Top 10 best Home Surveillance Systems 2022 Passed Our Test

I’ll leave my previous 4-star review below, but I’m highly upset that not too long after receiving my NVR and camera kit, a newer version of this same NVR was released at the same price and Reolink stopped supporting the old NVR hardware. I know this as I referred friends and family to this setup and they received the updated NVR. Updates are no longer included on mine, compatibility with newer released cameras are not supported, and with that added future features are no longer included. I now am forced to upgrade at full cost, my entire system if I want to be included in purchasing new cameras with better clarity, color nightvision, advanced motion detection, or even keep up with security updates. Such a shame that if I would have just waited a couple of months, I would have gotten the updated NVR that allows all this for the same price. It’s a money grab that turns away their dedicated customer base in my opinion. I have no longer recommended Reolink to friends, neighbors or family due to this. I have found another manufacturer that seems to support their products better that I myself will be switching to when I upgrade.PREVIOUS REVIEW:First I’d like to state that I’m not new to surveillance systems. I have had one installed since 2014 personally and installed many others for friends and family. Having that I’d paid $1,200 for my previous system and replacing it with one now in 2020 with more features at a fraction of that price point deserves a star in itself. With all the different brands and models I’ve gotten to tinker with over the years it has provided a good position for comparison. The Reolink system has a lot to offer but also has some room for improvement as well. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed across the variety of surveillance systems I’ve had the opportunity to set up it’s the broken software and lack of updates. Many systems are shipped with outdated, clunky and buggy firmware. My high-end name-brand system from 2014 never had an update available from the manufacturer and was discontinued and unsupported a few years after release. So for me it was a big deal to set my sights on a company that was focused on their product and did not offer umpteen different versions of an NVR to where it was too overwhelming for their developers to patch any issues. Reolink only sells a couple of different NVR’s, and many of their cameras are compatible with it..even their PTZ RLC423 and wireless RLC511W. Mobile viewing was a must as was viewing with a PC client. So when researching, I found Reolink to be the best value for the money and I still stand by that. I added the RLC511W to my setup along with an additional RLC511 for a total of 6 cameras as seen in my screenshots.In the box :Everything you need is included. Some instructions, 4 Cameras, 4 POE 59ft Cat5 cables, the NVR, a wired mouse, and power adapter. The window stickers, mounting template, Cat5 weather seals (while not useable unless you plan to cut your Cat-5 wiring and re-crimp) and hardware are a nice touch.Installation:Setup really is a breeze with this system. I’d recommend first setting this up on a dining room table or workbench to connect everything and get familiar with the setup. After you have everything how you want it you can run your wires and flip it on and be ready to go. This will also give you the opportunity to make sure everything is functional out of the box in case you need to return or replace anything. Getting yourself set up on the phone app at this point is also a good idea.Although I already had Cat5 cables ran from my old system I decided to run the new cables provided in my Reolink kit. Using electrical tape I attached an end of the old wire to the new one and pulled it through. For a new install I recommend drilling your holes for your cabling and electrical tape the Cat5 cable to a fiberglass wire running rod kit if installing in a hard to reach area. These fiberglass wire running kits can be had for under $10 and are well worth it. Once you’ve drilled your holes and ran your data wires mount your camera bases and twist-lock the cameras to them. Plug everything up to the NVR and switch it on. I used the phone app to log into the cameras and make my adjustments from my ladder. I have the NVR providing output to both my big screen TV via HDMI and a 23″ TV next to it via VGA output. The wired mouse is cheap but works. I have found that all of my name-brand wireless mice do not work with this NVR, but did find a cheap 2.4gz wireless mouse that works well. Once in a great while I have to unplug the reciever from the USB port and plug it back in for it to work again.Software:Overall the NVR software is functional and provides you with the capability to live view and playback as needed. The NVR, Client, and Phone app all have 1-way audio capability as well. As stated in the beginning of my review, the software is not without some needs for improvement. I’ll break those down below:Playback on the PC client is slow to react and you can’t slide the time mark easily. Selecting 2x 4x 8x etc playback speeds removes the video picture and reloads. A 64x playback speed option would be very helpful as 32x is time consuming and trying to move the time mark around will almost put you into a epileptic seizure. Exporting clips to video is pretty easy and a feature I like, it’s just navigating around the playback to find it that’s challenging. Navigating on the NVR directly with the mouse or via the phone app is much easier and quicker.NVR virtual keyboard is tiny. Get out your readers! Even on an 86″ TV via HDMI the virtual keyboard is so small and hard to read I have to sit closer. The blue keys with white lettering are also very hard to make out from any distance.Motion detection to full screen live viewing is not available on this unit. Many of the systems I’ve installed and my old one from 2014 had this feature and we miss it dearly. Whenever anyone triggered a motion alert, our monitor would open that channel full-screen so we could see what is going on. It was also helpful as this transition would get our attention, so now if someone walks up to our home we do not notice it on a static screen that is always on a 4-channel split layout. If we were to use a layout with all 6 of our used channels we’d definitely miss things as everything would be too tiny to stand out. PLEASE make this an option in a future update Reolink!Privacy Masks are limited. You can only place 4 per camera and with wide-angle lenses nothing is really straight. As you can see in some of my pictures, I’ve had to put blocky masks on certain areas that are white because the nightvision IR is so intense that the light bounces off and creates a bright glare. It would be nice to be able to draw around items with the privacy masks or at least have unlimited reign.The phone app is phenomenal and easy to use. The motion alerts are quick and can be fine tuned to where you want motion activation, and sensitivity can be adjusted along with a time schedule as well. Matter of fact I find myself just using the phone app for most things versus messing with the PC client or even the NVR itself. Well done on this Reolink!Video & Audio quality:This is where the system shines with only a few small drawbacks. The 5MP quality is just great! You can opt for 3 different quality feeds from your mobile app or PC client to save on data. Things are pretty clear and sharp for the most part but the camera sensors aren’t the best under certain lighting conditions. The dynamic range seems to choke a bit on my front door channel. As you can see with the pictures of my mailman, colors are just fine in the daylight, but all shadows turn a dark green when he is in the shaded area. My front porch is where I really want the best definition so it’s a shame that the camera does this. We can blame it on my lighting conditions but my old camera system did not have this issue. I’ve included pictures of the nightvision, and it is astonishing! My old system couldn’t hold a candle to the nightvision quality of the Reolink. The IR on the cameras goes out much further, and the dynamic range at night is just unbelievable. If you’re needing to digitally zoom at night however, that quality quickly diminishes and receives a LOT of noise. In my setup whether day or night you are not going to be able to read a license plate (unless they are backed into my driveway with the camera facing the plate head-on perhaps) . Audio on all cameras is very good. I can hear people’s conversations as they walk down the sidewalk. Unfortunately with that you’ll also pick up wind noise as well from time to time.Support:I was not receiving push notifications to my phone for motion alerts. Reolink’s tech support was friendly and patient. Although emailing back and forth every 24 hours is a little slow, it worked out and they resolved the issue. I had my system designated to a static IP and for whatever reason it wouldn’t allow push notifications unless under DHCP mode. It’s great to have a company stand by their brand and provide support.Conclusion:This Reolink system provides a cost-effective and reliable surveillance solution for home and business. Clear audio and video of an event could provide priceless evidence in an unfortunate situation. I believe that Reolink is here to stay and have made a name for themselves in home security systems. The quality, features, price, and support all make this a most bang-for-your-buck system. I have recommended this system to others, and will continue to do so as I see fit.

Absolutely would fully recommend. This is not a paid review or anything like that. Just a straight honest opinion after having them for a month. We had our back fence cut and our sons raptor 80 stolen, we did get it back, but we upped our security. We were in a little bit of a rush to get some cameras put up and I didn’t look through all their products, because I should have gotten their 16 channel one so I could add on additional cameras. I may still upgrade to that so I can have two additional cameras facing directly at the back door and front door.These cameras do have really good range from side to side and up and down to view a large area with just one.The night vision is wonderful and as long as there is nothing blocking the night vision light you will be able to see a good distance out. Also with night vision it doesn’t matter if you have outdoor porch lights on because it doesn’t alter it and you still see the same. Once it gets dark I’ll post a night vision picture up. One thing with the night vision is make sure nothing is hindering the cameras and if you have white walls outside the night vision light will reflect a lot off that, which you will be able to see in my pictures, look at the top row far left and the middle row center cameras, those two cameras are on the sides of our house facing the side wall ways. You can see well that area but as you can see the light does bounce off the white of the house. When you look at the other cameras you will see that it doesn’t do that. It doesn’t make a difference to us since our other cameras will pick people up if they walk through those areas. You can also set hat time the cameras go into and out of night vision mood.As far as the motion detection they go off all the time because of the trees moving or animals, this isn’t a big deal for us because we are just using these to be able to check on the house while we are gone and if something does happen we can go back and see it. If you download the app on the phone I highly recommend you turning off the notifications for motion detection because you will hear it 24/7.For the wifi connection. You do not need Internet to operate these cameras. However if you want to view them on the app from your phone you will need a internet cable from your internet router box snd plug it into the back of the security camera box. Without doing that you can’t use the all you view cameras. The wifi does not connect to the box that’s why you have to have a cord. The wifi only works from the box to the app on the phone.The cameras will continuously back up to the box 24/7. I do go in and manually clear out data to make room so I’m not sure what it does if you don’t do that. I’m sure there are others on here who have more detail on that.I did try to save a clip of data from the box but I didn’t have anything externally hooked up to it for it to back up on, so that’s something you will need if you need to save clips. HOWEVER, I got around this because I used the app and on the iPhones you can screen record I just did it that way and it’s much easier and saves directly to your phone and then you can save to iCloud if you want.The cables that come with it for the most part were long enough and I’m sure if we put multiple holes in our attic the cords would have been fine. However I did order a four pack of 100 for cables for the cameras on the far side of our house since we ran everything through the same hole in the attic and we needed that extra length because of that. The cables that do come with them are 60ft so they are pretty sufficient.The cameras were easy to install we just used a screw driver and tucked the cords up into the trim. I do recommend using electrical tape and wrapping up all the connection areas that are outside to help protect from weather and especially moisture. I’ll take some pictures of the cameras outside snd lost them on here as well once I get a chance.We have had these cameras for about a month now and we haven’t had any troubles at all. Our neighbor behind us has a really expensive big name security camera system and honestly this Annke system hands down beats what he has. These have better night vision, better range, storms don’t set them off left and right like our nieghbors do and their slightly clearer and have better picture quality.This is not a paid review or anything like that. I literally sat for hours comparing brands and prices and too a leap of faith with the Annke brand based off others reviews and the rating of this product and I’m so happy I did. Hopefully this helps others out when looking for cameras.

Overall a good camera. The image quality is amazing and if you have the app you can zoom in on the video.My only hang up is the night vision and placement. I had 2 in windows at first to see what the quality would be but at night, the lights from the night vision reflected off the glass so it doesn’t show anything. We installed one outside but because part of the view is under an awning, it is reflecting back slightly so the image is darker than it should be (see photos).I have one installed inside the house (sorry won’t post a picture of that) and when all the lights are off, the image and video are super clear and detailed. So I definitely recommend playing with the placement of the cameras before completely installing to make sure you get a clear image. The app is good too. I work graveyard and will get notifications of movements (usually triggered by my cats) so I have a peace of mind while I’m away. Would definitely recommend.

Works very well, easy to set up, cameras have very good resolution and night capabilities. Tech support was/is surprisingly responsive both email and direct phone customer support (call in the early morning) The chat though was not good, with numerous tries I could not get past the Bot. The only reason I give 4 instead of 5 stars is there is no ability to have motion trigger any kind of alarm. there are settings in the OS but I guess that’s a future upgrade. You can set up and I have, connecting a small amplifier and speaker and one can speak through the mobile app, slight delay but works well and easy to turn on in the event you want to talk with someone who has triggered a event.

These cameras were much easier to install than i thought they would be, there is a bit of frustration involved with getting the cameras facing where you want, mostly because it involved loosening the screws on the base and rotating the camera pieces individually… I can NOT STRESS ENOUGH… do not FULLY LOOSEN the screws because they are VERY FRUSTRATING to get to go back in, just a turn or 2 will be good enough to pick up the locking cogs and turn them the direction you want. They have to be wired in, so if you plan to put the DVR a fair distance from where you place your camera, it would be smart to buy the longer BNC/Power cable cords along with the cameras. So far i’ve not had a problem with the 60ft length I have used because I have a rather small house.To install you simply:1) Drill a hole where you can place the cords through the wall (if applicable). If you are running these all indoors, this does not apply as you can just run the cords along the ceiling and do not need to go through a wall.2) Push the wires through and route them along the ceiling.. attic.. wherever you want them till you get to your DVR. (There will be a red power cable, and a blue BNC cable for each camera)3) Part of the kit will be 2 power blocks/cords and an ethernet cord. 1 of the power cords is for the DVR. and 1 of them will be used to put power on the cable splitter included that will be used for your cameras to plug into and receive power (this will be the red ended cables) . In other words.. where you put your DVR, make sure there are 2 power outlet spots available, and you are able to plug into an ethernet port (or you can buy a USB wifi adapter if you do not wish to run ethernet through the house. This is because this specific unit DOES NOT COME WITH BUILT IN WIFI.)4) Once you have run the cords for the cameras to the spot where your DVR is, plug the BNC (blue ended cable) into the slots on the back of the DVR (labeled 1-8), for whatever camera you want to show up as whatever number on the DVR display once you get the DVR up and running.5) The next part will be easy, this is just setting up your DVR. The basics are to have a monitor of some sort (able to use HDMI as the back of the DVR has an HDMI slot), and a mouse (the kit comes with a mouse). Once you get the monitor up, there will be an initial setup screen and will ask you for a login.. the username is “admin” and the password is blank.6) To set up and test your internet connection, you will click “settings” and on the right will be “network”there will be a box to select “get IP address automatically”, be sure to select that.at the bottom you will see the option to hit “apply” and “test”. Once you hit “test” a quick message will display at the bottom saying “ok” which means.. your connection is good, or will just say “unable to establish connection” which will most likely take a little troubleshooting.7) Wifi option.. since this unit does not have BUILT-IN wifi.. you will need to buy a USB WIFI adapter in order to use this function. You will go through the same steps by clicking “Settings” and “Network” but on the tabs, you just select Wifi and search for your network.I struggled through this a bit at first so I figured I would give a bit of a breakdown review so others dont run into the problem of not being prepared.