Wyze Cam Pan v3 Review

The Wyze Cam Pan series is a perennial favorite among SafeWise testers—and one of the best home security cameras on the market. We fell in love with the low price, automatic motion tracking, and fast scanning feature. Recently, the Wyze Cam Pan v3 took up the baton, and we're happy to report that it lives up to its predecessors.

Unlike the small jump from v1 to v2, the Wyze Cam Pan v3 is a massive leap forward with a fresh visual design and weatherproofing for outdoor operation. Still, the Wyze Cam Pan v3 keeps popular features from the previous model: two-way audio, color night vision, and motion tracking—plus, it can scan an entire room in around 3 seconds.

For under $50, the video quality and how well it functions make Wyze one of the biggest bangs for your buck among budget cameras. Unlike other popular smart cameras, buying multiple Wyze Cams to cover different rooms and living spaces is much more affordable.

Sadly, the v3 is the first Wyze Cam Pan model without free cloud storage, though Wyze's paid plans offer lower starting prices than brands like Arlo, Ring, and Reolink. Find out what we think you'll love about the camera and what you may be less stoked about.

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It's hard to fault the price of the Wyze Pan v3. The camera retails for just $40—and it's only $1.99 per month for Wyze Cam Plus. (The price will increase to $2.99 monthly on June 20.) This is the most affordable cloud-storage plan on any security camera.

In the past, Wyze required a separate Wyze Cam Plus subscription for each camera but now covers unlimited cameras for $12.99 monthly—matching what Arlo charges. This is more than twice as much as Nest Aware's unlimited option and slightly more than Ring's plan. Still, the low price of Wyze's cameras helps offset the higher fees.

Wyze recently introduced a new subscription plan, Wyze Cam Protect, that adds professional monitoring to a single compatible Wyze Cam for $3.99 a month. This is a nice compromise for folks who want something other than a full-fledged Wyze security system. Unlike Wyze Cam Plus, you need a plan for every camera, topping out at five cameras.

The Wyze Cam Pan v3's 1080p video resolution is fairly average for a home security camera—there's enough detail to distinguish between people, pets, vehicles, and objects without zooming. But the digital zoom, as with most 1080p cameras, isn't all that useful—don't expect the picture to improve when you zoom in. This contrasts with optical zooms, like on the Reolink E1 Zoom, which isn't simply increasing pixel sizes.

We tested the video quality indoors and outdoors with various lighting conditions:

• Indoors:
  • The daytime video looks clear in most rooms, though we noticed a dropoff in detail past 20 feet. Bright light sources can easily wash out the image, but there's no way to adjust the picture settings to make these areas less bright. Despite these nitpicks, the video quality is sufficient for most people.
  • At night, the infrared LEDs are powerful enough to show detail throughout a room, though the color night vision setting doesn't hold up without an ambient light source. While we understand that some folks always prefer color video, the monotone infrared video is an easy choice for maximum effectiveness.
• Outdoors:
  • While the bright spots we found in the indoor video remain during the early morning, the picture evens out once the sun's up—as long as the camera can't see the sun. Ambient daylight produced the best quality of all our tests.
  • Once again, infrared night vision provides sharper images than color night vision. Still, the color night vision can work in well-lit areas, provided the lights aren't shining directly on the lens.

Wyze offers a fairly robust option for time-lapse recording, but requires a microSD card to work. The main problem with this method is that you have to manually download the finished recording in the Wyze app to view it. Some recordings are substantial, so expect to spend a few minutes on the transfer. There's a way around this: Remove the card and connect it to a computer. Unfortunately, that may take more time if your Wyze camera is in an inaccessible area.

Timelapse on Wyze isn't particularly great for recording houseplants growing—the lens won't focus on anything closer than a few feet, and bright grow lights will wash out the plants in your image. Still, you'll see better results outdoors when recording sunrises, construction, and weather.

Wyze's audio quality in recordings and live feeds is satisfactory but has a few downsides. While it was easy to understand someone speaking at an average volume up to 15 feet away, a constant distortion can distract from quieter voices and sounds. This distortion is less of an issue in quiet environments, but extra ambient noise—like fans and traffic—sometimes poses a challenge.

Using the two-way audio on this Wyze camera likewise yields mixed results. The camera's built-in speaker works well indoors despite its relatively low volume. While people can hear the speaker outdoors, you'll achieve the best result by speaking clearly (and a little louder) into your microphone.

You have two options for video storage with Wyze: local and cloud. To use local storage, you need to buy a microSD card separately. While practically any microSD card up to 256GB should work, you can simplify things with a Wyze-branded card. The company sells multiple sizes of microSD cards for $36 and under, so you can pick the best size for your budget.

You can record continuous video or motion events with local storage. We prefer motion events since they make it easier to review the footage later, but it's harder to capture full events than with continuous recording. This is because sometimes a subject is too far from the camera to trigger the motion sensor.

Aside from storing video clips online, the other benefit of paying for a cloud storage plan is that you'll unlock smart motion detection features. While you can watch local and cloud storage clips remotely using the Wyze app, the cloud isn't as vulnerable to someone taking your microSD card. 

Unlike previous models, the Wyze Cam Pan v3 doesn't support the pay-what-you-want Wyze Cam Plus Lite plan, which is one way to access free cloud storage—though Wyze hopes you'll pay more than that. While this is disappointing, we understand that it's not cheap to offer cloud storage in the first place, let alone for free.

No rule says you can't use local and cloud storage together. For example, continuous recording isn't available with cloud storage, but you always have the option with local storage. This way, Wyze Cam Plus works more like a backup to your local storage while unlocking features like smart motion detection—it's the best way to maximize your Wyze Cam Pan.

Wyze uses a QR code process to set up security cameras, which is popular among most security camera brands of security cameras.

Here's a quick rundown:

1. Power on your camera and download the Wyze app.
2. Scan the QR code on the bottom of your camera with the app.
3. Enter your Wi-Fi credentials and show the resulting QR code to your camera.
4. Once connected, follow the instructions to name your camera and enable basic settings.

The setup took about two minutes to complete, about as fast as it gets. After setup, you should explore the app and camera settings to find the best options for you.

Installing the Wyze Cam Pan v3 is as simple as setting the camera on a shelf, which is great for indoor settings, though the camera is more secure if you use the included mounting bracket. To mount the camera, find a suitable spot high up on a wall, drill holes for the screw anchors, and use screws to secure the mounting bracket. Then, attach the Wyze Pan v3 to the bracket using the included mounting bolt. The whole process takes around 10 to 20 minutes.

The only real mounting limitation is the power cord. If you use the included cable, you must keep it indoors within 6 feet of a power outlet. For outdoor mounting, you'll want the 12.5-foot Outdoor Power Adapter for about $20.

In our experience, the wall mount works best when the camera is upside down. This gives you a greater range of motion while allowing the camera to point straight down. When mounted right-side-up, the base can obscure objects below, leaving a blindspot. This blindspot may be good for Privacy Mode and won't affect cameras resting on flat surfaces like shelves, but it's unhelpful for wall mounting.

It also works with third-party security camera mounts as long as they use a standard camera mounting bolt, as found on most tripods. This is especially useful for mounting on the ceiling, as the included mounting bracket isn't suitable for ceilings.

Like most security cameras, the Wyze Cam Pan v3 offers relatively simple smart home integrations—it works with Google Home and Amazon Alexa. These integrations don't provide much utility in linking your cameras to other smart home gear, but you can watch live views on compatible devices.

For Alexa, that means viewing camera feeds in the Alexa app and on Echo Show smart displays. We spotted an option for people alerts, but that requires a Cam Plus subscription. For Google, you'll use the Google Home app and Nest Hub to watch the live view. You can also run a routine based on when your camera turns on or off—an action you can do only in the Wyze app.

Whether you connect Wyze to a smart home platform, you'll still use the Wyze app to change camera settings, watch recordings, and receive notifications, which isn't great for reducing app clutter on your phone. Wyze Cam Pan v3 also lists IFTTT compatibility, but we didn't use this during our testing period.

Wyze is generally easy to contact for customer service, though the brand's exploding popularity over the past few years means you may wait slightly longer for a response. Wyze customer service is available via email, chat, or phone:

• Weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. PT.
• Weekends from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. PT.

In most cases, you'll find a quick answer on the Wyze Forum and Wyze Help Center, which boast a vast selection of articles for each product.

The Wyze Cam Pan v3 offers expensive features at a budget-friendly price. Its video performance, affordable cloud plans, motion tracking, and Pan Scan features help Wyze compete with pricier brands like Reolink, Arlo, and Nest. However, the audio quality and feature limitations on local storage keep it from claiming our top ranking among home security cameras.

Wyze's prices democratize home security to a level we've never seen before. See how the Wyze Cam Pan compares to other Wyze security cameras in our full review, or check out the Wyze security system for a slick DIY security option.

Check out our full methodology to learn more about how we rank and review products.

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