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  • About the Kasa Cam Outdoor KC420WS

  • What we like

  • What we don’t like

  • Related content

  • Should you buy the Kasa Cam Outdoor KC420WSS?

  • About the Kasa Cam Outdoor KC420WS
  • What we like
  • What we don’t like
  • Related content
  • Should you buy the Kasa Cam Outdoor KC420WSS?

Pros

  • High-quality video

  • Feature-packed

  • Cloud storage is optional

Cons

  • App is confusing

  • Motion detection can be finicky

If you don’t need a battery-powered solution, Kasa’s camera captures 2K outdoor video for peanuts, no subscription required.

About the Kasa Cam Outdoor KC420WS

  • Colors: White
  • Connectivity: 802.11 b/g/n @2.4GHz
  • Power source: Hardwired (100-240V)
  • Resolution: 2K HD (2560 x 1440 pixels)
  • Field of view: 110 degrees horizontal
  • Audio: Two-way talk
  • Smart assistant support: Alexa, Google Assistant
  • Weather resistance: IP65
  • Warranty: 2 years

About the size of a baseball, the Kasa Cam Outdoor relies on a ball-joint mount that must be screwed to a wall, post, tree or the like. That affords plenty of flexibility for aiming the camera, but make sure you keep in mind the AC power requirement.

Unlike a lot of outdoor cameras, this one doesn’t run on batteries. Instead, it comes with a 10-foot USB power cord. Unfortunately, while the camera itself is IP65-rated waterproof, the AC adapter isn’t. That means you either need to run it to an indoor outlet (which could involve some drilling, to say nothing of an extension cord) or add some kind of waterproof shielding to an outdoor one.

Thankfully, the Kasa app walks you step-by-step through not only outdoor mounting, but also the camera’s initial configuration. Keep in mind that as with any outdoor Wi-Fi camera, network signal strength will play a role in both connectivity and video quality. I mounted the camera on my front porch and was able to capture smooth, full-resolution video, but you may have different results.

What we like

Two screenshots of the Kasa camera's video capture in action, one during the day and the other at night. Both images show the same driveway.
Credit: Reviewed / Rick Broida

Crystal clear video capture.

High-quality video, day and night

It’s surprising to find a 2K lens in a camera priced this low, and the Cam Outdoor takes full advantage of all those pixels. I found video to be crisp, colorful and well-balanced during the day and nearly as good at night.

That resolution (equivalent to 4 megapixels) translates to a much sharper image than you get from the 2-megapixel likes of the Google Nest Cam or Wyze Cam Outdoor. Whether or not you need that kind of clarity is debatable—when you’re looking at a wide view on your phone, there’s barely a discernible difference—but if it comes down to identifying a porch pirate’s face or capturing a license plate number, more pixels are always better.

Because it has both a microphone and speaker, it’s able to capture audio along with video, and of course you can engage in two-way conversation.

In my experience with outdoor cameras and video doorbells, this rarely works very well; there’s often too much lag to communicate effectively. That was exactly the case here: I could hear the person talking and she could hear me, but it took several seconds for each bit of audio to come through, resulting in difficult conversations.

This feature is of limited value.

It’s as feature-packed as cameras that cost more

In addition to the 2K lens, Kasa baked an impressive roster of features into the KC420WS. For starters, it affords your choice of three night-vision modes: Infrared, Full Color and Smart (and the settings menu fully explains each one, a nice touch).

A bright, dual-LED spotlight is what makes nighttime color possible; it might also scare off a potential thief. To that end, the cam also has a siren you can activate manually via the app.

If you own an Alexa- or Google-powered smart display, you can watch a live feed from the camera (via a simple voice command, natch). And if you have other Kasa devices, you can set up action triggers. For example, if the camera detects motion, it can make a Kasa smart bulb light up.

Speaking of motion, the app lets you define specific activity zones for detection purposes, and it has a person-detection toggle as well--though that didn’t work so great, as explained below.

Cloud storage is optional and affordable

The Kasa Cam Outdoor offers two options for preserving video: local storage (courtesy of a microSD card, up to 256GB) and cloud storage. The latter is provided by Kasa Care, a subscription service that starts at a reasonable, competitive $3 per month. You can also pay $30 for an annual subscription and save yourself $6.

Not sure it’s worth it? There’s a one-month free trial so you can decide (though it requires a credit card up front; you have to cancel if you choose not to continue).

With Kasa Care, you gain not only 30 days’ worth of cloud-based video history, but also the option of video sharing. Locally stored video can’t be shared or even downloaded to your phone; you’d have to manually retrieve the microSD card and copy videos to your PC.

What’s more, without Kasa Care, the app doesn’t include video snapshots in its push notifications, nor does it list any activity-detection records in its main menu. Instead, you have to venture into the 24/7 Recording menu, which is a little slow to populate because data is getting pulled from the microSD card instead of the cloud.

One other notable Kasa Care benefit: manual recording. Suppose, for example, you get an activity alert, pop open the Kasa app and discover something you want to capture. If you don’t have a Kasa Care subscription, you can’t tap a button to immediately start recording; you have to rely on activity detection and hope that it saves the full event.

Ultimately, I think the subscription is nice to have and not overly expensive, but you can certainly live without it.

What we don’t like

A screenshot of the Kasa smartphone app and a picture of the Kasa camera mounted on a wall.
Credit: Reviewed / Rick Broida

One app for every Kasa product is definitely not the best design choice.

The app is confusing in places

Because Kasa makes a wide variety of smart-home products and there’s a single app that’s home base for all of them, tapping the Kasa icon doesn’t immediately take you to a live camera view. Instead, you’re presented with menu icons for Devices, Cameras, Scenes, Smart Actions and Activity. For the novice user, it can be challenging to determine where to go and when.

Once you do get to the camera’s live view, things get even more confusing—starting with the array of icons below the video. The leftmost one looks like a speaker; I thought it was exactly that, a toggle to turn live audio on or off. Nope: It’s the alarm button. (The only way to turn audio off is within the settings menu.)

OK, then what’s that other speaker-looking icon, the one overlaid on the live video? Turns out you tap that to adjust the camera’s microphone volume level. OK, then what’s the larger microphone icon below the video feed? It toggles two-way audio between your phone and the camera.

Like I said: confusing. And that’s just the live-video stuff in the top half of the screen; below that it’s completely blank, unless you have a Kasa Care subscription, in which case you see a couple small thumbnails of recent video captures. If you want access to more of them, you tap 24/7 Recording or back out of the live view and hit up the main Activity menu.

At a minimum, Kasa needs to reorganize (if not redesign) some of the icons and add text labels. As it stands, the app just isn’t very intuitive.

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Motion detection can be finicky

Motion-detecting cameras can be a mixed bag, driving you nuts with false alerts or failing to capture anything at all. In my tests the Kasa Cam Outdoor did a fine job detecting and recording motion, but with one fairly significant problem.

For testing purposes I pointed the camera at my front walk, though the field of view was wide enough to capture most of my driveway as well. I didn’t want an alert every time a car pulled in or out, so I set up an “activity zone” restricting coverage to just the walk.

Because there are plants and flowers in that section, plus the occasional rabbit or squirrel, I also enabled “person detection” to stave off false alerts.

At the default motion-sensitivity setting (six out of 10), the camera didn’t do well. When a breeze pushed plant leaves, I received an alert. When a bunny hopped into view, I received an alert.

I found that by dialing down the motion sensitivity, I could reduce the overall number of unwanted alerts. But they still weren’t limited to people only, even with that setting toggled on. Standing behind the camera, I waved a stick in front of it and still got a motion alert.

Should you buy the Kasa Cam Outdoor KC420WSS?

A picture of the Kasa camera mounted on a wall outside.
Credit: Reviewed / Rick Broida

If you're on a budget, this could be a good option.

Yes, if you want affordable outdoor monitoring and don’t mind supplying AC power

The Kasa Cam Outdoor KC420WS offers an impressive feature set at an amazingly affordable price. It captures crisp 2K video to your choice of a memory card or Kasa’s cloud service. The latter is optional and inexpensive, adding some useful features but not crucial to basic operation.

However, the camera doesn’t run on battery power; it requires AC, which could create some installation hassles. Kasa’s app isn’t the most intuitive, and its person-detection feature didn’t work well.

For just $60, however, it’s easy to overlook a challenging app and one or two flaky features. Assuming you’re okay running the power cord to an indoor or weatherproof outlet, you’re likely to find this a worthwhile security tool.

Meet the tester

Rick Broida

Rick Broida

Contributor

Rick Broida has been writing about consumer technology since the days of the Commodore Amiga, meaning he’s not only incredibly old, but also the undisputed champion of Defender of the Crown.

See all of Rick Broida's reviews

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