Editor Victoria Galligan reviews the Neos SmartCam, an affordable CCTV gadget which can provide you with real peace of mind in your new home.
If you’re planning on buying your first home, or a new home, then understandably you’re going to worry about it when you’re not there.
However, a full CCTV system can be expensive and may not be an option if budgets are tight. So I checked out one of the cheaper CCTV products on the market, which is an ideal starter product for your home security needs.
A great little gadget which sits indoors, the Neos SmartCam has a magnet and adjustable stand – it needs to be plugged in, so bear this in mind when you consider a suitable location. The higher the better, to avoid being tampered with.
The Neos SmartCam connects to an app which alerts you on your phone when there is noise or movement picked up while camera is “armed”.
App-solutely brilliant CCTV system 
The app knows when the user is in or out, and if at home even when you’ve gone to bed (amazingly!) thanks to the GPS on your phone, so the camera auto-arms the area.
The user (several users can be added to a camera) can check the live footage at any time and the clips of noise/movement are automatically recorded. With free cloud storage, videos are stored for 14 days and secured via an end-to-end encryption. You can download clips to keep as required and the footage is of a good quality, in full colour, with night-vision mode proving very clear too.
For £19.99 it’s worth having one situated near entry points or at where security has perhaps been breached in the past.
All movement will set it off though, so it’s best used in a “closed shop” – or in a home when the inhabitants are out or in bed.
You can also “speak” through the camera’s microphone via the app, so if you see an intruder you can politely inform them that they are on CCTV and the police have been called.
We found the camera useful when we were in bed and hear a noise outside, for example, as viewing the inside of our house gave us peace of mind that no-one had broken in.
And while on holiday the camera is invaluable – alerts are sometimes set off by very slight movement or sound, such as an automatic light switching on or a door closing in the next room, so you really will know about it if someone enters your home or tries to break in through a door or window.
At £19.99 the Neos SmartCam really is worth investing in – and if you add extra cameras to your account, you could run a whole-house CCTV system using this clever, compact device.
See neos.co.uk to buy your Neos SmartCam, priced £19.99 +P&P.
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