1.55 kg)

Without HomeBase 2.12 lb / 1.24 kg

Size

6.5 × 2.1 × 1.1 in (16.5 × 5.3 × 2.8 cm)

Color

Black

Operating Conditions

IP65, -4°F - 122°F (-20°C - 50°C), Weather resistant

Compatibility

Compatible with the Google Voice Assistant and Amazon Alexa, HomeKit Not Compatible.

What’s Included

eufy Security Video Doorbell Dual, Mounting Kit, Screw Packs, Quick Start Guide.

Warranty

12 months

 

 


Packaging

So the eufy brand is a sub-brand of Anker that handles their smart home devices and the eufy Security Video Doorbell Dual that we have here today is part of their security lineup which covers a wide range of security cameras, security systems, and of course doorbell cameras as well. The Video Doorbell Dual has a picture of the doorbell on the front of the box along with the homebase that is included with it, both are larger than in the picture of course. The eufy Security brand is in the top left corner along with the Anker logo as well and they highlight its biggest selling point with a badge in the top right corner letting you know there are no monthly fees. In the bottom left corner, they do also mention the false alarm reduction and that it can recognize your family as well as the 6-month battery life. The Video Doorbell Dual is available as a wired model and a battery model and this is the battery model which is only really indicated in the bottom right corner with the small text that says Video Doorbell Dual (Battery).

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The side of the box lets you know some of the things you can do using the smartphone app along with the Video Doorbell Dual like two-way audio, ai recognition, instant notifications, and dual motion detection tech to reduce false alarms. Then the back of the box shows what you can do by using eufy Security all-around your home and they list off more important features with each having a description as well. The Video Doorbell Dual has a LOT going on and eufy does a good job of getting most of it on the box so you can see it when shopping.

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The outside cover of the box pulls off and you have a blue box which then the front lifts up and off where you can find the Video Doorbell Dual and the Homebase 2 right up on top each in their own formed hole. Once you take those out and the tray that holds them there are two cardboard panels with shield-shaped holes that lift off to house all of the accessories and documentation.

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For documentation, the Video Doorbell Dual comes with a quick start guide that is specific to the battery-powered model. You have a stick-on installation templet which can help you predrill your mounting holes. You have a shield shaped sticker that lets people know there is 24/7 monitoring and a card with the support information which is also in the shape of a shield as well.

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In addition to the doorbell and the homebase, there is a pile of other things. You have the mounting base for the doorbell which does let you know which side is up and you also have an angle adapter for use if you want to turn the doorbell which turns the mount 15 degrees.

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There are two small baggies which both have clear labels on them. One gets you tiny wires for installing your doorbell wiring for charging, those include wingnuts as well. Then the other bag has two sets of screws of different lengths each set gets you three screws which gets you an extra screw and they also have plastic mortar mounts as well. There is a metal pin that looks like a sim card tool but is much larger. This is metal and in the shield shape with the eufy e on it and on the back it has a magnet. This is the tool you need to remove the Video Doorbell Dual from the mount when you need to charge it. Then for cables, the Video Doorbell Dual comes with a power wart AC to DC charger for the Homebase 2 and a network cable which is bright white and flat which is also for the Homebase 2. Then a USB cable with a normal Type-A connection on one end and a micro-USB plug on the other for charging the Video Doorbell Dual.

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Photos and Features

There are two main components with the eufy Security Video Doorbell Dual. You have the doorbell itself and then eufy includes a Homebase 2. This isn’t much different than any other wireless doorbell in that the doorbell does have to ring something but the Homebase 2 is a lot more than that. The Homebase 2 comes paired up with a few different eufy products. They use it with their security systems, their battery-powered doorbells, and they do bundles with some of their wireless cameras. They use it for these different functions because the Homebase 2 has a built-in speaker, built-in storage, and as a hub to communicate with their wireless security options.

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The entire Homebase 2 is bright white which doesn’t match up with the Video Doorbell Dual, but makes sense because this will be inside. It is 5 inches tall and 3 and ¼ inches wide and deep. All of the sides of the Homebase 2 have a slight texture to them for a statin finish and then the top has a gloss finish. Both sides are blank but the front does have the eufy Security branding and below that there is a small LED status indicator ring.

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Everything else on the Homebase 2 is hidden in the back where they have a large speaker opening taking up 1/3 of the back. Then at the bottom, there is a plug for the included power cable, a USB port, and an ethernet jack. There is a pinhole rest button and then a larger sync/alarm off button that you will use when setting things up or turning the alarm off. The bottom has another speaker opening and the feet on the corners raise things so that there is clearance for that. The bottom also has a QR code for setting things up, all of the normal certification logos, and the model and power information all printed.

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Pictures of the Video Doorbell Dual don’t give you any idea of sizing so you might be like me and surprised at its size when you open things up. The Video Doorbell Dual battery is 6.5 inches tall, 2.1 inches wide, and 1.1 inches thick. It’s also 2.1 pounds which all together reminds me a lot of an old cell phone. This is a touch over an inch taller than the wired Video Doorbell Dual and it is a hair (.1 of an inch) wider than its wired brother as well. For comparison, I’ve got a few other dimensions of competing devices below. It is the tallest device but the battery-powered Nest isn’t far off so make sure the location you want to install your doorbell can support the size.  

Height

Width

Thickness

eufy Video Doorbell Dual (Battery)

6.5 in

2.1 in

1.1 in

eufy Video Doorbell Dual (wired)

5.4 in

2 in

1.1 in

Nest Doorbell (battery)

6.3 in

1.8 in

.95 in

Nest Doorbell (wired)

4.6 in

1.7 in

1.0 in

Video Doorbell 4

5.1 in

2.4 in

1.1 in

 

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Even with the overall size, you can see that eufy has packed a lot into the space that they have with the Video Doorbell Dual. The sides of the doorbell have a dark silver finish but the front is gloss black. I do wish they had other color options like the Nest does because given the overall size a black doorbell like this might blend in perfectly or stand out a LOT depending on the color of your house. Up on top in the front, there is a slightly different finish, behind that bar they have a PIR motion sensor or a passive infrared sensor. Below that is the main camera which is a 2k or 1440p camera with a 160-degree field of view to get a wide look at things. For comparison, the Nest options are 2K but Ring is behind in this area with 1080p. Below the main camera is a radar sensor, this combined with the PIR motion sensor is what they call their dual detection, one scans for body heat and the other scans for movement. This area also has built-in infrared lighting as well for nighttime use and there is also a light sensor so they know when to switch over. Then below the eufy Security logo is a large round button, this is the doorbell button which also has a blue LED ring around it that will light up when people get close to let them know where the button is. 

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The sides of the Video Doorbell Dual don’t have too much going on. You can see that the top and bottom both have a big angle to them. For the top, this helps with the rain and the bottom angle helps with the second camera. The top does have the same glossy finish that wraps onto the top. This is also where you will find the pinhole for removing the Video Doorbell Dual for charging using the included tool.

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So the dual motion sensors are part of the reason for the Dual in Video Doorbell Dual but the main reason is because of the second camera that eufy has installed. None of the competition has anything like this, the bottom of the Video Doorbell Dual has a 1080 (1600 x 1200) camera facing down at a 45-degree angle. The camera has a 97-degree field of view and the idea behind this is to face down so you can see any packages left on your doorstep. The front camera is great for seeing the package being delivered or if anyone comes up your door to ring the bell or mess with the package. But the bottom-facing camera gets your eyes on the package. Something we have used a security camera up high facing down at an angle for years. In addition to the camera, the bottom also has two LED lights which aren’t mentioned on the eufy website but they light up your walkway and the package when you walk up at night or if you use the camera to check on a package.

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The back of the Video Doorbell Dual has a few things going on. Down at the bottom, it has a QR code used for setting the doorbell up, and all of the certification logos and required information are printed down here. Halfway up there are two small screws, these can hook up to your wired doorbell and even though this is a battery-powered device it can use your wired inverter to keep itself charged if it is hooked up correctly and the inverter is correct. Above that there is a sync button for syncing with the Homebase 2 and next to that is a rubber plug that fills in the micro-USB charging plug. I would have preferred USB Type-C for simplicity, but we will see how that works out.

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Setup and Performance

Before putting the Video Doorbell Dual to use I did need to get things installed. Because this is battery powered I found it to be easiest to set everything up inside together and then go install the Video Doorbell Dual outside. You will need to download the eufy Security app and sign up for an account on that. If you have used any other Anker devices however they do share around between them. My AnkerWorks account worked with eufy and with SoundCore as well so at least you don’t need multiple accounts. With that setup, you first need to hook up the Homebase 2 which is simple. You plug in the power and hook the ethernet up if you have that option. From there in the app, you can add a device and scan the QR code on the homebase and it will walk you through everything. Even with ethernet hooked up, it asked me to set up my wireless network, the Homebase 2 will default back to that if the wired connection is disconnected. Once set up it will check for firmware updates before you go any farther.

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Once you get that done you can then attach the Video Doorbell Dual which you have to press and hold the sync button on the back of the doorbell until it beeps and the LED flashes. You then use the QR code that pops up on your phone and hold it up to the doorbell and it will scan and connect.

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Once you have both devices connected everything will be working. You then just need to install the Video Doorbell Dual outside. You have to decide if you need the small wedge that gives the doorbell some angle and where you want to install it. Being battery powered you really can put it anywhere but they do have suggestions for height and location which they walk you through on the app. You have the mounting screws and the mounting plate and if needed the sticker with the drill holes lined up so you can install the mounting plate. Ours went in without a problem on our doorbell plate. Because this is where our wired doorbell would go I did also pull the doorbell wires through and hook them to the Video Doorbell Dual as well. You can also use the small connection wires and wire nuts if you want. Sadly our transformer isn’t hooked up so this won't be powering things just yet but with that option that is on the list for future me.

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Ignore the cobwebs here and there, I’ve been fighting with spiders this year who seemingly want to turn my house into a haunted house. But the Video Doorbell Dual just barely fits on our mounting plate and I didn’t go with the wedge but with our steps being extremely small it does mean no matter where I put the Video Doorbell Dual the railing is going to be in front of it, but a wedge isn’t going to change that.

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With everything set up, I have been living with the Video Doorbell Dual and I can talk a little about how things have been going so far. For reference, we have 9 cameras on the outside of our house/property so being able to see what is going on at any moment isn’t new to us but there were a few things about the Video Doorbell Dual that stood out immediately. Our home camera setup uses AI to try to cut down false positives but I have been extremely impressed with how the Video Doorbell Dual combined multiple motion detections to cut down on false alerts. So much so that I have yet to get one with the Video Doorbell Dual so far in our use and I have used the combination of the eufy alerts with the notifications from our normal cameras to ignore alerts from people walking down the street or sidewalk. Because of this, it does have an interesting side effect as well, fewer or in this case, no false alarms mean fewer alerts saved to the storage so storage space is hardly impacted by my introverted self. We get notifications of deliveries, of my wife or myself going outside to get the mail or deliveries, and once a week alerts from me zooming by on the mower. For the notifications shown below for the 8th I had 5 from the Video Doorbell Dual and my main front door camera had 15 that it let me know about and 500+ that the AI filtered out. The events page lists out all of your alerts and videos and it also gives you a picture of the face of the person in the video or if there are multiple people it will show all of the faces it picked up.

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When in the eufy Security app you can check on the power usage of the Video Doorbell Dual and pick how you want it to handle things. I didn’t charge the Video Doorbell Dual before installing it so our charge is down to 68% and it will have to wait for long-term usage before we get a full idea of how battery life is but currently, I am seeing somewhere about 1% of battery life a day when on the balanced setting but this should improve when I stop opening up the app and looking at the live view. But unless the life is better when fully charged the 3-6 months is looking to lean towards the 3 months. But what stood out to me here is you can also see the total number of detected events and how many have been filtered out which is good information.

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As far as video quality goes, you do get crisp video, especially from the main 2k camera. I was also impressed with its nighttime performance as well and I included a picture of that below. But it’s the combination of the two cameras and how they implement them in the app that I like the most. You can do picture and picture to have the main camera in a larger view or in vertical mode you have one on top of the other and it does a great job of lining up. Even with our small front porch which ends up putting the mailbox and our railing in front of the Video Doorbell Dual the wide field of view of the top camera sees our entire neighborhood and anyone walking anywhere near the front door and then the package camera has an eye on any packages that end up below.

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Video of getting packages shows the fluidness between the two cameras better I think so I do have that as well. The microphone also does a great job of picking up any noise at all. You can even hear the Amazon guy taking his picture stepped back away from the door.

A cool little feature that I ran into when digging around in the app is if you have a video saved you have the option to donate it. This lets you put a comment and share it with eufy. I’m sure their social media team would love to get their hands on any interesting things that happen but what got me excited about this is that you can share issues that you run into quickly and easily. Given the dependence on AI to filter out false alarms and to do things like detecting your packages being able to show them issues will help improve those in the future.

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The Video Doorbell Dual does have a speaker built-in as well as the microphone and the eufy app does give you a few ways to take advantage of this. If someone rings your doorbell you can reply to them and talk to them if you aren’t able to make it to the door or if it will be a second. But you can also set up auto-responses to ringing the doorbell. You can set this to a specific time frame and the first thing that came to mind for me is how my wife works third shift. For someone with a non-standard sleep schedule, you could set a time frame and ask people to come back at another time or you could set it to let them know you will be right there during the periods that you know you will be home. They have a few default responses but you can also record your own which you can use with that feature or use them as easy one-click responses manually as well.

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They do have some experimental options in the app like the familiar faces option which you can use to let you know exactly who is at the door. I have had this running and I thought for sure our mailman would pop up on here but so far he hasn’t so I don’t know how long it takes before this feature picks them up.

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Another area with a lot of experimental features would be the delivery guard section. This feature takes advantage of the package camera to pick up packages when they are delivered. Then there are options where you can have the Video Doorbell Dual play audio if anyone approaches any packages which might be enough to spook off a thief. You can get extra notifications of a package that you haven’t gone out and gotten yet, I bet parents would love this one to holler at their kids to go grab it. As far as my experience with the delivery guard feature as a whole. This has the potential to be a game changer and I think for a lot of people it will work great. But so far it hasn’t picked up packages but has picked up on sunlight on our steps. A big reason for this I think is the railing and everything in the way. It isn’t exactly an optimal setup for the Video Doorbell Dual to be able to pick them up but I am going to submit a few of these to eufy using the donate option to see if maybe they can find ways to improve on it for my situation.

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Being a doorbell, the chime is important as well and by default, the Video Doorbell Dual uses the homebase 2 as its chime. In addition to that, you get notifications on any phone that is attached to the account. There are 9 chime options with the homebase 2 as well as a silent option and this is an area I would love to see more options and maybe the option to be able to add your own chimes as well because I wasn’t a big fan of any of the default chimes. The homebase 2 chimes when turned up will sometimes sound slightly distorted as well. There are other chime options available. The app even has the option to use your wired chime but without a working wired chime, I wasn’t able to confirm if that worked. The FAQ on the eufy website specifically says that using the wired chime with the battery-powered doorbell doesn’t work but the app seems to tell a different story. They also support Amazon Alexa devices and can use those as a chime which if you already have multiple Alexa’s in your house is perfect. Google Nest supports this as well with their own doorbells but hasn’t opened it up to other doorbells yet which is a bummer because this would work for our setup. So hopefully that gets added in the future. Eufy also has an add-on chime setup that has a USB plug-in antenna that plugs into the homebase 2 and will let you add one or more of the eufy chimes which is what I’m going to need to do for our house in the future.

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Overall and Final Verdict

At the end of the day, the eufy Security Video Doorbell Dual has been a great addition to our security and doorbell needs. The main 2K camera itself is more than enough to make for a great video doorbell and it has a nice wide field of view that captures anything going on nearby, but the Video Doorbell Dual pairs that up with a second camera faced down so you can keep an eye out on packages. For a lot of people, I think that keeping an eye out for and on deliveries is a huge reason for upgrading to a video doorbell and eufy is ahead of the game with the Video Doorbell Dual by having both cameras. Both have great video quality and the app makes viewing them both at the same time natural as well. The Video Doorbell Dual also has dual motion sensors with an infrared sensor for picking up body heat and radar as well which when combined has led to no false alarms in my testing. Pairing the homebase 2 up with the Video Doorbell Dual for the battery version also means that you have local storage inside of your house for the clips that are recorded, this means no monthly fees for cloud storage, and your files aren’t stored on someone else’s server. Being the battery model, installing the Video Doorbell Dual was extremely easy as well.

There is always some room for improvement and for the Video Doorbell Dual there were a few small things that I would love to see. Because it is battery powered you will need to charge it every 3-6 months. I wouldn’t mind seeing that charging port be a Type-C in the future simply because most people at this point will have Type-C chargers readily available. Eufy does provide a Micro-USB cable for charging, but months from now I know I’m going to have to dig around to find it. I would also love to see the chime options with the homebase 2 be expanded, we weren’t a fan of any of the options but more options could help with that and offer more to change between. They do have one Christmas chime, but other holiday chimes to go with that could be nice as well. Being able to upload your own would be the best option. I may be part of just a small group that is looking for this, but I would love to see ONVIF support for the cameras that would allow the camera feeds to be tied into other IP camera security systems so you can have everything all together. Eufy does include RTSP support with some of their wired cameras so there is the possibility and I completely get that being battery powered a constant feed would use the battery up quickly but for those who end up hooking the Video Doorbell Dual into their doorbell wiring for charging or for the wired model would be nice. I can’t forget to mention as well the overall size of the Video Doorbell Dual which just barely fits on our doorbell mounting pad and is larger than even the battery-powered Nest, but eufy did pack in two cameras and mode features. I would also love to see replaceable covers or color options to give you a way to match the Video Doorbell Dual with your house.

The eufy Security Video Doorbell Dual is also going to hit your pocketbook with its MSRP of $259.99. This puts it up in the highest range of video doorbells with the Ring Doorbell 4 right now running $219 for the doorbell only or $269 when paired with its chime and $259 for the Ring Pro 2. The Nest Doorbell  Battery which I have compared the Video Doorbell Dual to a lot is lower at $179 but only the Ring 4 is offering a similar 2K camera like the eufy Security Video Doorbell Dual, but the Video Doorbell Dual gets you two cameras and the homebase 2 which gives you local storage and a chime. So while expensive, the Video Doorbell Dual is priced with the competition and is offering more at that same price.

fv5recommended

Live Pricing: HERE

Author Bio
garfi3ld
Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org
Editor-in-chief
You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.

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