D-Link’s Wi-Fi camera provides a sharp, 180-degree view of your home

(credit: Valentina Palladino)

D-Link promises to watch over much more of your home with its new Wi-Fi security camera. While it resembles other cameras like the Nest Cam and the Samsung Smartcam HD Plus in many ways, its 180-degree field of view is unbeatable. If positioned against a wall, the D-Link camera could watch over an entire room, leaving no hidden nook or concealed cranny. It's not priced badly either, at $179, but it comes with a few caveats worth considering before you decide to choose this camera over another.

Design: The bulging eye returns

SPECS AT A GLANCE: D-LINK DCS-2630L WI-FI CAMERA
CAMERA RESOLUTION	Up to 1080p
FIELD OF VIEW	180 degrees
INTERNET	802.11ac (compatible with 802.11n/g)
LIVE STREAMING	Yes
NIGHT VISION	Yes
MOTION/SOUND DETECTION	Motion and sound
MOBILE APP	Android, iOS, and Windows Phone
SUBSCRIPTION	None; can record locally on a microSD card up to 128GB microSD, but no card is included with the camera
EXTRA FEATURES	Two-way talk, activity zone selection, customizable decibel detection level
PRICE	$179

I don't know who decreed that home security cameras had to look like bulbous, singular alien eyes, but D-Link certainly got that memo. The DCS-2630L Wi-Fi camera has a large, circular head that's much bigger than both the Nest Cam and the Samsung Smartcam HD Plus, and it's wider, too. Its neck is a piece of U-shaped plastic attached to a flat, round base. You can bend the neck back and forth to adjust the vertical angle of the camera's view, but you can't spin it from side to side.

However, you can rotate the face of the camera (the front part of the circular head) a full 360 degrees to adjust the viewpoint. On the front of the camera lies the built-in microphone, the glass camera lens, the light sensor for switching between day and night vision, six infrared LEDs to support night vision, and two PIR sensors that detect infrared radiation so the camera can tell when someone walks by even in the dead of night. The back of the head is full of small holes for the device's speaker, and there's also a status light, a WPS button, the microSD card slot, and the microUSB port for power. A major bummer is that, unlike the Smartcam HD Plus, the D-Link camera doesn't include a microSD in the box; you'll have to buy one before the camera can save recorded clips locally.

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