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Sep 22, 2023

Lorex 2K Wired Floodlight Security Camera (W452ASD) Review

Smart floodlight cameras are ideal for monitoring and illuminating large spaces

Smart floodlight cameras are ideal for monitoring and illuminating large spaces around your home such as driveways, pool areas, and backyards. With the $249.99 Lorex 2K Wired Floodlight Security Camera (W452ASD), you get a crystal clear view of the action and two bright LED lamps with adjustable color temperature. It also offers local video storage, color night vision, intelligent alerts, and dual-band Wi-Fi, all of which help justify its high price. It's not strong on third-party integrations like the Editors' Choice-winning Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera ($249.99, plus a paid storage plan), however, nor do its LEDs get quite as bright. Those disadvantages withstanding, the Lorex might still be the better choice if you prefer a subscription-free experience.

The Lorex 2K Wired Floodlight is available in a black or white finish and measures 8.5 by 11.0 by 8.2 inches (HWD). It features two adjustable LED lights that can each reach a peak brightness of 2,400 lumens. Conveniently, you can change the color temperature (cool or warm) as well as control the brightness of these lights. For comparison, the LEDs on the aforementioned Arlo model have a fixed 4,000K color temperature and a maximum output of 3,000 lumens.

Like the affordable Wyze Cam Floodlight, this model has an IP65 weatherproof rating, which means it shouldn't have any issues with inclement weather. The twist-off base contains three wires (hot, neutral, and ground) that provide power to the fixture; you must connect the device directly to a junction box. In the package, you get mounting screws, a mounting plate, wire caps, and an instruction manual.

The camera captures 2K video (2,560 by 1,440 pixels) at 15fps; it has a 122-degree diagonal field of view and a 16:9 aspect ratio. The device uses high dynamic range (HDR) technology to enhance contrast levels, as well as infrared LEDs to capture color night vision when the floodlight lamps are active.

Internally, the camera has both 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi radios. The front houses a microphone and a speaker for two-way conversations as well a status LED that glows solid green when the device is connected, slowly blinks green when it's ready for network pairing, quickly blinks green when it's pairing with the app, blinks red when the network connection fails, and blinks red and green during a firmware update. On the bottom of the unit, there's a passive infrared (PIR) motion sensor, while the right side includes a rubber cover that protects a reset button and a microSD card slot.

The product ships with a 32GB card for storing event-triggered recordings locally, but you can upgrade to a 256GB card if you want continuous recording capabilities. The camera uses buffering to capture five seconds of activity before a motion event (which helps provide context); can differentiate between cars, people, and pets; and supports both motion tracking and motion zones. You can further configure the floodlight to light up the area when the camera detects motion or turn it on manually via the companion app. Refreshingly, Lorex does not offer any cloud storage or premium subscription plans for this model.

You get support for Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands, but the device doesn't work with the Apple HomeKit or IFTTT platforms. Note that it does not integrate with the Lorex Smart Home Security Center, either.

The 2K Wired Floodlight uses the same mobile app (available for Android and iOS) as other Lorex devices including the 4K Spotlight Indoor/Outdoor Wi-Fi 6 Security Camera and the 2K QHD Wired Video Doorbell. The camera appears in a panel on the Devices screen, along with the last still capture, a play arrow that launches a live stream, and a Privacy Mode button that turns off the live stream and disables event recording.

On the live playback screen, five buttons below the feed respectively let you switch to full-screen mode, select a video quality setting (HD, SD, or Auto), pause the video stream, mute the sound, or switch to a multi-camera view with panels for up to nine cameras (requires a wireless or wired Fusion recording device from Lorex). There's also a Timeline button that shows a scrolling list of all event recordings on the card, as well as a View Events button that displays thumbnails of recent events (up to the last three days) with the time and type of motion (people, animal, or vehicle).

Below those are additional buttons for taking a snapshot, manually recording a video, initiating two-way talk, activating the built-in 85dB siren, turning on the floodlight lamps, activating a Quick Response (you can choose between three prerecorded messages: "Nobody can come to the door right now," "Please leave the package at the door," and "We'll be right there"), and enabling Privacy Mode.

Tap the three dots in the upper-right corner of the live stream view to access the device settings. Here, you can configure motion and sound detection settings, enable continuous recording (a 256GB card starts to write over recordings after about 24 days depending on your resolution choice), create custom quick responses, enable an object bounding box (for motion tracking), and configure intelligent alerts. Otherwise, you can enable HDR, choose the video quality, change motion activation options (sensitivity, subject detection, and motion zones), and adjust floodlight settings (color temperature, light duration, and brightness).

Back at the bottom of the main screen are Home, Events, and Settings buttons. The Home button takes you back to the main screen from anywhere in the app. Choose the Events button to see a screen with thumbnails of recordings from all of your account devices; you can play or delete any of these clips. Finally, tap the Settings button to configure Home and Away options, view snapshots and manual recordings, tweak notification sounds and schedules, set up multi-factor account verification, and add more devices.

Installing the floodlight is simple, but if you aren't comfortable with electrical wiring, you should hire a professional to complete the job. You can consult the app for video instructions or just use the included print guide.

I started by turning off the power to the circuit that runs my existing floodlight and removing the old fixture. I secured the mounting plate to the junction box using the included screws, attached the black wire to my home's black (live) wire, connected the white wire to my home's neutral (white) wire, and joined the green ground wire to a mounting screw.

Next, I capped off the wires with the included wire nuts, tucked the wires back into the junction box, and attached the base to the mounting plate using two included screws. Finally, I attached the new light fixture to the base, twisted it to lock it in place, tightened up the mounting screw on the base, and restored power to the circuit.

With the physical installation done, I opened the app, tapped the plus button to add a device, and selected the floodlight from the list. I used my phone to scan the QR code on the side of the camera, verified that the LED was blinking green, and gave the device a password. After I provided my Wi-Fi network information, the camera took just a few moments to show up on my Lorex and Alexa device lists. I gave the floodlight a name to complete the installation.

The Lorex camera provides outstanding video quality. Daytime video shows crisp detail and rich colors, while black-and-white night video appears sharp with good contrast. Nighttime color video quality is also very good thanks to the bright LED lamps. Two-way conversations sound clean and loud.

Speaking of the floodlight lamps, they did a great job of lighting up my entire driveway and parts of my front yard in testing. They responded instantly to motion triggers and to on and off commands via the app. Motion detection performed as intended; alerts arrived quickly and properly identified people, animals, and vehicles. My Alexa voice commands for the floodlight camera to send video to an Amazon Echo Show also worked without a hitch.

Detailed 2K video, color night vision, local video storage, and adjustable LED lamps are all good reasons to consider the Lorex 2K Wired Floodlight Security Camera. That said, this camera doesn't offer the integrations you get with the Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera and it doesn't have as wide a view. If both are too pricey and you don't mind stepping down to 1080p resolution, the Wyze Cam Floodlight is an excellent alternative with both sound and motion detection, as well as IFTTT support, for just $99.98.

The pricey Lorex 2K Wired Floodlight Camera is a standalone home security package with a high-resolution sensor, dual adjustable LED lamps, and a built-in card slot for local video storage.

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