The very personable Eufy Indoor Cam S350 is up there with the best indoor security cameras. And one thing’s for sure – it’s definitely the most easily anthromorphosised.
If you want to freak out your family, flatmates or lodgers, quietly install the Eufy Indoor Cam S350 on your kitchen worktop, then watch with glee as it rotates 360 degrees and the unsuspecting people in your house gasp in horror.
‘It’s like a scary robot, watching me!’ one lodger shrieked. My other lodger thought it was cute: ‘It reminds me of Wall-E.’
In fact, it’s suggested that thanks to its 360° pan and tilt capability, it can act as an effective dog or cat camera for when we’re out of the house. Or a baby or toddler monitor for when we’re at home but need to step into another room.
This S350 option also appears, on paper at least, to be a cut above the basic single camera unit, courtesy of its dual camera setup; providing both a wide-angle view with a 4K resolution, plus a zoomed-in telephoto view and a 2K resolution. So how does it pan out in practice?
Able to provide 360° in-the-round coverage, there is little that will escape this cunning device, that works in tandem with our smartphone’s handset and local Wi-Fi. The additional claim is that it can pick up faces up to 32ft away – which is a large room – and in lower light conditions to boot, where that onboard f/1.6 lens aperture and built-in infrared LEDs surely come in handy.
Indoor Cam S350: Specifications
Indoor Cam S350: S350 Price
The Indoor Cam S350’s RRP is $129.99 / £129.99, which feels a bit steep. However, while I was writing this review, Amazon were offering the cam on a limited-time deal for less and there are bundles with other eufy cameras.
AI-powered tracking, courtesy of what’s claimed to be Eufy’s own algorithm, enables the device to keep up with moving subjects, automatically adjusting the field of view accordingly. The dual cameras work together to offer a 3x optical zoom, or up to 8x digital zoom.
Up to 120 hours of footage can be stored on a microSD card if desired. Alternatively, instead of recording everything in its vicinity, a privacy mode can be effected, whereby the camera will turn shyly to face a wall, turn off, and stop recording. Mostly we found it’s useful for providing a visual and audio live feed direct to our phone screen when we’re not at home, or at least not in the same room.
Eufy Indoor Cam S350: Design & Handling
Dual camera ‘eyes’ aside, the Eufy S350 is sleek and minimalistic in appearance, with no external physical buttons or controls visible. In fact, the contemporary design is such that gadget fans, never mind the security conscious, will love it.
The Indoor Cam S350 feels like a quality product. It’s lightweight yet solid and comfortable in your hands - though it’s not as though you’ll be holding it much.
Its silver and white casing will blend into pretty much any colour scheme. It’s very simple and streamlined, with no buttons cluttering it up. At the same time, it’s noticeable enough to deter intruders. And while I think it’s cute, that’s probably because it’s on my side, protecting my property. Any burglars will probably find it extremely creepy – especially when its eyes glow bright red.
The Indoor Cam S350 does look like a sweet little robotic friend, standing just over 10cm tall. Its dinkiness sadly means its vision can easily be obscured by objects such as a stack of folded towels, but it does make it look adorable.
Walk past it and it swivels and rotates, following you. Duck down and its ‘face’ angles downwards; jump up and its robotic visage tilts upwards. Wherever there’s movement, it follows - and you can also direct it manually via the Eufy Security app.
Its two ‘eyes’ are actually dual cameras, and as each has a 4K wide-angle lens and 2K telephoto lens, they pack quite a punch when it comes to visuals. The images are impressively crisp, and the dual cameras captured the length of my kitchen.
The provided USB cable that delivers mains power to the unit threads through to a USB port at the base, while, like on the less expensive E220 alternative from Eufy, a slot for an optional microSD memory card is hidden just below the lens/es. On this higher-end model, the slot comes with its own hinged protective cover too.
We’ve covered the fairly straightforward setup of the device in our reviews of the C120 and E220 from the same manufacturer, which involves downloading the free Eufy Security app from the Apple or Google Stores, and, once that’s done, adding the relevant camera as a device, as well as logging on to your home Wi-Fi.
If you already have the app installed on your handset, adding this device or any subsequent ones – you can theoretically have different Eufy cameras dotted across several rooms and all controlled via the one app – takes just a matter of minutes. We set up three different cameras and luckily didn’t suffer operational or connecting glitches with any of them.
Eufy Indoor Cam S350: Performance
The Indoor Cam S350 is reliable and consistent. I tested it out in two rooms (the kitchen and bedroom) in a range of different lights and at various times, and it performed perfectly throughout. Its images were razor sharp – sometimes slightly too sharp (I don’t necessarily need to see all the dirt on my floor!) while its audio was fuzzy but usable.
Once the unit’s up and working, the ‘eyes’ of the Eufy Indoor Cam S350 literally follow you around the room. Even if you deliberately dart about, it only takes a second or so for the camera to catch up.
Notifications to say it’s spotted something or someone are sent to our phone’s handset, which acts as a prompt if we haven’t actually got the app open at that particular time.
Eufy Indoor Cam S350: Sample Images
There’s a noticeable but not disappointing drop off in image quality if we tab between the higher resolution wide-angle camera and the zoomed-in lower resolution one, but on balance, we think this feature is worth having.
Whether it’s worth paying the sizeable extra over the E220 unit which has its own respectable 2K camera and can tilt and swivel, albeit not in quite as charming a manner as here, is a choice only you can make, however.
Eufy Indoor Cam S350: Final Verdict
Ariane: "The Eufy Indoor Cam S350 has got your back - and your front, depending on which direction you’re facing. It looks cool and would slot right into any minimalist decor scheme. It’s easy to set up and use, functions perfectly and offers detailed 4K UHD images, while its pan and tilt feature means you can view almost every inch of a room.
It would definitely be great for checking in on pets (if I had any) and babies (though mine is 13 and wouldn’t take kindly to being called a baby). Highly recommended if you’re willing to shell out a little more than average."
Gareth: "The most comprehensively featured and fluid security camera we’ve tried from the three recent Eufy examples is also inevitably the highest-priced, although we feel what’s being asked is fair given the build quality, performance, and straightforward setup. If a clear, colorful wide-angle view of whatever you want to safeguard is enough, also take a look at the C120 and E220 models which are both something of a bargain in our eyes."
