Gadgetory

hey guys I'm Megan Willerton pristine appliances here on a front porch on a chilly January morning with the skybell Wi-Fi video doorbell now we've reviewed a couple of smart doorbells in the past and had some middling results that isn't to say that Sky Bell is perfect but it's definitely a step past the other ones we've seen so far so this camera doesn't have an HD video quality so you're gonna get a grainy r video feed but it won't have a lot of that streaky unpleasantness that doorbot and ring had that made it difficult to see who was at your front door to begin with you also won't have as many bandwidth concerns if you don't have a super super fast Wi-Fi connection so here's the gist when someone rings the doorbell or if someone's just stands in front of the motion sensor for up to 10 seconds you'll get a push alert that will link to the video feed from there you will have a two-way talk function where you can hold down a button to talk and then release to listen this part actually didn't work that well it was kind of like a poor phone connection where you hear every few words that aren't quite sure what they're saying I experienced some other limitations during the installation and setup process so the other smart doorbells I've reviewed have both battery-powered and wired options so if you don't have a wired doorbell you can still use it this one is wired only which allows for the live-streaming and some of the other more advanced features but it means that a lot of people will be left out of the equation you won't be able to buy this $199 doorbell and install it if you don't have a wired setup it also doesn't work with an intercom system and if you have a digital doorbell that's a computerized door chime that comes from a speaker rather than a traditional Bell you will have to spend some extra bucks on sky bells adapter which will take a little bit more effort you'll have to go to the source of your doorbell chime and actually do some more installation work to get everything up and running one other thing to note is that if you had a traditional doorbell installed before this round shape might not fit in the same space quite as well for example the doorbell previously installed was right here and it fit very seamlessly but you will notice there's some overhang so while I would say that Sky Bell is the best DIY smart doorbell I've seen yet it does have a few kinks that it needs to work out so it's not perfect but it will get the job done if you want to see who is at your front door thanks for watching this review of sky Bell be sure to check out the rest of our coverage on cnn.com I am Megan Willert enforcing that appliance