Eufy Video Doorbell E340

Verdict

A neat and powerful smart video doorbell, the Eufy Video Doorbell E340 puts its dual cameras to good use, showing everything from head-to-toe, while automatically keeping an eye on larger packages. High-quality video, mixed with subscription-free recording and smart integrated detection, including facial recognition, make this a great choice for anyone who wants a powerful doorbell without ongoing costs.

Introduction

The Eufy Video Doorbell E340 isn’t the first dual-camera doorbell that the company has released, but it is the first not to require a Homebase.

With smart features, including human detection, built-in and subscription-free video recording, this doorbell makes a good alternative to the main competition.

Design and Installation

• Angle and standard mounts
• Battery and wired installation
• Tall and thin

Although the Eufy Video Doorbell E340 is very similar to the Eufy Video Doorbell Dual S330, the new model is cheaper as it doesn’t need the Homebase station that the original shipped with.

Instead, all of the features you need are built into the camera, and there’s even 8GB of onboard storage for recording. There’s no memory card slot to upgrade this onboard storage. However, if you happen to have a Homebase, say because you bought one with security cameras, such as the S330 cameras, then the E340 can connect to this, utilising its onboard storage, which is expandable.

Installation is straightforward. This is a battery-powered doorbell, so can be installed even if you don’t have a transformer. However, if you have a wired doorbell, this model has terminals on the back that will trickle-charge the battery so that you never run out, and also sound your internal chime.

If you don’t have the doorbell wired, you’ll need to remember to charge it when the battery runs flat. To do this, the doorbell has to be removed to access the USB-C port on the battery.

Tall and thin, the angular Eufy Video Doorbell E340 should fit easily on most door frames; the Ring models, such as the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro, are quite wide and chunky and don’t fit as easily.

Eufy provides both a straight and an angle adaptor in the box, the latter of which is useful if you want to point the doorbell at a specific location or away from a neighbour’s property.

The angle adaptor is also useful if you have to mount the camera next to a wall. In this configuration, a wall can reflect IR lights, reducing image quality; angling the doorbell fixes this issue.

One installed, the doorbell is added to the Eufy Security app, which is home for all of the company’s security cameras.

Features

• No subscription fees
• Delivery Guard package protection
• Integrated people and facial recognition

The main difference between the Eufy Video Doorbell E340 and most of the competition is that this model has two cameras. At the top is a 2K (2048 x 1536) camera, while the bottom has 1600 x 1200 camera (an upgrade on the Full HD model included in the E330).

The idea is that the top camera captures the standard view that all doorbells produce, while the bottom camera can keep an eye on what’s happening in front of your door.

The cameras have a slight overlap, so that anyone walking towards the camera looks a little like they’re standing in front of a fun-fair mirror, with super-long legs. Still, the combination gives a clear view of what’s happening directly in front of you.

Rather than just increasing the view, Eufy has smarts that make the most out of the cameras. For the bottom one, that’s the Delivery Guard feature, which monitors your door and alerts you when a package is delivered.

There are caveats to this. For the system to work it really requires a package to be placed directly in front of the camera, and it works best with larger packages (10” on each side).

On top of that, there are additional features, including Uncollected Package Alert, which tells you at a set time each day (the default is 8pm) if there are packages outside our home; and Package Guarding, which will play a canned response if anyone goes near a package.

How useful the system is all comes down to whether the Eufy Video Doorbell E340 can detect a package in the first place. I had several smaller packages that the doorbell didn’t recognise, but it worked with the larger (and, usually, more expensive ones). While not essential, Delivery Guard does have its uses, and the dual cameras at least meant that I could check what was left outside of my house in more detail.

The normal camera has standard motion detection (the radar-based system of the E330 is missing here), with a sensitivity slider, and the option of activity zones. To cut down on the number of alerts, the E340 can be set to warn about people only, rather than all motion.

Facial recognition is built-in. Even though I have used this feature on other Eufy cameras, as there was no Homebase connected, the E340 had to be trained from scratch to recognise people. It’s quite a neat feature, adding a tag to the recorded video. It works well, too, with the doorbell easily identifying me night or day.

All video is saved to the camera’s 8GB of storage, which should be enough for around a month’s worth of video, depending on how many recordings you have. There’s no memory card slot, so if you want more storage, you’ll need to add a HomeBase.

Videos are all available from the Events tab, which has recordings from all of your Eufy cameras. This list can be filtered by date, device and event type, so it’s pretty quick to find a clip that you want. Video can be watched in the app or downloaded and saved to your phone.

When a caller presses the doorbell, an alert is sent to your phone, so you can answer. I found the doorbell quick to wake up, taking a few seconds to start streaming to my phone. Clear two-way audio makes it easy to talk to someone, and there’s also a list of canned quick replies, such as “We will be right there”, that you can have the doorbell speak.

Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant support are available, and you can stream the Eufy Video Doorbell E340’s feed to a compatible smart display. Smart speakers can also be used as chimes; alternatively, Eufy also sells additional plug-in chimes.

There’s no support for other systems, such as IFTTT, Apple Home or SmartThings.

Performance

• High-quality video
• Streams capture top- and bottom-video
• Decent night vision

All video captures the video from the top and bottom cameras, creating a single clip. This clip has the video in full resolution, rather than using compression, as with Eufy’s dual-camera security cameras, such as the Eufy SoloCam S340.

During the day, the footage is nicely lit, throughout the frame, even on my south-facing door. Video is nice and sharp, so it’s easy to see exactly what’s going on, and see people’s faces clearly.

At night, the camera’s default mode is to turn on its bottom spotlight and IR lights, shooting in colour if the ambient light allows. This combination is pretty good as far as IR goes. The black and white image is a little softer than daylight images, but not by as much as I’d normally expect.

The alternative is to have the E340 turn on its top and bottom spotlights and shoot in full colour. Although the camera loses detail towards the back of the frame, people close to the door appear sharp and detailed. That’s impressive going, and a mode that I’d use as default.

Latest deals