6.5

SwannBuddy4K Video Doorbell Review

Does your doorbell need AI? Probably not.

How did we ever live without video doorbells? In just a few years it feels like this piece of smart home tech has gone from a luxury to a near essential. Ring may have been one of the first to capture the market, in recent times a number of other brands are joining in.

A familiar name is Australia, Swann has been creating security devices for nearly four decades and the SwannBuddy4K arrives as the latest iteration of its video doorbell. A challenger for the likes of the Ring Pro and Eufy E340, the Swann Buddy4K boasts high quality video and AI integration for a £169 price tag, but does it do enough to knock the others off their porch perch?

simply put

For the video doorbell basics, the SwannBuddy4K does perfectly well. It’s pricy though and doesn’t do enough to stand out.

the good bits

Easy setup
High quality 4K video
Local storage with free cloud backup
Chime included

the not so good bits

No angle bracket
Some fisheye distortion
A few notification hiccups
SwannShield AI is undercooked
No Alexa/Google Home integration

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Swann Buddy 4K Video Doorbell with SwannShield AI Voice Assistant

design

There’s not too much room for creativity with the design of a doorbell and Swann has kept things relatively simple with the SwannBuddy4K. A classic pillar shape, the black and white styling sees this video doorbell end up looking like another Aussie classic – the Peters Ice Cream Sandwich. While not quick as sleek as the Eufy E340, it looks smart enough for the job with an unmissable central button and dual lenses. 

The Swann Buddy 4K rocks an entirely plastic construction but quality is strong. It feels solid and robust in your hand and I’m confident it’ll stand up to the elements in the long run. Mounting is simple with the supplied bracket, though it’s disappointing to see no angled adapter included in the box. Eufy included one with its Video Doorbell E340, as does Ring, so for the sake of a few cent’s worth of plastic it feels a strange exclusion by Swann.

Setting the SwannBuddy 4K apart from others however is the inclusion of a freestanding, battery-powered chime. It’s a compact little unit that’s easy to hide out of the way and it’s nice to see one in the box given Eufy charges £35 for the same thing (which is outrageous really). You’ll need to pair the chime to the SwannBuddy4K during initial setup but this only took a few seconds, once it’s ready to go it’s surprisingly loud with a few different sounds to choose from.

Swann includes a 32GB MicroSD card which is likely to prove more than enough for most users but it should be simple enough to swap this out for a larger card if needed. You’re also offered short-term cloud backups for clips free of charge, though you can upgrade this to 60 days with a subscription which also unlocks a few bonus features like richer notifications and priority support.

While I’ll always be critical of device features being gated behind ongoing costs, Swann’s approach is less egregious than others. It’s landed on an acceptable middle ground between Eufy’s subscription-free Video Doorbell E340 and Ring’s ‘pay us to do most basic things’ cash grab, and I’m willing to give it a free pass here as nothing chargeable is a basic function.

performance

To get started with the Swann Buddy4K you’ll need to download the Swann Security app. It’s a pretty conventional layout and I had no issues navigating around and getting setup. If you’ve got other Swann devices like a security camera you’ll be able to manage everything from the same app too. 

The SwannBuddy4K is actually the second generation of Swann’s video doorbell and the name gives away the major upgrade. Offering 4K resolution video, I was impressed with how sharp the recorded clips and live feed pictures were. To my eye it looks a little old school though, there’s a quite strong fisheye effect to the lens which while offering an impressive 165° FOV, does distort things in a way other cameras I’ve tested don’t. The second downward facing lens is less affected and does offer a handy view of the porch for keeping an eye on packages.

It didn’t take long for me to discover a major shortcoming of the Swann Buddy 4K though – there’s no compatibility with the likes of Amazon Alexa or Google Home devices. As someone that has an Echo speaker within earshot at all times this was a major surprise and a big disappointment. Yes, Swann includes a physical chime in the box but given alternatives like the Eufy E340 can ring over Alexa devices it’s sorely missed here.

Like all video doorbells you’re offered notifications for both rings and movement. Reacting to rings I found the Swann Buddy4K a little sluggish to pick up the connection at times and on a couple of occasions I was never notified at all – despite receiving a movement notification and seeing the visitor press the button on the recorded clip, go figure. Audio quality is on par with other cameras I’ve tested and up to the job at hand. 

Swann takes a different approach to movement tracking with the SwannBuddy4K doorbell, relying on infrared and heat rather than solely movement seen on the camera itself. While I can’t majorly fault it, I can’t praise it more than other doorbells I’ve used either. The SwannBuddy4K was reliable at detecting movement but still produced the odd false flag. You’re able to choose whether to be notified for all movements or just people, which is a nice distinction, though it’s a shame to not see any kind of familiar face option for filtering out common visitors like family members.

The SwannBuddy4K’s party piece designed to set it apart from competitors like the Eufy E340 that usually hangs beside my door is SwannShield – an AI-powered voice assistant that answers the door when you’re not around. It’s an optional feature, labelled as beta and I believe I was using a very early version, but it’s comically bad in its current form. The AI voice is simply too slow to respond, in testing it would take up to 15-20 seconds to respond to the initial ring and another 10-15 seconds for each response. It feels like an eternity and I expect most guests would have long left before it piped up. 

That’s probably a good thing too because when it did speak, what it said was often just bizarre. You’re given a choice of three demeanours – polite, assertive or disinterested – though flicking between them I didn’t notice much of a difference in tone. The strangest thing for me is that the Swann Buddy 4K would just make up lies as to why I hadn’t answered the door. Sometimes it quite succinctly and simply said I wasn’t home and to please come back later – ok, not too bad. But in another test the Australian-accented AI voice claimed I was “doing some Sunday baking and couldn’t come to the door”… what? It’s one thing to tell them I’m not home, but don’t tell a visitor that I’m inside and simply don’t feel like speaking to them!

The concept of using AI as a doorman isn’t an outrageous one and I can see the potential value in the future, but right now it’s just too undercooked to be anything but a jokey feature you show your mates when they come round and then quickly turn off again. SwannShield may evolve into something helpful but it needs to be faster, it needs to be smarter and it needs to be a little less unhinged. 

summed up

As a video doorbell the SwannBuddy4K is fine but doesn’t offer anything to stand out from cheaper or more established options. At £169 it’s at the very top end of price points and while video quality is strong, for general use it doesn’t do enough to justify such a price tag. For the time being there’s nothing here that cheaper video doorbells can’t also deliver.

The Swann Buddy 4K’s headline feature, the AI-powered SwannShield doesn’t impress – yet. It’s in beta and it’s not a bad idea, it just needs more development time and likely more real-world user training data to make it a useful addition to your smart home setup. It’s worth keeping an eye on though and I’m sure it’s a concept competitors might try to riff off too. I’ll never complain about innovation though, particularly when it’s optional anyway.

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