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Hive View camera recognises people and can go anywhere

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Hive wants to help you keep your home safe with the launch of a new camera, the Hive View. In a crowded market, dominated by the likes of the Nest Cam IQ, the Hive View has a few neat features that make it stand out from the crowd.

First, the 1080p camera is magnetically attached to the slick-looking standard. If you want to temporarily monitor a different location, you can just remove the camera cube from its stand and place it elsewhere. Hive quotes a one-hour battery life in this mode.

In standard mode, the View can be wall, shelf or magnetically mounted, giving you plenty of choices for location.

A big problem with security cameras is false alerts. Hive plans to reduce these, as the View can be set to trigger alerts when it detects people only, ignoring other motion and pets. This kind of technology has worked well with other devices, such as the Netatmo Presence. Sadly, Hive doesn’t have facial recognition at the moment, so it can’t detect the difference between friend or foe.

Control of the camera and alerts is managed through the Hive app, which is also used for all of the company’s other products, including the Active Heating 2 thermostat and Active Light smart bulbs.

Hive bundles 24-hour cloud recording as standard for free. If you want 30-day history, the Hive Video Playback service costs £4.99 a month; that’s not bad value, especially when compared with the expensive Nest Aware service.

Otherwise, the Hive View has pretty much all of the features that you’d expect from a modern security camera. As well as the 1080p sensor, the camera has a wide 130-degree lens, and IR night vision. The camera can be scheduled to turn on and off automatically, which is a good idea if you don’t want to record yourself walking around your home.

Available now, the Hive View costs £189 for a single camera or £319 for two. A Hive Close to Home plan is also available for £29.99 per month, reducing to £4.99 a month after 12 months. Close to Home nets you Hive View, two Hive Active Lights, two Window or Door sensors, an Active Plug, Hive Hub and 30 days of cloud storage. Its new features look interesting and mean that the View isn’t just another bog-standard camera, such as with the company’s first camera, the Hive Camera. Look out for our full review soon.