A COMPLETE home security system with style and a huge amount of promise.
- Pros – Stylish and Compact Design, Sharp HD Video Footage With Sound, 90dB Siren Built-in, Ability to Automatically Toggle Between Privacy Modes With Users’ Location
- Cons – Overly Excitable Motion Detection Will Pepper You With Notifications, Fiddly Set-Up For Some Smartphones, No Provisions for Pet Owners
Canary wants to be your ultimate all-in-one home security system. And on paper, there’s no reason it shouldn’t be.
Despite its compact frame, Canary packs a full HD video camera with a surprisingly competent night vision mode, a 90dB siren, cloud storage for all of your video footage and a nifty privacy feature that can disable the Big Brother fly-on-the-wall video recording whenever you walk through the front door of your home.
Unfortunately Canary is not the hassle-free home security solution it promises to be.
A constant stream of notifications from the over-excitable motion detection and frustrating set-up process means the Canary is less peace of mind and more pain in neck.
Granted, if you are looking for a competitively-priced home security system, the Canary is not a bad option.
But those who cough-up the £159 entry fee should be aware: this sleek security camera will require some patience.
Out of the box, the Canary comes with a flat and generously-sized micro-USB cable and mains adapter, as well as a 3.5mm AUX cable which is used to sync the home security system with your Android or iOS smartphone.
Canary claims syncing with an AUX cable is more secure than using bluetooth, wifi or NFC.
Secure, maybe. Frustrating, almost always.
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| Canary packs a 90dB siren, audio and full HD video camera with night vision into its frame |
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| As soon as Canary senses movement, it will begin recording and notifying registered users |
Canary struggled to sync with a number of our devices during the set-up process, including the OnePlus 2, the Google Nexus 6 and the iPhone 6S. Although, the latter has since been fixed with an app update which rolled out earlier this month.
Subsequent software updates should iron out the rest of the compatibility issues but for now, the initial sync leaves a very bad taste in the mouth.
Fortunately when the Canary is finally up and running, it is a genuinely interesting product.
Packed into a stylish and inconspicuous cylinder, the Canary has a full 1080p video camera which boasts motion detect capabilities and night vision.
But the HD camera is frustratingly sensitive and can be triggered by a particularly strong beam of sunlight cutting through your blinds in the morning, or the light in your neighbours living room reflecting into the hallway.
This quickly becomes annoying – especially since each and every time the camera registers movement, the Canary companion app and Apple Watch extension will buzz, ring and pop-up to let you know something – or someone – has moved inside your house.
After you have received a notification, launching the app will bring up a timeline of the last 24 hours of activity.
Tapping on any clip will play back the footage – with any movement detected by the device highlighted in yellow.
It’s an intuitive system that works incredibly well.
The Canary smartphone app, which is currently available for free on the Google Play or Apple App Store, is well-designed and has a number of clever features, including the ability to tag video clips, message housemates about any activity detected by the security system and monitor the temperature, air quality and humidity in your home.
The app – or from the smartwatch app on your wrist – also allows you to trigger the ear-splitting 90 decibel siren if you want to terrify a wrong-doer catch in the act, or scare your friends for a wheeze.
Users can also stream live HD video footage from their Canary from anywhere in the world, toggle between multiple cameras around the same house, or different properties.
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| ary can connect over 2.4GHz and 5GHz wifi or via an ethernet port |
One of the headline features included with the app is the ability to registers family members or housemates with Canary to take advantage of its clever geo-fencing privacy features.
In a nutshell, Canary allows users to automatically disable the ability to live stream video as well as any notifications triggered by movement, whenever the device detects that a registered user is home.
The geo-fencing can be a little spotty – and during our time with the device we would sometimes receive a warning notification, only to launch the app and find a video of ourselves wandering through the front door seconds earlier.
The ability to have Canary automatically switch itself into Privacy Mode whenever you arrive home should qualm any fears triggered by having an HD video camera always-on in your home – even if the geo-fencing takes a few minutes to catch-up to your actual movements.
If something does happen while you’re inside the house and your Canary is set to Privacy Mode, the service still allows you to pull high definition clips from the US firm’s servers and review the video.
Canary will keep 12 hours of footage backed-up online for free, as well as five bookmarked clips, although it does offer other packages, ranging from two-days week, to 30 days for $4.99 and $29.99 per month, respectively.
Users can upgrade their plans at any time from the Canary website, which also allows users to check your temperature, air quality and humidity from your web browser – although live streaming is not yet supported.
Another qualm with the Canary is its lack of backup battery.
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| Canary does not have a back-up battery in its svelte frame |
This no doubt contributes to the svelte footprint of the gadget, but it does mean that whenever the Canary is pulled from the plug – it stops recording immediately.
The cloud-based backups mean you have a chance of recovering a video clip of whoever pulled the Canary from the socket seconds before the device died but still, a small battery pack would’ve been a nice addition.
It’s a relatively small quibble and is far from the Canary’s biggest problem.
That title still goes to the infuriatingly over-excitable motion detection, which quickly turns your brand-new home security solution into a boy who cried wolf.
After a few days of regular false alarms, NewsNewsBlog.blogspot.com started to ignore alerts from Canary.
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| Canary's motion detection is frustratingly over-excitable and quickly becomes an annoyance |
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| Unfortunately the home security system does not have any provisions for feline intruders |
As a result, we would have missed any hope of catching a live stream of an opportune thief sneaking through the flat.
Its also worth noting that Canary owners with pets, like cats or dogs, can expect to receive an even more substantial flood of notifications since the motion detection will be triggered by every tail wag and litter-tray trip through the day.
Unlike people who live in the house, Canary does not currently offer an option to disregard anything on four legs and covered in hair.
Final Verdict
The Canary is a stylish and competitively-priced home security solution with an intuitive companion smartphone app.
Canary’s set-up process is irritating and cumbersome but ultimately, forgivable.
Its frantic slew of notifications triggered by the camera's motion detection is less so.
Users will quickly become desensitised to Canary’s constant flood of warnings and learn to ignore them – a pretty major flaw for a smart home security system.
Canary is slowly patching the sensitivity issues with software updates but, for now at least, the system is more of a hinderance than a hassle-free security solution.
If your heart is set on a home security solution, the Canary is not a bad choice. But in its current state, it is difficult to recommend to anyone other than a patient enthusiast.
- Canary is on sale now at Maplins, Apple Retail Stores, Amazon and Canary.is for £159
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