EufyCam 3 Review

The EufyCam 3 series is the latest flagship product from Eufy, one of our favorite security camera brands. It brings Eufy security cameras into the 4K era and uses a unique built-in solar panel to eliminate cables and regular charging sessions and is available in a 2-cam, 3-cam, or 4-cam kit. An integral part of EufyCam 3's success is the new HomeBase 3 base station, which offers expandable storage and upgrades the brand's smart motion detection.

We put the EufyCam 3 and HomeBase 3 to the test, and they passed with flying colors . Read our in-depth review to see how it measures up to popular competitors like Nest and Arlo.

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EufyCam 3 is the brand's first 4K outdoor security camera, so we were eager to try it out. Wireless security cameras with 4K resolution are still a bit of a unicorn since the Arlo Ultra 2 is the only other model we know. (There are plenty of wired cameras with 4K, but they require an NVR.)

We've praised Eufy's video quality on its 2K models, and we're happy to report that excellence also carries over to 4K. Daytime video is clear and takes well to zooming in for a closer look at a visitor's face or a neighborhood cat—as long as they're not moving too much. Still, this is the best video quality we've ever seen from Eufy.

Nighttime video quality also looks great, especially when using infrared night vision. You can easily catch details and identify features up to 20 feet away from the camera on stationary subjects. We saw the best performance from the camera's infrared LEDs around 10 feet or less.

If monochrome videos aren't your thing, there's also a bright spotlight for color video at night, but its effective range is only a dozen feet or so. The 100-lumen spotlight works well enough but isn't very bright compared to the 3,000-lumen beast, the Eufy Floodlight Cam 2 Pro. Even though the spotlight isn't very bright, it washes out some details if someone comes within a few feet of the camera—the sweet spot for the light is between 5 and 15 feet.

The EufyCam 3's field of view is a bog-standard 135º like on the Nest Cam and Ring Stick Up Cam. This is the minimum view we recommend for an outdoor security camera because it captures plenty of action in your yard.

However, you'll need more cameras for full video coverage than you would with ultrawide fields of view—160º and over—as found on the Arlo Pro 4 and Arlo Ultra 2. Honestly, you don't need full video coverage as long as you aim the camera at entrances and vulnerable areas on your property—think storage sheds, side yards, and play areas.

The EufyCam 3 uses a framerate of just 15 frames per second (fps), which is the same speed you'll find on Ring security cameras. While this is great for optimizing storage space and streaming speeds, motion won't look as smooth as the higher framerates on Arlo and Nest. Still, it's good enough for everyday video surveillance in your yard.

Although we like how Eufy's video looks, there's some distortion and pixelation when watching a live view of the camera. Most of this is because we set the app to change streaming quality based on the network speed. Even with a speedy network connection, the outdoor camera wouldn't always stream in 4K. And manually saving a live video or image in the app always yielded a 1080p result.

Fortunately, the motion-triggered recordings look much better, though there's still a slight distortion when you zoom in on a moving object. We suspect this mostly comes down to heavy video compression to improve performance and reduce storage requirements.

Thankfully, Eufy resolved our biggest complaint with its small built-in storage by introducing a major improvement in the HomeBase 3: expandability. You can increase the storage capacity by adding either a hard disk drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD) to your system—up to 16 TB—though 1 TB is more than enough for two cameras.

Eufy's cloud storage is optional and doesn't add much to your cameras since you don't need a subscription to unlock extra features like with Arlo, Google Nest, and Wyze. Still, it's a nice perk for backing up your video to the cloud in case your local storage fails.

There's one limit to Eufy's cloud storage that might not work for you: it won't save 4K videos, only 1080p. This is an understandable limit considering 4K video takes up four times as much space as 1080p.

Pricing for Eufy cloud storage is straightforward. You pay for either one camera on the Basic Plan or up to 10 cameras on the Plus Plan. At $3 a month, Eufy Basic costs as much as the base Ring Protect and Arlo Secure plans—it's pretty competitive. But paying $10 a month for Eufy Plus won't net the benefits of similar options from Nest, Ring, and Arlo, which all cover unlimited cameras instead of Eufy's 10.

It's totally fine to skip Eufy's cloud storage and invest that money in a hard drive.

One of EufyCam 3's biggest improvements is smart motion detection. The company's previous cameras offered some smart motion detection for humans and motion zones, but the HomeBase 3 adds three new possibilities: facial recognition, vehicle detection, and pet detection.

As for pet and vehicle detection, the Eufy app says they are still in beta testing—but they're pretty reliable. The pet detection did an excellent job spotting our cat whenever he chose to pass the camera, and vehicle detection correctly tagged cars in our tests.

Eufy wants the title of best smart detection from our reigning champion, Nest. But we think Nest still has the edge with its impressive sound detection for smoke alarms and broken glass—even if those features require a cloud storage subscription. (Nest Aware is the best cloud storage plan in the industry.) Even so, Eufy's smart detection is easily the best alternative to Nest.

Eufy is the only major brand that sells wireless security cameras with built-in solar panels, which Eufy affectionately calls "forever power." The feature debuted with the Eufy SoloCam S40, and we're glad it's part of the EufyCam 3. We like that the installation guide offers advice on getting the best lighting for charging, but we'll admit that our late-autumn testing made it difficult to get enough direct sunlight in our location.

Still, the panels seem to work well once we found the right spot and kept our batteries full during testing. Typical use of a camera without solar charging didn't drain the battery life by more than 3% over a few days, so the camera had plenty of time to make up the difference. We'll continue testing this feature to see how well it holds up.

If the integrated solar panel isn't working out, you can charge the EufyCam 3 with any USB C cable or by plugging the included cable into the back of the HomeBase. Or you can double down on solar charging with an optional external solar panel that's much easier to align with the sun without affecting where you point the camera.

Although the Eufy HomeBase 3 supports a Wi-Fi connection, this feature wasn't available during our initial tests. This meant we had to keep the base station tethered to our wireless router with an Ethernet cable, which was a little inconvenient since we couldn't place it where it could achieve the best connection to the cameras.

Eufy enabled Wi-Fi functionality on the HomeBase 3 a few months later, during our long-term tests. We decided to try it out and can confirm that the Wi-Fi connection was easy to set up and reliable. It was so nice to move the HomeBase 3 to a more convenient location for a few months before handing the system off to Katie, our YouTube Lead, for her tests.

The camera's wireless connection range can reach up to 656 feet. However, placing cameras far from the base station affected performance and hampered the ability to record in our tests.

While we didn't aim for maximum range—a rental complex with many buildings isn't ideal for testing max range—we noticed more performance issues as the number of obstructions increased. Still, we managed a somewhat stable connection at around 250 feet, making the cameras suitable for most properties.

Eufy security cameras have pretty basic smart home compatibility. This means you can view live video on a smart display using Amazon Alexa or Google Home, but not much else. It's not surprising because most security cameras with "smart home compatibility" are like this.

Luckily, Eufy sells a small selection of security sensors so you can integrate the EufyCam 3 into a Eufy Edge security system. This enables home automation features like triggering a recording when the front door opens. It's no substitute for the vast Amazon and Google platforms, but it's a great way to help your cameras spot threats.

Our biggest complaint with the EufyCam 3 is the cost. Like any 4K wireless security camera, you can expect to pay a hefty premium—$550—for a starter kit that includes two cameras and a HomeBase 3. Buying a compatible storage drive to maximize your system ultimately costs more than the pricier Arlo Ultra 2 kit. You can decrease the price per camera by choosing a larger starter kit, which means higher up-front costs.

We recommend mixing and matching other Eufy security cameras in your system based on your needs. This means using Eufy's cheaper indoor cameras around the house while reserving pricier models for outdoor settings. There's no need to have 4K resolution on every camera, but it's a great choice for the primary camera in front of and behind your home.

The EufyCam 3 series is an incredible solar-powered security camera on multiple fronts: video quality, smart detection, and video storage. It nearly matches the video quality of the Arlo Ultra 2 and gives the Nest Cam's smart detection a worthy opponent. As for video storage, it's one of our all-time favorites—especially considering the new HomeBase 3 will eventually support most Eufy security cameras.

While plenty of minor quirks might keep EufyCam 3 from topping Nest and Arlo, our main complaint is that this camera's starter kit is among the priciest. Still, that's par for the course with 4K wireless cameras. See how Eufy compares to other top brands in our full review of the best wireless security cameras.

Beyond our hands-on testing, we spent time on Eufy's customer support site to learn more about the EufyCam 3's features, quirks, and how it differs from other Eufy cameras. We also looked at online reviews to see if our experiences were similar to those of other experts and customers. You can learn more about our review process in our complete methodology.

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