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If you’ve recently shopped around for a video doorbell, you’re no doubt aware of just how overcrowded the nearly $1.4 billion market has become. There’s the Nest Hello, Ring Video Doorbell, RemoBell Wi-Fi Doorbell, and Honeywell Skybell Trim, to name a few of the tens of models available online and in-store. But San Francisco company August thinks there’s room for another.
It this week announced the August View, the successor to the original Video Doorbell and Video Doorbell Pro it released in 2016 and 2017, respectively, and one of its first new products after Swedish parent company Assa Abloy acquired the company in December 2017. It doesn’t come as a complete surprise — August filed a trademark for the name “August View” last year, and a press render of the View leaked in early January — but it spilled the beans in full this morning a few days ahead of SXSW 2019 in Austin, Texas.
The View’s sleek, slim hardware mounts to “almost every” type of exterior wall adjacent to a front door, and draws power from a rechargeable battery. (It’s wire-free, so it can’t power from an outlet.) The cam’s image sensor captures video at 2,560 x 1,440 resolution — a step up from the Doorbell Pro’s 1,280 x 960 maximum resolution — and applies algorithms to minimize distortion from the wide-angle fisheye lens, providing a view August claims is the “most realistic” of any battery-powered doorbell.
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Like most other doorbell cameras, the View streams the footage it captures to a companion mobile app (the August app) and cloud storage service (August Cloud), enabling you to see who’s at the door and talk (and listen) to them through the cam’s embedded speakers and microphones. Owners of August’s smart lock products (the Smart Lock and Smart Lock) can unlock the door courtesy of the View’s wireless pairing feature. The aforementioned app is where you’ll see motion alerts when someone approaches the doorstep, and a zoomable live video feed. (Accessing videos from the past 15 to 30 days requires a paid subscription plan.)
“The doorbell camera has always played a key role within our suite of products dedicated to securing front doors across the country,” August CEO and cofounder Jason Johnson said. “With the new August View, we’re providing an advanced secure solution that is high-performing, highly customizable, and offers features that our customers have been asking for.”
The August View will be available for purchase starting March 28 in eight faceplates: four metal (satin nickel, oil-rubbed bronze, satin, brass, midnight gray) and four color (black, red, blue, and white). It’ll cost $229 — $30 more than the Doorbell Cam Pro and Ring Video Doorbell 2, and on par with Nest’s top-end smart doorbell — and come with an included wireless chime and a battery.
