While there’s quite a few other video doorbells on the market, ADT’s LifeShield is hoping you’ll choose their latest product because of its deep integration with the rest of Lifeshield’s do-it-yourself security solutions. The new LifeShield HD Video Doorbell is launching today and is a WiFi-connected video doorbell that gets hard-wired into your home’s power. Being hard-wired means the best possible performance from the doorbell, as it won’t need time to wake up and connect to WiFi before fulfilling its job.
It also means that the doorbell can be always watching and identifying any possible issues that might be on your front door. The 1080p camera on-board sits behind a super wide-angle 170-degree lens, which can easily see everything around it in circular fashion. Most other video doorbells on the market, like Nest and Ring’s latest generation video doorbells, have a 160-degree angle lens instead.
Since it pairs with the LifeShield home security system, the LifeShield HD Video Doorbell can record however often you want it to, and those recordings can be accessed at any time through the company’s one-stop-shop app. While it can be set to record constantly, it can also be a bit more intelligent than that by using motion-detection to save space and search time.
The doorbell can actually identify people and help alleviate false alarms that come from generic motion capturing of moving objects. These videos can then be viewed in the LifeShield app or from within the home on the security touchpad.
There’s also two-way audio support for having a conversation with the person at the door without having to actually open it first. This is both good for those annoying solicitors that bother you on a Saturday morning, as well as giving the appearance that someone is home when they might not actually be. There’s a certain piece of mind that comes with the ability to talk to the person at your front door when you’re at work or sitting on a beach somewhere.
It’s also got full IFTTT (If This Then That) integration and support for popular smart home services like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Z-Wave Plus as well. IFTTT integration means you can easily create reactions for your smart home gear when an action is performed. For instance, say someone shows up at your front door in the evening and the LifeShield doorbell detects them. You can create an action to automatically turn on the smart lightbulb on your porch to give the effect that someone is at the door looking through the peephole.
ADT acquired LifeShield in February of this year and has used it to bolster not only its own DIY solutions, but also to provide further professional monitoring options to LifeShield customers. LifeShield doesn’t have a contract, as you would expect from a DIY system, so you don’t need to subscribe to professional monitoring if you don’t want to, lowering the overall cost of the system as a whole.
The LifeShield HD Video Doorbell can be purchased individually for $199, putting it on a competitive level with other video doorbells from companies like Nest or Ring.
Since it works hand-in-hand with the rest of LifeShield’s DIY security systems, you can also put together a security package that better meets your needs. Similar to the professional monitoring option, LifeShield offers any combination you would like to save money or just make more sense for your individual situation.