With burglaries in the UK up nearly 30% from last year, people are looking for new ways to protect their homes. But wireless doorbell cameras in the UK are being used for a lot more than that. How about the ability to say “no thanks” to cold callers without the awkwardness of answering the door to them?
The #1 smart doorbell we’ve found is the Ring Video Doorbell 2. While the market is flooded with look-a-like products in 2024, it’s still way ahead in terms of quality and features. For our money, the Ring comes out on top. See it on Amazon
Wouldn’t it be great to keep an eye on your property when you’re on holiday? These are just some of the cool things your new video doorbell can do for you. With our Best Buy Camera Doorbell guide we’ll cover the questions you may have about these WiFi security gadgets and look at some of the better ones available to buy in the UK.
UK Guide to video doorbells
Before we get to the best buy camera doorbell part of this guide, lets take a look at what video doorbells do.
Video Doorbells – what are they?
There’s a growing number of video doorbell products on the market today, but they all behave in a similar way. Focusing on the most common method of entry into a home for burglaries – your front door. A video doorbell sends live video direct to a device. You can view the feed on devices like:
- Desktop PCs
- Smart phones
- Tablets like the iPad
As well as viewing who is at your door, most smart doorbells offer 2-way communication so that you can talk to whoever is at the door. The benefit to this is that you can still ‘answer’ the doorbell even if you’re at work, away from the home, or even in a different country. The person at the door will have no idea you are not in the home.
What can video doorbells do?
As well as being a cool gadget, these smart doorbells are designed to act as serious preventative measures to deter burglars. There’s a lot you can do, depending on which product you opt for.
- Answer your doorbell with your mobile phone
- Take pictures of whoever is at the door using your phone
- View live footage of who is at the door
- Talk to and hear who is there Record and save video or photos
- Prevent break-ins
- Send away cold callers
- Instruct people delivering parcels where to leave them
What software do you need?
In order to use a smart doorbell you’ll also need to connect your phone, tablet or computer to the device. This is done over the WiFi you have in your home. You will need to install an app on your phone or tablet that will let it communicate with the doorbell. This is quick and easy to do. Just go to the Play Store or iOS store and search for:
product name app
And it should be the first one that shows up. Once this is installed, as long as you are either in a wifi hot spot, or have mobile internet on your device, you’ll be able to connect to your video doorbell. They’re generally designed to be easy to setup and use.
How do you power a smart doorbell?
Most smart security door bells offer one of two methods to power the doorbell:
- Use a battery operated doorbell camera
- Connect it to the doorbell’s power supply
The second option is the best one as you won’t have to worry about it running out of power at the worst moment, and you will not have to constantly mess around taking it off to get at the battery.
Fixing the smart doorbell to your home
Your new smart doorbell will act as a replacement for your existing doorbell. Probably the trickiest part for most buyers will be getting the video doorbell attached to the front of their homes. There’s really 3 parts to this process:
- Removing the old doorbell
- Connecting the two power wires to the bell so it has power
- Affixing it securely to the door frame
Whichever doorbell you get, it will have a plate which needs to be secured to the wall or door frame. Once that’s attached, you can feed the wires through and attach them to the back of the video doorbell. Although this is low current, it’s still best to keep these wires apart.
If you’re not too confident or any of those steps sound daunting, a local electrician should be able to install this cheaply for you.
There’s a handy video here of someone installing the Ring 2 Doorbell (it’s not UK but the model is the same).
What’s the best buy camera doorbell in 2024?
There’s actually a number of really good video door bells up for sale in the UK. The main ones that people are buying at the moment, and the best reviewed ones you should certainly look into are:
- Ring Video Doorbell 2
- Ring Video Doorbell
- CURV Doorbell
- NewPal Smart Home Doorbell
- Uoon Wireless Doorbell
- Cozy House Waterproof
- DophiGo Smart Wireless
- Cooau Wireless Video Doorbell
- Pybbo Video Doorbell
#1 – Ring Video Doorbell 2
Best Overall Video doorbell
The second generation Ring Video Doorbell is more expensive than the first one but offers a full HD 1080p video output. Along with some other improvements in the way it processes video, the second Ring Doorbell has a much clearer, more fluid image quality than it’s predecessor. There’s also improvements to night vision, motion tracking and pretty much every aspect. It does the same job, but works better than the earlier model.
Quick look features
- 1080p video of whoever is at your door
- Motion detector sends alerts when triggered
- Infrared night vision
- Check your property any time with on-demand video
- Free replacement if stolen
#2 – Ring Video Doorbell
Best Buy Camera Doorbell for the price
The Ring video doorbell is one of the more popular video doorbells available in the UK. Although there’s now a more modern version, this one still has a lot to offer with HD video output and it’s half the price of the newer models. The other really good thing about this system is that they’ll replace it if it gets stolen.
Quick look features
- See, hear and speak to visitors
- Motion detector sends alerts when triggered
- Infrared night vision
- Check your property any time with on-demand video
- Free replacement if stolen
#3 – CURV Doorbell
The Curv video doorbell offers both wired and wireless installation and will alert your device when it detects someone at the door. Like any good smart doorbell, it activates upon pressing the button or simply when someone comes near it. It’s a good bit cheaper than the Ring 2 and still offers 1080p HD video quality.
Quick look features
- Two way communication with visitors
- Works with any smart phone or tablet
- Infrared night vision
- 1080p video
- 8GB storage
- Includes fixing and tool kit
Check it out at Amazon UK
#4 – NewPal Smart Home Doorbell
Looking very similar to the excellent Ring Doorbell comes this budget offering from NewPal. Although it’s a lot less than some of the competitors it still packs a lot of features in. It’s got wide-angle video and is fully waterproof. It’s completely wireless and the battery life is an impressive 3 weeks.
Quick look features
- Easy Installation
- 166 degree viewing angle
- Two-way audio
- Automatic switching between day and night mode
- Motion detector
#5 – Uoon Wireless Doorbell
Another budget wireless UK doorbell here and not a bad one at all. Once you’ve got this bad boy on your door you’re protected against weird callers, junk mail and burglaries. With an impressive 170 degree video angle and full HD video, this is a cheap doorbell camera with loads of high-end features.
Quick look features
- 170 degree viewing angle
- 1080p HD video is nice and crisp
- Talk to anyone who comes to your door
- Easy to setup, without any wired
- Great for villas, business, home and commercial uses
#6 – CozyHouse Waterproof Doorbell
Another good option for a front door camera in the UK at the moment is the CozyHouse Waterproof camera. You’re getting a security doorbell that works over your home WiFi network and offers IP65 level of waterproofing along with 720p HD video. It’s cheaper than the Ring and is good value for money for those seeking a budget price HD doorbell.
Quick look features
- Two-way audio chat with visitors
- 720p crisp HD video
- Compatible with iOS and Android
- PIR motion detection picks up when anyone moves
- Quick and easy setup
#7 – DophiGo Smart Wireless Doorbell
One of the things you don’t have to worry about with the DophiGo Smart Doorbell is running out of storage space for your video. Using the power of the cloud (storing stuff on the Internet) you get loads of room for pics and videos. It’s all done automatically. The Dophigo camera does everything you want from a home security doorbell like 2-way communication and sharp 960p video.
Quick look features
- Talk to anyone at your doorbell
- 960p video
- Works over WiFi
- Rechargeable battery
- Night vision
#8 – ieGeek Wireless Video Doorbell
It’s nice when you get everything in a kit that you need. The ieGeek security doorbell camera comes with all the necessary mounts, batteries, screws and cables. It does everything a doorbell camera should, from 2-way talk to HD video. And also looks pretty good. (And has a design that’s actually a bit different to the popular Ring Doorbell formula!)
Quick look features
- 720p HD video
- 166 degree viewing angle
- 2-way talk with visitors
- PIR motion detection
- iOS and Andriod
- Use with multiple devices
Read our review of the ieGeek Video Doorbell
Thanks for reading
Thanks for reading our Best Buy Camera Doorbell 2024 guide. If you picked up one of these cameras for your home, please let us know in the comments. Are you happy with it? Was it easy to set up? Thanks!
