Ezviz c3w Ezguard Wi-Fi Security Camera Review

When it comes to home security cameras, you often get what you pay for. However, the Ezviz C3W Ezguard shakes things up a bit as it offers a fully-loaded security camera at a very low price point. Designed for the budget-conscious household, it offers a lot of advanced features that you can get with pricier options sans the extra costs.

One look at the Ezguard’s offerings and you can tell that it’s designed to help you protect your home with great ease and convenience. Its extra functionalities are added to help you avoid the complications other more expensive options tend to come with. Because of this, it offers a convenient and practical choice for a lot of homeowners.

Check out what the Ezviz C3W Ezguard can do for your home in our review below.

A Detailed Review of the Ezviz C3W Ezguard

Design and Features

A testament to the Ezguard’s straightforwardness is its physical design. It looks exactly like what most folks expect a home security camera would look like, so you can’t really mistake it for anything else. Its lens is housed in a sphere that is designed to be mounted on a swivel base. Colored in white with small red details, it looks like a modern version of the traditional security camera.

What makes the Ezguard look a bit odd are the two antennas on its sides. They’re extremely functional, however, and helps boost the wi-fi connection of the Ezguard, so we don’t recommend not installing them.

Located right on the face of the Ezguard is the microphone and LED strobe light. Under the head is the speaker for the audio and siren as well as the micro SD card slot for local storage.

On its wall mount is its power connection. As this item is not battery powered, you will need to do some wiring or cable management upon installation.

Its main features include motion detection-triggered high-definition video recording, light and sound alarm, and 2-way audio among many others.

Setup and Usage

Setting up the Ezguard is rather simple as you just need to install the app on your smartphone and it will instruct you on what to do to get the camera up and running. It will give you step-by-step prompts, guaranteeing that you’ll be able to carefully follow the installation instructions.

The trickier part of setting up this system might lie in the physical installation of the camera in your home. As mentioned above, some wiring and cable management will be required since this item isn’t battery-powered.

The usage of the camera itself is simple. You just have to remember not to unplug the camera and that’s pretty much it. If you’re going to rely on the local storage, you just need to remember to retrieve the clips from the SD card from time to time to prevent it from filling up.

Video Quality

True to its claim of providing 1080p videos, Ezguard does have a sharp and clear video quality. It’s rather impressive for its price, making it an attractive option for many. It may only have 118 degrees of view but it’s already enough to cover most areas that need monitoring.

Its night vision mode is also impressive. Thanks to its two infrared LEDs, it can provide clear footage up to 100 feet away from the camera. The pictures are bright and clear as well, letting you easily see what’s happening in the clips or the live view.

Track and Zoom

While the Ezguard has up to 8x digital zoom that you can access through the app, it doesn’t have a tracking feature. Some might expect this functionality since its base can swivel but that’s not the case. This is only added so you can easily position the camera at the angle that you want it to shoot in.

Audio Quality

The audio quality of the Ezguard is good. It picks up and records sounds nicely so you’ll also easily understand conversations if there are any in the clips this camera has recorded.

Its 2-way audio is also satisfactory. The speakers produce clean and clear sounds which will allow you to easily communicate with the person in front of the camera. It’s also loud enough so you can use it to scare off intruders or even pests.

If you just want to use sound to drive intruders away, you can also use the 100-decibel siren that is built into the camera. It’s rather effective and will not require you to make any kind of noise on your end unless you want to do so.

Motion Detection

Like other low-priced home security cameras, the Ezguard also starts recording once its motion sensors are tripped. The thing, however, about this feature is that it’s a bit too sensitive. Many users report of frequent false triggers because the motion detectors get triggered by flying debris, moving lights, and flying insects.

You can, however, adjust the sensitivity of the sensors to manage this issue. You can also set activity zones so the motion detection will be focused on specific areas within your camera’s field of view.

Once the motion sensors are tripped, you’ll be notified of the activity and the camera will start recording or streaming the footage to your phone. You can then react accordingly to the situation. You can opt to drive away the intruder by using the speakers to tell them you’re watching, setting off the siren, or turning on the strobe LED lights.

Cloud Storage Costs

One of the most enticing things about the C3W Ezguard is the fact that it comes with three storage options. You can save the clips locally on a micro SD card or the EzNVR. If you want to use cloud storage to access a few additional features at the same time, you can subscribe to an Ezviz cloud storage plan.

Their CloudPlay plan costs $5.99 per month and offers 7 days of storage per camera. For larger networks, they also have a $10.99 per month package for 30 days’ worth of footage per camera.

Smart Home Compatibility

Unfortunately, the Ezguard isn’t designed to work directly with other smart home devices. If you want to add it to your environment, you need to use it with other IFTTT-enabled gadgets.

Mobile Apps and Web Portals

Ezguard’s app is also one of its weaknesses. Some users find it a bit problematic even though everything can be controlled in the app. In our opinion, it might just be the interface that needs a bit of tweaking.

The web portal for the Ezguard is available on the Ezviz website. It’s more for checking the cloud than controlling the camera so don’t expect full functionality there.

FAQs

How many Ezviz cameras are there?

Ezviz’ website currently lists 16 different camera products under its belt. There are also a few kits available that can make setting up a more robust security system easier for homeowners.

Is Ezviz a good brand?

Those who aren’t fully familiar with the home security industry just yet may have their doubts about Ezviz and it’s perfectly understandable. This brand isn’t a household name yet but it has been around for quite a while now that it has already built itself a good name in the game.

To qualify the answer to this question, we can take a closer look at its foundation. Since it’s a brand under Hikvision which is the world’s largest supplier of video surveillance products. With this said, you can count on their products to be made of high-quality materials, components, and construction.

Combined with its friendly price points, you can count on Ezviz’s products to give you a solid, budget option for your home security system.

Who makes Ezviz?

There’s a bit of talk regarding the ownership of Ezviz as they claim to be an American company that is headquartered in Industry, California. However, Ezviz is also said to be a brand under the umbrella of the Chinese company Hikvision. As the controlling shares of the company are owned by the Chinese government, some people have reservations about their products.

Conclusion

Upon closer look at the Ezviz C3W Ezguard, it’s easy to see why it’s gaining quite some buzz right now. Its friendly price tag combined with its solid set of features offer a reliable product that can already meet the needs of many households. Sure, there are a few drawbacks but the versatility of this home security camera more than makes up for it. Also, for its price, it already has a leg up in the competition.