Nooie Cam Doorbell: Hands-On Review

Wi-Fi connected doorbells have been around for a while, and they’re an essential part of a home automation setup. Today we’re looking at the $149.99 Nooie Cam Doorbell, which I find to be better than my Ring Doorbell! Read on for details…

Nooie Cam Doorbell Isn’t HomeKit Compatible

Let’s get this piece of information out of the way immediately. The Nooie Cam Doorbell is NOT compatible with Apple’s HomeKit automation framework, so you won’t be able to ask Siri who’s at the front door. I don’t find this to be a big deal-breaker, as my existing (old) Ring doorbell isn’t compatible with HomeKit either.

For those who are fond of Alexa (Amazon’s home automation framework) or Google Assistant, both of those solutions are supported.

With both doorbells, I just use the correct app: Ring for the Ring doorbell, and Nooie (App Store link) for the Nooie Cam Doorbell. The app works well on both iPhone and iPad. For some reason, it has a 1.9 out of 5 rating on the App Store; in my opinion that’s unwarranted because it works quite well.

Design of the Nooie Cam Doorbell

The first thing you notice when opening the box is that the Nooie Cam Doorbell is BIG. I mean, it’s about the size of four Ring doorbells. Why so big? Well, my guess is that the extra volume is needed to support the big (10,000 mAh!) battery pack on the device. I have no issues with that — frankly, I’m tired of having to constantly recharge the Ring doorbell! The Nooie has been working for three months and it’s still showing almost a full charge.

That size: 6.61 x 2.36 x 1.73 inches with a weight of 0.68 lb. (168 x 60 x 44 mm; 310g). The doorbell is designed to be totally wire-free; in other words, you don’t need to be concerned about doorbell wiring.

There are two pieces to the doorbell: the camera and button unit, and a chime that plugs into the wall. The chime is loud and clear, in an attractive cloth-covered tan case. The doorbell itself is tan as well, with a large button that lights up when it senses someone nearby.

The chime provides a choice of five different tones — chimes (the standard doorbell sound), Cosmic, Bird Song, Playtime, and a Happy Holidays tune that can be downloaded.

While the Nooie Cam Doorbell is weatherproof (IP65 rating), I’d be more concerned about heat or cold than I would it getting exposed to a little rain. The operating temperature range is shown as 30° – 105° F. Where I live in Colorado, it’s quite common for temperatures to get below 30° in winter. That’s why I chose to install this in an enclosed garage…

One cool feature is that the doorbell “snap locks” onto the mounting base. When it’s time to remove it for recharging, there’s a small pin that looks like a SIM removal tool that used to “unlock” the doorbell for removal.

Installation

The Nooie Cam Doorbell comes with everything you need. There are two mounts, one that it flat, and another angled at 15°. For the location where I installed the doorbell, I chose the 15° angled mount so I could see more of the area it is going to cover. There’s an oddly-named “mount foam” that’s actually a drilling guide sticker, and there’s also the necessary hardware for installation. All you’ll need is a drill and Phillips-head screwdriver.

Setup is simple. The instruction manual is one of the most well-written I’ve seen for a product in a long time! After charging the battery with an included USB-C cable, the battery pack is placed into the doorbell and the fun begins. Install the app on your iPhone and/or iPad, go through a pairing process, and then test the doorbell.

Another good feature: while many home automation devices only support 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, the Nooie Cam Doorbell works on both 2.4 and 5 GHz networks.

Finally, the mounting needs to be completed. Nooie suggests an installation height of between 40 and 44 inches (102 -112 cm) for best coverage.

Operation

There’s very little to operating the Nooie Cam Doorbell once installed. If you want to see who is at the door when the chime sounds, just pull up the app and you can see them. There’s also a two-way communication, so you can tell that salesperson at the door you don’t need to have your windows replaced without seeing them in person.

Nooie provides two different ways to store a history of people detection: Nooie Cloud or a micro-SD card that fits into a slot on the side of the chime. Nooie Cloud is quite reasonable — seven days of event playback for $1 monthly or $10 annually, or 30 days of event playback for $3 monthly or $30 annually. I already have way too many cloud services, so I chose to pop a micro-SD card into the slot for local storage.

Nooie Cam Doorbell video is 2K (2048 horizontal pixels of resolution), so it’s not that much better than the 1080p (1920 by 1080) resolution seen on other cameras. It is much better than the 640 x 480 SD resolution found on older doorbells. I found the doorbell audio to be loud and clear. It’s possible to capture video or photos from the camera with a tap.

As a night camera, Nooie Cam Doorbell does a very good job! It illuminates (via infrared) objects up to 15 m (49 ft.) away. The camera has a wide 158° field of view. One feature I found intriguing is the ability to invite people to share the view from your camera. That’s perfect for housesitters.