Detailed Review of the smart health connected camera smart health innovation

Best known for its smart health connected thermostat, Netatmo continues to equip your health home with a smart health connected camera for facial recognition: the Netatmo Welcome. We were won over during the official presentation, but what about once tested for a few days? Answer right away!

Mark : NetatmoCategory : smart health connected cameraConnection: WirelessCompatibility: iOs and AndroidPrice : 199.90 eurosAvailability : Available

(embed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULwPxRbiSgk (/ embed) 

Unboxing of Netatmo Welcome

In a small quality box we find the camera, but also a power cable (on which it is possible to graft different adapters depending on the country where you want to install it), a cable to connect the camera to the computer during installation without forgetting a small manual . The latter is not very complete, you will have to be content with the website. Fortunately, everything is well explained.

The camera is well protected in an indoor box. Nothing special to say about this packaging: it is beautiful and of quality, and protects the camera well.

Design and ergonomics of the Netatmo Welcome

Discretion. This is how to summarize the small camera that blends without any problem in the decor. Small, circular and even pretty, it will be forgotten in an interior. It measures approximately 20 centimeters high and three times less wide. As for the finish, not much to complain about: it's clean. On top of that, the Netatmo Welcome allows itself the luxury of being extremely light. It's a great job.

Application of the Netatmo Welcome

The application itself is quite functional and well thought out. It offers a detailed notification center which we will see how it works a little later. It is rather stable, but not free from defects. We will tend to press the back button on the phone to go back while this manipulation will put us directly on the phone menu, a real pleasure. Another concern is that when you watch a ehealth in full screen, it will display horizontally and necessarily you will tend to turn the screen. And there, the ehealth will reset right. A small problem with the management of the gyroscopy, no doubt easy to correct, but very unpleasant. However, these are the only two points to review on this generally good application.

Installation

Unless you are allergic to technology and put a maximum of bad will in it, difficult not to succeed in configuring the camera. Just plug it into your computer and connect it to the Internet (WiFi or Ethernet). You are then guided step by step (and there is not much to do) until the end of the installation. Once everything is set up, you just need to find a place for it in the sun (actually not too much) and voila.

Using the Netatmo Welcome

Once again, simplicity takes precedence over everything. The Netatmo camera doesn't have a lot of functions, but they do them well, maybe a little too much sometimes. Especially with regard to motion detection. If she has a view of a street with cars or just the shadows in the house, count on the notifications every two minutes, and it's pretty irritating. She may be lacking in intelligence and should learn to recognize recurring movements in the health home. For the rest of the detection, the system works well even at night.

Where Netatmo wanted to stand out is at the level of facial recognition. And it’s a success there too. Once the registration period for faces has passed. Indeed, it will be necessary to pass a good ten times before the objective before being well recognized. A tedious step since it is necessary each time to associate a face with the corresponding name. However, once this has happened, the camera recognizes people who come and go inside your health home or your office.

Notifications are of course customizable. You can choose to receive it simply when you are away or continuously, but, with this little movement detection concern, you may vibrate all day.

Each event is associated with a ehealth sequence, which you can deactivate if you want (8GB are available on the integrated SD card, a short day of ehealth). You can find all of this on your smartphone or laptop. The opportunity to take stock of the ehealth quality of the Welcome, which ultimately only has Full HD 1080p resolution. The image is correct without more, even in night mode. The 130 ° angle is sufficient even if below what the competition offers. We regret the absence of zoom, not compulsory, but preferable. Another slightly annoying point, the lack of battery: the camera is plugged into the mains, but at the slightest power cut, say goodbye to any ehealth surveillance, a little annoying when you know that some burglars tend to take care of the power supply of your house before visiting it. For the rest, there is still an important tendency to heat. Netatmo explains that everything is fine on its website, but still.

The Netatmo Welcome facing the competition

Direct competitors are clearly Nest, Withings or MyFox which offer slightly more complete solutions, but necessarily more expensive in the long term since a subscription system is on hand to be able to store videos almost ad infinitum thanks to a Cloud. Other functions are also part of the competition, like Withings which offers a device that also acts as a pollution sensor or even baby monitoring.

The Netatmo camera has bet almost everything on facial recognition. And the bet is almost successful! It's a shame that the camera adaptation time is so long and tedious and that motion detection struggles to integrate recurring situations that do not require notification on a smartphone. It should not be thought that Welcome is not a good product. In addition to these little annoyances, it does the job and fits perfectly into any interior decoration. A good point that not all devices can claim to have. Finally, Welcome by Netatmo is a simple device that even the least expert hands can boast of successfully using.

Conclusion

Good points

Negative points

Design & finish – 9

Application – 6.8

Features – 7

Value for money: – 7.6

7.6

Design & finish : Nothing to say or almost, the camera fits perfectly into its environment. Only small negative point, it heats up a lot.Application : Intuitive, the application will be understood by all. Too bad some bugs are present.Features : Face recognition is a bit long before being operational but does the job. Motion detection that lacks intelligence …Value for money: For 199 euros, Netatmo offers a complete solution which has the merit of not asking for additional costs. It is worth its price.

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