Blink Indoor Camera Review

Unboxing and Installing Blink Indoor

Blink Indoor Packaging

If you’re looking for a camera with an easy set up, we don’t think you can do much better than the Blink Indoor. Open the box, scan the QR code on the back, a few tweaks here and there on the app, and we were off to the races. Other than the mounting hardware there were no small parts to deal with, and since this particular model is battery operated, we didn’t even have to fiddle with plugging it in.

When all is said and done, it will probably take you between five and 15 minutes to get a Blink Indoor camera out of the box, set up, and mounted on your wall. This quick setup has a lot to do with the Blink Indoor’s smart design as well as the smooth communication between camera and smartphone — something we also noticed in our review of the Blink Mini, the indoor’s pint-sized brother.

Blink Indoor Equipment

The Blink Indoor also comes with a the Sync Module, which is essentially a hub that relays commands and Wi-Fi information from the app to the camera and allows communication with Blink’s cloud servers. This isn’t at all unlike the smart hub included with Arlo cameras, and we like this set up because it doesn’t create a huge drag on our network speeds.

Blink Sync Module

Speaking of Arlo, we were reminded of our review of the Arlo Pro 3 when we were working with our Blink Indoor. Both are extremely easy to install and operate, both are really well designed, and both are reliable pieces of equipment. The Pro 3 offers a few more features — 2K resolution, for example — but it also has a much higher pricetag. The Arlo Pro 3, when it was available, cost $199.99. You can pick up a Blink indoor for less than half of that — just $79.99

Blink Indoor – Mounted on Wall

As far as displaying the camera in our home, that didn’t take long, either. We typically recommend mounting indoor cameras on a high shelf or in a corner to get the best protection possible for your space, but we also found that simply displaying it on our fireplace mantel, or even discreetly placing it on a bookshelf, works well, too. We tried both scenarios for our tests of the camera, which we’ll talk about in greater detail below.

Our Experience with Blink Indoor

First, let’s talk about size. Blink Indoor is definitely considered a small camera, standing at around 2.7 inches, with a flat, lightweight body and a detachable stand.

Comparing Blink Indoor with its kid sister, Blink Mini, we saw a camera that is small enough to display basically anywhere in our home, but not too small that it risks looking cheap or ineffective.

Blink Mini (left) and Blink Indoor (right) Cameras

You’ll recall, though, that our Blink Mini is wired. So if you’re looking for a camera you can put anywhere, without worrying about proximity to power outlets, we’d have to say Blink Indoor wins out over its mini-me.

If we’re considering the camera’s design, you’ll notice it’s extremely lightweight, sleek, and functional. Everything about it screams ease-of-use, just like we noticed in our Yi Home 3 camera review — another affordable, easy-to-use option for people looking to bolster their security without breaking the bank.

Customizable Motion Detection

In our head-to-head comparison of Blink and Ring, we highlighted how many of Blink’s features can be customized based on the user needs. The Blink Home Monitoring app, where you’re going to be spending most of your time setting up and tweaking your Blink Indoor, allows you to tailor everything from how sensitive the cameras motion detection is to mapping out zones within the frame to changing the length of our video clips from 60 seconds down to 5. Also worth mentioning was how easy the app is to use, and how it was clearly designed with the end user in mind. Bonus points for Blink, there.

Blink Indoor Camera Settings in the Blink App

In times when the level of activity in our space increased, the camera handled pretty well, using the same fluid video process we noted in the Blink Mini.

And while we’re on the subject of video quality, bear in mind that Blink Indoor is billed as a 1080p HD video camera, but we could also choose to view video in standard (720p) definition, or set it to automatically adjust based on Wi-Fi speed.

This is another feature we controlled in the Blink mobile app, and while it’s no longer rare to find this setting in cameras nowadays, we find it particularly helpful in cameras that rely heavily on a home Wi-Fi connection. We noted this recently in our review of D-Link cameras, where we were simultaneously dealing with some Wi-Fi network issues in our home, and were able to set the cameras to a lower image quality to ensure that the camera continued to work smoothly.

Our takeaway? This is a really neat feature for any security camera user, but it’s especially beneficial for people with unstable or troublesome Wi-Fi connections.2

Night Vision

When we tested Blink’s indoor-outdoor XT2 camera (now discontinued), we noted a problem with glare in our nighttime feed. Each time we ran through scenarios, we saw glares that produced reflections and at times distorted or obstructed some of the objects in the frame.

Later in the year, when we met Blink Outdoor, we were keen to test this feature once again. An outdoor camera isn’t worth much to us if it doesn’t work well at night, as criminals often wait for the cover of night to strike.

The result wasn’t particularly different from the majority of DIY security cameras out there; night vision has its limits, after all. While the camera certainly picked up our simulated activity during our tests, the recordings yielded a grainy, noisy picture. You’ll find lots more tips on using Blink cameras outdoors in our hands-on Blink Outdoor review.

Even an indoor camera like the Sight 180C from Zmodo, which we tested as part of our full Zmodo camera review, didn’t see very well at night, even though it’s literally called “sight.”

But what Zmodo cameras don’t have, that Blink Indoor most certainly does, is the ability to customize the camera for nighttime viewing. With Blink, we used the app to increase the intensity of the infrared sensor at night. While this didn’t yield a huge difference in picture quality for us, we did get enough exposure to see a tiny little disturbance in the bottom left quadrant of the frame, as you can see in our clip here:

Smart Home Integration

Since it’s tied so closely to Amazon, pairing Blink with a smart home ecosystem is a little tricky for non-Alexa users, so just be warned.

If you’re on the hunt for a camera that can be configured into Google Assistant and IFTTT3 devices, Blink might not be your best bet. Though we’re still fans of Blink for multiple other reasons, this is one aspect of the brand that we wish could be improved. Until then, though, we’d advise smart home aficionados to look instead into the many Vivint automation options, a brand that takes a more comprehensive approach to home security.

Blink Indoor on Amazon Echo

That said, it just so happens that the Amazon Echo is one of the most popular smart home devices in existence. We have an Echo Show, as you can see in the photo above. By pairing a Blink system with this, we added a layer to our smart home that meant we no longer needed to be tethered to a smartphone to use our cameras.

Blink Home Monitoring App

Every security camera comes with an app these days, and like the cameras themselves, they’re usually pretty easy to understand and use every day. Blink’s app, in our view, is one of the brand’s best assets. Features are displayed in an intuitive, linear way. This also holds true in the app’s “play” tab, which houses each camera’s feed. It’s arranged in reverse chronological order, so when we wanted to find a specific clip from earlier in the week, it took us under 2 minutes and just a few swipes to locate it. Here’s what that feed looks like…

Blink App – Video History

We were pleased to find yet another positive app experience with Blink, but it’s still important to note that Blink cameras are not packed with A.I.-driven facial recognition features3 like we found when we reviewed Google Nest IQ Cams. We didn’t get fine-tuned alerts letting us know if the object in the frame is a person or an inanimate object, which Google Nest so adeptly does.

With Blink, we had a reliable camera that wouldn’t let us down in tracking and deterring potential intruders; that was abundantly clear in our tests. And as for the state-of-the-art technology we found in the relatively high-priced Nest cameras, keep in mind that facial recognition features are really cool to have, but in the majority of cases, they’re not necessary in building a safe, protected home.

Pricing on Blink Indoor

As an affordable brand, we’ve come to associate Blink with low prices. They’re certainly not the cheapest camera you’ll find out there; the industry is bursting with low-cost cameras these days. The $19.99 Wyze Cam, for example, didn’t get us the same sharp picture of the $80 Blink Indoor, but it still held its own as an affordable indoor camera when we tested the device for our Wyze review. Also note that Wyze is similar to Blink in camera design.

Here’s a look at what you can expect to pay for Blink Indoor, as well as other cameras Blink offers. Do note that Blink is currently running deals on some of their cameras, which we’ve noted in the chart below. If this sweetens the deal for you, make sure you move quickly. We’re not sure how long these prices are going to last.

Blink Camera Cost Breakdown

Video Storage Options

When comparing pricing in security cameras, it’s always wise to consider how the camera handles storage. With all the data these cameras generate, we certainly didn’t want to miss anything crucial. We knew we’d want to store at least a week’s worth of our videos in some way, either through our own external hard drive attached to a Blink sync module, or through Blink with a cloud storage subscription.

It’s not unusual to see this dual option in cameras, and we’ve found it to be quite helpful in saving money on security equipment over the long run.

But we do want to mention that the brand has, in the past, offered a free storage option, where we could record and save some video to the cloud without any extra cost. That’s since been discontinued, leaving some Blink users in the lurch.
So in Blink’s new format, you’ll have two choices for cloud storage, and neither of them are free. The basic option, however, is only $3 per month per camera, which is still on the low side.

Compare that to the storage fees you’ll pay with an Amcrest camera – a cool $6 per month for one camera – and we’ve found Blink’s basic cloud package to be quite reasonable, especially with everything the subscription offers. You can see both of Blink’s video storage plans laid out below:

Blink Cloud Storage Plans

Bottom Line on Blink Indoor

Whether you’re just starting to search for home security products or you’re a seasoned pro, it can be challenging to choose the right security product for your home and all the precious things in it. What if you recently moved into a new neighborhood and don’t know where the threats are? What if you recently had a baby and hired a nanny, and you just want one camera for your own peace of mind while you’re at work?

Blink Indoor

Both of those scenarios require the same solution: A camera with versatility, that you can move around and customize with ease, and one that will record sharp video and send you instant alerts, allowing you to act swiftly and make sense of any danger that might be hiding in the shadows. Blink Indoor, like the rest of the Blink family, delivered that for us, and we feel confident it will do the same for you, too.

Frequently Asked Questions