• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: 'You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness'

2

Former VP Kamala Harris says she went through a nine-hour interview to land the job—but she couldn’t escape ‘gold medal depression’ even when she won

3

A new trade war may be brewing. This time, Europe is taking a page from Trump's playbook — 'We no longer live in a world of pink ponies and rainbows'

1

Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: 'You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness'

2

Former VP Kamala Harris says she went through a nine-hour interview to land the job—but she couldn’t escape ‘gold medal depression’ even when she won

3

A new trade war may be brewing. This time, Europe is taking a page from Trump's playbook — 'We no longer live in a world of pink ponies and rainbows'
TechAmazon

Amazon Cloud Cam Review: Home Monitoring in an Affordable Package

By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
Down Arrow Button Icon
November 8, 2017, 9:00 AM ET
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Home security cameras are a growing battleground in the technology industry. Can Amazon and its new Cloud Cam indoor security camera compete?

That was the question I asked last week when I opened my Cloud Cam, which begins shipping today. Like the Nest Cam Indoor from Alphabet, Cloud Cam features high-quality video, all-day monitoring, and the ability to save video during periods that the camera detects motion in the room. But Amazon’s camera adds some extras, like compatibility with Amazon’s Alexa virtual personal assistant, that may make it appealing. And at $120, it’s substantially cheaper than the $200 Nest Cam.

So, is Cloud Cam worth it? Read on to find out:

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter

Design

Cloud Cam has a white plastic finish with a black face that houses the 1080p full-HD camera. A white stand sits below the camera. If you’d like, you can attach the camera to a wall.

I’m not very fond of glossy white finishes, but the Cloud Cam isn’t necessarily an ugly device. In most cases, you can place it in a corner, and the design shouldn’t detract from your decor.

Set-Up and Video Quality

Cloud Cam is a cinch to set up. I plugged it in, downloaded the free Cloud Cam app to my iPhone, and had it recording in minutes.

Once set up, there wasn’t much to do with Cloud Cam other than watch what was happening from the app. You can use the app to watch a live video stream, as well as go back and see recorded “events,” like when the camera detects motion. Whether I was watching livestreaming video or recorded content, the video’s full-HD resolution made for crystal-clear pictures. Even when I used the pinch-to-zoom gesture in the app to zoom in on a section of the video, the resolution held up. Having the ability to zoom—in full HD—to see part of a video is extremely appealing. It allows you to see minute details, a person’s face, or anything else that might prove useful when analyzing security video.

I was also impressed by Cloud Cam’s night vision, which wasn’t as good as in bright light, of course. But it was quite good for low-light and able to help you make out faces and other details.

Key Features

Amazon’s Cloud Cam is a tethered device, which means you have to plug it in and can’t power it by battery. Having battery power would have made given me more flexibility in where to place it around the house—although the long power cord that it comes with was welcome.

The Cloud Cam comes with two-way audio so that people being filmed, like a family member who just got home, or worse, a thief, can speak to you through your Cloud Cam app. Generally, I found the camera’s speaker quality to be so-so. The microphone worked well, but again, the audio sounded a little tinny.

One of the nice things about Cloud Cam is that it detects motion and differentiates between the source. When a human walked by, it recognized the person and sent me a notification saying a person was detected. The service can’t say specifically who the person is, though. When my dogs walked by, the camera was intelligent enough to know it wasn’t a human and didn’t notify me that a person had walked by.

The Cloud Cam app can send you notifications whenever it detects some movement. That can be annoying in high-traffic areas. Luckily, it has a setting that lets you decide how often you want to be alerted to movement or people entering a room.

Cloud Cam works with Alexa-enabled devices. That means you can ask Alexa to show a live view of the camera’s video feed on an Echo Show or Fire TV. You can’t speak to Cloud Cam to set appointments or play music.

All About the App

The free Cloud Cam app is well-built, easy to use, and provides a variety of customization options. I especially liked having access to a Zones feature to tell the camera to ignore movement in certain parts of its field of view. I set a few zones during my testing and it ignored them, even when some movement was detected there.

The app has a number of other features, including the ability to automatically turn off the camera when you’re home without any user interaction and set the sensitivity of the camera’s motion detector. Each of those features worked extremely well.

Final Thoughts

If you’re in the market for a full-featured security camera, Cloud Cam is a great option. For the price, its video quality is outstanding and all of its features work as promised.

However, there are some others costs to owning Cloud Cam. If you want long-term access to detecting people (rather than regular monitoring) or setting zones, and want to have unlimited video downloads, you’ll need to sign up for an Amazon service plan that starts at $7 monthly or $70 annually. The service plans are optional.

About the Author
By Don Reisinger
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

d
EnvironmentConsumer electronics
Almost 4 in 10 Americans have a ‘junk drawer’ full of their old electronics. It’s because of a very specific anxiety
By Eric Williams, Payam Saeedi, Stacey Watson and The ConversationJune 21, 2026
18 hours ago
b
InnovationInfrastructure
Over 40,000 American bridges have structurally deficient ratings. Why aren’t we using quantum sensors on them?
By Alex Krasnok and The ConversationJune 21, 2026
19 hours ago
zak
CybersecuritySocial Media
The U.K. just banned social media for kids under 16. The founder of ‘safe TikTok’ says the U.S. is next
By Nick LichtenbergJune 21, 2026
20 hours ago
Sam Altman thinks AI will surpass human intelligence by 2030.  His rival AI billionaires say it’ll be even sooner
AISam Altman
Sam Altman thinks AI will surpass human intelligence by 2030. His rival AI billionaires say it’ll be even sooner
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJune 21, 2026
23 hours ago
ace
AIEconomics
Nobel Laureate Daron Acemoglu on the ‘brainless’ AI discourse, the myth of capitalism and the Gen Z revolution risk
By Nick LichtenbergJune 21, 2026
1 day ago
Patricia Camden is EY Studio+ Customer Experience and Loyalty Leader
CommentaryConsulting
EY: we found your biggest AI blind spot. It’s called the ‘tempo gap’
By Patricia Camden and John DuboisJune 20, 2026
2 days ago

Most Popular

Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: 'You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness'
Success
Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: 'You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness'
By Sydney LakeJune 21, 2026
23 hours ago
Former VP Kamala Harris says she went through a nine-hour interview to land the job—but she couldn’t escape ‘gold medal depression’ even when she won
Success
Former VP Kamala Harris says she went through a nine-hour interview to land the job—but she couldn’t escape ‘gold medal depression’ even when she won
By Emma BurleighJune 21, 2026
23 hours ago
A new trade war may be brewing. This time, Europe is taking a page from Trump's playbook — 'We no longer live in a world of pink ponies and rainbows'
Economy
A new trade war may be brewing. This time, Europe is taking a page from Trump's playbook — 'We no longer live in a world of pink ponies and rainbows'
By Jason MaJune 20, 2026
1 day ago
'I literally was crying last night because I’m nervous about what I’m going to find out': a record 51% of Americans aren't 'cost secure' on health
Health
'I literally was crying last night because I’m nervous about what I’m going to find out': a record 51% of Americans aren't 'cost secure' on health
By Ali Swenson, Amelia Thomson-Deveaux and The Associated PressJune 20, 2026
2 days ago
NBC’s Tom Llamas climbed from 15-year-old intern to the top anchor chair—and still isn’t satisfied: ‘If you're not growing, you're dying'
Success
NBC’s Tom Llamas climbed from 15-year-old intern to the top anchor chair—and still isn’t satisfied: ‘If you're not growing, you're dying'
By Preston ForeJune 21, 2026
22 hours ago
Tenzin Seldon: The GLP-1 boom is the biggest climate story no one is pricing in
Commentary
Tenzin Seldon: The GLP-1 boom is the biggest climate story no one is pricing in
By Tenzin SeldonJune 21, 2026
22 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.