I'm ignorant of the finer workings of the Nest Doorbell but I bought the Tapo TD21 kit. About £45 on Am\*\*\*\*n and it includes a chime. All wireless. You can supply your own SD card for recording, which I did, or pay for their streaming. When somebody activates the camera, it tells me on 2 x Google Mini speakers and I can watch the video on my phone. When the door push is used, it rings the chime, 2 x speakers and my phone on which I can also watch live pictures and speak to the individual at the door; very handy when we are out. The only thing that I can see that the Nest does is automatically pop up on a hub, which I don't have, and interrupt the telly!
The camera/door push is mounted on the door frame and has a special little gadget for removal for charging. Once we stopped playing with it and using the battery(!), it now needs recharging about every 3-4 months. The 'detection' zone for anyone approaching is adjustable and it will also distinguish between people, animals and vehicles. We haven't yet filled up the SD card but I presume that it starts overwriting when full.
The chime is permanently plugged into a wall socket and has a choice of 5 different chimes, although I haven't investigated to find out if any more are downloadable. The volume is adjustable.
TL;DR
Basically, the TD21 does everything we need at a comparatively low cost.
Another vote for Tapo, specifically in our case the TD21.
We have had it for a couple of months and it works well, including alerts through out Google Home Mini. The app allows you to see who is at the door and, if necessary, talk to them. Particularly useful if we have gone out, to be able to instruct where a package is to be left, etc.
As mentioned elsewhere, there is subscription cloud storage available or free local flash storage. We have a 128Gb SD card, of which 1.2Gb has been used so far. When it is full, it will loop back and overwrite earlier video.
The battery is rechargeable, via USB-C and we have recharged it once since we installed it, which, by the way, is devilishly simple: stick it on the door frame, turn on the separate chime and link it all to a very straightforward Tapo app.
Why did we buy Tapo? It was the cheapest available at the time and we haven't been disappointed.
We have Tapo TD21 which works well. Subscription free if you use a SD card or you can subscribe to their cloud service. Notifications on both Google Mini Speaker and my Android phone, as well as talk back and video on the phone. Rechargeable battery and adjustable zones. It won't feed to a Nest hub because it's not a Nest bell. Overall, highly delighted with it for the price.
As mentioned elsewhere, there is subscription cloud storage available or free local flash storage. We have a 128Gb SD card, of which 1.2Gb has been used so far. When it is full, it will loop back and overwrite earlier video.
The battery is rechargeable, via USB-C and we have recharged it once since we installed it, which, by the way, is devilishly simple: stick it on the door frame, turn on the separate chime and link it all to a very straightforward Tapo app.
Why did we buy Tapo? It was the cheapest available at the time and we haven't been disappointed.
If your worried about privacy (this is a legit concern btw, see Eufy and the shitshow that happened there) then yes get a camera, probably multiple in fact, but get tapo. I have a TAPO doorbell (TD21) and its great. Charge will probably last 4 months maybe longer, and thats even on high performance. A 128gb will probably last me a year or so. I have the base in the house where the card can sit, its extra but it means the card doesn’t have to live in the camera and i have two chimes in the house. It works in pitch black too. There is no need to have any cloud services of any kind, you will just not be able to answer when you’re away. When it does ring, it calls like a phone call, or if the camera detects motion, or you just fancy seeing whats there. Just bought the garden camera too. This sounds like a sales pitch for tapo haa
[https://www.tapo.com/uk/faq/686/](https://www.tapo.com/uk/faq/686/)
https://preview.redd.it/pvwujzk1wqxf1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4509c27ebe2675ac5da45037f5e8f45f39c33975
I just want to add that the battery life of these doorbells are amazing. 0% for 2 days of no activity. 1% a day on a decent traffic of \~20 detections. Used the D210/TD21 and now D230S1.
Wyze "Requires no subscription" lol. To be useful and do any sort of human or pet only AI detection you have to pay. Dump them
Tapo and Reolink both offer good doorbells. Tapo has a better app and better playback, reolink has better image quality
Yeah it works but if you only wanted people you can't filter out others. Tapo is the closest alternative. If you are wired the D130 with an SD card is it
PoE doorbells is far far better than a battery powered camera, there is no comparison. PoE vs battery powered is like gold vs trash pretty much.
>Im not looking for cutting edge perfection. I just want to actually be able to answer my doorbell within 5 seconds or so, understand the person well enough, they understand me well enough, only a second or two of delay, and it records usable clips. I don't feel like I'm asking for much, but the 2 doorbells I've purchased definitely fail some of those.
You need a PoE doorbell, so it is either going to be Reolink PoE doorbell or Ubiquiti G6 Entry (or the pro version of that).
You wasted your money on that battery powered stuff, you learned the hard way unfortunately. There simply doesn't exist a doorbell that's battery powered that is reliable. Hardwired Wi-Fi doorbell is a bit better than that but even that is leagues away from what a PoE doorbell is (or any PoE camera for that matter).
>small apartment
You probably can't run PoE, because you don't own your property and can't drill holes. If that's the case the next best thing is hardwired Wi-Fi doorbell (not battery powered). As I said, still far from a PoE doorbell but it is what it is if you can't run PoE.
If you can't run any of those you are absolutely cooked my friend. You could try using a doorbell that can be hooked to Wi-Fi 5 or 6 instead, that might improve some things but you are still dealing with trash.
Yes, I edited my comment.
For battery powered it would need to be one that can be used with Wi-Fi 5 or 6. So it's either Reolink or some tapo ones I think might also have that.
You could get the hub from Reolink it acts like an access point if for some reason you don't have Wi-Fi 5 or 6. Tapo might have similar thing, you'd need to check. But the hub needs to be hardwired to your router.
Make sure you update the firmware of everything, reolink needs to be done manually.
Don't get your hopes high tho... They will still be very very bad... You are dealing with nearly useless cameras.
Top Smart Doorbells on Reddit
1
Reolink
Wired Video Doorbell Series
82% positive of 569 users
No subscription, local storage, HA-friendly; no mechanical chime.
Bulky_Bowl4607
