Ecobee has today launched its first video doorbell, the “Smart Doorbell Camera,” which has a neat feature that lets you view the camera feed live on your thermostat.
The Ecobee brand is best known for its thermostats, but the lineup has grown over the past few years to include other smart home gear, such as a security system and a smart camera. Now, a video doorbell is joining the pack.
The Ecobee Smart Doorbell Camera, like Google’s Nest Doorbell and others, supports attaching to existing doorbell wires and showing you a live feed of who’s at the door when the bell is rung. The camera has a 175-degree FOV that aims to see up and down primarily, so you can see packages against the door. The doorbell even uses a form of radar to ensure that motion such as a passing car won’t trigger alerts from the camera.
It’s all pretty standard for a modern video doorbell, but Ecobee has a trick up its sleeve.
In an impressive show of ecosystem integration, the Ecobee Smart Doorbell Camera has the ability to share a live feed of what’s at the front door on your thermostat. The Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium’s display will be able to show the live feed when someone rings the doorbell, and it can even support two-way conversation. 9to5Mac says the feature is handy if the thermostat is in a convenient location.
The usefulness of this will depend on where your thermostat is placed in your home. But I’ve found it to be a handy feature as mine is right next to my office and I can immediately see who’s at the door.
Really, this all feels like something that the Nest of old might have come up with. But instead, Nest’s flagship thermostat is approaching a decade old, and there are still a lot of software (and hardware) qualms with the Google Nest lineup.
You can read 9to5Mac’s full review of the Ecobee Smart Doorbell camera, and the device is shipping now for $159 from retailers such as Amazon and from Ecobee’s website.
More on Smart Home:
- Ecobee’s latest Nest Thermostat competitor has a built-in air quality monitor and radar
- ADT prepares another Google-integrated security system that revives Nest Secure’s best features
- Google Home app will finally support manual Nest Cam clips ‘later this year’
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