- Pros
- Two cameras, one dedicated to
- packages
- Local storage means no monthly subscriptions
- Good video quality
Cons
- Limited smart home support
Our Verdict
The dual-camera design on this clever video doorbell is no gimmick, and the local video storage makes it an even better value.
There’s a lot to like about the innovative Eufy Video Doorbell Dual. The device packs two cameras: one to look out over your porch and another that looks down at packages. It also comes with some clever AI functions and a base station that provides local storage for video clips, meaning no monthly fee.
The top camera has a sharp 2K camera with 2,560 x 1,920 resolution and a 160 degree field of view, while the lower package camera has a 1,600 x 1,200 resolution and has a tighter 97 degree view.
Installation
The battery-powered doorbell clips into a mounting unit that you can secure to your wall with two screws. Eufy says the battery should last for six months with average use, and there are power terminals on the rear of the device for connecting it to existing doorbell wiring to keep the battery at full charge.
The Video Doorbell Dual’s lower package camera has a 1,600 x 1,200-pixel resolution and a tight 97-degree view.The doorbell comes with a second unit called a HomeBase, which manages communication between the doorbell and your home network. The HomeBase also includes 16GB of local video storage space, meaning there’s no need for a cloud storage subscription. The hub requires a wired Ethernet connection, so it can’t be installed just anywhere, but you can tuck it out of sight since you don’t have to regularly access the device.
The Eufy Video Doorbell Dual provides a sharp, well balanced video image that looked good during the day and at night. In the Eufy app, you can pinch and zoom on different parts of the image to get a closer look, a feature that definitely benefits from the 2K video resolution. I didn’t have any problems with the video during my testing.
Martyn Williams / Foundry
The doorbell was consistently triggered by movement at my front door, and it didn’t suffer from frequent false positives or get triggered too easily by wind or weather. Once or twice the camera triggered too late to catch action, but those were outlying cases.
The app offers a wealth of configuration options, some of which are quite clever. First are the basic detection settings. You can choose between all motion and humans only as well as select the sensitivity. There are user-definable activity zones for both cameras, plus an additional option to set alerts if someone loiters in front of your house. You can even determine what you consider to be loitering; for example, someone standing within 6 feet of the front door for 15 seconds or more could trigger an alert.
The app offers several ways to display both cameras. You can stack the two camera views so they’re identically sized, or put the package camera in a small window inside the main camera view. If you opt for this latter option, you’ll get a larger view from the main camera.
One of the smartest functions is the package detection. When the camera detects a package being placed on your porch, it will send an alert telling you something was delivered, and the camera will keep watch over that package. You’ll then get a second alert when you or someone else picks up the package up. The camera can also be programmed to play audio of your choice should someone approach a delivered package, and it will remind you if a package has gone uncollected.
The device includes a facial recognition feature, which is switched off on by default. If enabled, it will attempt to detect faces when people come to your door, and you can teach the doorbell the identity of each person, so it knows the difference between (say) a stranger and your neighbor.
When a visitor rings the doorbell, you’ll get an alert and the ability to speak with them and see them through the app. The doorbell can also trigger a conventional doorbell chime (if it’s wired) or a Eufy chime (if it’s connected to the HomeBase). It can also trigger a chime sound through Amazon Alexa, if enabled.
The app allows you to share access to the camera or your entire Eufy home (should you have other Eufy security products) with other people.
The biggest downside to the doorbell is limited smart home support. If you’ve gone all-in with Alexa or Google Assistant, this doorbell won’t offer quite the same level of integration as Amazon’s Ring or Google’s Nest devices, although it can be controlled with some Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands. Meanwhile, Apple’s HomeKit platform isn’t supported at all.
Bottom line
Admittedly, I initially thought the Eufy Video Doorbell Dual’s downward-facing camera was merely a gimmick, but after testing the doorbell’s smart detection features, I found it really useful to get alerts when packages were picked up and delivered. The addition of the included HomeBase’s local video storage in the HomeBase makes the Dual an even more attractive package. If you’re in the market for a video doorbell, this is one you should take a look at.
A VIDEO DOORBELL can be a great help, and we’ve reviewed a bunch of them. They can let you know when a delivery has arrived, but they can’t always ensure that your package will still be there when you get home. Eufy’s dual video doorbell solves this problem by adding a second camera, so you can get a clear look at visitors and monitor anything sitting on the doorstep.
The split-screen view ensures comprehensive porch coverage and will relieve anyone who has package anxiety. It’s also refreshing to find a camera with on-device AI and local storage, so you never have to upload videos to the cloud.
The growth of online shopping has sparked more deliveries than ever. But that just means that more packages are left on porches, easy pickings for opportunistic thieves. It’s tough to quantify how big a problem porch pirates are, because it varies from area to area, and the crime often goes unreported. But a Finder survey estimates that around 14 percent of Americans have fallen victim to package theft in the past year, the value of which is estimated at $5.4 billion.
The Eufy Video Doorbell Dual promises to reduce the risk of porch pirates making off with your latest Amazon purchases with a secondary downward-facing camera that covers your porch. Many video doorbells promise to identify package delivery but fail to show the spot where people typically leave them. Even the ones that do, like the Logitech Circle View, have a slight fish-eye effect and a blind spot directly below. The Dual offers the most comprehensive view of my front porch yet.
I can see at a glance if there’s a package or my cat waiting to get in (an unexpected bonus) with a split-screen view in the app. The Dual also boasts built-in package detection to alert you when packages are delivered or picked up, and it sends you reminders when packages have not been taken inside. It even challenges people loitering on your porch.
The Delivery Guard set of features has been hit-and-miss for me. I get a lot of deliveries, and most of them have sparked a “Package delivered” message. The “Package picked up” alerts have been a little less reliable. It also misidentified a brick, my cat (in loaf position), and a painted stone my daughter placed on the porch as packages, and it failed to register two packages I left out for pickup.
I like the reminder feature, where you can set a time for the camera to check your porch and tell you to bring in any uncollected packages, but the loitering and package-guarding features were not well designed. Loitering detection allows you to set a range and time, so anyone hanging around triggers a notification or an automatic voice response that says something like “Excuse me, can I help you?” (You can set custom responses too.) Package guarding triggers the voice response when someone approaches a package on your porch.
This feature confused delivery people, and it got triggered every time I chatted with a visitor at the door or the kids were waiting for us to drive them somewhere. I turned both features off.
Eufy’s previous 2K Doorbell made our list of the best video doorbells by offering high-quality footage, accurate human detection, and a local storage option, which means there’s no need for a subscription. The Dual has all of that. The video is detailed, and the camera copes well with mixed lighting thanks to HDR support, which is a must for my south-facing porch.
The combination of radar and PIR (passive infrared) motion sensors in the doorbell ensures that you don’t miss any visitors. Human detection is mostly accurate, though it did trigger a human alert for my cat Bodhi twice. He is part Maine coon and large for a cat, but you wouldn’t mistake him for a person. After customizing activity zones and sensitivity, false positives have not been a problem, and the Dual compares favorably with other video doorbells on that score.
The addition of face detection is pleasing, and alerts on your phone include close-ups. You can put names to faces in the app so that notifications state who is at the door. This feature works well for regular visitors and family, though it seems unable to recognize my daughter’s friend who comes around every morning to walk to school with her. He always pops up as a new face.
Apart from the flaky AI, the doorbell has other flaws. The Dual is huge. It is one of the largest video doorbells I’ve tested. My daughter’s friend described it as intimidating. You’ll also have to remove the entire doorbell to charge it. Your battery life will vary depending on how busy your door is and the settings you choose, but Eufy suggests up to six months from a single charge. (I am on track to get around three.)
There is no HomeKit support, and I find the Dual very slow to load on supported Alexa and Google Assistant smart displays. Even if I choose to optimize for smart displays over the phone app (which isn’t a choice anyone wants to have to make), there is still a frustrating delay. Thankfully, the phone app is usually quick to load, but it is noticeably slower when you are away from home, sometimes so slow that the caller is gone or leaving by the time you answer.
Of course, this isn’t your only option. The Arlo Essential and the Logitech Circle View alerted me to rings and loaded faster. Eufy has another 2K Video Doorbell, if you prefer local storage and you’re keen to avoid a subscription. But if you also get a lot of deliveries, $60 isn’t too much for another camera and a slew of onboard AI features. That’s a reasonable proposition for someone who gets a lot of deliveries—so, all of us.
