News

Sep 12, 2023

Wyze’s Cam Floodlight Pro lights up when it recognizes cars and people

By Jess Weatherbed, a news writer focused on creative industries, computing,

By Jess Weatherbed, a news writer focused on creative industries, computing, and internet culture. Jess started her career at TechRadar, covering news and hardware reviews.

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Smart home company Wyze has announced the Cam Floodlight Pro, a security camera with built-in lighting and object sensing that serves as the next-gen successor to the original Wyze Cam Floodlight. The wired $149.98 Cam Floodlight Pro bumps its predecessor's 1080p camera resolution to 1440p (2.5K) and features a 180-degree field of view to help reduce blind spots.

The company claims its new AI "computer vision" can more accurately detect movement at greater distances and can recognize objects selected by the user to avoid things like blowing branches from triggering the lights and sending unwanted alerts to your phone. Users can opt to trigger the lights and notifications only when people or vehicles are detected, for example. It's a rare feature, especially on DIY security systems — the Vivint Spotlight Pro offers similar capabilities but requires professional installation. The Wyze camera is also capable of both color night vision in low light and full infrared night vision when it's especially dark outside.

That same AI computer vision also detects motion for the Cam Floodlight Pro's motion-activated voice deterrence feature. When enabled, the device will trigger an alert message that says, "Hi, you are currently being recorded" upon detecting movement from a nearby person. If that doesn't dissuade any suspicious individuals, then the built-in 105dB siren can provide some loud additional deterrence.

The Cam Floodlight Pro features three independently articulating LED panels that are dimmable and can provide up to 3,000 lumens of illumination. It includes dusk-to-dawn automation that can automatically switch the device on / off based on available daylight and introduces a new ambient lighting mode that, when enabled, will keep the floodlight at a constant dim light setting until it detects nearby motion and automatically increases the brightness.

The Wyze Cam Floodlight Pro is capable of continuous local recording, which can be saved to a microSD card up to 256GB. It also supports dual-band Wi-Fi, so you can opt to connect it to either a 2.4GHz or 5GHz wireless connection to view a livestream of the camera feed via the Wyze app. The Cam Floodlight Pro is rated for IP65 water resistance (meaning it can withstand light water pressure) and requires a hardwired power connection to operate.

Pricing for the original Wyze Cam Floodlight started at $84.99, which was considerably cheaper than rival smart security offerings like the $179.99 Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Plus — the Wyze Cam Floodlight Pro can't match it for affordability, but it does provide more features and increased video resolution that make it a desirable upgrade. The only real blemish is that, while you could add up to two Wyze Cam v3s to the original Wyze Cam Floodlight, the new Wyze Cam Floodlight Pro doesn't support any additional cameras.

Available in either white or black, the white version of the Wyze Cam Floodlight Pro can be ordered today for immediate shipment via the Wyze webstore. The black version is expected to be available sometime between June 27th and July 11th. Kyle Christensen, Head of Brand Engagement at Wyze has also confirmed to The Verge that the original Cam Floodlight will still be available to purchase and is not being replaced by the new Cam Floodlight Pro.

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