Amazon’s Blink Outdoor 4 Cam Is One of the Easiest Setups We’ve Found – CNET [CNET]
The Blink app itself is an effective example of great UI design and how it can make the setup experience so much better. The app fits a large number of settings in a small space without disorienting the user. Everything from sliders to control motion detection to flipping spotlights on and off is just a couple taps away.
The setup walkthrough is simple and speedy — as long as you know your Wi-Fi password off the top of your head (or from your password manager), it takes only a few minutes. The features are intuitive enough that I always have a good idea where to find a setting, which is very helpful when putting a camera through its paces for a review or recommendation.
![The motion detection settings page for a Blink Mini 2.](https://i0.wp.com/www.cnet.com/a/img/resize/69161ff229adbe5cffa9ea0822a597d3f1152242/hub/2024/03/12/f271f34b-6ea7-4f1c-b948-4ee4c1ff3c13/blink-mini-2-motion-settings.jpg?resize=800%2C533&ssl=1)
Blink’s Outdoor cams shine for an additional reason: Its AA lithium batteries are rated for up to two years, so depending on the frequency of activation they can last a very long time. That makes their wireless approach a nice choice for home-havers who may want to put their cams in unconventional locations and really don’t want to worry about recharging a battery every month.
The Blink Outdoor 4 has a number of camera features I like to see, including night vision, two-way audio and motion detection zones. As an Amazon brand, it works very well with Alexa (although not with much else), and if you want to spend extra on a Sync Module 2 the cam supports local storage. As is common, some great features like person recognition or cloud storage are locked behind a subscription, but Blink’s fees are particularly low, starting at $3 a month. That’s a pretty strong price-to-feature ratio if you don’t mind a subscription model.