SimpliSafe Wireless Outdoor Review

Across the spectrum of the top home security cameras our team has tested over the years, the SimpliSafe Wireless Outdoor security camera came up short. It proved to be a rather average offering in the world of security cameras.

Recorded Video Quality

When it came down to the Video Quality testing of the SimpliSafe Wireless Outdoor camera, its performance was far behind the best products we tested.

The 1080p video we recorded and evaluated was very choppy, likely due to a lower frame rate than other security cameras, and the details were softened and blurred. Manual recordings are also limited to a minute and five seconds. Bright lights don't wash out the camera's lens as much as other cameras we tested, and we found the colors to be accurate in daytime recordings.

The SimpliSafe Wireless Outdoor did not perform very well in our night vision testing. Nighttime recordings were grainy, with little detail, and bright and reflective materials were overexposed. The overexposure resulted in recordings of a vehicle license plate where the license plate numbers were indiscernible.

Outside of decent daytime color accuracy, a wider 140 degree field of view provides just a little extra coverage and is one of the few accolades we could give the SimpliSafe for our recorded video quality tests.

Monitoring Performance

While this model may have been a little bit behind with regards to recorded video quality compared to its peers, it proved to be above-average in our tests and evaluations for “monitoring performance”.

The live video is smooth and without a noticeable delay, although sounds are slightly delayed. Live video also has noticeable background noise, and while it isn't too loud, it is a little distracting. On a more positive note, sounds are picked up well by the camera microphone, even at a distance. Overall, the SimpliSafe could be better when it comes to monitoring performance, but it certainly isn't bad.

Ease of Use

Unfortunately, in our third test metric, Ease of Use, the SimpliSafe Wireless Outdoor camera trailed behind the competition. The application is easy enough to use, although not quite as easy or intuitive as the apps offered by other brands we tested.

Each camera does have its own settings that can be accessed either from the top of the 'Cameras' tab or from a slide-out menu under 'My System'. All other settings are located within the 'My System' tab on the slide-out. Unfortunately, the options for motion alerts are a little lacking and are limited to motion alerts for 'People only' or 'All motion'.

The SimpliSafe Wireless Outdoor also lacks a local storage option, and a subscription service is needed to make recordings. A subscription does provide cloud storage of recordings for 30 days. In addition to the lack of options, and the need for a subscription to make recordings, our testers experienced slow loading times within the app and occasional glitches.

Should You Buy the SimpliSafe Wireless Outdoor?

Simply put, the SimpliSafe Wireless Outdoor camera did not perform as well as other cameras overall and was easily outperformed by models that cost significantly less. Because of the high price, and underwhelming performance compared to its peers, we can't recommend the SimpliSafe over many other much better options.

What Other Security Cameras Should You Consider?

We tested a dozen security cameras, and the SimpliSafe was outperformed by almost all of them all-around. At about a tenth of the price of the SimpliSafe, the Wyze Cam OG easily outperformed it overall, offering better quality video, better monitoring performance, an easy-to-use app, and more robust notifications and settings.

For less than a third of the cost of the SimpliSafe, the Wyze Cam Pan v3 offers great performance, very similar to the Wyze Cam OG, but also adds the ability to pan and tilt and has become one of our favorite cameras and a top recommendation here at the lab.