Back in July, Philips launched its new range of home security cameras in India. This lineup consists of two indoor cameras – HSP1000 & HSP3500, and one outdoor security camera – HSP3800. The HSP3500 sports the highest video resolution (2304 x 1296p) out of all three products. It is currently priced at Rs 3,699 on Amazon and Philips’ official website. We got our hands on this security camera and have been using it for the last week. Here is our in-depth Philips HSP3500 indoor security camera review.
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In This Article
Philips HSP3500 Indoor Security Camera review: Design
Inside the retail box, you get the HSP3500 security camera, a couple of screws, a cap attachment, a power adapter, a USB Type-B cable, and a quick start guide. The screws and cap attachment can be used to fix the unit upside down on the ceiling. The camera weighs 165 grams and has dimensions of 71mm x 71mm x 109.5mm.
The Philips HSP3500 has a compact design that is ideal for placing it on shelves and table tops. The camera orb has a plastic casing and a blacked-out panel for the lens and LED lights, giving it the appearance of a human eyeball. This orb is attached to a platform that contains the USB Type-B slot. The cap attachment provided inside the box can be fixed to the bottom of this platform if you want to hang the camera on the ceiling. If you’re fine with resting it on a flat surface, the platform also sports four small rubber feet to keep the camera stable.
The camera orb has a small speaker at the back. This speaker comes in handy when you want to communicate with the people in front of the camera. Lifting up the orb reveals the reset button and the memory card slot. There are six infrared LED lights surrounding the camera panel that boost its night vision capabilities. Since the Philips HSP3500 is an indoor camera, it does not come with an IP rating.
Philips HSP3500 Indoor Security Camera review: Performance
The Philips HSP3500 indoor security camera has a 3MP image sensor that can record videos in 2304 x 1296p resolution, so we were pretty excited to put it to the test for this review. It also has a 360° horizontal and 96° vertical field of view. The sensor has a wide angle of view at 102° (D), 87°(H), and 46°(V). This camera can operate within a temperature range of -10°C to 45°C, which is ideal for India.
Setting up the Philips HSP3500 is as easy as it gets. Before you begin the process, you need to install the Philips Home Safety app on your smartphone. Connect the security camera to a power source using the adapter and the USB cable. Rotate the camera orb upwards to reveal the reset button. Press and hold the reset button for 5 seconds to turn on the device. Once the device is in pairing mode, launch the Philips Home Safety app and connect to your home WiFi network using the 2.4GHz frequency band. Once the app displays a QR code on the page, turn your phone’s display towards the camera and let it pair with the app.
Once you have set up the indoor security camera and its profile on the Home Safety app, there are tons of options for you to explore. The app offers three customisable modes – Home, Away, and Silent. You can set up these modes to decide how the camera behaves in certain situations. We turned off the camera’s movement and person detection features in the Home mode since there’s no point in receiving movement notifications when you’re aware of the presence of people inside your house. However, you can turn on these features in the Away mode.
The video quality that the 3MP sensor is able to record and relay on the live stream is simply amazing. The images are packed with a lot of detail and you can easily make out the faces of people passing the camera’s field of vision. The video footage is sharp and very legible. Even the colour richness and contrast are on point. Under artificial lighting, the camera maintains its superior quality and does not compromise on any details. With the lights turned off, the visibility is reduced to 10 metres, but the camera does a good job of recording decent quality footage with the help of infrared LED lights.
You can use the Philips Home Safety app to view the live footage relayed by the security camera. The controls are very accessible to the average user. You can use the navigation control dial to pan and tilt the camera. With a 360° field of view, you can keep an eye on every corner of the room. One of our favourite features of the Philips HSP3500 is two-way communication. You can simply tap the microphone icon on the app to talk to the person in front of the camera. The live stream player also lets you create a recording and save it to your phone’s camera roll. However, if you want a continuous recording, you will need to insert a memory card into the camera.
Philips HSP3500 can automatically track movement and use its pan and tilt abilities to follow the subject around as long as they are in the camera’s field of view. These movement recordings are auto-saved to the memory card. You can view these recordings from the ‘Events’ tab in the Home Safety tab. You can also choose the ideal level of movement and sound sensitivity from the device settings.
Between its superior video resolution and incredible software support, there is very little to complain about the Philips HSP3500. However, we did experience some very minor inconveniences, which can be fixed with a quick update. In certain situations, the camera struggles to auto-switch between Night Mode and Regular Mode. We noticed this was more common in the morning. If you experience this issue, you can manually turn off the Night Mode from device settings.
We would also have liked this camera to be equipped with a small battery pack. Since it relies on an external power source, the camera totally shuts down when the power goes out. Ideally, in this situation, we’d want the security camera to turn to an internal battery pack for power and maybe switch to a less power-hungry mode to ride out the outage.
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Verdict
The Philips HSP3500 is easily our go-to suggestion for indoor security cameras under Rs 5,000. The 2K resolution videos recorded by this camera are super clear and perfectly colour-corrected. Its video recording chops are only overshadowed by its range of functionalities. The app support offered by Philips is tremendous. You can pan the camera a full 360° using your smartphone. Talking to the subject in front of the camera is also a very seamless process. The motion and person detection also work like a charm. We would have preferred the camera to come with a small battery pack to ensure seamless surveillance in the case of a small power outage, but it is not a dealbreaker by any means.
Philips HSP3500 Indoor Security Camera: Pros
- Excellent video quality
- Incredible software support
- 360° field of vision
- Decent price
Philips HSP3500 Indoor Security Camera: Cons
- Disconnects every time there is a power outage
- Unnecessarily switches on Night Mode at times
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