I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a pair of Wyze Cam OG and OG Telephotos before launch from Wyze (THANK YOU!) so that I could bring you this review on launch day. The Wyze Cam OG is an excellent successor to the more expensive V3, with everything you need, and nothing you don't for an incredibly affordable budget Wireless IP camera.
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Wyze Cam OG (AMAZON) - amzn.to/3QOAwVo
Wyze Cam OG & Telephoto (WYZE) - bit.ly/3kqtdXR
Since my SEO is going to suffer already, here's a breakdown of how the new Wyze OG compares...
Zoom: Telephoto field-of-view (FOV) starts at exactly where maximum pinch-to-zoom stops on the iOS Wyze App. So if you are OK with that narrow of a FOV, the OG 3X is great for reading license plates, long distance identification. Indoors it’s not going to work unless you’re watching a fish bowl across the room :)
WiFi: Wireless performance of both the OG and OG 3X are outstanding - the best numbers I’ve ever seen from a Wyze device and easily 2.5x better than the V3 (~9 dBm). This equated to nearly double the outdoor range before signal loss.
Color: About as sharp as V3, but has the slight red color shift of the V2. Mahogany looked a little red, blues a little more green. It’s barely noticeable unless side by side, but it isn’t as color accurate as the V3/V3P. OG 3X has the same default color of the OG.
Compression: Still has the aggressive Wyze compression with 2 second interval key frames. This makes video playback look a little jumpy under a lot of motion, but overall the same compression quality as the V3.
Exposure: The OG 3X appears to be slightly lighter in most scenes by default. The OG is lighter than the V3 - and blows out highlights easier which is the opposite problem faced with the V3 Pro which started too dark before that first firmware update.
Price: Launch pricing of $19.99 is … insane. With 4 of these, SD cards (from Amazon), and tax - you’re out the door under $100 for a four camera outdoor rated security system with local storage.
Mount: The OG/OG3X use a turret mount with no position locking mechanism other than friction. It has a plastic wheel to lock the camera on the mount threads, but they are NOT 1/4-20 like many other devices and appear to be smaller. Uses a detachable two screw base which makes install easy.
Notifications: The best I’ve seen from a Wyze device. The OG notified of motion at 2.5 sections and the OG at 2.4. This is double the V3 notification speeds and 1/3 faster even than the V3 Pro.
App Opening / Startup Speed: The initial camera startup in the app is incredibly fast - under 2 seconds to fully connect and show an HD image from tap. The PIP and swapping OG pairs is good, though takes getting used to and you can’t turn off the slide out panel icon. From off to fully ready to view the OG is at least half the startup time of the V3.
Ok, I think that about covers it.
Credits:
Music: Artlist.io Paid License, Envato Elements Paid License
Photos: Creative Commons
Editing: Me