A nanny cam only helps if the footage stays sharp when it matters. Consumer Reports tested video quality and data security to find trustworthy picks
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A nanny cam needs to deliver clear footage day and night, since a blurry recording defeats the purpose the moment something actually happens. Weak data protections raise a separate worry, since footage from inside a home is exactly the kind of thing that shouldn't leak.
Consumer Reports tested indoor cameras for video quality, data security and response speed, so parents can find a model worth trusting.
Credit: Amazon
The Arlo Essential Indoor costs $80 and captures 1440p video across a 130-degree field of view, though Consumer Reports doesn't recommend this particular model. CR rated its daytime footage sharp enough to make out most scene details and its nighttime video very good, while data security scored excellent thanks to strong encryption and safeguards against known vulnerabilities. Data privacy came back mediocre, meaning Arlo collects and shares more data than CR would like to see, and alerts reached the app in about 3 seconds on average during testing. The camera works with Alexa and Google $GOOGL Assistant, adds geofencing and a siren, and stores footage only through a paid cloud plan since it has no local storage option.
Credit: Lorex
The Lorex 2K Pan-Tilt WiFi costs $70 and captures 2K video with HDR across a 110-degree field of view. Consumer Reports rated both its daytime and nighttime footage excellent, sharp enough to pick out fine details and patterns in the scene, and gave its data security very good marks. Data privacy scored mediocre, similar to many cameras in this lineup, and alerts reached the app in about 4.4 seconds on average, slower than the other three cameras CR measured here. The camera detects people and sounds, works with Alexa and Google $GOOGL Assistant, and offers 16GB of built-in microSD storage alongside a paid cloud plan.
Credit: Amazon
The TP-Link Kasa Smart Pan & Tilt costs $45, less than every other camera in this lineup, and captures 1440p video with a wide field of view suited to covering a full room. Consumer Reports rated both its daytime and nighttime footage excellent and gave its data security very good marks. Data privacy scored mediocre, and alerts reached the app in about 3.4 seconds on average during testing. The camera detects people and sounds, connects with Alexa, Google $GOOGL Assistant and Google Home, and supports optional microSD storage up to 512GB alongside a paid cloud plan.
Credit: TP-Link
The TP-Link Tapo C225 costs $53 and captures a resolution of 2688 x 1520 with HDR video, higher than any other camera in this lineup. Consumer Reports rated its daytime footage sharp enough to make out most scene details and its nighttime video excellent, and gave its data security very good marks, though data privacy came back sub-standard, weaker than the other three cameras tested here. Alerts reached the app in about 2 seconds on average, quicker than every other camera CR measured in this lineup. The camera pairs with a broader range of smart-home systems than its rivals here, including Alexa, Apple $AAPL HomeKit and Google $GOOGL Home, and its detection features extend beyond people and sounds to vehicles, animals and boundary-crossing objects.
