TP-Link 𝗧𝗮𝗽𝗼 SolarCam C402 Kit, Outdoor Battery Camera w/Solar Panel Base, Wireless, 1080P, Free Person/Vehicle Detection, SD/Cloud Storage, Color Night Vision, No Hub Needed, Works w/Alexa

I’m a senior woman and I had this Tapo cam mounted under my eaves and set up in no time. It’s the perfect solution for being able to have a security cam where I can’t have a hardwired one, and it works just as well as my Ring and SimpliSafe cams that are hardwired.The picture quality is clear, voice is clear, it’s easy to use the app, and it connects easily to my WiFi (thanks to my TP Link Deco system which gave me coverage where I had none (or poor) where I needed to mount this camera).**BATTERY LIFE** - I installed this camera 4+ months ago and the battery is at 73% now, so I can easily believe the claim of a 6-month battery life. Where I have it there isn’t an extraordinary amount of activity like there is with my doorbell camera that goes off two dozen times a day, but it does pick up motion at least 5 or 6 times a day, so I’m really happy with the battery life. I bought a solar panel for it, but haven’t installed it yet because the battery life has been so good.I put an SD card in it, but I haven’t checked it so I can’t say much about that.You can easily set areas to detect or not detect motion, and that feature works really well.I have 3 Ring cams and a SimpliSafe doorbell camera, and this inexpensive Tapo battery cam works as well as they do. ALL of them occasionally drop their connection (so far they all reconnect on their own), so I can’t take a star away for connectivity when practically every device I have has the same random, occasional issue.We’ve had heavy rains, snow/freezing temps and I’ve had no issues at all. It is under an eave, so I can’t say how it functions when fully exposed to the elements.The light is good. It won’t light up your entire yard, but it is bright and lights up the area around it sufficiently, imo.I’d actually give it 4.5 stars if I could because it isn’t “perfect”, but I haven’t found a device that functions “5-star perfect” 100% of the time. What is “perfect” is the battery life and being able to easily mount this camera practically anywhere.I initially had trouble connecting to the camera from my phone, and the app would repeatedly say that the camera was “offline”. I was about to return it, and then I realized my phone had to be on my home WiFi to connect to it. I never used to keep my WiFi on, on my phone, but now I do and I have no problems connecting to the camera. That’s the only difference I can see between this camera and my Ring cameras. My WiFi doesn’t have to be on to connect to them, and I think there’s a setting I haven’t figured out to remedy this. I haven’t seen any other complaints about this issue, so I suspect it's ‘user error’ on my part.***Before you mount it (or any other WiFi device) I strongly recommend getting the TP-Link ‘WiFi Toolkit’ app on your phone. It allows you to walk around your house or property and see how good or bad your WiFi signal is at a particular location. This will save you a lot of time and headache when mounting or installing a device, especially one that is hardwired that you can’t check until you’ve gone through the trouble of installing it. Very handy app.Anyway, I highly recommend this Tapo battery cam. It’s easy to install, works well, has a great picture and sound, the light is good, it doesn’t send random alerts, and it’s definitely the right price.

Awesome product- I do not need to re-charge it because the sun keeps this fully charged. When its cloudy, the battery kicks in and that will re-charge on it's own the next time it is sunny. If you so wish, you can detach the camera and charge it with a USB-C (included) cable on your own as well but I have not needed to. The solar panel can be moved as well, it does not need to be hooked right above the camera as it is shown (I left it like that since my camera is in a sunny enough location). The panel comes with a cord that is like 4 feet long that can hook to the camera along with a separate base to move it into a sunnier location if your camera is not in an area that gets enough sun (like hooked to a tree). Includes everything you need to hook it to a wall etc.- screws and wall anchors, along with a handy sticker that you can put on the wall to use as your drill hole guide so you are not having to hold it up and draw holes/drill.As to the camera video/photos- very good. I have no issue with that, even at night. It comes with several features like an alarm if you want to turn on to scare intruders, a light that you can manually turn on at night, and a manual microphone to speak into it from your app/phone. You can also set the detection area in case you do not want certain areas to set it off in its range (which the range is VERY good as well), and also set it to alert your phone for only certain things like pets or people or cars only etc. Pretty much if you want to customize it, you can.Setup was very easy with the Tapo app, and it works well with Alexa/Google. Anyone can do it- even if you do not know much about apps on the phone.Price was good as well for what you get in my opinion. If you want a cheaper option, beware of the quality of the picture you get and also the battery life. JUST as good as the RING that I also own, and it is cheaper! It comes with a 30 day free TAPO cloud subscription similar to the ring one, but I never needed it. I have it save to a SD card since it includes a slot for that (which you have to purchase the card on your own- but they are cheap these days).Hope that helps! Well worth it if you do not want the RING cost but still want the RING quality.

Nice little camera. Easy to set up. Took an initial indoor charge then solar has handled the rest so far. My parents love it since they didn't need anything super fancy or high quality to see what's roaming around at night in the countryside. The night vision and 2 way audio also work well. Motion detection kicks on without issues and video storage is fine with a decent sized SD card. Can easily save months of footage. Connectivity is also fine through the WiFi. My parents pay for the cheapest package at 100mbps and use an older WiFi router without issue. Their home is rather small so if you intend to use this in a larger home you may want a newer WiFi router with more range or consider a mesh network.

Item is still under review, but so far it seems to be working okay. It has many great features for an excellent price. After purchase I was disappointed to find out that there is no way to turn off the camera from the phone, requiring you to climb up and down a ladder to power ON or OFF the device. Also when the battery eventually fails, the only option is to purchase the entire camera again. That being said, their customer service is excellent! They answer the phone immediately with knowledgeable reps. My CHAT time w Rommel was similarly a great experience.