Review: Lorex 4K Video Doorbell User Experience (“Who are all those cats?”)

Back in October, the PR team for Lorex reached out to me with the opportunity to review the brand’s 4K Wired Video Doorbell. The pitch stated, “This doorbell is NOT like other doorbells; this is the FIRST EVER 4K DOORBELL. Have you counted how many times your doorbell rings? It’s a lot! That’s why it is so important to have a view that shows it all. With the expansive head-to-toe view and crystal clear 4K Resolution, you can truly see your door like never before.“

As great as that email was in grabbing my attention, it wasn’t the promise of 4K video, “too many rings,” that caught my eye, it was an item at the bottom of a “key features” list: no monthly subscription.

I had been an early adopter of the Ring video doorbell, who had learned to appreciate the ability to review recorded footage of motion activities or doorbell rings. However, I was also experiencing “subscription fatigue” and a bit of concern about the security of my videos that were being stored in the cloud. I had already attempted a switch to another brand of doorbell that promised local storage, but the life of its “non-hot-swappable” battery of was so short (30 days) that declined to review the product after testing it out because I literally had nothing good to say about it.

A few months later, I received the pitch for the Lorex 4K Wired Video Doorbell, which was strictly hardwired and offered local storage on an SD card so no paid subscription for cloud storage.

After committing to a brand-new mechanical doorbell chime and power transformer upgrade, I learned through much trial and error that the way my house was wired for a Control4 lighting control system made powering up my doorbell through direct wiring an impossibility without calling an electrician. Not ready to give up completely on the opportunity to review the Lorex 4K Wired Video Doorbell, I turned to my buddy, neighbor, and Purdue-educated engineer Jim Taller (who had spent hours helping me troubleshoot my wiring situation) to try it out instead. Jim had never owned a smart doorbell, but he was step ahead of me because his traditional wired doorbell was still working and had the proper transformer needed to power up a video camera. S0, I boxed up the Lorex 4K Wired Video Doorbell and sent it home with Jim. Here’s what he had to say about his experience installing it and using it so far:

Jim Taller: My level of detail is from a customer perspective and because I’m an engineer you just get bullet points, not coherent prose. My level of experience with smart doorbells is as a many times “ringer,” but a first-time owner/installer. However, I do possess reasonably good home maintenance skills (if women don’t find you handsome, at least they can find you handy!)

The Initial Installation Experience

• The Lorex 4K Wired Video Doorbell user guide was pretty straightforward
• The app was fairly seamless compared to other smart devices I have had installed
• Logical sequence of steps
• Straightforward account creation
• Use of 2D barcode on the device to identify product and guide installation-specific prompts and videos was a great idea
• Installation videos were ok, but the dude talking to me from his couch didn’t seem necessary; I just wanted to install the doorbell
• Pairing with my home Wi-Fi worked very well. The app provided clear steps for connecting to the device over Wi-Fi and configuring use with the home network

Hardware Installation

• The Lorex 4K Wired Video Doorbell came with a complete kit for various installation situations, including wire extensions for short wiring, mounting brackets including angled brackets for different angles depending on the height and right/left position of the existing doorbell to enhance the field of view of the unit
• My only recommendation would be to include smaller wire nuts for connecting existing wiring to the Lorex extension wires; it’s a tight fit if there isn’t a recess or hole where the wires come out
• Integration with my existing mechanical chime was a great option

iOS App Setup and Configuration

• Motion Zones could be tailored to specific motion areas
• Prior to using motion zones, the unit was triggering with motion of people and animals across the street or on the sidewalk 20 feet from my door
• After scaling the motion zones to an area including my front step and walkway from my driveway, the distant triggers were eliminated
• Enabling the mechanical or electronic chime through the app was a nice feature; it was a bit buried in the settings, but I was able to find it
• I added the device to my Google Home app, which was also more straightforward than most other smart items have been in my home. Guidance in the Lorex app on how to add the device in the Google Home app was accurate and to the point
• Basic functions were straightforward; some advanced functions seem to take a bit of extra effort to dig out of the app. For instance, it took me longer than necessary to figure out how to turn the green status light off the front of the doorbell. (My wife was not to fond of that light)
• Live camera view or recorded video from the device are readily available on the app and are sorted based on date and object detection type, which is a great feature when looking for a specific recording

Nitpicky Stuff

• Deleting past images seems to be on an individual basis as opposed to group selection and deletion.
• I was unable to directly delete the recording being viewed; you have to select another recording to enable deletion of the current recording

General Features

• Local storage and the option to update the SD card storage is a fantastic alternative to dependency on cloud-based subscription services, as no one needs to see recordings of my cat on the interwebs
• Options for security light would be nice
• Low light function with IR illumination lights appears to work well near the door  
• Quite sensitive to motion at quite a long distance and field of view
• Surprisingly good identification of people, animals, vehicles, and objects (boxes and flaming bags of poo)
• The “intercom” function with the unit includes audio clear enough to really freak out the cat sitting on the front step when speaking to them from the mobile app
• Videos or pictures can be shared from the events video log, but it requires a second step to convert the recording to a video or picture before sending
• It can be a little “laggy” between the camera trigger and my app notification
• It would be cool to have a voicemail option where people can leave a message from the doorbell

Final Thoughts

The Lorex 4K Wired Video Doorbell provided a solid first-time smart doorbell experience for my home. Pairing it with my home Wi-Fi worked very well, and the app provided clear steps for connecting and configuring the device. Since completing the installation, it’s been fun to watch my cat and other neighborhood cats show up from time to time on my locally recorded camera history, leaving me with one last question: “Who are all of those cats?”