Most homeowners don’t need any high-tech, facial recognition-capable super-sharp 4K outdoor security camera, especially one you need to keep plugged into an outlet. Roku, the brand most known for cheap streaming devices, plans to releasea 1080p outdoor camera that it claims won’t need a charge for up to two years. Still, just like all Roku devices, the hidden price is how much of your privacy you’re willing to give up in the name of cheap tech.
The $40 Roku Battery Camera and $60 Roku Battery Camera Plus are the new additions to the cheapo streaming brand’s line of smart cameras that were first introduced in 2022. While the Roku outdoor wired camera also offers 1080p streaming, the new, Battery Camera should last six months while the Plus model shouldn’t require a charge for close to two years. Already, the small stature, large battery, and low price make Roku’s outdoor camera extra enticing. It includes WiFi 6 connectivity, but its range will depend on the quality of your WiFi signal. There’s no release date yet and Roku said it’s looking at a summer release.
Of course, the full battery life depends on how often the motion sensor-activated camera gets triggered. Either way, recharging it only requires you unscrew it from its base and plug it into a USB-C cable. Otherwise, it’s a very basic device, and that’s to its benefit. It includes basic motion sensing to detect people or animals crossing in its field of view, but it lacks facial recognition features found on devices like Ring doorbells and other, higher-end outdoor security cameras.
The Battery Camera and Battery Camera Plus work with the Roku Camera app for TV and the Roku Smart Home app on your phone. That will allow you to remote monitor the camera feed or get updates for when the device spots any incoming mailmen or rogue deer stampeding across your lawn. The app defaults to cloud storage, even though you can back up videos to a microSD card. The company’s privacy policy explicitly states “Roku collects and may review (for example, for content moderation purposes) any files, including photos, videos or audio files, that you choose to upload or make accessible to the Roku Services.” That’s a potential problem considering the lingering privacy issues surrounding outdoor smart cameras.
Although it lacks facial recognition, there’s still a chance police may seek to access that footage through Roku. Police can request cloud video footage in cases of emergencies. We reached out to Roku to learn if it has any policy about offering data to police on request, but we did not immediately hear back. We’ll update this post when we learn more.
Roku reps also told Gizmodo the outdoor camera isn’t currently Matter compatible, but it may get connections to different apps when Matter comes to fully support smart security cameras.
Roku announced a few other new products on Wednesday, including that it’s working with outside OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) on Roku-enabled projectors. This may mean you no longer would need to stick a streaming stick into your projector or operate two separate remotes. There’s no word on when those projectors may come , but at least there’s all-new, ultra-cheap streaming sticks available.
The new Roku streaming sticks include a $30 entry-level Streaming Stick for HD alongside a $40 Streaming Stick Plus for 4K content. The box comes with the dongle, plus the Roku voice remote, though it lacks the HDR support of the more-expensive $50 Roku Streaming Stick 4K or the $100 Roku Ultra. The Streaming Stick Plus essentially replaces the Roku Express 4K—the company’s previous smaller-sized set top box.
The company claimed that these new streaming sticks should be power efficient enough that the vast majority of TVs should offer enough juice through a USB-A port. Once more, it all seems relatively solid for the price, but—again—you’ll have to entertain Roku’s data harvesting practices and potentially more-obtrusive ads for the sake of watching all your shows.
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