Summary
- The Baseus S1 Pro’s solar charging eliminates the need for wired charging, which saves time and money.
- Local storage in the form of a base station boosts privacy and saves on subscription fees.
- The camera sometimes misses quick-moving subjects, but those events were limited.
Installing an outdoor Wi-Fi camera is one of the easiest ways to add security around your home. However, these cameras often need charging, and if you don’t monitor them, you might find yourself with a dead camera at the most crucial moment. So, Baseus fixed this with the Baseus S1 Pro 2-Cam Kit.
Baseus S1 Pro Outdoor Security Camera
$200 $430 Save
$230
The Baseus S1 Pro Outdoor Security Camera has a built-in solar cell that’s more than enough to keep it powered. This means you never have to charge again it, making it a convenient security solution for your home.
- Solar charging means you likely will never have to charge it via USB ever again
- Set up takes less than an hour
- Local storage means you don’t have to pay for a subscription
- Motion detection sometimes misses people, especially if they aren’t in the camera’s view for long
Price and Availability
The Baseus S1 Pro 2-Cam Kit is available for $429.99 on Amazon and directly from the Baseus website. However, it sometimes goes on sale on Amazon, so you should check first and see if you can get some savings.
Setting Up the Security System
Almost everything you need to set up your home security is included in the box: two outdoor security cameras with a sunlight-tracking system and their mounting brackets, the base station with built-in 16GB storage (expandable up to 16TB) and its power adapter, an RJ45 cable for connecting the base to your router, and a USB-A to USB-C cable to charge the cameras in case you run out of batteries.
It’s also easy to set up the security system; I first added a hard drive to the base station to expand its capacity to 1TB, plug it into my network, and set it up using the Baseus Security app (available for Android and iPhone). Note that you don’t have to pay for any subscription to save and access your security recordings from anywhere in the world—as long as your base station is connected online, you can see everything saved on it through the app.
Once the base station was up and running, I paired the two security cameras first to ensure that they worked and that I could see what they were seeing. That way, I could ensure that my camera placement was within Wi-Fi range and that it could see what I wanted it to see (which was my front door and backyard, in this case). All in all, it took me less than an hour to get everything up and running.
Camera Placement Is Crucial for Charging
The standout feature of the Baseus S1 Pro camera is its built-in auto-tracking solar panel. This allows it to recharge itself using solar power, and it even tracks the sun and points the solar panel at it, ensuring that it can recharge quickly.
When I installed the cameras, they were at 26% and 41% battery levels. It’s been over two months since I placed them, and they’re still at 98% and 56%, respectively. This proves that the auto-tracking solar panel is quite effective at charging them, even during the winter months when the days are shorter.
However, it also means installing these cameras outdoors where the sun can directly hit them. Placing them in a covered area (like in your garage or under your roof) would render the solar panels ineffective, meaning you’ll have to use the included USB-C cable. But even if that’s the case, these cameras have a decent battery capacity of 13,500mAh, with Baseus claiming it could last up to a year on a single charge.
Human and Movement Detection
Like other wireless security cameras, the Baseus S1 Pro doesn’t record 24/7. Instead, it only saves video data when it recognizes movement. You can change this in the app if you want it to record and store human movement or all types of movement, but it’s generally good at recording data when it senses movement.
An active internet connection is also unnecessary for the camera to record events to the base station. As long as the cameras are connected to it via Wi-Fi, it will record the movements it detects. However, it still needs to go online to notify you on your phone if it detects anything.
However, there were a couple of times when the camera failed to detect and record a human. This happened recently when a delivery rider left a package at my gate, which the camera failed to record. This probably happened because the delivery person dropped it off quickly, didn’t linger, and was within the camera’s view for under five seconds.
See, Hear, and Talk With the Baseus S1 Pro
More than just recording what it sees, the Baseus S1 Pro is also a communications device. It has two lenses: a wide-angle camera with a 120-degree view that lets you see a wide swathe of your property and a telephoto camera with a 45-degree coverage that helps you capture details. For example, the telephoto camera is pointed straight at my gate, which allows it to capture details, while the larger view captures my garage and the street in front of my house.
When someone is at the gate, I can use the Baseus S1 Pro to talk to them. It comes with a loudspeaker that can easily be heard 20 feet away and a microphone that captures the sounds of what it’s covering. It also has a 100-lumen spotlight if you want color vision at night, although its passive infrared sensor can see clearly enough in the dark.
Baseus S1 Pro Recording Quality
The two lenses on each camera record at 3K quality. Although they’re not quite UltraHD, the 2560 x 1440 resolution you get is more than enough to capture minute details with the camera, like plate numbers. Even at night, with no light available and under heavy rain, the camera can get details through its IR recording capabilities. It also works well in challenging lighting conditions, like when a car with its headlights turned on passes by.
Should You Buy the Baseus S1 Pro Outdoor Camera?
The $429.99 price point for the Baseus S1 Pro 2-Cam Kit might be a bit steep, but the fact that you never have to charge it makes it well worth the price. You could install this device once and never have to think about charging or maintaining it. Aside from that, its local storage ensures your privacy, and if the 16GB of built-in storage isn’t enough for you, you could add up to a 16TB 2.5-inch hard drive to store more data.
If the two-camera setup is not enough to cover your property, you could also purchase additional cameras from the Baseus store on Amazon, including models that do not have solar cells, if you plan to install cameras in indoor and covered places. The included base station can pair with up to 16 cameras, ensuring that you can add enough cameras to cover every inch of the typical American home.
Baseus S1 Pro Outdoor Security Camera
$200 $430 Save
$230
The Baseus S1 Pro Outdoor Security Camera has a built-in solar cell that’s more than enough to keep it powered. This means you never have to charge again it, making it a convenient security solution for your home.
