Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

UPDATED: When I saw these smaller cameras announced I was excited and looked forward to adding them to my existing 5 camera Blink system. I figured these would be a great replacement for the XT/XT2 cameras that I had inside my house so I could then re-purpose those for additional outdoor locations. I thought this was a brilliant addition to the Blink camera ecosystem, adding a lower cost camera for indoor applications like mine where the benefits of the battery power and weather-proofness would be overkill. Soon as they were released I ordered up a two-pack to add to my system. I installed one of the them and found that the picture quality right out of the box wasn’t the best but once you change the video quality setting to “Enhanced” it’s right up there with the XT2 quality. The motion detection is a little spotty, as they use a new digital method of detecting motion (AI compares one frame to the next to check for changes). Some very subtle movement will show up, like a shadow moving across the viewing area, but then actually walking across it won’t (sometimes). A rep I spoke with said that they are working on an update to improve the consistency of that feature, which will be available as an over-the-air update since it is a digital-based feature, which I think is pretty cool. So originally my poor review was based around the cloud storage feature on these cameras. After I purchased these cameras I looked into the cloud storage feature as all of the literature I found on them stated that a subscription would be required. Since this is different than the previous XT & XT2 systems I was not pleased about this. After I posted my original review a rep from Blink reached out to clarify the cloud storage situation. So here is what I learned: If you already have an XT or XT2 system, then you can add these cameras to it without having to get a paid subscription. If you do not have a Blink system at all, and these cameras are the first ones you get, then you get a free subscription until December 31st, 2020; then you will pay $3/month per camera after that. By then though, they plan to have released a new sync module with an SD card slot so that you can locally store video clips without having to pay for a subscription at all. Personally I don’t think they intend to have too many people on the subscription plan, I think they see the SD card functionality being more of a selling point but they had to piggy-back the first adopters of these Mini cameras onto the cloud storage until the new sync module gets released. Maybe they had delays in getting the new sync module released at the same time as the Mini due to factory closings around the world right now. I am much happier after this getting cleared up, but hope that they update the cloud storage & subscription info on the product pages to make it much clearer how this all works. Had I looked at all of the available info before buying these, then I probably would not have purchased them based on the unclear info that’s out there. In the end, the savior of the situation was the rep that contacted me from Blink. He clarified all of my concerns, gave me a great amount of info on the product, and answered all of my questions (I had lot of them). To be clear, the rep did not once ask me to change my review, take it down, or in any way artificially influence me to do any of those things. The great job he did led to me to change this of my own accord, as they really took care of my concerns. One star deducted for the confusion but three added back in for the great CS experience. Good product can get you a buyer, but good service gets you a customer for life. Blink has done a fantastic job turning a disappointed (and misinformed) buyer into a satisfied customer. So to recap, if you have an existing Blink system, buy these and use ‘em where you don’t need the wireless ones. If you are looking to get these as your first Blink setup, get them knowing you will have the option of paying for a subscription starting in 2021 or a one-time purchase of a sync module with SD card slot to store your video clips.