TP-LINK NC220 Cloud Camera : First look and Features with benefits
TP-LINK: You must’ve heard this name somewhere or the other. They are the world’s #1 provider of Wireless LAN products and have millions of customers all around the world. With products ranging from routers to switches, print servers to IP cameras they have a wide portfolio of well-established products. Leveraging on the success of these well-working products TP-Link has also ventured into an area that is becoming widely popular and at the same time, of prime importance: Home / Office surveillance for safety and theft.
Allow us to introduce TP-LINK NC220, a day and night camera. This is not just a camera but a Smart camera that can be hooked to your Android / iOS smartphone or tablets and also your laptop or PC to be able to go about your surveillance. Along with this Smart camera, what is also offered as a service is the TP-Link Cloud to which your phone/tablet/ PC can connect from wherever you are and see what is happening under the scanner of the Smart camera.
Design:
The NC220 Cloud Camera is a very handy one coming at 5.4″ tall and 3″ wide. It is very light as well and stands pretty on any surface neat and easy. A two-way sticker is also provided that will help you stick the camera firmly onto a surface. The camera comes with screws that will allow you to mount it on a wall or fix it up the ceiling or simply place it on a table. Coming in white, the front face of the camera is a 1/4″ Progressive scan CMOS sensor having a resolution of 0.3 MP and an f/2.8 lens. It has as much as 4X digital zooming ability. The overall design of what can be called the eye of the camera is very good and appealing, aesthetically placed. There is a connection LED below the lens to indicate the status. This entire setup is mounted on a stand and the back of the camera has reset options. A side view of this camera will instantly remind you of the lamp from the Pixar movies – we cannot help but use the term “Cute”!
Setting up:
It doesn’t take more than 15 minutes to set this guy up! And that is inclusive of the software you have to download onto your PC and Smart devices. The camera comes with two cables: one that goes into the LAN slot of your router and another cable that provides the camera with the power to operate/charge up. Download the TP-Link app onto your Android or iOS phone and once the LED on the camera goes green, it’s time for the phone to locate the camera. Once paired you’re all set! The procedure is similar if you’re gonna pair up your PC or laptop.
Functioning:
The NC220 offers as much as 300MBPS wireless Wi-Fi connection which is claimed to perform stable at least most of the time that allows for the seamless streaming of what’s being recorded. The device also has the ability to extend your Wi-Fi network using its extender function which we felt is a very handy feature that boosts up the range.
The camera is capable of working even in pitch darkness as much as 18 feet from its eye. This could come in handy if there is a power outage or someone pulled the fuse off the mains to attempt a burglary or something.
One feature that we loved the most was its ability to detect some alarming sound or some drastic motion detection, that can trigger off a notification to your configured email or FTP.
Surveillance:
Going about your surveillance is a very easy affair – as simple as launching the app on your phone and seeing what’s happening or logging into TP-LINK Cloud to manage all of the content and viewing. What is also handy is the ability to record what you’re viewing that can be held as proof or for future use.
Summing it up:
We’ve personally used TP-LINK products for years and have always been fans of the wonderful, long-lasting products they make. The after-sales service and support too have been solid. The NC220 is a Cloud-based Smart Camera coming at a retail price of 9999 INR and if there are elderly people in your home while you’re at the office or you have a store or a warehouse that needs monitoring through day and night or simply watching over your backyard where you may have your pets and kids playing, this is a very good option.
The ease of setting it up, using it, and the ability to record what is being viewed, from anywhere make it a highly recommendable product.
Google Home Essentials: TP-Link’s Kasa cameras solve problems that Nest ignores
I love keeping a close eye on my home throughout the day with a series of security cameras around my property, with Google’s Nest at the core. The simple fact is, though, that Google’s system just doesn’t fit into every niche and ignores problems such as cost and local storage. That’s where TP-Link Kasa has come in, offering excellent and flexible hardware with an affordable cost and some of the best Google Assistant integration currently available.
TP-Link Kasa Cameras and Google Assistant
It’s no secret that the games that integrate best with Google Home and Google Assistant are the company’s own Nest Cams, but I’d argue that TP-Link comes to a close second.
You can easily pair TP-Link Kasa cameras to Google Assistant via the Home app, just like you’d like most light bulbs, Smart plugs, and other products that show up within the app. Unfortunately, Kasa cams won’t appear in the Google Home app with their streams, as only Nest cameras currently do that, but the integration goes beyond just asking Google to show you a feed.
Alongside “Hey Google, show me my living room camera,” TP-Link’s Kasa cameras actually show up as actionable buttons on Google Assistant Smart displays. That’s something that Wyze cameras, a comparable and equally affordable option, frustratingly doesn’t offer.
In terms of performance, I found that the video feeds of Kasa cameras through the Kasa app and a Google Assistant feed were similar in loading times. It only took about five seconds for a live feed to load up in either case, with some occasional hiccups from time to time. There was a bit more of a delay in the live stream when viewing through Google Assistant, though, of maybe a few seconds at any given time.
So while this integration isn’t to the same level as a Nest Camera, it’s among the closest I’ve tried to date, making Kasa cameras a great addition to your “Google Home.”
Kasa Spot Spot Pan
Affordable indoor recording with SD card backup
Let’s start with the basics. The Kasa Spot is a simple indoor camera that offers, well, the basics. The wide-angle lens can easily capture a full room and it does so in 1080p resolution. The 35 camera sits on an adjustable base and pulls its power from microUSB.
What’s the advantage of Kasa Spot over a Nest Cam? Aside from the nearly 100 price difference, the Spot also has the advantage of offering local backup of its footage to a microSD card. That means you can enjoy 24/7 recording without dealing with costly monthly subscriptions. This has a privacy advantage too, as TP-Link doesn’t save data from this camera specifically to the Cloud at all, though that’s balanced by the disadvantage that your data is potentially lost in the event that the camera is broken.
At 34.99, though, I consider this camera nothing but a win. As a long-time Wyze user, I’ve been far happier with TP-Link’s app as well as the Google Assistant integration of the Kasa Spot versus a standard Wyze Cam. The affordable cost, too, lets me cover more of my home in cameras than Nest would.
Rounding out the Spot, I’ll touch on another easy-to-miss perk. The speaker quality of the 2-way audio is remarkably good given the size. It’s not perfect, but it’s really good given what you’re using it for. It’s certainly loud enough to fill a decently-sized room.
Building on all the pros of the regular Kasa Spot, microSD included, the Kasa Spot Pan adds 360-degree view by swiveling the camera around its base as well as being able to “look” up and down to a certain extent. This isn’t a new idea, as Wyze, Eufy, and other brands have comparable models, but I’m a pretty big fan of TP-Link’s implementation. The design of the camera sees a stationary base with a spherical top that rotates around to capture the point you’re looking for. The panning motion is very smooth and the motor is exceptionally quiet too.
You can’t control the position of the camera using Google Assistant, with that function only available within the TP-Link Kasa app. The app provides quite a few ways to take advantage of the 360-degree pan, too. Beyond manual controls, you can set specific points to quickly go to with “Viewpoints.” Those viewpoints can also be used in “Patrol Mode,” which moves between each of the four points every minute. Kasa Spot Pan is sold for 44.99, but it’s often available for 34.99 on Amazon.
Another handy advantage of this camera is that, alongside a speaker for two-way communication, there’s a siren. For home security, this is legitimately handy. While it doesn’t trigger automatically, this loud siren would almost certainly deter a thief if it was activated remotely, as well as attract attention to your home by neighbors. The siren can hit 80db, not exactly deafening, but more than loud enough to be heard from a distance on a relatively quiet street.
I’m overall fairly happy with this camera, but it’s not without a couple of flaws. Firstly, the stream isn’t always perfectly stable when it’s going through Google Assistant. I would often see it crash after just a few minutes on my Nest Hub. The other flaw is storage. The current model, KC200, only supports Cloud storage. You’ll get event-based recording for the first two years for free, but only for two days worth of footage. After that, you’ll need to pay a monthly fee. A newer model, coming soon, solves this problem with a microSD card slot. If that’s your preference, I’d advise waiting for that model.
Buy TP-Link Kasa Cameras
Google Home Essentials:
You’re reading 9to5Google — experts who break news about Google and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Google on and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel
Review of TP-Link’s NC450 – Wireless Cloud (IP) Camera
In our technology world, since 1996, TP-Link has been providing the latest reliable networking devices and accessories. As per published IDC Worldwide Quarterly WLAN Tracker Report, Q2 2018, TP-Link has been ranked as the No. 1 provider of Wi-Fi devices.
We have received the TP-Link’s NC450 – Wireless Cloud Camera for review.
Body Specification
With a dimension of 5.7 x 4.3 x 4.2 in., NC450 is a motorized wireless Cloud-based security camera. It has 360 degrees horizontally pan and 150 degrees vertically capability.
The review unit we received is made up of ABS plastic with a smooth white colour piano finish. It has got a camera with 1/4″ Progressive scan CMOS image sensor and 1.0 Megapixel (1280 x 720) resolution and lens with F 2.0 with 3.6 mm and field of view (FoV) 75 degrees.
The TP-Link’s NC450 camera can record a video at 30 fps at 1280×720 pixels (HD) and with a Video Compression in H.264 format. It has built-in 2-way audio communication (mic and speaker). It has got microSD card slot, RJ-45 for Ethernet, Reset/WPS push button and Power Connector DC power jack.
For a strong Wi-Fi signal, it has an antenna which captures 2.4-2.4835GHz and up to 300Mbps.
As for the surveillance management, you can have 13 simultaneous unicast users and with the management software, you can view and record up to 36 cameras.
It can support Operating System – Windows XP or higher or Mac OS X 10.7 or higher, as for the smartphone, it supports Android 4.1 or higher and iOS 7.0 or higher.
How to Setup TP-Link’s NC450 – Wireless Cloud (IP) Camera?
After removing the product from the packaging, it was connected with the provided power adapter and extension cable. The next thing, I connected the product with the RJ-45 Ethernet to the router. Then downloaded the TP-Link Camera App from Google PlayStore and followed the instruction step by step. First, connect the NC450 with the router via the app, download the update which may take a few minutes. After the update, search for the NC450 device and automatically connect with the app. If you find some issue connecting, then you can press the Reset/WPS push button for few seconds and then search again and you will find the device.
How to use the TP-Link’s NC450 – Wireless Cloud (IP) Camera?
With this App, you can connect up to to 36 cameras. The App has step by step instruction to use the App. You can identify each of the cameras via easy icon selection.
With the motorized camera, you can view 360 degrees horizontally pan and 150 degrees vertically capability. There are 3 presets – Pan horizontal, Pan Vertical, reset view and stop the movement. There is also an option to program the movement.
Via the app, you click an image or a video and also communicate with the mic and speaker options. You can choose the quality and change the mode from daylight to night mode or keep it on the auto mode.
The NC450 can be configured to motion detection, sound detection and baby crying and app notification. You can also reboot the camera via App. If you are fixing the NC450 on the ceiling, then you can change the camera position to upside down too.
You can also set modes – Home mode and Away mode. You can also record for 24 hours with the help of microSD as storage. Also, you can configure NC450 with your Cloud service or can use TP-Link’s Cloud service too.
The Review
The TP-Link’s NC450 – Wireless Cloud (IP) Camera was used for a week and this was my first experience with a motorized Wi-Fi IP Camera. The viewing on my mobile via App which provided me 360 degrees horizontally pan and 150 degrees vertically was interesting and especially the night vision in low light condition. I even tried the Sound and Motion detection features and it works perfectly.
The quality of the image is 2265 x 1080 and video capture is 1280×720 pixels (HD) at 30fps which is good for security IP camera. In the low night, it was a little pixelated.
You can also program the camera with the pattern of the camera movement and also schedule it to record, active or even active certain functions when you are away on a vacation. And of course, you get notifications on your Mobile App about any incident like motion or sound detection.
As mentioned above in the setup I have done that and it was quite simple and easy. As for connecting with the Cloud service to access the NC450 wireless camera, I downloaded the software on my laptop and then connected it with the app on my smartphone. The TP-Link Cloud Service provides live camera view but no Cloud saving facility. However, as mentioned by TP-Link, they will be launching a Cloud storage facility in the near future and they might offer this as a paid service.
But of course, with the microSD slot in the camera, you can store video and images and access it via your mobile or laptop. The microSD slot can take up to 128GB max. With the mic and speaker, you can hear and also speak to the person via the camera. For example: – If you have installed the NC450 near the entrance of your home and someone is stealing your parcel, you can shout at the person and warning him that you are caught on camera and leave the parcel alone.
Overall the NC450 is a great product for consumers who would like to have fewer IP cameras to cover multiple views from one single location. As the device is wireless, you require an electric outlet to connect and configure on your App and you can have 36 cameras managed from a single app.
The TP-Link NC450 package
The TP-Link NC450 product comes with the NC450 device, power cable with wall unit plug, additional power extension cable, Passive PoE Injector, RJ-45 for Ethernet cable and Quick Installation Guide.
What is the price of NC450 and where can you buy?
The TP-Link NC450 Cloud Camera costs AED 549. You can buy the product from UAE popular e-commerce websites and many of the retailer mentioned here- https://www.tp-link.com/ae/where-to-buy/?utm_medium=select-local#Retailers
TP-Link Tapo C200 review
Offering pan-and-tilt support, great video quality and a well-built app, TP-Link‘s Tapo C200 is a great budget-friendly indoor security camera.
Our Verdict
A competitively-priced indoor security camera with pan-and-tilt functionality and great video quality, but the lack of Cloud storage may put some off.
Smart security cameras are all the rage at the moment, with manufacturers producing smaller and smarter cameras to help protect the home. TP-Link is relatively new to the Smart camera game, but looks to disrupt the market with an impressively cheap Smart camera that can directly compete with £100/100 alternatives.
Has TP-Link managed to create something impressive enough to tempt users away from established Smart camera manufacturers like Ring and Swann? Carry on reading to find out.
It moves!
While some Smart security camera manufacturers are leaning into the design of their cameras, designing stylish kit that compliments the environment it’s in, the TP-Link Tapo C200 sports a much simpler look. The circular ‘head’ is largely nondescript, and the same can be said for the curved base, and those hoping it’d come in a few colours to help match the aesthetic of your room will be disappointed: the C200 is only available in white.
The weighted base means it can stand freely on a shelf, but for those that want true full room coverage, you’ve also got the option of attaching it to the ceiling using the bundled kit. A word of warning though: with a 2m cable and no built-in battery, it’s worth mounting the camera near a plug socket.
Still, though, if you’re not an Instagram influencer obsessed with making every detail of the home perfect, the look of the Tapo C200 is unlikely to bother you – especially when the design allows it to pan and tilt.
That’s right, the C200 moves; the camera has a 114° vertical range and a full 360° horizontal range, giving you complete freedom to look almost anywhere in the room with a tap on the TP-Link Tapo app for iOS and Android. You can manually adjust the angle at any time, or you can set the camera to constantly pan left and right like a traditional CCTV camera.
If you do decide to keep the camera stable, you’ve also got the option of saving your favourite angles in the app, allowing the camera to change position within seconds. I, for example, have separate shortcuts to cover my back door, living room door and front window that I can quickly cycle between when away from home.
The pan and tilt functionality allows you to cover a larger area in more detail than most competing Smart cameras on the market, most of which offer a static wide-angle camera typically ranging between 100- and 180°.
The only real complaint is that it doesn’t take advantage of the pan and tilt technology when it detects motion. Where other pan and tilt cameras will follow the source of the motion around the room, the C200 simply doesn’t do this, and I can’t help but feel it’s a wasted opportunity for TP-Link’s budget-friendly camera.
All the bells and whistles of a Smart camera
The most important aspect of any security camera is video quality, so let’s start there. Despite the sub-£50 price of the Tapo C200, the quality produced both during the day and at night is surprisingly clear. The camera is capable of recording 1080p video, and a built-in 850nm IR LED allows you to see up to 30ft away at night – more than enough for most rooms in the home.
Shooting at 15fps, the video is admittedly not quite as smooth as some alternatives, but there’s a lot of detail on offer here – you can even pinch-to-zoom in the app without too much of a negative effect on overall quality. There’s full colour recording available during the day, and although it’s limited to black and white when night vision is enabled, there’s no real downgrade in terms of overall quality. You can still make out relatively minor details in a night time recording, perfect for keeping an eye on the home when you’re away.
So, how can the cheap security camera capture such detailed shots? While most other Smart cameras utilise Cloud technology for video recording, which relies on your internet connection, the C200 uses a built-in microSD card (which isn’t included in the box, sadly) to record footage. That’s great news in terms of video quality, and also allows the C200 to record constantly instead of only when motion is detected if you prefer, but there’s also a big drawback.
The reliance on local storage means there’s no remote Cloud backup to store a secure copy of the footage, so if an intruder destroys the camera or removes the microSD card, you won’t be able to see what was captured.
There is a built-in siren to deter intruders that you can program to auto-trigger when motion is detected, but it’s not what I’d call a proper siren. Instead, it sounds more like an alarm being played on a cheap Bluetooth speaker – it’ll likely surprise any trespassers, but it won’t be ear-piercingly uncomfortable like the 110db screech of the Ring Indoor Cam.
The accompanying app can make or break a Smart camera experience, but thankfully, the TP-Link Tapo app for iOS and Android is well designed, but it does lack a few features we’d expect to see.
The app allows you to view a livestream of the camera, as well as review captured footage in a timeline view, use the two-way talk functionality to chat to anyone you might see, enable a privacy mode that disables recording and customise motion detection and alerts.
It’s when it comes to the latter, limitations immediately become apparent.
While you can customise the motion zones to avoid false motion alerts, there’s no way to snooze motion alerts for specific periods of time – you can only get all notifications, all the time or no notifications ever, and that’s not ideal if you’ve got the camera set up in a busy living room. You can disable motion detection on a schedule, but this stops the camera from recording footage as well.
This is something that could be fixed in a software update, so we hope you’re listening, TP-Link.
Value
Despite all that the TP-Link Tapo C200 offers, it’s surprisingly wallet-friendly at £39.99/26.99 from Amazon in the UK and US. That’s much cheaper than the likes of the £169.99 Logi Circle 2 and even Ring’s £49/59 budget-focused Indoor Cam, with TP-Link’s option offering more advanced features like pan and tilt support and the ability to view recorded footage without a costly monthly Cloud service subscription.
If you want a better idea of the alternatives available before parting with your hard-earned cash, take a look at our selection of the best Smart security cameras.
Verdict
The TP-Link Tapo C200 offers superior coverage thanks to pan-and-tilt support, providing 360° horizontal coverage and 114° vertical coverage in any indoor space, the video quality is detailed both during the day and night, there’s 30ft night vision on offer and the accompanying app is largely well built, if not lacking one or two handy features.
The dealbreaker for some is the lack of Cloud storage; while it means you won’t be forking out a monthly fee to store video, it does mean that your footage will be lost if the camera or microSD card are destroyed.
Still, for around £40/27, it’s an absolute bargain and a cheap way to help secure your home.
Specs
TP-Link Tapo C200: Specs
- 86.6 x 85 x 117.7 mm
- 1080p@15fps
- 30ft night vision
- 360-degree horizontal pan and 114-degree vertical tilt control
- two-way talk
- built-in siren
- motion control
- iOS and Android app
- microSD card support up to 128GB
- No Cloud storage
TP-Link Tapo C200 Review
The TP-Link Tapo C200 offers decent video quality, and is easy to set up and use. While it doesn’t directly support Cloud storage or automated panning, it offers a great set of features for the money. If you’re after a simple home security camera, or if you want a cheap and flexible indoor IP camera for an existing surveillance setup, the C200 is hard to beat.
Key Specifications
The Tapo Pan/Tilt Home Security Wi-Fi Camera (more succinctly known as the TP-Link Tapo C200) is one of two indoor Wi-Fi cameras in TP-Link’s new Tapo range. Like the cheaper C100, it offers 1080p high-definition video with night vision, and supports motion detection and two-way conversations. Unlike the fixed-view C100, the C200 can motor through a 360-degree horizontal, and 114-degree vertical field of view.
The recordings and snapshots are stored in the camera’s limited memory, but we’d recommend you fit an optional microSD card of up to 128GB of storage. There’s no Cloud-based storage for recordings – if you want to store them off the camera, you can set it up with surveillance software that supports the ONVIF standard.
TP-Link Tapo C200 design and features – It’s easy to set up and surprisingly powerful
The bulbous TP-Link Tapo C200 isn’t the most attractive security camera but neither is it the ugliest we’ve seen. importantly, it’s flexible in terms of placement: you can sit this camera on a flat surface, or fix it to a ceiling using the supplied mount.
TP-Link has really nailed the setup of its Smart devices, and the C200 is no exception. Plug it in, wait for the status LED to blink red and green, then click the plus sign in the Tapo app, available for Android and iOS (Apple) devices. The app is quick to find the camera, at which point you’ll need to provide it with login credentials for your wireless network. The process is smooth, and the camera contributes useful status announcements over its speaker.
Once added to your network, the C200 appears on the homepage of the Tapo app alongside any other Tapo devices you own. Tapping its tile takes you to a live view, with buttons to talk or make a voice call between your smartphone and the camera, which can be useful for reassuring pets, or warding off intruders. The app lets you control the pan and tilt, and set marks – shortcuts that return the camera to an exact position.
There are buttons to enable privacy, cancel any motion-detection alarms, and to playback any recordings stored on the camera. Everything is straightforward, but the playback controls are very basic; you can’t skip back and forward, or advance frame-by-frame, for example. However, recordings are stored as MP4 (MPEG) files, so if you want to archive them or have more playback options, then you could extract the microSD card and transfer them to a PC.
The C200 also supports motion detection, which you can use to launch notifications or alarms, or as the trigger to start recording. The app lets you set a schedule for recording constantly, or in response to movement. To cut down on false positives you can create Activity Zones through the app, monitoring only the areas of the image in which you’re interested. Just be aware that if you use the pan or tilt options, then the Activity Zone will move, so remember to put your camera back to its default location for consistent monitoring.
For some, this camera’s biggest limitation will be that it doesn’t store recordings in the Cloud. While that’s a problem if a burglar makes off with the camera, it does mean there’s no subscription to pay – plus, you know exactly where your videos are stored.
This camera uses a steady 1W of power, although this peaks at 4W when panning or tilting with the infrared LEDs illuminated. The motors are almost inaudible, so it won’t wake up sleeping pets.
It’s a shame that you can’t use the C200 with TP-Link’s Kasa app, but the Tapo app makes it easy to control and view, even when you’re not at home. I found the live view serviceable even over a moderate mobile connection, and the camera settings pages remained responsive even with a very poor mobile signal. The Tapo C200 continues working if you lose your internet connection. If the camera temporarily loses its Wi-Fi connection, you won’t be able to change any settings, but preconfigured recording and alarms will operate as normal.
At the time of our test, the C200 offered limited automation. It couldn’t be included with other devices in Tapo Smart Actions – automated group actions, triggered with a single tap. You also couldn’t schedule “patrolling”, with the camera roaming through its field of view or between marks. Although not essential, this makes the camera less suitable for people who need to automatically cover a very wide field of view.
TP-Link Tapo C200 image quality – Captures clear footage, even in dim lighting
For an inexpensive camera, the C200 delivers excellent image quality. Tapo’s live view defaults to a “low quality” mode, which is more than adequate to see what’s going on, but you can switch to a Full HD “HQ” mode. In both, the camera copes admirably with a range of lighting conditions within the same scene – for example, a dingy kitchen, bright lounge and crepuscular garden, all in one shot.
I was impressed by the C200’s ability to get a clear picture in darkly lit areas without resorting to its built-in infrared LEDs. It could resolve a street-lit scene – even after nightfall – without needing to fire these up, although it lacks the in-depth lowlight quality of the outdoor EZViz C3X.
When on, the camera’s infrared lights could illuminate the far end of an 8-metre room.
Video footage from the C200 is limited to 15 frames per second – even at its lower resolution stream, available when using it as an IP camera. In the app you can manually trigger a snapshot or video.
Should you buy the TP-Link Tapo C200?
This isn’t the most fully featured security camera you can buy, but it’s exceptionally good value. It produces good-quality video in a variety of lighting conditions, has reliable motion detection, and you can pan and tilt it to cover different areas of your home. Its lack of Cloud recording may trouble some, but others will be pleased to know their household recordings are being stored locally. If you don’t want to automate panning movements, and can live with local storage, the Tapo offers great value. If you want more features and Cloud recording, check out our guide to the best indoor security cameras for a list of the current recommendations.
