Video doorbells in the range of the Eufy T8200 are a good option for those who want something a bit more affordable. Compared to the latest offerings from Ring and Google Nest, the Eufy T8200 is around two-thirds the price, and it doesn’t require a monthly subscription service for storage and advanced features. To see if this doorbell is really as great as it sounds, I tested the Eufy T8200 for a week, evaluating its design, ease of installation, features, video quality, audio quality, app, and price.
Design: Boxy, but attractive
The T8200’s design is nothing to write home about. It’s relatively compact—clocking in at 4.8 by 1.69 by 0.94 inches, it’s smaller than the Ring 2. The Eufy T8200 is boxy and gloss black, with the camera positioned on the top and the large doorbell button positioned on the bottom. An LED status ring surrounds the doorbell button, and you can opt to have the LED ring remain illuminated throughout the night if you want to help make the doorbell more visible in the dark. While the Eufy T8200’s simple rectangular design doesn’t stand out amongst the competitors, it does have a sleek appearance and should look pretty good installed on just about any home. The Eufy wired doorbell includes an indoor chime that you plug into a wall outlet. The chime is larger than other plug-in video doorbell chimes I’ve encountered (like the iseeBell’s chime). From a distance, the chime kind of resembles an Echo Flex speaker or a plug-in Wi-Fi extender.
Setup: Indoor chime included
The Eufy T8200’s installation is straightforward, so you can DIY install if you’re swapping an old wired doorbell. Once you connect the wiring per the instructions, the app will check to make sure you’re wiring meets the power requirements. It’s a handy addition that’s not included in most video doorbell apps. If you don’t have existing wiring, you can have an electrician install wires, or you can rig it up by purchasing a power adapter that plugs into a wall outlet. You can find these power supplies/terminals online for about $20, but they’re usually not ideal as a long term option. The T8200 comes with a 15-degree wedge, which is nice for when you want to adjust your viewing angle. Once you’ve properly positioned and powered your doorbell, you just need to connect it to your network and sync the included chime. The app walks you through the entire installation process, and I didn’t experience any hiccups whatsoever.
Features and Performance: Local storage chip pre-installed
The Eufy T8200 has a practical feature set that makes the video doorbell functional and user friendly, and you don’t need to pay a monthly subscription for video recording because the doorbell has 4GB of built-in local storage. The video doorbell has plentiful local storage, and I didn’t feel like I was missing out by not having a cloud storage plan. Some people prefer local storage anyway because of privacy and security concerns. Plus, when the storage is full, the doorbell will overwrite the oldest videos with the newest. The Eufy has some advanced features, like the ability to detect the shape of a person, but it can’t identify a specific person like some other doorbells on the market. It also doesn’t have package detection, a siren, or some of the other features you see in big-name doorbells like the Google Nest Hello. Also, while the Eufy T8200 is compatible with Google Assistant, Alexa, and IFTTT, its ability to work with a smart display is limited. I connected the Eufy T8200 to my Echo Show, and I could check on my front porch, but I couldn’t view recorded video or answer doorbell rings. The T8200 has motion zones, and you can set very specific areas where you want to enable and disable motion detection. The motion detection feature works exceptionally well, and when I used the motion zone feature to block off a portion of the driveway to prevent false alerts from the car pulling in, it ignored that area while accurately detecting motion in all of the active zones. The Eufy has a weather resistance rating of IP65, which means it’s dustproof and protected from water projected from a nozzle. You shouldn’t have to worry about rain, and the doorbell should be ok when pressure washing day comes around.
Video Quality: Bright and clear
The video quality is higher than I expected on a doorbell in this price range. The 2560x1920 max resolution and 4:3 aspect ratio make for a bright and full-body image of your visitors. The colors are clear, and I didn’t notice much pixelation or distortion. There wasn’t too much of a delay either, which was surprising considering many video doorbells experience a notable delay in the live feed. You can adjust the video settings, allowing you to save storage by lowering the quality down to 1600x1200. You can also optimize for recording quality or streaming quality, as well as enable HDR and distortion correction if the image is curved or blurry. The night vision provides a clear picture, and the doorbell only needs a small amount of light to continue displaying a color image. Even at midnight, it displayed in color when I turned on the porch lights. In pitch dark, the monotone image is clear enough for me to see my porch. But, I can’t see my yard and driveway at night unless I turn on the porch lights.
Audio Quality: Good, not great
When someone rings the doorbell, you’ll get an alert to your phone (in addition to hearing the indoor chime). You can see an image of your visitor, and you can hold a conversation with that person, but you have to press the microphone button to speak. The two-way audio is clear and you can hear the person well, but talking back and forth is not as seamless as it is on a doorbell like the Arlo. You can set custom quick responses, which let you play a recording to a visitor if you’re not home, or if you have your hands full.
App: Easy to navigate
The Eufy Security app is one of the better companion apps I’ve tested. It’s easy to navigate, and you can access just about all of the features from the settings menu button on the main screen. The live feed loads instantly, and the app responds quickly overall. The only negative thing I have to say about the app is that some of its smaller menus (outside of the main settings menu) weren’t as straightforward. For instance, there’s an app settings menu on the main screen, and there’s an option for smart detection. It provides information on features like facial recognition, crying detection, and pet detection, but you can’t enable, customize, or select on any of the options. And, since some of those features aren’t available on this specific model, having those features explained in the menu options might cause confusion for a user.
Price: An amazing value
The Eufy T8200 retails for $160, which is a really good price for a video doorbell with features like 2k video resolution, local storage, and reliable motion detection.
Eufy T8200 vs. Ring Video Doorbell 3
In a nutshell, the Ring 3’s main advantage over the Eufy T8200 is that it runs on a rechargeable quick-release battery, which can be a huge benefit in terms of installation (see our review of the previous Ring Video Doorbell, the 2, for more details). The Eufy T8200’s biggest benefits are its local storage and affordability. The Eufy retails for about $40 less than the Ring 3, and many people will want a subscription to Ring Protect which costs yet more money.
The Eufy T8200 is an all-around quality piece of smart tech—it’s well designed, and its features all work the way they’re supposed to.
