Rinnin Wifi Camera Review Battery Powered

There is something satisfying and empowering when you do it yourself! Installing a closed-circuit television (CCTV) system is one of those DIY jobs anyone can do without having to employ an electrician. This is particularly when it's a battery powered security camera that does not need wiring like the Rinnin camera, seen pictured, which makes installing CCTV a piece of cake because it doesn't required mains electricity or TV monitors to setup.

The Rinnin battery powered security camera is equipped with a rechargeable 10,000mAh (3.7V) battery, which charges via 5V/1A and takes 9 hours to recharge. This means, the camera can be powered standalone, anywhere without running cables or using external storage, thanks to internal storage, which supports up to 128GB capacity via micro SD card. Better still, because the Rinnin camera uses standard voltage (5 volts) and low current (1 amp), you can potentially hook the camera to a 5V USB solar panel or an external powerbank, doubling the battery life in the process. If you plan to use a solar panel or power bank to trickle charge the camera, you will want to punch in the small cut-out on the rubber grommet.

The Rinnin camera housing is made of plastic and has a thick rubber grommet protecting the charging port and buttons. This means, the camera is entirely sealed from the outside (IP65 rating) to prevents dust and water ingress, as well as humidity from damaging the electronics. The camera can be exposed to outdoor rain, as well as indoors in a bathroom (up to 85% relative humidity). The Rinnin camera can operate in extreme cold or hot temperature too between -20C and 50C.

There is a microphone and speaker built-in, as well as two infrared (IR) led lights for capturing video at night. The IR lights have a 10 meter range (32ft) of illumination. The speaker is built-in to the rear of the camera. The microphone and speaker are designed for 2-way communication with someone, as well as for live streaming audio capture. The microphone has a short range pick up and works okay, although it isn't as clear as a doorbell video intercom (check out the microphone test in the video above).

The Rinnin camera is also equipped with motion detection sensing, which can be enabled for day activity, night activity or both. Motion detection can be disabled and you can adjust the sensitivity, depending on your needs. When triggered, you will receive a push notification message on your mobile phone every time the motion detection gets triggered and watch the video on the app. 

You can turn off push notifications and adjust the interval from 2 minutes, 3 minutes and 10 minutes. When recording, the word "REC" in red capital fonts appears on the streaming view so, you can tell when recording is taking place. During recording, you cannot toggle from high definition (HD) to standard definition (SD) or viceversa.

There are two metal wall attachments included with the Rinnin camera. One of those wall attachments has a dome shape that is designed to attach to the rear of the camera, allowing you to fix the camera at different angles via magnetic connection. 

The actual magnet is built-in to the back of the camera, not the attachments, which means you can attach the camera to any metal surface without the attachments. The second wall attachment has a male thread pivot joint designed to screw into the female thread located on base of the camera, which is rubberized. The female thread has standard tripod thread dimensions; hence you can attach the Rinnin camera onto a tripod too.

The ball joint extension (long wall attachment) weighs 61 grams, while the magnetic dome attachment weighs 57 grams. Both attachments are made of metal. The Rinnin camera weighs 306 grams and measures 10cm high, 5.5cm deep and 5.5cm wide (thick). The camera is equipped with a 3 mm lens that supports 1080p resolution natively and 130 degree horizontal field-of-view (FOV). 

A lot of smart security cameras tend to have 110 degree field of view; hence the Rinnin provides a wider angle coverage but without being too wide like a super wide angle camera (up to 180 degrees). At 130 degrees, the Rinnin camera provides an adequate coverage without stretching the image too much that it becomes distorted. This is why super wide angle lenses aren't generally used for security cameras because they create a fisheye effect.

The Rinnin camera spec sheet mentions that the camera supports 802.11 b/g/n Wifi, although the Rinnin camera only works via 2.4Ghz Wifi so, it requires having to turn off 5GHz radio from the router. Some Wifi cameras can be connected to a powerline adapter or access point, which is handy if you don't want to use your home router. The Rinnin camera doesn't support connection to a powerline adapter or access point; hence it has to connect to an Internet router.

The Rinnin camera uses a smartphone or tablet as the viewing display so, it requires downloading an app. The mobile app is called CloudEdge and requires an account sign up. The app has almost 5 star rating and over half a million downloads. The app is developed by a third party developer (Mearitek) and is designed for a broad range of Wifi cameras, including Rinnin. 

The CloudEdge app has a user friendly interface and works well with the Rinnin camera. Setup was easy to do following the on-screen and voice prompts. The app setup with the camera can be done two ways via a QR code (quick method) and manually by connecting to camera's hotspot (STRN_####). No glitches were observed, although the CloudEdge app does not allow you to log in multiple devices with one account. That said, you can add multiple cameras to the same account.

Aside from the wall attachments, the Rinnin camera comes with screws and plastic wall plugs. You can buy the Rinnin battery camera from amazon.