The best smart outdoor security cameras

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU

Burglar life was easy when our only protectors were furry, four-legged security guards – but these days we can rig up our houses like Fort Knox. Today’s smart, outdoor cameras can do everything from sending live garden-cam feeds to your smartphone, to distinguishing between cars and rogue cats. They come in all shapes and sizes too. From the floodlight-armed Presence to flexible, magnetic offerings from the likes of Canary and Netgear, we’ve put our current favourites in a four-way battle to become our Head of Home Security:

NEST CAM OUTDOOR

There’s no faulting the Nest Cam Outdoor’s picture quality, which is crisp and detailed at night as well as during the day. The 1080p picture is sharp enough to recognise faces without having to Zoom and Enhance, CSI-style. The lengthy insulated cable should let you hook up the camera outside without having to buy extension cables, but it is a bit on the thick side – you’ll need to do some drilling unless you’ve got an outside mains socket. Like the indoor Nest Cam, you’re only getting half the features unless you subscribe to the Nest Aware monthly plan. If you’ve got multiple cameras, this can get seriously expensive. It can withstand the elements, but you’ll have to dig deep into your pocket to keep all of its best features

NETATMO PRESENCE

After the potentially tricky setup process, the Presence is a superlative spy. Its auto-detection features work, for the most part, brilliantly, picking up any motion and telling us via notification if a person or animal was seen. We say for the most part because once it mistook a pigeon for a car – but only once. Using the app, you can create alert zones if you don’t want every part of your garden under constant surveillance, which is a nice touch. You can also scroll through everything the camera has detected, viewing that footage at your will. And you can see a live view, natch.

CANARY FLEX

The Flex can’t be beaten for simplicity. Screw the base to your wall, connect to your Wi-Fi, and you’re up and running. Video quality is good enough for zooming in on any Feathers McGraws, even in night vision mode. And the app’s geo-fencing means you can set it to down tools when you’re home, only sending you alerts when you leave the house. The flipside to the Flex’s simplicity is that it’s not quite as techy as its rivals. It can’t distinguish between types of moving object like the Netatmo Presence, and won’t connect to the likes of IFTTT or Apple HomeKit. Without its Secure Mount, it’s also a bit vulnerable to being snatched by the thieves you’re trying to foil. The Flex is technically capable of two-way audio, though, which Canary is planning to add soon.

TEST WINNER: NETGEAR ARLO PRO

The Pro is excellent in most regards. It’s super-easy to set up and has a robust Wi-Fi connection; I positioned mine in the garden some 50ft away from the router and it never lost signal. The lack of wires is a big bonus, and the rechargeable battery still had 100% charge four days in. As a camera, it’s pretty good. No full HD, but the night vision mode worked well and it has a nice, wide 130-degree view. It’s not as smart as some rivals, but geofencing is easy to set up and there’s IFTTT integration so you can hook it up to other smart things such as Philips Hue and Amazon Alexa. This all helps to make it our favourite all-round security cam.