Review Ecobee Smart Doorbell Camera (Wired)

Ecobee Smart Doorbell Camera (Wired) Specifications

Best known for its smart thermostats, Ecobee has added the Smart Doorbell Camera (Wired) to its lineup. This video doorbell not only works well as a standalone device, it also fits seamlessly into your existing Ecobee, Amazon Alexa, and Apple HomeKit ecosystems. At $159.99, it's a bit overpriced for a 1080p doorbell camera, but it offers a handful of welcome features, including a 175-degree vertical field of view, dual-band Wi-Fi, person alerts, and package detection (with a subscription).

Design and features

Measuring 5.3 by 1.8 by 1.1 inches (HWD), the Ecobee doorbell is just a hair smaller than the Wyze Video Doorbell Pro (5.5 by 1.8 by 1.1 inches). The enclosure has an IP65 weatherproof rating and sports a glossy black face with white trim around the sides.

The doorbell features a 5-megapixel HDR camera that captures 1080p video at 30fps and allows 8x digital zoom. The camera has a 175-degree vertical viewing angle that gives you a head-to-toe view of whoever is at your door. Under the hood are dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios.

The front of the doorbell holds the camera assembly, two small infrared LEDs for black-and-white night vision, two far-field noise-cancelling microphones, an ambient light sensor, a doorbell button surrounded by an LED light loop, and a smaller LED indicator. There’s a speaker on the bottom and two wiring terminals on the back. This is a wired doorbell that requires a standard 16-24 VAC doorbell transformer.

The smaller LED glows solid green when someone is viewing a live stream, flashes green once when the camera is taking a snapshot, flashes green continuously when the camera is recording video, and shines sold blue when the doorbell is connected to HomeKit. The larger LED flashes green when motion has been detected, spins green when the doorbell button has been pressed, spins white during Wi-Fi pairing, spins yellow when pairing has timed out, and glows solid red when there is insufficient voltage.

The Ecobee doorbell offers some advanced features not available on all competing models, including Smart Focus which pans and zooms to give you a clear view of your visitors, the ability to stream video to an Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium and to Alexa smart displays, and to play a doorbell chime on other Ecobee devices.

The camera records video when it detects motion or when the doorbell button is pressed, but it doesn’t store recorded footage locally. Instead, you have to subscribe to Ecobee Smart Security plan to view and download recorded video. For $5 per month or $50 per year, the Standard plan gives you 30 days of video history, package detection, and rich push notifications for one camera. With the $10-per-month/$90-per-year Complete plan, you get everything in the Standard plan for an unlimited number of cameras as well as 24/7 professional monitoring and insurance savings.

The doorbell works with the Ecobee mobile app (available for Android and iOS) like every other device from the brand, and appears in a panel on the app’s home screen. The panel contains the name of the device and a still image of the last recorded event. Tapping the View Live button opens a screen with a live stream, along with buttons for Talk, Record, Snapshot, and Siren. At the bottom of the screen is a View History button that takes you to a screen with large thumbnails of recorded video. Tap any thumbnail to view the clip, download it, or delete it.

In the upper right corner of the video screen is a gear icon that opens a settings screen. Here you can configure Whole Home Chime settings to have the doorbell chime sound on other Ecobee and Alexa devices, and configure the doorbell to stream video to a Premium Thermostat. To view video on the thermostat, tap the Smart Security icon on its display, then select View Doorbell.

Under motion detection settings, you can enable Person Detection, Package Detection, set up Activity Zones, adjust the Detection Range, and turn on Smart Focus. Additional settings let you configure Audio (microphone, speaker volume), Video (night vision, camera on/off), and Device options (name, remove device).

To view activity from all of your Ecobee devices, tap the Activity button at the bottom of the app's home screen.

Installation and performance

Installing the Ecobee doorbell is easy, but if you’re not comfortable working with low-voltage wiring, you should hire a professional. To start, you have to download the Ecobee app and create an account, then you can follow the in-app installation instructions.

I turned off the power to my doorbell circuit, removed my old doorbell, and ran the wires through the opening in the Ecobee mounting plate before attaching the plate to the door frame using the included mounting hardware. I connected the two wires to the terminals on the doorbell and tapped the plus icon in the upper right corner of the app. I tapped Add a Device, selected Doorbell Camera, and selected Yes, It Is Installed (here you can optionally view the aforementioned installation instructions if you need help).

I then restored power to the circuit, verified that the LED was on, and the app immediately recognized the doorbell. After another tap, it successfully paired to the app via Bluetooth. Next, I selected my Wi-Fi SSID and entered my Wi-Fi password to connect the doorbell to my network. Finally, I set up two-factor authentication, gave the doorbell a name, and saved the default chime setting to complete the installation.

The Ecobee doorbell delivered sharp 1080p video in testing, but know that you can get even sharper video with a 2K doorbell camera such as the Abode Wireless Video Doorbell ($99.99) or the Eufy Video Doorbell Dual ($259.99). That said, daytime colors looked well saturated, and black-and-white night video appeared crisp with good contrast. Two-way talk came through loud and clear and the doorbell's 175-degree vertical angle provided a full view of my front step and walkway.

Person and package detection worked as advertised and false motion alerts were few and far between. I had no trouble viewing video on an Ecobee Thermostat Premium, and Alexa commands to stream video to an Amazon Echo Show display worked well, as did my Alexa routine to have a Leviton Decora Smart Wi-Fi Outdoor Plug-In Switch turn on when the doorbell button was pressed.

Conclusions

With support for Ecobee’s Smart Security ecosystem as well as Apple’s HomeKit and Amazon’s Alexa home automation platforms, the Ecobee Smart Doorbell Camera is an excellent choice for anyone looking to add a video doorbell to their smart home. It offers dual-band Wi-Fi support, intelligent alerts, and a head-to-toe view of your doorstep, but at $159.99 it's a bit pricey, and you have to spend more money to access recorded video.