Eufy Security Indoor Cam C220 review: A 2K indoor camera with AI features

Tom's Guide

a day ago

Eufy has a solid reputation for smart home products including monitors and both outdoor and indoor security cameras. The C220 incorporates useful AI features alongside well thought out standard offerings like clear 2K video day or night, pan-and-tilt that covers 360 degrees, and an intuitive mobile app. And, in a rarity for the best home security cameras, it also doesn't require any subscription fees.
However, it does require an SD card or a cloud subscription in order to use the playback function. And it did sometimes lag in detecting movement, or claim to detect movement when nothing appeared to be there, but didn't hesitate to inundate me with notifications no matter how I changed the settings. But, these are all pretty acceptable compromises for all the camera offers for such a low price.
The C220 sells for $34.99, which is on the cheaper side for an indoor security camera, especially given the AI features. By comparison, the Blink Mini 2 retails for $39.99 and has many of the same features including motion detection and two-way audio, and also has a built-in spotlight. The Mini 2 doesn't come with a microSD card but does require a subscription for any storage.
Other competing products fall into a similar price point: Wyze's Cam v4 is $35 and can be used indoors or outdoors. It also has a spotlight, and does come with an SD card slot. Arlo's Essential HD security camera is $39 and also has a privacy shield like the C220.
The C220 is lightweight and slightly resembles a friendly robot, much like the rest of Eufy's products. This effect is slightly exaggerated by the small blue circle light at the bottom, and two red lights on the top that come on. It's wired and comes with a plate that fits on the bottom if you choose to set it on a desk or shelf instead of mounting it on a wall (though I recommend adding the plate after setup).
The camera rotates on the front, and can pan and tilt 360 degrees around on the base as well as rotate away when privacy mode is activated. The lens records in 2K in order to provide a clear view of the room, and works alongside the on-board AI to both identify human figures – and keep them in sight – as well as to send notifications when it detects movement.
Overall, images on the C220 were clear, crisp and easy to identify – even in my chaotic and admittedly cluttered household. The camera could track me, and even my black cats, when we were in the room and moving, and was able to capture movement when my preschool aged kids streaked through the room on the hunt for more Legos.
However, it does stop at the point where it was scanning last, and doesn't reset to the center. For example, if it tracks someone moving through a room, it will follow them as they cross, but will remain in that orientation until something else happens to move in front of the camera.
The sound was likewise very good, especially when testing the two-way audio which was very clear and loud. The audio detection was able to pick up noise from the next room over and would send notifications or alerts about noise being detected regularly even when it wasn't directly in that room.
And I will say that I occasionally did get a notification about motion being detected but got a snapshot that displayed no visible person or animal in the shot, and that the audio seemed to lag just a second behind the speech. It wasn't necessarily a deal breaker but was a bit of an adjustment as I was learning to use the device.
The main feature that's touted here are the AI enhancements – not only can the C220 identify a human figure to alert you when someone has entered the camera's field of view, but if you toggle on the feature, the camera can also track and record them as they move around the room. This was a neat option and worked on the cats as well as the humans, though again, there was occasionally a bit of a lag especially when the camera had been sitting still for a while.
Another nice benefit of the C220 is the 360-degree horizontal viewing range which was fun to play around with and offered a full angle of the room. It made it easy to adjust the camera when I wanted to see if a cat was climbing a stack of boxes in the corner, or if one of the kids was hiding by the curtains on the opposite side of the room.
I also really liked the privacy mode, which would cause the camera to move the lens around to the back and 'hide' its face, as though it were the one who was shy. It's useful for moments when I really wanted to make sure that no cameras were facing me, and very easy to enact with a simple tap in the app. It was also handy for when I simply wanted to turn the camera off for a bit. Privacy mode will also turn off the microphone, but you can do this independently as well in the settings menu.
First things first: I like the Eufy app. I think it's clearly designed, easy to find what you're looking for, cleanly laid out and intuitive to use even if you're new to smart home products. Within a few minutes of poking around you should be able to pick up most of the commands and features without any issue. It works alongside Alexa, Google Home and Homebase 3, so if you've got any of those products, you can easily integrate one or more of the C220 cameras.
The app provides you with a live view of your feed, tapping on that brings up your camera's view where you have controls along the bottom navigation that can be scrolled through from left to right including pan and tilt, two way audio, night vision, AI tracking and screenshots. In the upper right corner are buttons for an alarm and settings where you can adjust levels for pan and tilt, sound and motion detection as well as audio and video settings and set the privacy shield on. There are a few buttons on the camera feed as well, one to change the video streaming quality, and one to go into full landscape view
However, it sends an epic ton of notifications. I've heard about notification fatigue with smart home products before, and this absolutely fell into that category very quickly. I adjusted the settings in the notifications eventually to try and alleviate it some, but there's only so much that can be done since the point is to alert me.
My house is a complete chaos zone: There are four cats of various sizes running around like tiny rockets as well as two five-year olds literally running in circles from room to room. Adults are up at all hours and there are background noises that range from screaming wildcats outside to the appliances in the basement randomly turning on. It's a challenge for any smart home device.
It's no surprise that the Eufy Security Indoor Cam C220 sent me a ton of notifications, and that did become bothersome. However, that was my main annoyance about the camera. The other issues were largely manageable: that it remained in one position after scanning for movement, that there was a slight lag in audio or visuals, were livable considering my rural internet connection abilities and the price point of the device.
Overall, the features were great – from the extensive pan and tilt to the microSD card meaning there was no subscription required – and the app and controls were easy to navigate. Among the best home security cameras, the Eufy S350 is our top pick for subscription-free indoor security cameras, but that model, which has a 4k resolution, costs about $100 more. If your needs are simpler, then the Eufy C220 definitely belongs on your short list.
Especially if you like the way that Eufy integrates with other home products, like Alexa or Google Home or Homebase 3, it's a solid option for indoor security cameras. Particularly if you're planning on adding multiple cameras throughout the household.