myQ Outdoor Camera review: The myQ ecosystem heads outdoors

myQ continues to step further and further from its garage door controller roots with another camera—its third—this one designed for outdoor use.

The Chamberlain Group-owned operation seems intent not to reinvent the wheel here. Aside from a light cosmetic change to the base, this is very much the same camera as the myQ Indoor Camera and the Garage Camera.

This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best home security cameras as well as the best smart garage door controllers.

Specifications

The swiveling ball-and-socket base is the main departure from the design of myQ’s prior models, and the design change means that the myQ Outdoor Camera must be installed on a wall, though theoretically it could also work on a ceiling in a pinch. Fortunately, physical installation is easy: A small mounting plate attaches with two screws (included) to the wall, and the camera locks into the plate with a twisting motion.

Christopher Null/Foundry

Instead of being hardwired, like the indoor camera, a 25-foot-long USB power cable is included, though as further proof of the camera’s lack of forward momentum, it uses a Micro-USB interface instead of the more modern—and far more convenient—USB-C. On the plus side, the cable has a rubber gasket around the plug to help prevent water intrusion into the camera. The unit carries an IP65 weather resistance rating. According to our IP code decoder, that means it should be dustproof and able to withstand a blast of water from a jet nozzle.

Otherwise, its specs are indistinguishable from the indoor camera: resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, a 130-degree field of view, two-way audio, and standard infrared night vision are all included. As with myQ’s other cameras, while live video is always available on demand, the unit is designed exclusively to record on motion detection—and only to myQ’s cloud service (more on this later).

Installation and setup

Christopher Null/Foundry

Setup is a simple process, using a painless Bluetooth connection to bridge to your 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network within the myQ mobile app (5GHz networks are not supported). If you have other myQ devices, the camera shows up within the app as another selection in the app’s vertical collection of devices (and beneath a large ad you can’t get rid of).

Managing the camera is an equally simple matter of tapping the preview screen, which in turn takes you to a basic live view, where you can grab a snapshot (though not a recording), turn the microphone on for two-way communication, or enter the settings menu. It’s a bare-bones interface, so users looking for more advanced recording features should probably select a different product.

Performance

I’ve always found myQ cameras to have reasonably good video despite their low resolution, and the Outdoor Camera is no exception. Video is only a little bulbous due to the fish-eye lens, but colors look good during the day and nighttime video is surprisingly crisp—better than I’ve seen on other myQ gear. myQ doesn’t state how long recordings are limited to, but only one of the recordings in my multiple days of testing exceeded 30 seconds. (It was still less than a minute long.)

Christopher Null/Foundry

The myQ Outdoor Camera’s motion detection was also solid in my testing, and even at low sensitivity it was able to pick up distant figures moving. It was even able to identify my face from more than 40 feet away, using its new AI-powered face-detection feature. Thanks to firmware updates, the camera (and all others in the myQ line) can now be configured to detect animals, vehicles, and people in addition to faces you register with the app. It all works quite well—and detection zones are supported if you want to block out certain parts of the image from recording (to protect your neighbor’s privacy, for instance).

On the other hand, the myQ ecosystem’s stability remained something of a problem in my testing. Live video and recorded clips were often slow to load, and the app or camera crashed on two occasions completely, throwing out a cryptic error I was unable to bypass and requiring the camera to be power cycled before it would work again. That can be a big problem if you mount the camera high on a wall.

Christopher Null/Foundry

I also don’t love the very bright green LED that appears front and center above the camera lens. This light is always on and can’t be turned off; I found it so annoying that I ended up putting a piece of electrical tape over it.

Recorded clips are getting easier to flip through; myQ’s “History” tab puts all video activity from all your myQ devices in chronological order on one screen, and you can filter out certain devices or types of events as desired with a tap. Some minor upgrades to the myQ app in recent months seem to have made this process a little more intuitive than it was in the past.

Should you buy a myQ Outdoor Camera?

The bad news is that almost none of this will work without a subscription: A plan is required if you want to save video, period. Those plans have not changed since our most recent myQ camera review, with two plans still offered: $4/month or $40/year for seven days of storage on a single camera; or $10/month or $100/year for 30 days of storage on multiple cameras (no device limit specified). A 30-day trial of the single-device plan is included with purchase.

But there’s another spot of worse news for you: While the myQ Indoor Camera runs just $38, the Outdoor Camera is priced at a whopping $80. I’m not sure that a long USB cable merits double the outlay over the previous iteration of the camera, but if you’re already happy with the myQ ecosystem and are looking for something with more of a permanent mounting option, the upgrade may not be seen as outrageous.

That said, I’d only recommend it for users who are already invested in the myQ ecosystem. Those who aren’t already wed to myQ will get a better deal on an outdoor camera elsewhere.