The arrival of fully wireless security cameras further simplifies adding protection to your home or business. Noorio joins a busy field – going up against major players including Arlo, Google Nest, and Amazon Ring, so what makes its devices stand out?
Just like their competitors, Noorio’s devices offer live alerts to your phone, as well as the option to save and review events via a cloud subscription (as of November 2022 this is $2.99/month or $29.99/year). This is below some (Nest is $6/month), but is ‘per camera. You can at least switch cameras, and get 30 days free to get going.
Noorio has turned to the features and industrial design to leave a clear distinction from competitors, hence fluid design.
Specification
Resolution (B200): 1080P
Resolution (B210 ‘Pro’): 2K
Nightvision: Yes
Spotlight: Yes
Storage: 8GB (B200), or 16GB (B210)
Build and handling
The Noorio makes a good impression from the start, with a simple but tidy box separating the ball-like camera from the accessories. The matt-white plastic ball is about the size of a cricket ball, though the glossly camera cut-out is shallower, so it’s not completely round (perhaps for the best, as the size and weight do make a game of catch tempting. The lens is flanked by an indicator LED and an IR light, while above it is a dual-LED floodlight. This can be enabled remotely, as can a siren effect from the two-way speaker.
While design looks like it’d be happy indoors, the camera is IP66 protected so can be positioned outdoors too. It’s nice to know there is up to 60 days worth of event storage onboard too; more memory in the “Pro” but it has the higher resolution camera so needs it.
Performance
Noorio’s solid physical impression continues into the app-led setup process, which is about as smooth as they come and takes place in a clean, elegantly-designed app. It’d be nice to have Alexa, Google Assistant or HomeKit support (depending on preference), but if you’re happy to use the supplied app you’ll be able to monitor the cameras and events OK.
One quirk of the software we noticed is that, at first, the buttons to flag or download clips were greyed out. After a few tries, this resolved itself after the app asked for permission to save to the photo library, but ideally this should have happened the first time. Nonetheless, the app is certainly better than most.
Video quality could be better; the compression takes a little while to settle and (especially on the B200) it seemed to abandon color in favor of mono detail in some areas of the image (a stripey bedspread, for example). Even outdoors in daylight, the white balance seemed indecisive, though otherwise detail was good. The spotlight isn’t the most powerful, but this feels like a sensible trade-off against battery life.
Sample video captured by the Noorio Spotlight Cam Battery Pro
Verdict
The B200 series camera is a fine security camera with splendid mounting flexibility, with the Pro version offering decent quality video into the bargain (the standard B200 is better described as adequate). If you’re not looking for integration with a home assistant system, and are content to view from the app, this might make a sensible choice. Indeed Noorio’s app is well-designed and offers a good choice of features – including battery-saving options – which are all clearly labelled and easy to understand. Still, this shouldn’t be on your shopping list if you want Alexa integration.
We also couldn’t help but wonder if an entirely rounded back was ideal for charging the camera. Assuming you pop it off the base (especially if you’ve mounted it), then you’re likely to be charging from a loose USB-C cable, but care must be taken to stop it rolling.
Because of the elegant magnetic mount, positioning the camera in the home is easy, however, it doesn’t like to be angled much more than about 10˚ downward, so using on top of furniture isn’t as easy as it should be.
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