TP-Link Tapo 2K QHD Outdoor Wireless Security Camera System, Up to 180 Day Battery, Color Night Vision w/Starlight Sensor, Motion/Person/Pet/Vehicle Detection, Works w/Alexa &Google Home(Tapo C420S2)

Updated with edit on 6/1/25 after 1 year of use.The Tapo CS-420 is quite unique amongst wireless security cameras in that it uses sub-1GHz frequency instead of the standard wi-fi 2.4GHz or 5GHz. For the same transmission power, a lower frequency signal reaches further. So sub-1G has a huge edge over standard wi-fi when it comes to transmission range. However, Sub-1G is more susceptible to interference from household appliances.I located the 2 Tapo cameras 550 feet from my house, through thick masonry wall, signal-killing windowpanes, and moderately dense forestry. The transmission has been reasonably robust, on par with (perhaps even better than) my other wi-fi cameras (Eufy, Tapo & Feit). I never thought that was possible without either ethernet or wireless booster, let alone at this price point and ease of installation.The included hub connects to your home router in standard 2.4Ghz wi-fi (or optionally with ethernet cable) on 1 end, and sub-1G Tapo devices on the other. The range of the hub to the camera tested out to be easily 400 feet in clear line of sight. I placed the hub 180 ft from my house where my router coverage is still strong. That gives me the 550 feet of range I need for the cameras. Latency to both hub & camera is excellent. Ringing the hub bell with phone app is instantaneous as if hardwired.A word on the disagreement in the reviews on battery life. When asleep, the camera draws very little power, as only the PIR motion sensor and the sub-G radio are running. It consumes considerably more power when waken by motion to record or by request to stream (both actions send video to hub), especially if the 2 LED lights are turned on for night vision. If you accidentally leave the app in streaming mode, then the battery can run out of juice in no time. So make sure to quit out of live stream mode or close the app properly after viewing. You can also view the playbacks via the hub instead of the cameras to avoid triggering live stream. Tapo's claim of 180 days battery life is over optimistic. Your mileage will likely be much lower. According to the app, I have on average about 30 Event Detections and 15 minutes Time of Use a day. LED night vision is off. After 25 days, the battery is at 55% level.The hub draws very little power, between 1 to 2 watts. I used solar to power it (you need regulated 9V source) until a fallen tree broke my solar panel and controls. Now I have to swap batteries weekly.The cameras have stood up against the elements for a year now.I wish the lens is longer instead of so wide-angle (but that's common with cameras at this price point). Afterall, it is easy to deploy 2 cameras to cover a wide area, but you can't stack 2 cameras to get a closer look.I hope Tapo will keep making Sub-1G devices for they serve an important niche.

As the title says it’s very easy to set these cameras up. Connect the hub to your router, sync the cameras, mount, and done. It’s that simple. Being a TP-Link product, I am not surprised as to how well built they are. Solid construction, sturdy mounts, and completely weather resistant. If that wasn’t enough the picture quality is amazing.Let’s go a little deeper now, the setup is similar to quality a few others on the market, The hub supplies to internet connection to the cameras. This make setting the cameras up very simple, because all you have to do is sync them with the Hub. The hub has about 30ft range for the most reliable connection to the cameras. In my use, one of my cameras are around 40ft with multiple walls in between, and for the most part I don’t have any issues with it. Out of the box, it’s highly recommended you charge the cameras. I didn’t initially do it, since they were around 50%. Within a few days they were dead and I had to charge them anyway. I didn’t have high hopes at that point. Since charging them, they have been running for about 20 days on battery and currently sitting at 96%, so yea, charge them out of the box.The Spot lights on the cameras are okay but I found the night vision view to be much better without the need of the spot lights. The hub is also where the SD card would be install, as the cameras detect motion events they, will record to the SD card for local storage, no need to worry about your data being peeked at. There is an option for cloud storage, but I didn’t have a need to use it. The Tapo app itself is well designed and easy to use.If I had to give any negative marks, the big one would be that the hub HAS to be connected with an ethernet cable. So if your modem and router are in one corner of the house, you may not be able to place the cameras exactly where you want. If the Hub also had a WiFi Option it could be placed more centrally and because it’s small, it wouldn’t be in the way. Centrally locating the hub would give you more flexibility in where you can place the cameras. The Hub also has a nifty doorbell chime you can activate in app. This really doesn’t help much since there’s no button included to be able to trigger it. Even if it was just a basic battery powered button similar to what wireless doorbells use. You can use it in an event that you want a doorbell, but can’t have a camera at the door, in let say an Apt building, or office building. The batteries as great as they are, limit you to how high you can mount the cameras. Eventually you’ll need to remove the battery, or take the camera down to charge it. If there was a wired power option, it would broaden where they can be placed, and would even allow them to be a set and forget it setup.Even with those cons, I would still highly recommend these cameras to anyone that wants a simple security camera setup and don’t mind the once in a while charging. The cameras show the battery % right in the window of the app, so if you monitor them frequently you’ll never worry about them being dead.