Review: Eufy Video Doorbell Dual

A video doorbell can be a great help, and we've reviewed a bunch of them. They can let you know when a delivery has arrived, but they can't always ensure that your package will still be there when you get home. Eufy's dual video doorbell solves this problem by adding a second camera, so you can get a clear look at visitors and monitor anything sitting on the doorstep.

The split-screen view ensures comprehensive porch coverage and will relieve anyone who has package anxiety. It’s also refreshing to find a camera with on-device AI and local storage, so you never have to upload videos to the cloud.

Photograph: Eufy

The growth of online shopping has sparked more deliveries than ever. But that just means that more packages are left on porches, easy pickings for opportunistic thieves. It’s tough to quantify how big a problem porch pirates are, because it varies from area to area, and the crime often goes unreported. But a Finder survey estimates that around 14 percent of Americans have fallen victim to package theft in the past year, the value of which is estimated at $5.4 billion.

The Eufy Video Doorbell Dual promises to reduce the risk of porch pirates making off with your latest Amazon purchases with a secondary downward-facing camera that covers your porch. Many video doorbells promise to identify package delivery but fail to show the spot where people typically leave them. Even the ones that do, like the Logitech Circle View, have a slight fish-eye effect and a blind spot directly below. The Dual offers the most comprehensive view of my front porch yet.

I can see at a glance if there’s a package or my cat waiting to get in (an unexpected bonus) with a split-screen view in the app. The Dual also boasts built-in package detection to alert you when packages are delivered or picked up, and it sends you reminders when packages have not been taken inside. It even challenges people loitering on your porch.

The Delivery Guard set of features has been hit-and-miss for me. I get a lot of deliveries, and most of them have sparked a “Package delivered” message. The “Package picked up” alerts have been a little less reliable. It also misidentified a brick, my cat (in loaf position), and a painted stone my daughter placed on the porch as packages, and it failed to register two packages I left out for pickup.

I like the reminder feature, where you can set a time for the camera to check your porch and tell you to bring in any uncollected packages, but the loitering and package-guarding features were not well designed. Loitering detection allows you to set a range and time, so anyone hanging around triggers a notification or an automatic voice response that says something like “Excuse me, can I help you?” (You can set custom responses too.) Package guarding triggers the voice response when someone approaches a package on your porch.

This feature confused delivery people, and it got triggered every time I chatted with a visitor at the door or the kids were waiting for us to drive them somewhere. I turned both features off.

Eufy’s previous 2K Doorbell made our list of the best video doorbells by offering high-quality footage, accurate human detection, and a local storage option, which means there’s no need for a subscription. The Dual has all of that. The video is detailed, and the camera copes well with mixed lighting thanks to HDR support, which is a must for my south-facing porch.

Photograph: Eufy

Unlike many of the other cameras that we've tested, the Eufy comes with an additional unit, the HomeBase 2. It does need a power outlet and a place to perch, but the HomeBase has an ample 16 GB to store your videos, which is enough for a few months. It also doubles as a chime and a Wi-Fi extender. It works best plugged into an Ethernet port on your router, but it can also connect via Wi-Fi.

The combination of radar and PIR (passive infrared) motion sensors in the doorbell ensures that you don’t miss any visitors. Human detection is mostly accurate, though it did trigger a human alert for my cat Bodhi twice. He is part Maine coon and large for a cat, but you wouldn’t mistake him for a person. After customizing activity zones and sensitivity, false positives have not been a problem, and the Dual compares favorably with other video doorbells on that score.

The addition of face detection is pleasing, and alerts on your phone include close-ups. You can put names to faces in the app so that notifications state who is at the door. This feature works well for regular visitors and family, though it seems unable to recognize my daughter’s friend who comes around every morning to walk to school with her. He always pops up as a new face.

Eufy via Simon Hill

Apart from the flaky AI, the doorbell has other flaws. The Dual is huge. It is one of the largest video doorbells I've tested. My daughter’s friend described it as intimidating. You'll also have to remove the entire doorbell to charge it. Your battery life will vary depending on how busy your door is and the settings you choose, but Eufy suggests up to six months from a single charge. (I am on track to get around three.)

There is no HomeKit support, and I find the Dual very slow to load on supported Alexa and Google Assistant smart displays. Even if I choose to optimize for smart displays over the phone app (which isn’t a choice anyone wants to have to make), there is still a frustrating delay. Thankfully, the phone app is usually quick to load, but it is noticeably slower when you are away from home, sometimes so slow that the caller is gone or leaving by the time you answer.

Of course, this isn't your only option. The Arlo Essential and the Logitech Circle View alerted me to rings and loaded faster. Eufy has another 2K Video Doorbell, if you prefer local storage and you’re keen to avoid a subscription. But if you also get a lot of deliveries, $60 isn't too much for another camera and a slew of onboard AI features. That's a reasonable proposition for someone who gets a lot of deliveries—so, all of us.