When a delivery person recently considered a neighbour’s recycling bin as a ‘safe place’ to deliver one of our parcels – the day before bin collection – getting a smart doorbell crossed my mind for the first time in my life.
They neglected to tell us which neighbour it was. “There must be a better way,” I thought as I hurriedly walked up and down our street trying to peek into our neighbours’ green boxes without them thinking I was rifling through their rubbish (a classic journalist’s move in Sims 3).
If we had had a video doorbell when the delivery person was looking for a suitable place (clue: not there), we would have been able to get to it before the bin lorries did.
But for where we live, whether the EZVIZ DB2 would have helped I’m not sure. During my week with EZVIZ, a combination of poor Wi-Fi and the security features on the app meant I’ve not always been able to get to the call in time. Maybe the package would have ended up in the tip after all.
Ultimately, the EZVIZ DB2 doorbell is best for homeowners in the countryside: the setup makes it a poor choice for renters (more on that below), and the sensitivity is so fine-tuned that in a city you’ll be alerted every time someone walks past if you have notifications enabled.
Setup
Thanks to an easy-to-access manual within the app, setting up the EZVIZ DB2 involves no spreading of a giant paper sheet over the floor while you try to make sense of it.
That said, the actual set-up of the doorbell was a little daunting. Though I managed to get over the initial fear of the many parts that spill out of the box, at the point where the manual told me to switch off the mains electricity and get out the drill I had to take a breather.
As with many wireless smart doorbells, the EZVIZ DB2 can – and, according to the manual, should – be wired up to your mains electricity if you have an existing chime (which I do). While this may appeal to those who don’t want to have to charge their doorbell every few months, it did not appeal to me as A) a renter who doesn’t want to mess with my landlord’s electrics, and B) someone who knows nothing about electrics in the first place.
Regardless of whether you choose to do this or not, renters beware: this doorbell does need to be drilled into the wall and does not come with a stick-on option. So, in the interests of full disclosure, I did not permanently fix the EZVIZ to my house as I live in a shared rental property. If you do plan to drill your mount in, the DB2 comes with variously angled mounts to accommodate different wall directions.
Mounting aside, syncing the doorbell, the chime and the phone app together over the Wi-Fi was straightforward and I was able to set up the doorbell itself within minutes.
Appearance
The EZVIZ DB2 is pretty sleek. The glossy front features a clear doorbell button, which is illuminated in blue to make it clear to knockers (though you can turn this off), as well as a wide-angle camera.
It comes in two colours that are meant to go with dark or light exteriors: space grey and classic white. My house is red, so neither blend in quite so well – but that’s not necessarily a bad thing given that the doorbell looks nice – or as nice as a doorbell can look. Besides, having an obvious security feature drilled into your house is more likely to deter thieves.
If you’re going for subtlety, this isn’t it. At the size of a wireless landline phone, it sat heavy in my hand.
Motion sensitivity
The PIR (infrared) detection on the EZVIZ DB2 is meant to be able to distinguish humans from pets or objects. In reality, my first day with the DB2 saw my phone buzzing every two minutes as the doorbell considered my laundry blowing in the breeze a potential threat.
According to the app, high temperatures can make the PIR inaccurate – but we’re talking Bristol in April. The benefit is that you can watch your laundry dry from the office, if that’s your thing.
I managed to fix this by changing the ‘Intelligent Detection’ setting to ‘Human Shape Detection’. You can also change the notification settings so you don’t get alerted during certain times of the day (or night).
The sensitivity of the detector can also be adjusted, but this translates as the detectable distance from the doorbell (“highly sensitive” is five metres away). If you live in a busier area, this will help it not to pick up everything that goes past.
Ringing the doorbell and answering
The area I wanted to put the doorbell was outside our Wi-Fi range, so for most of the week the doorbell was slow to connect to the chime, and even slower to connect to my phone (if at all). Once I’d moved it, the connection was much better – but if you need a doorbell for a poorly connected area this is worth bearing in mind.
To answer the doorbell via the app on your phone – a handy function if you’re out of the house – I found I had to put in my password each time as the fingerprint scanner didn’t work. At least on the iPhone version, the app doesn’t remember your password: a problem if you’re racing to answer the doorbell before your postman leaves and you can’t remember it yourself. I missed a couple of rings because of this, and it doesn’t seem possible to disable this security feature.
The chime itself is quiet. Despite being able to hear the people next door, I couldn’t hear the doorbell from my bedroom. Unfortunately, there are no instructions to help you increase the volume of the chime.
Camera and audio
The ultra-wide camera means you can see quite a lot through the EZVIZ DB2’s eyes, and you can adjust the definition in live view to make it full HD if you’re not satisfied with the already high-quality feed.
The app offers playback of motion detection (including audio, if enabled) which is helpful if you don’t get to it at the time that the notification comes in. The audio is clear and easy to understand.
While the device is waterproof, lingering raindrops do obscure the picture – which is a big deal if you live in a rainy city like Bristol.
The night vision is good, but if you have your doorbell positioned next to other objects, including walls, then the high exposure on these means it’s not always easy to make out people’s features if you need to.
You can install a memory card or use the EZVIZ cloud storage if you want to keep your doorbell’s recordings safely stored without taking up space on your phone – but you’ll have to pay for this, starting at £4.99 a month, or £49.99 a year.
Security and privacy
With cameras permanently set up to record what’s going on outside your house, questions about your own security and the privacy of others naturally spring up.
With the EZVIZ DB2, you don’t have to worry about someone answering the doorbell’s call on your phone and diverting the package to, say, their house. They’d have to get through your phone’s own security and the settings on the app – which, as covered above, can make things a bit trickier when you’re in a rush to answer a call.
You also don’t need to worry too much about thieves of the device itself: a ‘tamper notification’ is automatically enabled (though you can switch it off) that will apparently send an alert to your phone and let out a sharp alarm if the doorbell is forcibly removed. Fortunately, I did not have to test this.
Another feature of the doorbell is that you can switch on ‘loitering detection’ if PIR is enabled. This means that if someone hangs around outside your door for more than your chosen time period (that has to be between 1 and 15 seconds – EZVIZ aren’t generous to loiterers) an alarm will go off to scare them away. It gives a single, sharp ‘beep’ after 11 seconds.
A great feature of the doorbell is the security for people inside the house: if you are vulnerable or have a child at home alone, you can change the doorbell’s own audio output to mask your voice. You have the choice between ‘clown’ (bit weird) or ‘uncle’. This is pretty neat – I set mine to the latter so that I come out sounding like a middle-aged man. This does make me feel safer if I’m at home alone.
Finally, if you live somewhere where it’s not appropriate to be recording certain areas in front of your house – say, a primary school or a neighbour who doesn’t want cameras pointed at them – you can block out certain parts of the camera’s view so it does not monitor or record those areas.
Battery
After a week with the EZVIZ DB2 (beginning fully charged), the battery was at 81 per cent. With some other wireless doorbells lasting for six months before needing a recharge, this puts the DB2 on the lower end of the battery power life scale.
However, you can change the settings to make it less power-draining at the price of a slightly lower-quality image. Not a bad compromise when the imagery (at least in the daytime) is so good to begin with.
The doorbell is easy to charge via a cable which is provided, though it doesn’t come with an adapter plug. Once it’s up on the mount, you’ll have to disable the tamper alert (if enabled) before you take it down to charge it.
Verdict
The EZVIZ DB2 has lots of useful features, but arguably the main function I want from a smart doorbell – being able to answer the door easily and quickly when I’m not at home – didn’t work well for me.
If you’re mainly looking for a security camera, the audio and visual quality are great and the motion detector will pick up everything you need (and more).
Given the doorbell’s sensitivity and the fact its mount needs to be drilled in, this doorbell is probably best for people who own their house and live in less busy areas.
Alternatives
Ring video doorbell 4
The Ring Doorbell 4 is the latest in a long line of smart doorbells from the Amazon owned brand. It isn't exactly the sleekest design out there but what it lacks in style, it more than makes up for in features.
However, what you lose in design, you gain in a long list of features. The Ring has a fantastic battery life, lasting for up to six months at a time from a 8 hour charge. Equally, the camera produces clear audio and video both in the day and night.
There are options to detect packages, leave pre-recorded messages, interact with people at the door, and even set up a threat deterrent when you go away.
Google Nest doorbell
The Google Nest Pro Doorbell features a 145-degree field-of-view, streams in 1600p HD resolution and displays video in a 3:4 aspect ratio, ideal for viewing on a smartphone held vertically.
Although it has a very slight fish-eye effect, the video is crisp and doesn’t glitch or lag, as people move in and out of shot. Installation is for the most part, a piece of cake, apart from the final stage which requires serious wrangling to get it into position.
For this reason alone, it’s worth wiring into the existing door chime to save the hassle of wrestling it on and off the bracket for charging.
And while it’s not the cheapest option on the market, this is compensated for by the fact you don’t need to shell out every month on a rolling subscription.
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