Annke Whiffle Video Doorbell (Battery Powered) Review

When it comes to home security, video doorbells have become vital. Ring is the major player in the market, but other brands such as Swann, Blink, and Tapo offer alternatives, so you are going to find the right model for you.

In this review, Annke approached us to review the Annke Whiffle doorbell, which is available for £29.99 via the Annke website. We have been using a Ring video doorbell since we moved into the house, So I was interested to see how this alternative would perform, considering the brand focuses on delivering reliable monitoring with simple features and no-fuss setup.

Video doorbells work well if like me you receive many packages but are not home all the time. This technology is essential for getting your phone’s motion detection and doorbell notifications. This means you will rarely miss when someone comes to the door. We also found it useful when we were upstairs getting our son to bed to check if we even wanted to answer the door, especially at Halloween.

Annke has kept things quite simple with fully recyclable packaging and the front of the box displaying a picture of the doorbell. On the side of the packaging, you have the main features that include:

Open the packaging and you are provided with the following:

The Annke Whiffle provides a minimalist approach compared to its rivals. It comes with a smooth black monolith. The camera, motion sensor, microphone, and single round button, which doubles as a status indicator with a subtle blue glow when pressed, are all integrated into the front face. This design allows it to blend into any home exterior.

The mounting plate is detached using a SIM card removal tool, reducing the risk of someone trying to remove your doorbell. Once the black plate is removed you will notice on the bottom of the doorbell is the power/reset button and a slot for the microSD card which has a runner grommet to protect it from the elements.

You will also notice another rubber grommet protecting the micro-USB port for charging. I was a little disappointed they have used micro-USB instead of the more common USB-C it’s not a deal breaker just annoying.

The Annke Whiffle also comes with an IP65 rating that prevents damage from dust or heavy rain or even when the window cleaner comes around.

The doorbell chime is a fraction of the size of my Ring Chime with a USB port, indicator light and speaker on the front of the chime with the volume control and ringtone selection key to the side.

The first thing you will notice is you need to connect this doorbell to the app there is no Annke app it uses the VicoHome app. Oddly, they do not have their own app but the app they use VicoHome which is available on both iOS and Android. Set up is quite simple just power the device, wait for the app to find it, and provide your Wi-Fi credentials. Next, go into the app and pair up the included chime which consists of pressing the button on the chime to put it into syncing mode.

In terms of where to position the doorbell, you can stick this to the glass on your front door or use the mounting bracket and screws to fix this to the frame. It’s very easy to set up!

If you want to share access with a family member only the admin user who has bound the doorbell first can share access.  How to do this:

When you have completed the set-up of the doorbell the app will offer you a free trial of the cloud storage option for a month and then this will cost you £2.59 a month which also offers 15 days of recordings and up to 3GB of storage. Now here is where they get you a little if you want the smart detection and the ability to wall off activity zones you need to upgrade as the basic version does not provide this. There is also a plus & pro plan if you want to extend the recordings for a longer period and also receive larger storage. The benefit of upgrading is you can also adjust motion sensitivity preventing false alerts.

We have been using this doorbell now for the last couple of weeks since it arrived and I have been impressed. I found the notifications came through promptly which was an important factor. Now Annke claims this doorbell offers 1080P however in testing the footage gets recorded at 1280×780 with 15FPS. This is a little misleading, but you won’t find much of an issue when it comes to the video quality. You are provided with detailed footage through its 148-degree field of view.

If someone comes to your door at night the footage uses an infrared LED that provides you with black & white video just like most video doorbells and the quality is adequate.  The night vision is up to 33 feet which is decent but won’t capture the same level of detail as the colour night vision in more expensive models.

In terms of battery life with frequent use, you can expect just under a month of use which could be improved considering the Ring Doorbell offers a lot more battery life. The Annke Whiffle also offers motion detection that gives the user reliable motion alerts, but this is improved when you purchase the cloud subscription. This also provides intelligent detection which can distinguish between people, packages, pets and even vehicles. The idea behind this reduce false alerts compared to basic motion detection.

This doorbell also offers two-way audio, and it performs quite well. You are provided with clear voice transmission that makes having a conversation easy. The speaker in the chime does lack the audio quality the more expensive models offer but as mentioned the sound was not too bad and suitable for most consumers.

As mentioned, the Annke Whiffle uses the VicoHome app which once downloaded the app offers a clean and intuitive interface for accessing the features of the device.  I found live view loaded quickly and the motion detection settings were easily accessible.

The app supports Amazon Alexa allowing you to view your doorbell feed on an Amazon Echo Show which appears on your display and also allows you to receive announcements through your other Alexa-enabled devices. Unfortunately, you do not get the same experience with Google Assistant and the app does not work with this smart assistant.

The Annke Whiffle video doorbell offers a more budget-friendly alternative to the like of Ring Doorbell as the Whiffle will only cost under £30 which is excellent value for money. This doorbell provides the user with easy setup, clear video footage and dependable monitoring and offers waterproofing perfect considering this product will be used outside.

The optional cloud subscription offers even more features than just the basic model and the monthly fee is not too bad considering what you would pay with the likes of Ring & Swann.

If I had to pick a fault with this camera it would be the fact, they still use MicroUSB instead of the more common USB-C charging port. The recordings only seem to come out at 720p instead of the advertised 1080P but as mentioned in this review did not affect the video quality that much.

Overall, if you only have a small budget the Annke Whiffle performs well and for under £30 it’s hard to not recommend this doorbell to add some extra security to your home.

Product Rating    

Overall ranking: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars4.0 – 4 stars

The Annke Whiffe Video Doorbell is available from Annke.com for £27.99

 

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