Tapo D230S1 video doorbell review: Feature-rich and easy-to-use

Best Prices Today: TP-Link Tapo D230S1

Plenty of cameras allow you to monitor your home, both inside and out. But sometimes you might also want to communicate with the person being filmed, especially if it’s an expected and/or welcome visitor. This is where video doorbells come in handy.

A video doorbell replaces (or complements) an existing doorbell. When someone rings the doorbell, you receive a notification on your mobile phone and can also see that person. You can then use the doorbell camera’s speaker to talk to the visitor and ask them to come back, wait a little while, or whatever you want them to do. One such video doorbell is the Tapo D230S1 (Tapo is TP-Link’s second smart home brand; Kasa Smart is the other).

The Tapo D230S1 video doorbell is feature-rich, but also very easy to use.

Installation and setup

Installing the Tapo D230S1 is easy. You can either just stick it on a smooth surface or attach it with the included screws. In the latter case, some drilling might be required. There are no wires to worry about as the Tapo D230S1 is completely wireless. It’s battery powered and connects wirelessly to your router and local network.

This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best video doorbells.

Or rather, it connects wirelessly to the included hub, which in turn connects to your router or switch with an ethernet cable. The hub also has an onboard chime and is powered by a wall wart.

The hub has additional functions as well. It also works as a chime, alerting you when someone pushes the doorbell’s button, and it has a microSD card slot for local storage of its video recordings. You’ll need to provide the card, but it can handle capacities as high as 512GB.

Once you’ve installed the Tapo app on your smartphone, setting up both the hub and doorbell is a very easy process.

Feature set

Once up and running, I found the Tapo D230S1 to be feature-rich, but also very easy to use. You can easily do everything from choosing resolution and picture quality, setting up smart motion recognition and watching recorded videos, to answering the doorbell (either by yourself or with a pre-recorded message).

The only thing missing is the ability to set up motion-detection zones, which reduce unnecessary motion alerts. You can, however, establish privacy zones to block views of your neighbors’ doors or windows. Motion in these zones will be ignored, but that’s not as desirable as being able to ignore the motion from people walking down a sidewalk or a swaying bush in the camera’s field of view

Another downside is that a paid Tapocare subscription is required to take full advantage of the camera (this is a common issue with security cameras). While the presence of the microSD card slot in the hub mostly makes up for not having any cloud storage without a subscription, you also won’t get rich notifications (push notifications with thumbnail images and/or video clips when motion is detected or someone rings the bell) without a sub, and you won’t be able to sort your recordings with tags.

Tapocare subscriptions start at $3.49 per month ($34.99 per year), cover up to 10 cameras, and include 30 days of cloud storage. TP-Link offers a 30-day free trial.

Should you buy the Tapo D230S1 video doorbell?

The TP-link Tapo D230S1 impresses with a really good image quality, regardless of lighting conditions. The image is sharp and clear in daylight, as well as in lamplight and darkness. A built-in spotlight with adjustable brightness is very useful. too.

I didn’t encounter any problems with the doorbell dropping off my Wi-Fi network, and it always responded quickly to motion detection and doorbell calls.

Overall, the TP-link Tapo D230S1 is a feature-rich, easy-to-use, and affordable video doorbell without any major flaws. In other words, it’s a smart home product we can highly recommend.

Specifications

• Camera resolution: 2560 x 1920 pixels
• Viewing angle: 160 degrees diagonal
• Privacy zones: None
• Motion detection zones: None
• Night vision: Infrared, up to 25 feet
• Audio: Two-way via onboard mic and speakers
• Indoor chime: Yes, must be hardwired to your router
• Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz only
• Local storage: Yes, with user-provided microSD card (up to 512GB)
• Cloud storage: Up to 30 days with paid subscription
• Weatherization: IP64
• Dimensions: 5.7 x 2.1 x 1.4 inches (HxWxD) (14.6 x 5.4 x 3.5 centimeters)
• Operating temperature: -4° F ~113 °F (-20° C ~45° C)

Editors’ note: This review was originally published on TechHive’s sibling site M3.se and has been translated from Swedish.

Best Prices Today: TP-Link Tapo D230S1