Review of WyzeCam v2Form Factor:This is a cute little unit! It folds down into a very lightweight cube, about 1.5" on a side. A small square stand folds out from the bottom, with a clever hinge and pivot system that provides wide adjustment for aiming the camera. The stand has a small magnet to anchor it to any steel surface, or to the included steel disc that can be stuck onto non-magnetic surfaces with double-sided tape.As nice as it is, there are some minor design issues.The magnet could be stronger. If mounted to a vertical surface, the magnet barely holds on. It will stay in place if it isn't jostled, but vibrations such as a slamming door will cause the unit to slip out of position, or fall completely to the floor.The hinge/pivot system is a little too loose. In some cases, the stiffness of the USB cable will torque the camera out of position, which can make it harder to keep the camera precisely aimed.Most of the unit is bright white, but the camera lens is surrounded by a 1.25" jet-black, circular area. The high black-on-white contrast is quite obtrusive. If you want to secretly hide this on a bookshelf or high in a corner of the room, it's still going to be quite noticeable and attracts attention.I wasn't sure where I wanted to ultimately mount the camera, so instead of using the double-sided tape I drilled a tiny hole in the steel disc and used a small, #6 flat-head wood screw to afix the disc, allowing me to move the disc later if I wish.Connectivity:The WyzeCam uses a micro-USB cable for power, and connects to your home router via wifi. Setup is simple, but you need a decent wifi signal level at the camera's location.The location I chose is 24 ft. from the router, with three intervening interior walls. My wifi signal level at that spot is -65 dBm, and the unit does maintain a satisfactory connection. But if I move it (even a few feet) to a location where the signal level drops below -70 dBm, it won't maintain a consistent connection. The WyzeCam seems to be more sensitive to wifi signal strength than many other devices, such as laptops and cell phones.Image Quality:The WyzeCam is nominally a "HD" device, but that can be a bit misleading. Modern smartphones have spoiled us to an extent, and while the camera is technically "HD" (1920x1080) it doesn't have the same clarity as a smartphone camera. Part of this may be because the camera isn't that great, but it's also partly due to the extreme 110-degree, wide-angle of the camera's fish-eye lens, which crams a lot of image area into those 1920x1080 pixels. When you zoom in, things get fuzzy real fast. It's still very good for a $25 camera (and as a surveillance device is more than adequate), but don't expect smartphone quality.The smartphone app lets you select "SD" or "HD" mode, but I could see no visible difference between the two. In fact, both modes created snapshots and videos that were the same 1920x1080, so I don't know if something is malfunctioning on my unit. Something must be happening because the streaming rate and file sizes are slightly larger when in "HD" mode, but the end results looked the same. I ended up leaving it on "SD" to save some storage space and bandwidth.The attached screen-crops compare a small zoomed-in area of screen captures of the WyzeCam's "SD" video, "HD" video, and my smartphone's 720p and 1080p video modes. (Note: each is only *part* of a full screenshot in order to show detail!) The phone's 1080p mode is noticeably sharper, but as stated earlier, that is at least partly due to the fact it isn't capturing as wide a field of view as the WyzeCam.I've also included a full-screen snapshot to show the "fish-eye" effect of the wide-angle lens.The camera has a Night Mode that works with four infrared LEDs circling the lens. These provide enough IR illumination to light up a completely dark 200 sq.ft. room, but will struggle lighting a 400 sq.ft. double-car garage. Also keep in mind the IR LEDs don't really work through glass, so don't expect to have them work through a window and light up the backyard.Storage:Strictly speaking, no SD card is required. Practically speaking, you should use one. Even a cheap 4GB or 16GB SD card will be useful.If you install a SD card, you can have the WyzeCam record continuously and the video files will be saved to the SD card. Regardless of whether it's in SD or HD mode, recordings are 1920x1080, 15 frames per second, and heavily compressed .mp4 files of around 4-6 MB per minute. Videos are stored in minute-long segments, up to 60 videos per hour. (In my tests, most of the videos were about 57-58 seconds long, so a few unrecorded seconds sometimes go by each minute.) When the SD card fills up, the WyzeCam automatically deletes the oldest videos to make room for newer videos.With a SD card, you can also choose to save the recording only when motion is detected. This is like continuous recording, but if no motion is detected at the end of the minute, the video is discarded. Very handy.When set to send "motion detected" alerts to your phone, the WyzeCam will automatically send you a 12-second clip when motion is detected. As other reviewers have noted, that's not really long enough all by itself. Furthermore, continued motion won't generate another alert (and another 12-second video) until at least 5 minutes have passed. These alert videos are stored in the cloud, not the SD card.The smartphone app lets you connect to your WyzeCam across the internet, watch a live stream from the camera, take a snapshot, or manually launch a recording session. Those functions do not require a SD card, so presumably those files are also stored in the cloud.When you get a motion alert, you can launch the smartphone app and watch a live stream or start recording manually. But alerts don't always arrive timely, so having a SD card recording automatically is a nice backup. Because the SD card is on device, it will still record if your internet connection is interrupted.Software UI:The only way to access the WyzeCam is via a smartphone app. Unfortunately, you can't access it via an ordinary web browser, nor is there a desktop app. In fact, you can only connect it to a single smartphone, so only you or your spouse can monitor the camera, but not both of you.The app's UI is clunky and not very intuitive. It takes awhile to get used to where various settings are. For instance, you go to one place to replay the automated SD card recordings, another place to replay manual recordings, and yet another to replay those 12-second alerts.At least an app UI is something Wyze can improve relatively easily (assuming they're inclined to do so).Any of the videos and snapshots, whether SD card or cloud, can be copied from the WyzeCam to phone, email, or the usual cloud services via the familiar "sharing" feature common to most apps. Of course, the SD card can also be removed and its contents dumped to a PC, though remember that won't include any manual recordings or alert videos.Verdict:So, would I recommend the WyzeCam to others? I'd give it a qualified "maybe". At $25, it's an attractive price. Many of the shortcomings are minor, and understandable for such an inexpensive device.It's not robust enough to compare to a professionally installed security system, but it's also not going to have the high price tag. In addition, a professional system is often intended for exterior security, while the WyzeCam is intended for interior use.If all you're looking for is to keep an eye on the baby's room or whether the dog is getting up on the couch while you're away, this may fit the bill nicely. Unfortunately, I'll never be able to give it more than 3 stars until it's accessible from more than a single smartphone.Later addendum: Remember how I mentioned above that the high black-on-white contrast makes this device hard to camouflage? As tiny as it is, the police had no trouble quickly spotting it from the middle of the street in the dark of night, even though the camera was *inside* a window peeking out! (They asked to see what the camera had captured to investigate a traffic incident.)