Defender Guard Pro 2K Wi-Fi Review | Digital trends

Dozens of smart security cameras nowadays. As almost every smart home brand offers some sort of surveillance peripheral, choosing a device is becoming increasingly difficult. Fortunately, the most impressive hardware always goes to the top and we were lucky enough to get our hands on a camera that checks all the boxes in terms of functionality, durability and features.

The Defender Guard Pro 2K Wi-Fi Impressive resolution glasses, a range of intuitive features and a deep companion app. Does the Guard Pro 2K hold true with its specs and marketing? Yes, really.

Out of the box

From a design perspective, Defender Guard Pro Providing a solid first impression.

Holding it in your hand, the camera doesn’t feel too heavy, but you can also say that there is nothing cheap about playing. The plastic outer shell feels artistic and stiff, while the pivoting arm was easy to adjust, but you set it firmly after you choose its resting position.

In addition to the camera, the box includes all mounting hardware, a 10-foot power cable, a 25-foot power cable extension, a window warning sticker, a drilling template, user manual and waterproof shielding for an Ethernet cable.

The male-to-female bridge between the power cable and the extension is not waterproof (user guide explicitly says so), but it would be nice to see some sort of cover for the power connection.

You’ll want to make sure you’ve got an electrical outlet for plugging in the camera because neither the Guard Pro nor the Standard Guard are battery powered.

Setup and installation

Creating and running Defender Guard Pro is a relatively simple process, although we did run into some initial problems (more on that in a moment).

As well as setting the lens to its wide view, the color and contrast are nice, and the level of detail is out of this world.

The first thing you need to do is install the Defender Guard app (for this) iOS And Android device) On your phone or tablet. When you launch the app, you’ll be asked to create a Defender account if you don’t already have one. Two-factor authentication lets you enter a six-digit code into your email inbox to confirm your Defender registration.

Once you’ve created an account, you’ll want to launch and select the Defender app Add device Plus-sign icon in the upper-right corner. You will have the option to activate your Defender Guard Pro by manually inputting the camera into the device’s QR code (recommended) or the app.

Before proceeding to the next step, make sure your Defender Guard Pro is plugged in and has the power. After scanning the QR code, you’ll be prompted to connect your phone to the Guard Pro’s temporary hotspot. Once connected, join your 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network (Guard Pro does not support 5GHz band). And that’s where we got into some trouble.

Like Several Our Guard Pro tries to connect to our Wi-Fi network. After shutting down and restarting the app and activation process, we finally had to unplug and reconnect both the camera and the router. Eventually, Guard Pro successfully joined the network and did not come without a pair.

Considering that the Guard Pro is equipped with a dual Wi-Fi receptor, and our router was not even 15 feet away at the time of setup, this initial bit network problem is a bit worrying. As mentioned, the Guard Pro never dropped off the network after successfully joining, and all device and app commands were smooth and responsive.

Once Guard Pro is activated, use the mounting template to indicate where you are going to mount the camera. Pre-drill the holes, hold the camera mounting plate against the holes, fasten the mounting screws and plug the camera.

Features

The Defender Guard Pro 2Kis is the best of the company’s two 2K ​​Wi-Fi cameras Standard Defender Guard 2K Offer low overall features and reduced performance.

Although in terms of resolution, the maximum of both the Guard and Guard Pro is 2560 x 1440p, or what the company calls 2K ClearVu. We cover the image quality in the next section but suffice it to say that the Guard Pro didn’t surprise us – especially when it comes to full-color night mode (IR for standard guard cameras only).

Allows two-way talk between The Guard Pro device owner and anyone standing in front of the camera scene (Standard Guard does not have two-way talkback). There’s an alternative to dedicated audio recording and two great prevention features you won’t find on a regular guard – a motion-trigger spotlight and a siren.

At the motion end of things, the Guard Pro also features Smart Human Detection, which uses an algorithm to ensure that motion sensors are only triggered by humans, ignoring things like animals and moving vehicles.

Unusual for the Smart Security brand, Defender Guard Pro and Standard Guard both come with a pre-installed microSD card for local storage. The Guard Pro comes with a 32GB card with a maximum of 256GB of camera, while the Standard Guard is equipped with a 16GB card and a maximum of 128GB. Of course, you can always opt for Defender’s bank-encrypted cloud storage, which is usually an option we see pushing most smart security brands. So, starting recording locally for free was a nice change.

The Guard Pro also plays a dual network antenna for picking up 2.4GHz Wi-Fi networks (there is no option to connect the Guard camera to the 5GHz band), whereas the Standard Guard has only one antenna. If going wireless can be a problem, both cameras also have an Ethernet port for hard-wiring in your network.

In terms of durability, both guard cameras are IP67-rated, which protects the hardware from dirt, dust and rain. Note: None of the electrical wires are waterproof, so you have to buy Proper wire insulation Separately

Image quality

In terms of overall image quality, Defender Guard Pro is quite amazing. Supports both standard and high-definition live view and recording, it’s Defender’s 2K ClearVu optics (2560 x 1440p) which is really different. Here is a screenshot of one of the live views of our day

Set the lens to its wide view and you will see that the color and contrast is nice, and the detail layer is out of this world. When we pushed the 16x digital zoom to the maximum and the resolution inevitably dropped, we didn’t really lose much in terms of color and exposure.

Full-color night vision is also a feature that you don’t usually see at this price point. This is especially true for the kind of quality you’ll see with Defender Guard Pro. Here is a screenshot from a live view of our test unit in the late evening.

As the resolution reaches its maximum, the night footage is sharp and well-balanced in terms of color and exposure, although there is a little more exposure than the powerful LED floodlights in the neighboring building.

Our recommendation: Use this if you are getting network bandwidth to support maximum 2K resolution. It provides some powerful footage that we have seen from a web-connected security camera.

Companion app

Defender Guard App (for iOS And Android device) Intelligent and responsive features and offers a clean dashboard of customization. Launching the app puts you in the Home tab where you’ll see live-view thumbnails from all Defender cameras on your network. Selecting one of the thumbnails takes you to the camera you choose and a real-time feature from a command dashboard (when your phone or tablet is in its vertical orientation) at the bottom of the screen.

Includes some useful quick commands Snapshot And Record To capture a still image or video of what your camera is viewing, Talk To start a two-way conversation, and Siren To manually guard Guard Pro’s alarm (only do this in case of a real emergency – it’s loud!)

You will see an option called View the history record. Select this option to view a log of motion-triggered recordings of your Guard Pro, as well as any manual stills and recordings you choose. Event logs serve as storage for both local and cloud-based images and recordings, sorted by calendar date, with a timestamp shown at the bottom of each thumbnail. Select a thumbnail to navigate to a new page with the actual clip and play / pause command.

We appreciate the many customizable choices and other settings that the app has to offer. On the home page, select Two points Icon at the top-right of the live-view thumbnail of your Guard Pro to drag the centered sub-menu. Selecting Device details Sends you to Guard Pro settings: how and when to receive notifications, customize tone and volume type using the overall sensitivity of the motion sensor and alarm.

You will see a Storage settings The tab at the bottom of this dashboard shows how much space is left on your microSD card. Select this readout to go to a screen where you can format the card if it starts to fill up (you can manually delete pictures and recordings from the event log).

Price and warranty

The Defender Guard Pro 2K Wi-Fi Usually retail for 126, but you can sometimes Hold it for 99 on Amazon. The Guard Pro comes out of the box with a one year limited warranty, you can buy it too Two or three year extended warranty via Defender’s website.

Our acceptance

Although $ 126 is a pretty solid price for a Wi-Fi camera, Standard Defender Guard 2K It sells for just 40 but has less overall features than the Guard Pro.

If you want to jump on the bandwagon for battery-powered security cameras, Google Nest Cam (battery) and Blink outdoor cam Both are difficult options.

Will you buy it?

Absolutely. Some top-notch photo quality and a clean, intuitive app make it a must-buy security cam.

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