Eufy’s new smart home camera features a spotlight and siren
The spotlight automatically follows intruders as they move
It recognizes friends and family and takes a different approach for them
Many of the best home security cameras are equipped with spotlights that switch on at the merest hint of movement, and you might even have one yourself. But finding a device that combines recorded footage with a light that autonomously moves and follows intruders is a different proposition entirely — and one that takes a more proactive approach to protecting your home and encouraging potential trespassers to go fish.
That setup is exactly what you get with Anker’s new $299.99 Eufy TrackLight Cam S1. Anker claims that it is “the world’s first outdoor security track light camera with an auto-tracking light designed to actively deter intruders.” That active deterrence comes in the form of a light beam that follows unidentified personnel on your property, hopefully spooking them into turning around and leaving.
The camera can sense targets within 12 meters and illuminates them with 20 lux of light. The beam itself can be widened or narrowed between 10 and 30 degrees, adaptively broadening as the person gets closer and responding as they move within 355 degrees of horizontal rotation.
To really scare off any unwanted presences, a siren can be activated alongside the spotlight. Additionally, to further deter, the light can be changed to red and blue flashing modes.
Everything is recorded in 4K-resolution night vision, with 10x digital zoom picking out objects further away. There’s also a separate floodlight that works alongside the tracking beam to provide extra detail in the dark.
Recognizing friends and family
(Image credit: Anker)
If you’re concerned about getting blinded by your own home security camera when you come home late from a night out, the good news is that the Eufy TrackLight Cam S1 can recognize friends and family members and instead activate a soft light instead of the harsh spotlight and siren. So long as the person’s phone has been added to the product’s companion app, the camera will identify them using Bluetooth and provide a much friendlier greeting.
Anker also says that the Eufy TrackLight Cam S1 comes with a 15,000mAh battery and built-in solar panels, so it should have plenty of juice come rain or shine. Its IP65 rating also means it’s resistant to dust and water ingress.
If you’re concerned about burglars, home invaders, or anyone else who shouldn’t be on your property, the TrackLight Cam S1 brings a bit of extra clout with its moving spotlight and siren combo. Even if you’re not able to monitor its footage 24/7, its autonomous light beam gives the impression that you are — and that might be all that’s needed to keep your home protected.
The smart Wyze Lever Lock is easy to install, and has built-in Wi-Fi
The 2K Wyze Solar Cam comes bundled with a photovoltaic panel
Both are affordably priced, and subscription plans aren't mandatory
Installing smart locks can be a hassle — you often have to drill new holes in your door, and usually spend time setting up a separate Wi-Fi hub to connect the lock to your home network too. It doesn't have to be that way, though.
Wyze — a tech company that's made a name for itself in affordable home security — has launched a new lever-operated smart lock that you can fit with nothing but a Philips screwdriver. Just unscrew your existing door handle, screw the Wyze Lever Lock into place, and you're done.
Most of the best smart locks we've tested here at TechRadar are deadbolts designed for your front door, but the Wyze Lever Lock is made for the other entryways that you might actually use more often, such as garage-entry doors and side entrances. You can use it on internal doors too, so you can protect your home office (and any expensive IT equipment and sensitive documents therein).
Your opening options include a fingerprint scanner (which Wyze claims will release the lock in 0.5 seconds), a touch-sensitive numeric keypad, and a pair of physical backup keys for emergencies.
The Smart Lever Lock has built-in Wi-Fi connectivity, so there's no need for an additional hub, and runs for 12 months using eight AA batteries. It's available now for $99.98 direct from Wyze, with free shipping.
2K recording, no wires
So you've secured your doors — now what about home surveillance? Wyze has you covered there as well. Last month the company launched a wireless outdoor security camera that you can fit anywhere, and is powered by just an hour of sunlight per day.
The Wyze Solar Cam comes bundled with a photovoltaic panel, which you can mount right beside the camera or up to 10 feet away so it catches as much sunlight as possible.
You can fit the Wyze Solar Cam anywhere, and its solar panel can be mounted up to 10 feet away (Image credit: Wyze)
The camera has impressive recording chops too, streaming 2K video footage in wide dynamic range, revealing extra detail in bright areas and deep shadows.
Like the Lever Smart Lock, the camera is surprisingly affordable, with a list price of just $69.98 for a single camera direct from Wyze. If you don't need the solar panel, you can pick up the camera by itself for $59.98. Best of all, there's no monthly subscription necessary, though if you want cloud recording and AI features, plans start at $2.99 per month.
That should not be read as long-term support for the term 'artificial Intelligence', though
Company CEO Jamie Siminoff insisted it was not tying "to make any statements"
In its struggle to deliver an effective home-surveillance drone to consumers, Ring struggled with how to balance local intelligence with consistent flying skills. Turned out that the answer was in the cloud, or more specifically, cloud AI.
It's been almost two months since Donald Trump stood before the United Nations and announced that the US Government would be renaming AI to SI because, "It sounds much better, and it's much more accurate.... there's nothing artificial about it."
Forget that huge swaths of the tech industry have already hung their company names and branding around 'AI' (you may have heard of a small company called OpenAI, or maybe Apple's Siri AI); Trump sought to make the change official.
What's more remarkable, though, is that tech giants like Google's Sundar Pichai, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, and Nvidia's now-beleaguered CEO Jensen Huang fell into line.
Over at Ring's parent company, Amazon, though, the picture is less clear.
(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said he agrees with Trump, telling Fox News last month, "I do like SI because artificial is not a very flattering thing."
During the Ring Drone Cam launch event, I asked Ring CEO Jamie Siminoff about the use of 'AI' in AI Pilot. Would the company be changing the name?
Siminoff smiled like he'd been expecting the question, and replied, "I mean, there’s different names for it. Certainly we’re not trying to make any statements by how we’re using that.”
But in a nod to how quickly the landscape can change under your feet, Siminoff added, "But the AI Pilot was named earlier.” So, there are currently no plans to change it, but also no indication that Ring won't, someday, have an 'SI Pilot' guiding the Ring Drone Cam through your home.
I pressed, and asked if we were safe to keep calling it 'artificial Intelligence.' Simioff would only reiterate, "I think people are using different names for it, and so we’re gonna — uh, but right now it is the AI Pilot”
Super unclear
Siminoff's response is not surprising. After all, the tech industry seems somewhat split on whether to follow Trump's Executive order, which demands that all government agencies "use 'Super Intelligence' and 'SI' in place of 'Artificial Intelligence' and 'AI' in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents, and other non-statutory documents within the executive branch."
But, outside the halls of the White House, there's little agreement on whether the world should be switching from AI to SI.
As Siminoff points out, "The AI Pilot was named earlier." There was no way for Ring to know that Trump would attempt to rename an entire tech sector while it was trying to figure out how to make a drone light and efficient enough to navigate and surveil your home.
Who knows? The next version of AI Pilot may very well be SI Pilot. On the other hand, it took years for Ring to get this right. By the time the next Ring Drone Cam arrives, Trump will likely be out of office, and we may be done talking about AI vs. SI.
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Ring is finally ready to ship its home-surveillance drone
The Ring Drone Cam is lighter than some smartphones
A cloud-based AI Pilot does all the driving
Third time may be the charm for Ring's long-gestating security drone efforts — and Ring CEO Jamie Simioff insists that the new Ring Drone Cam is just what his customers want.
"When people stop me on the street, it's what they ask, 'Where's the drone?'" Simioff told me.
After a decade of effort, which traces back to before Ring became a part of the giant Amazon device family, Ring is finally ready to deliver a home security drone that makes sense.
Sure, perhaps we've heard this before, and Siminoff wasn't shy about recounting Ring's abortive drone history. That history started with an idea in 2016, which led to a drone that Siminoff said launched in 2021 but not to customers. "They were in boxes and ready to go," he added (design trade-offs, limited flight time, privacy concerns, and other issues ultimately scuttled that launch). By 2025, Ring was ready with another attempt, but that drone also never shipped.
(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)
As Sminioff described it, Ring was overcomplicating the drones, building in too many capabilities. A smart drone — basically a flying robot with all the attendant sensors — was the wrong approach. So Ring went back to the drawing board but with a critical learning: "The more sensors you take off, the lighter you can go, because you’re using less power."
He said Ring decided to "take all the intelligence out" and shifted it to the cloud. The resulting security drone is ultra-light (around 160 grams) and has just a few native skills, which include knowing how to land and how to connect via Wi-Fi to the app.
The App connects to Ring's new AI Pilot, which uses cloud-based, silicon-powered agents to control the drone. Not that the drone is flying blind. It has a front camera, a base camera, and the guidance of the AI Pilot, which is using a brand-new home map.
Ring Drone Cam owners will be able to use the drone to walk through their home and build a detailed map, which Siminoff described as a "digital twin" of your space.
A look at the new Ring Home map (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)
If, for instance, you detect a rear door open or a window ajar in your home (via one of Ring's sensors that they assume you'll have throughout your home), you can tap on the location in the digital house map and the Ring Drone Cam will lift off from its home charge base and fly directly to it.
The AI Pilot knows the map of your home, so it won't be bouncing off walls and, if someone does happen to be in the way, the Ring Drone Cam will know how to get around them. Siminoff admitted, though, that the drone is simply not smart enough to come up with an alternative route to get around, say, a group of people.
A relatively simple and lightweight flyer, the Ring Drone Cam is quite loud, and Siminoff says that's intentional. "It’s loud — we think that’s a feature. This thing is not gonna sneak up on you."
In fact, the use case he envisions is when nobody is home, though he agreed that if you're home asleep and there's movement downstairs, it could come in handy then, too. The sound alone might scare off intruders.
Lance Ulanoff / FutureLance Ulanoff / Future
The Ring Drone Cam is not designed to go outside, but it can peer out of a window. Imagine that someone approaches your front door, and the Ring Doorbell detects them. The Drone Cam could get the alert, lift off, and shine its LED spotlights out the window.
I asked Siminoff if the Ring app would support split-screen, so you could see the Drone and Doorbell footage side-by-side. He said it didn't, but that he liked the idea.
In the app, Ring Drone Cam owners can schedule automated home patrols that include multiple floors, since this drone can traverse stairways. The drone keeps track of the ground below but has no sensor for the ceiling. It also depends on that Wi-Fi connection for navigation. If your home internet cuts out, the Drone will basically land where it is, assuming it's safe to do so.
Speaking of safety, all four propellers are inside cages, so even if the lightweight drone does somehow run into you, you're unlikely to get injured. Siminoff also said that the Drone Cam promises the same level of video privacy as you find on the brand's video doorbells, which includes two-factor authentication and encryption. Also, as soon as the drone lands, it stops filming, and the charging dock also covers the camera when the drone is settled inside.
As you might expect for such a small and lightweight drone, the Ring Drone Cam doesn't offer much flight time, cruising for roughly five to eight minutes on a charge (consumer drones can often fly for up to 30 minutes). Charging could take between 40 minutes and an hour, though I imagine its patrol flights might just be a minute or two, after which the drone would return to its charging base.
Assuming that this is the drone Ring finally ships, the Ring Drone Cam will be available in the US only (Ring hasn't announced any plans to expand the launch) from January 27 for $249.99 and will be available in dark gray. The white units I saw were all pre-production, and there are currently no plans to offer a white option.
Using Astro as a base, Ring rebuilt it, added a light tower, and rechristened it the Ring Rover Cam. And while the Ring Rover Cam could be used in a home, it's really designed for medium-to-small businesses — and at $999.99 it's priced for those customers, too,
The reimagined robot can autonomously map a space, perform 30-minute patrols (we watched it roll around a fake Amazon inventory space), and pop up its periscope camera, which can extend to about four feet.
Ring has added one hardware feature: a new light tower that shines up at the ceiling. If you lose visual track of where the Rover Cam is, you can just look for a blue circle on the ceiling. In the case of an emergency, the robot lets out a piercing alarm, and that blue light turns into a spinning ambulance-like red one.
The Ring Rover Cam ships in the US from December 16.
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