Mini but mighty: Blink’s tiny, inexpensive camera can now go outdoors

Security cameras are a personal preference; understandably, many people don’t like the idea of potentially being watched in their homes. But these gadgets do offer useful features such as checking in on pets, monitoring your house when you’re away, or catching someone prowling in your backyard after dark.

The new Blink Mini 2 ($39.99) is a solid inexpensive wired security camera that can be used indoors or outdoors to handle all of these scenarios. While there are a couple of wired cameras at this price point with more features, Blink’s latest offering, which just launched this week, ticks a lot of boxes. It’s especially good if you have an Amazon Alexa smart home or are already invested in Blink’s affordable battery-powered camera lineup. 

Blink made its name with its inexpensive battery-powered cameras, which can last up to two years on two AAs. The company now offers three mains-powered models: the Blink Mini (1 and 2); the Blink Wired Floodlight Camera; and the Blink Video Doorbell (which can be wired or battery-powered).

Blink’s custom-built chip sets it apart from many other manufacturers. The company has developed super energy-efficient silicon, and a recent upgrade added on-device computer vision (CV). This enables person detection, which is found on the company’s newer cameras: the Floodlight; the Mini 2; and the new Blink Outdoor 4 ($120) battery-powered camera. (Person detection requires a Blink subscription). 

The Mini 2 is a follow-up to the Blink Mini, which took over from Amazon’s indoor Cloud Cam in 2022 after the retail giant bought Blink in 2017, and it brings more to the table. Upgrades include indoor / outdoor compatibility, a new spotlight, on-device person detection, and USB-C power. 

There’s a wider field of view over the original Mini (143 degrees versus 110), enhanced image quality, better low-light performance, and a sleeker design. Plus, there’s still the option of local storage by adding with a $50 Blink Sync Module 2 and a USB stick (the module is not required to use the camera, only if you want local storage).

A teeny, tiny camera, the Mini 2 can fit pretty much anywhere. I tested it out in my chicken coop at the end of my garden, on my back patio, and in my office and kitchen, and it delivered clear, crisp video in all locations during the day. Infrared night vision was fair, but the spotlight-enabled color night vision was very grainy.

The Mini’s motion and people notifications are super speedy, but there are no rich notifications, which is a shame. Blink says this is due to its Early Notification feature, designed to alert you as quickly as possible so you can drop in on a live view while the action is still happening. Personally, I prefer rich notifications with a snapshot of the action.

Two-way audio is still slightly staticky, an issue with all Blink cameras I’ve tested. But it’s much improved over the original Mini. 

Blink has a great mounting system, and the ball and socket base on the Mini 2 makes it simple to adjust the camera’s angle and position even after you’ve screwed its base to a wall or ceiling. I could also just pop it on a flat surface without the base, which meant I could fit it everywhere I wanted to. It’s the smallest camera I’ve tested by far.

The Mini 2 is also one of the least expensive security cameras you can buy, both out of the box and for cloud storage (just $3 a month — Ring is now $5 a month, and Arlo and Google Nest start at $8). The addition of weather resistance (IP65 rated) makes it infinitely more useful, but you will need to pay extra for the Blink Weather Resistant Power Adapter, which is a sizable 13 feet long. It’s sold separately or in a bundle with the camera for $49.98.

The Blink Mini 2 works with the Blink app with features such as customizable privacy and activity zones and two-way talk. The app is fairly basic but has plenty of customization options and schedules that let you arm and disarm your cameras (something you have to pay for with Ring).

The camera’s motion sensitivity is good — almost too good. Without enabling person detection, I got alerts when the lights on one of my smart light strips changed color in my office. Adjusting the sensitivity helped a bit, but you need person detection if you don’t want to be inundated with notifications. Helpfully, you can snooze motion alerts.

If, like a lot of people, you don’t want to cough up $3 a month, you can still get motion alerts to let you know if something’s going on at home. But there’s no person detection without paying.

You can also record video locally with a Sync Module 2 to avoid those cloud storage fees, but that’s an extra $50, and you won’t get person detection without a subscription and are limited to how long you can watch a live view; with a subscription, it’s up to 90 minutes.

The camera works with Amazon’s Echo smart displays to view livestreams, and I can pull up a view on my Echo Hub in a few seconds. It can also be set to announce motion or person detection on Echo speakers, but there’s no support for other smart home platforms. 

The Mini’s closest competitors are models from Wyze and TP-Link, which both have indoor / outdoor cameras with smart alerts and local storage with an onboard microSD card for under $40: Wyze with its $36 Wyze Cam v3 and TP-Link with the Tapo’s $40 C120 indoor / outdoor wired camera.

Considering Wyze’s recent security issues, the Tapo is the better option of the two. It also has better features than the Mini 2 — 2K video, dual spotlights, and free smart alerts for people, pets, and vehicles. Plus, there’s sound detection for dogs barking, babies crying, and cats meowing, making it potentially more useful than the Blink, especially as an indoor camera. 

Personally, I’m not a big fan of indoor cameras, and as an outdoor wired option, the Blink worked better for me than the Tapo, streaming video from my chicken coop at the bottom of the garden more reliably. The Mini is also the smaller of the two cameras, comes in black or white, and has a longer outdoor power cable with a weatherproof plug (although it costs extra). But the Tapo does work with Google Home and Samsung SmartThings, which makes it a better choice if you use those platforms. 

Overall, the Blink Mini 2 is an excellent upgrade to a popular inexpensive security camera. It’s very easy to set up and use — and its mounting system is one of the simplest and most flexible I’ve used.

Using this outdoors and cutting down on notification noise with person detection, all while staying under $50, are great improvements over the Mini 1. The video (both daytime and nighttime) and audio quality are noticeably better than the Mini 1. But the zoom is still limited, and I’d like to see more smart alerts for things like animals and vehicles; sound detection would be excellent, too. 

My two biggest issues are that Blink’s app is not intuitive and it has limited smart home integrations. While the app has plenty of customization options, it feels clunky and outdated, especially compared to the excellent app of its sister company, Ring. I would love to be able to use Blink cameras in the Ring app. The Blink Mini 2 is also locked in Amazon’s ecosystem, with no support for Google Home or Samsung SmartThings (although Blink does support IFTTT).

But if you use Alexa and / or other Blink cameras or are just looking for a simple security camera for a specific purpose and don’t need super high resolution, it’s a good, versatile, and affordable option.

Photos and screenshots by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge