Nice… I have the Blink XT on the front porch and was looking for a deal on an add-on camera for the driveway! I noticed Amazon came out with a new version and these original XT’s were nowhere to be found.
Thanks Woot!
WOW! Check out the dozens of horrible reviews of the latest update in the App Store! I thought these looked great for the price until I read the reviews of the app. Anyone know anything about these and/or the app?
Not a lot of discussion happening here but here is a long conversation going on at Slickdeals if you are interested.
You still have 3 hours to make a purchase decision:
FWIW, REVIEW: Blink XT Camera (2 camera system) - YouTube
Thats my review. I still have the same units, they do work very well.
This is a good deal. The App is fine as long as you understand the limits of what the cameras can do.
I just bought 2 of these on woot last week. I set up one of them. I don’t see anything wrong with the app. All of these cameras, including the Arlo pro I’ve had for a year or so, are a bit slow to react and can miss the action. And night time quality is limited. The other issue with the Blink XT is that you can see live but cannot record live if you want to which is strange. You can record live with the Arlo Pro but I’ve never tried doing it.
This went on longer than I intended, so here is the high level overview:
Pros: Easy to install, wireless cameras mean easy placement including away from the house (one mounted on a nearby tree), low cost system, no fees for 1 month of cloud video storage, good video quality, excellent battery life even with fairly high trigger rate
Cons: Cannot record live feed, don’t expect to always make out facial features, wifi cameras means interrupted if wifi or power goes out, minimum time of 10 seconds to “retrigger” camera
Yes, I would recommend this. Know the limitations, but for the price I don’t think there is a better and easier system out there.
I have been using a 2 camera system for approximately 9 months. I haven’t noticed any issues with the latest update and I like the cameras, especially for the price. You do have to understand the limitations, but that’s the trade off for the low price point. It boasts a 2 year battery life–I have had no issues with battery yet, with a current average of ~11 clips a day from my front door camera. That camera recently got moved (deliveries sometimes think it is a doorbell and poke it, which moves the alignment) and it started picking up significantly more events (I live by the entry to the community, so cars trigger it–more on that soon). The app actually warned me that at the recording rate the batteries would not last two years. An update several months ago introduced “activity zones” where you can deselect different rectangular areas of the camera and it will not trigger motion in those zones (it is a 5x5 grid with 25 selectable rectangles). Turning off 3 rectangles significantly cut down on the alerts from cars going by–I was getting about 25 alerts a day from that camera before the zones.
The cameras seem to do better catching motion coming across the camera from the sides–if you walk directly at the camera it does not trigger until you get much closer. Another thing to know, as someone else mentioned, the camera will NOT record while you are looking at it live, and you cannot look live while it is recording a clip. This hasn’t presented a huge issue for me, however it is something to know. For instance, if it triggers and you check the clip to see someone suspicious then go to the live view and that person happens to do something you want recorded, it won’t be recording that. You would need to exit and hope for the camera to trigger, or use another device to record the screen.
The clip length is adjustable from 5 to 60 seconds in five second increments. There is a “retrigger” time with a minimum of 10 seconds before the camera will record another clip–I wish that it gave an option for shorter retrigger. You can adjust the retrigger time in five second increments up to 60 seconds. It also gives you an option to end the clip early if motion stops, as well as trigger sensitivity adjustments and IR on/off and intensity adjustments.
As a wifi camera, it will cease to store recordings if your wifi goes out. The trade off is that set up was incredibly easy. I did have an issue with one camera falling off the mount after about 4 months. Customer service was difficult to deal with and frankly not very friendly or helpful. They claimed that it wasn’t covered by the warranty. I figured out that I had the camera mount extended too far out and the weight of the camera at the angle I needed it mounted caused the mount to flop over (camera looking down). I reduced the angle and tightened down the screw at the mount which has solved it, albeit with less optimal camera coverage.
At the price point, I think it is a good system. Hopefully you do not have to deal with customer service. There are certainly better things out there, but you will pay more for them. My main goal was to have some camera coverage around my house, the ability to look at things live (it is useful if you hear a noise in the middle of the night–I can grab my phone and check in on the cameras. Also useful if there is bad weather around your house while you are traveling–you can look in to see if there are any issues, broken widows, etc), and as a deterrent for people stealing packages or loitering around the property (note that cameras are a limited deterrent to porch pirates, as many videos will show–most hilariously this one).
Video quality is decent, not 1080P as advertised but you can see what is going on. You will not be able to read a license plate that is 15 feet away and it can be difficult to make out facial features depending on lighting and angles. I wouldn’t bank on being able to get more than clothing, height, build and race as far as person identification. Sometimes you get a good view of the face, but too many variables to count on that.
Clips are deleted on a rolling month basis, with the oldest being deleted. Currently, my camera has clips dating back to 5/3 (writing this on 6/2), with about 45% of the cloud storage used. This is probably one of the biggest advantages–you do not have to pay for the cloud storage and it has been perfectly adequate for my needs. You can download any clips that you want to save indefinitely to your device.
I dislike how they pick the clip image (which appears with the alert) as it is taken from the end of the clip rather than the beginning (and thus the motion that triggers it). Due to my front camera inevitably capturing cars that go by, I don’t always look at the clips but like to see the overview image (if a person appears in the image I certainly review the clip). This has probably caused me to miss some things I would like to review, but better than nothing and your results may vary depending on how much motion your cameras see. The camera captured someone walking through my back yard recently, then disappearing off camera for several minutes before triggering it on walking out. I was traveling at the time and it gave me enough of a description to call it into the police non-emergency number, who dispatched an officer to check the property. They were able to make contact with the person, who turned out to be a non-uniformed private contractor checking the water meter. Had it been someone not supposed to be there, that could have prevented a break in.
From what I have seen, the Ring doorbell camera is probably a better way to cover the front door. I would say the Blink XT is like the (also Amazon product) Ring Security Camera “lite”–not quite as good video quality with less features but at a significantly lesser price point. I personally do not think it is worth spending more money on the Ring Security Cameras as they are also wifi cameras (will be interrupted when wifi is out) and only capture motion events. In my mind, the next step up is a continuously recording system that also alerts with motion. However, that necessitates a wired setup as batteries would drain too quickly.
Sorry that this is a little rambling, kept thinking of things to say. All in all, it is a good way to get some (easy) camera coverage for cheap.
Blink XT2 came out 2 weeks ago, and has 2 way voice and can save live recordings. I received mine today, Works great. And the app works fine, be it Android or Apple.
Check it out here
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07M8DTHGL/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I have the XT and XT2 - not a lot of difference. I like the Blink app a lot. No issues at all. For the price difference, I would buy the XT on Woot.
Thank you!
These work great as advertised. I didn’t get 2 years out of the battery, but that’s fine with some understanding in regard to sensitivity and placement we’re good now.
If you want heartache, headaches, sh/tty customer service and tech support buy the over priced garbage called ARLO.
I returned mine and bought blink 9 months ago.
You should get that image software that they use on CSI. They can tell the sex of a squashed fly on a license plate of a car driving by a parking lot at 70 MPH on a busy highway at night, in the rain. Enhance. Enhance. Enhance. 
Odd that Amazon has the XT2 as “Unavailable”. But on the up take… one can choose to get the SOLAR panels to keep these up and running w/o worrying about batter or the 9 days max recording (24/7) on one set of batteries. There are a few places I’d like to put a couple of these where my WIRED cameras are not covering. Still on the fence.
EDIT Well, not on the fence anymore. Thought I’d wait till after lunch. Just checked. They are all gone (at least the package I was THINKING about getting. After reading reviews for both, think I’ll wait this out till gen 3 is out and the battery life is better. One BIG plus for both CURRENT models, adding a solar panel is not that hard or expensive. Something I’d think about if I picked up a couple of these.
And even the XT2’s have a 3 star raiting. Not something to be proud about IMO.
Anyone have any insight why Amazon is sold out of XT and XT2?
The XT was discontinued as soon as XT2 came out. So Woot is getting rid of the excess inventory.
The XT2 had some major firmware/software issues when it was released–a horribly bungled release. Live view didn’t have any sound for most people. The volume for the 2-way talk is mediocre. Some people had connection issues. So I heard sales were put on hold until these issues could be worked out.
That having been said, I believe most issues have been resolved. And my XT from earlier on never had any real issues, so I took the opportunity to buy here.
I use the 3 cam system. No issues. Performs excellently.
Can I buy a few of the single add on cameras if I dont have the overall XT system? Will they work?
Hi there. These require the sync station.
I have 8 of these set up around my house and barn. Very easy set up! I’ve had them running for the past month and no issues so far.
Great review. Thanks. FWIW, people should invest in a DECENT UPS for their computer and network system. My security camera head unit has it’s own UPS. Keeps it up and running, along with it’s 6 cameras for almost 2 hours. Longer if I turn the monitor off.
In home network. Yes, costly, but I have a APC Smart-UPS 1500VA just for my NAS boxes (3) which one collects the recorded video, a 1500 for my PC and a 1500 for my network gear. In all, if I’m not home, my system has over 4 hours of up time (the PC shuts down after 10 minutes if power is not restored but I have nothing dependent on it). Most people won’t go through this extreme but anything in house that needs the network to operate does need power and up front costs are not cheap but long term conveniences are noticeable.