In early November, Blink announced that its outdoor security camera, the Blink Outdoor 4, could be used as far away as 400 feet from your house, thanks to a new wireless module, the Blink Sync Module XR.
Curious to test its claims, I had Blink send me the camera and the new module to see how well it worked, and if this was a big improvement to one of the best home security cameras.
Blink Sync Module XR: Price and availability
The Blink Sync Module XR is on sale in the U.S. and Canada for $59.99(CA$79.99). Currently, you can get the module and a Blink Outdoor 4 camera for $104; that's less than the regular price of $139, but not as cheap as when Blink was bundling the camera for free.
Blink Sync Module XR: Setup
As with Blink's other wireless module, setting up the XR was painless. I plugged it into an outlet to power it on, and then in the Blink app I connected it to my home Wi-Fi.
After that, I set up the Outdoor 4 camera in the app, and then linked it to the XR module. The only real change here is that the app asks you to choose the network you want to use: Wi-FI, Extended Range, or Extended Range Plus.
Extended Range will let you use the camera up to 250 feet away from your house at a resolution of up to 720p, while Extended Range Plus lets you take the camera up to 400 feet away, but it drops the resolution to 360p.
While it can't switch automatically between networks, you can change this setting at any time in the Blink app, should you decide to move the camera closer or further from your home. However, only two cameras can use the XR network at any one time.
Blink Sync Module XR: Performance
I wanted to see how well the Blink Outdoor 4 worked at the very edge of its range, so I switched the module to Extended Range Plus and took a walk outside my house.
True to its claims, I was able to get nearly 400 feet away from the module before the camera stopped working. While it's not totally precise, I measured the distance in Google Maps at about 380 feet. At that distance, the camera responded nearly instantly when I started recording. Any further than that, though, and the camera became unresponsive.
As expected, video quality was what you'd get from a much older generation of security camera. There was a good deal of artifacting, especially as I moved the camera around, and details weren't super-clear. On one sample video, the color cut out completely. However, it was respectable given the distance.
Audio also came through clearly enough for me to understand everything, though I was only about a foot and a half away from the camera.
Blink Sync Module XR: Verdict
If you have a large property, and are looking for an outdoor security camera to cover it all, your options are pretty limited: You could pick up something like the Eufy 4G LTE Cam S330, which costs $200 and requires a monthly LTE subscription. Or you could try extending the range of your Wi-Fi with a device such as the eero Outdoor 7, but that only has a claimed range of 15,000 square feet, which would only get you to about 125 feet from your house — half that of the Blink Sync Module XR's minimum range.
So, while there are some compromises in terms of video quality, the Blink Sync Module XR and Blink Outdoor 4 look to be an inexpensive way to keep your eyes on your backyard.
