Vivint Doorbell Camera Pro Review

Getting to Know Our Vivint Doorbell Camera

Vivint Doorbell Camera Pro: still pretty slim and elegant on the outside.

Vivint’s doorbells certainly look better than the bulkier Ring devices. Elegant as it is, our Vivint doorbell is still big enough to be seen by a potential thief. The design itself hasn’t changed: The camera is up top, while the LED status light, which doubles as a theft deterrent, is at the bottom. If our Vivint doorbell senses an unwanted visitor at our door, that’s the light we’d flash at their mug with a 90-dB warning siren.

>> Learn More: Understanding Door Alarm Sensors

Our Vivint Installation Experience

Our Vivint security bundle came with a bunch of other useful protections, like this outdoor camera being installed to catch prowlers on our property.

The hardwired doorbell took 15 minutes to install. Our technician just spliced it right onto the old wires. Keep in mind that the second-gen doorbell camera doesn’t have a battery option, which is better for most of us anyway. This way, we don’t have to worry about our batteries dying on us or recording delays. The Vivint doorbell has an IP rating of 65, by the way, which means it’s pretty hardy. It can withstand temperatures as low as -4º F and up to 113º F. Your batteries, on the other hand, might not.

>> Go Deeper: Our Vivint Professional Installation Experience

Our new Vivint video doorbell looked great, even if there were a few wires visible from the side.

On balance, we were happy with the way our new video doorbell looked next to our front door. Our only gripe is that we could see some of the wires poking out of the side of the camera. (Look closely at the image above to see what we’re talking about.) We mention this so that you know: Vivint’s installation is a premium service that comes with a price tag. If you’re not happy with something, let your technician know. We’re sure they’ll fix it for you on the spot.

>> Compare: The Best DIY Home Security Systems We Tested This Year

Testing Our Vivint Doorbell

Vivint’s Smart Hub let us keep an eye on our porch and driveway at the same time.

Vivint’s 7-inch touch-screen Smart Hub was our mission control. All our settings were there, and we could use it to view video if we wanted. But, like most folks these days, we found the mobile app handier for everyday use. We could monitor all our Vivint gear from there: door and window sensors, motion sensors, as well as our Vivint indoor and outdoor cameras.

>> Compare: Vivint vs ADT

Here’s our view of our porch from the app. Pretty crisp.

Video Quality and FOV

Video Quality

Quality video resolution is crucial if you’re using your doorbell to keep an eye on intruders. Our Vivint camera is 1664p. That’s a lot more pixels than our older 1080p camera, which means significantly crisper video. The square, 180-degree FOV — as opposed to the previous 16×9 frame — also means better vertical coverage.

Our new doorbell camera also has HDR, which adjusts contrast in situations with distorting backlight (sun or street lights at night). Faces are generally easier to see this way.

>> Go Deeper: The Best Security Cameras for Image Quality

Vivint’s new 1664p HDR camera shoots crisp video day or night.

Notice the 180-degree FOV in the picture above. We could see everything on our patio, pretty much from doormat to dormers. Most video doorbells in Vivint’s price range come with 1080p HD without an HDR sensor, and most tap out at 160 degrees. That said, Vivint’s image quality itself wasn’t considerably better than what we saw when we tested the Lorex doorbell.

Motion Detection

Vivint’s motion detection was adequate but nothing special. Our camera did have “Smart Detection,” which meant our doorbell could tell the difference between people, pets, and cars. But, we’re seeing this more and more with other top competitors.

Also, like with other doorbell cameras we’ve tested, we were able to set Vivint’s motion sensor’s “tripline” to minimize false alerts (see image below). In our tests, passing cars never tripped the camera, even with the motion detection range extending well into the street. Dialing the motion sensitivity down to medium certainly helped there.

We set our Vivint doorbell’s sensitivity to medium to avoid false negatives.

Recordings and Event Timeline

When our video doorbell detected motion, it recorded a clip for as long as the action continued — sometimes up to three minutes. Had a pirate actually appeared on our stoop, that would have been much more useful than the standard 20- or 30-second clips we’ve seen from a lot of brands. Here’s a view from our Smart Hub.

Vivint records extended clips of front-door activity.

And here’s how our timeline appeared in the Vivint mobile app.

Our Vivint clip reel.

With each clip, we had two options: delete or upload. Here’s a video we uploaded, so you can get a sense of Vivint’s resolution and FOV in action.

Smart Package Detection

Vivint’s second-generation doorbell camera knew when a package arrived at our door. Once it was there, Vivint alerted us instantly with a push notification. Here’s a peek at some friends dropping off a package at our doorstep.

Vivint Motion Event

Our Vivint alerts were pretty fast, but they were not the fastest we’ve seen while testing other home security systems with doorbells. Though, this wasn’t necessarily Vivint’s fault: The alerts come through over Wi-Fi, which can vary from test to test and day to day.

>> Read More: Wireless Security Cameras and How They Work

Vivint’s alerts came pretty quick over Wi-Fi.

Package Protection

Package protection is different from package detection. With package protection activated, we should have received a warning when a wannabe pirate was about to make their move. To test this feature, we pilfered a package off our own doorstep and brought it inside, under the camera’s watchful eye.

The message we got (see below) — “Your camera is currently protecting your delivery” — wasn’t quite true: We’d already stolen it! Obviously, this could have been a glitch. But, it just goes to show that, even if a doorbell camera will definitely give most criminals second thoughts, it’s not going to stop all of them.

Our package was actually already gone when Vivint sent this message.

Smart Deter

Vivint Smart Deter let us activate the camera’s LED ring and sound the 90-dB siren to scare away thieves and snoops. In the security business, we call this “active deterrence,” and it’s a feature we love to see. Just remember that these are features you have to switch on yourself when Vivint alerts you to suspicious activity on your porch. The alarm and light won’t fire automatically.

If you’ve got a suspicious visitor on your porch, you can turn on the red light and siren.

We could also set a “deter chime,” which emitted a quick whistle when someone approached our door. This was really just a way to tell people to smile because they were on camera; it wasn’t a siren. We flipped on the 12-hour deter setting at night before turning in. We recommend you do the same. That way, if someone tries to storm the castle while you’re asleep, they’ll at least get a warning; nine times out of 10, this is all they need.

>> Tip of the Day: Stop Your Burglar Alarm From Going Off by Itself

Vivint in active deterrence mode whistles at visitors, reminding them that they’re on camera.

Two-Way Talk

Our Vivint doorbell had two-way talk, both via the Smart Hub and the mobile app. It worked remarkably well. While we’ve seen up to five-second delays with other doorbell cameras, Vivint’s audio was seamless. If there was a delay, it was almost imperceptible. The audio quality, on the other hand, wasn’t so great.

We could activate the two-way audio almost instantaneously from the Smart Hub.

If two-way talk is an important feature for you, one of our favorite smart doorbells — Ring’s Video Doorbell Elite — offers an impressive intercom experience. Plus, it boasts no delays since it’s powered by an Ethernet connection. Just expect to pay upwards of $350.

Pinch Zoom

Our Vivint Doorbell Camera Pro also had a 3x optical HD pinch zoom. Pinch zoom — a feature you’re probably used to from your phone — is missing from plenty of quality doorbells, so the fact that Vivint has it was a plus. However, as you can see below, don’t expect to get a lot of detail if you zoom all the way in. In our tests, the zoom feature worked fine up to about 15 feet before the video quality began to drop off.

Vivint’s pinch zoom was good for up to 15 feet.

Infrared Night Vision

Our Vivint doorbell camera used two LED sensors for infrared night vision. As you can see in the image below, nighttime vision was very good. However, when our porch lights went out, the picture turned black and white and pretty grainy.

Vivint’s Doorbell Camera Pro shot crisp video as long as the porchlight was on.

Leaving the porch light on at night was one way to combat the graininess. A quality outdoor camera with color night vision would have been even better. In either case, we didn’t love Vivint’s night vision feature. But, this is more of an issue with the state of infrared 2technology,/citation] than with Vivint.

>> Compare: Ring Spotlight or Floodlight?

Choose Your Chime

We had five different doorbell chimes to choose from. There’s even a chime for “person detection.” Personally, we set our person detection chime to “none,” as we didn’t want to hear it every time someone came to our door. You may want to leave yours on.

We could also choose where we wanted our chime to sound. The Smart Hub panel always played the chime, but we also set ours to ring through our Vivint Ping Indoor Camera.

Our Vivint doorbell chime settings.

Custom Rules

This is more of a system-wide feature than a doorbell feature, per se. As we mentioned up top, the Doorbell Camera Pro integrates beautifully into Vivint smart home systems. Plus, we were able to set Custom Actions (or new rules). This way, our doorbell cam would perform a certain function when specific conditions were met. For example, we set the following rule.

>> Read More: Smart Home Security Systems

Setting a custom rule for our Vivint Doorbell Camera Pro.

By creating the rule “I want my Doorbell to record a clip when an alarm is triggered,” we’d be sure to catch all the action at our front door. After all, what if someone broke in through our back door and ran out the front? With our doorbell cam set to record, we wouldn’t miss any of the action.

We just wish there were a few more Custom Actions options for the doorbell specifically. That said, we haven’t seen this advanced functionality on many other video doorbells we’ve tested. Furthermore, we imagine Vivint will expand their rules menu over time.

The Vivint app’s customized recordings.

Vivint Doorbell Pricing

The Vivint Doorbell Camera Pro was one of the most advanced video doorbells we’ve tested. So, we weren’t too shocked to find it was also pretty expensive at $249. For comparison, the SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro, a product we like a lot, costs $169.99; the Arlo Video Doorbell is only $150. Vivint’s $200-plus camera is a heavyweight right up there with Ring’s higher-tier doorbell options like the Elite.

>> Compare: Ring vs Ring Plus

It’s true that the Doorbell Camera Pro used to cost $229 and only recently jumped to $249. That’s likely because of the advanced theft deterrents they’ve added and the 1664p HDR camera. That extra $20 is well justified in our eyes. Here’s a full breakdown of the latest Vivint prices.

Our Vivint Monitoring Plan

Total home protection from one of the best names in home security doesn’t come cheap. On top of equipment and installation fees, our Vivint security system ran us $49.99 per month for 24/7 professional monitoring and to enable cloud recording for our Vivint cameras. That additional monthly fee guaranteed immediate, professional support if we ever had an emergency. Here’s our experience signing a Vivint contract.

>> Expert Picks: The Best Professionally Monitored Home Security Systems of the Year

Additionally — and this is one of our favorite features on the newer Vivint doorbell — the doorbell itself supports local recording via a microSD card. Not a lot of doorbell cameras offer local storage on top of a quality cloud storage plan. With Vivint, however, the doorbell can keep recording when the Wi-Fi is down.

Bottom Line

Ringing our Vivint Doorbell Camera Pro.

The Vivint Doorbell Camera Pro isn’t for everyone. It’s not cheap, and it requires a monitoring plan. But, if you already have a Vivint security system and are considering an upgrade — or if you’re in the market for a Vivint system — adding this extra layer of security makes a lot of sense.

The Vivint Doorbell Camera Pro is good-looking and has greatly improved resolution over previous models with a wide FOV and pretty good pinch zoom. Notifications were prompt and theft deterrence worked well with the occasional snafu. The infrared night vision, we’d say, isn’t up there with some of the color night vision cameras we’ve tested. But, images were crystal clear with our porch light on. Last but not least, this is a wired doorbell we expect to have for at least a few years. So, the investment, in our book, was well spent.

Vivint Doorbell FAQs