Wyze Cam Pan review

Wyze is a cut-price smart home and health technology company based in Chicago. The firm has quickly made a name for itself by offering quality products that seriously undercut its more established rivals. The Cam Pan is an indoor security camera that is motorised and can be moved up, down, left and right via the Wyze smartphone app.

The $40/£50 Cam Pan records in 1080p Full HD resolution at 15 frames per second, has 8x digital zoom, and includes infrared night vision, plus a speaker and microphone for two-way audio. Lastly, the Wyze Cam Pan works with Google Assistant and Alexa, so you can ask the voice assistants to show a live video feed from the camera on your Amazon Echo or Google Nest smart display.

Specifications

Resolution: 1080p Full HD
Field-of-view: 360 degrees
Two-way audio: Yes
Battery: No
Night vision: Yes
Configurable motion sensing: Yes

Key features

As the name suggests, the key feature here is motorised movement. The camera can pan left and right to give a 360-degree view of its surroundings, spinning at a rate of 110 degrees per second. It is also possible to tilt the camera up or down by 93 degrees.

The camera features a 120-degree lens with a 3.5mm focal length, an F/2.3 aperture and 1/ 2.7-inch CMOS imaging sensor. It records at a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and there is an 8x digital zoom function. Quality is lost when zooming in, but it’s a useful feature to have nonetheless.

The Cam Pan automatically detects, tags and tracks motion within its field of view, automatically switches between day and night mode when it gets dark, and night vision works up to a claimed 30 feet away.

An alert is sent to your smartphone via the Wyze app when movement is detected, showing a live feed and a recording of what caused the alert. These recordings are held on Wyze’s AWC cloud server for 14 days with no subscription or monthly fee. You can also choose to record locally to a microSD card, sold separately.

Build and handling

The Cam Pan is larger than some other indoor cameras, but that’s understandable given the motors inside. It’s a simple and not particularly attractive design, but then a security camera doesn’t need to score too many points in the aesthetics stakes. 

The camera rotates quickly and accurately when controlled with the smartphone app, and although the motor is fairly loud it works well. Power is sent to the camera via microUSB and there is a regular USB-A port for diagnostics. There is a tripod mount on the base for fixing the camera to a stand or mounting kit sold by Wyze.

Performance

The Cam Pan works exactly as expected. It is quick and easy to set up, responds quickly and records good-quality video. The 15fps frame rate is on the low side, but is still acceptable, especially at this price.

Sound quality is also acceptable, with it possible to have a conversation through the camera and Wyze app. It’s useful for checking in on your kids and comforting a pet while away (or scaring off intruders, of course), but you’re unlikely to have a long conversation this way.

The Wyze app is simple, well designed and easy to use, with enough features to be useful without being too complicated. 

Verdict

Just like other Wyze products, the Cam Pan is excellent value for money. It works exactly like the company’s regular Cam product, but adds 360-degree coverage and automatic motion tracking for a complete view of the room. Throw in support for Alexa and Google Assistant too, and the Wyze Cam Pan is a great value indoor security camera.

Read more:

• Best indoor security cameras
• Best outdoor security cameras
• Best spy cameras
• Best dash cams