D-Link Omna is the only product compatible with Apple’s smart home platform, Apple Home. However, is that compatibility feature enough to beat the Nest Cam Indoor and the Cam IQ? We spend several months using each product before doing this review so we definitely have an answer.
D-Link Omna Review – The best Apple HomeKit camera you can get!
For us, the most standout feature of the D-Link Omna would be its ability to remotely see the video feed through the Apple Home without having to pay for another 3rd party service. The notification system isn’t as polished like on the Nest but functions enough to get the job done.
From a hardware perspective, the D-Link Omna can compete against the Nest Cam Indoor. However, it does fall short against the Nest Cam IQ.
For our D-Link Omna review, we will give this smart home camera a score of 3.1 Eh’s out of 5. The score might be lower than the Nest Cam Indoor and IQ but that shouldn’t scare you away. After all, it still depends on the features that you are looking for. There might be features that are present on the Nest products that are not relevant to you.
At SmartHome Reviews Eh, we base all our reviews on actual usage. Which means every product we talk about gets used in our own home before we’ll do a review on them. We’ll also take the time to compare products to see which one is actually better. And we do all this to answer the question? How do we get the MOST out of our homes?
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Design – Looks like a soap dispenser?
The design of the D-Link Omna looks like a tiny soap dispenser. It also looks heavier than it looks and gets fairly warm when running. The bottom of the camera has a rubber pad that looks quite tacky. However, the rubber helps the camera to not slide around easily as a trade off. The bottom of the camera also houses the MicroSD card. Unlike the Nest cameras however, there aren’t any mounting options on the D-Link Omna.
The D-Link Omna allows you to pick which part of the Field of View (FOV) to trigger on. Based from our experience, the custom FOV for motion is accurate. The D-Link Omna also has InfraRed LEDs which provides 16 ft of night vision. This feature allows the D-Link Omna to watch your home 24 hours a day. The video sensor on the D-Link Omna has a 180 degree field of view and records in full HD at 1080.
The D-Link Omna also allows you to communicate through the unit so it is possible to carry out a conversation with a family member. We did a test between the D-Link Omna and the Nest cameras to check which is better. We found that the Nest sounded better and picked up more audio than the D-Link Omna.
Functionality – The Omna app isn’t as polished
The D-Link Omna app is quite simple to use. It is also the only way that you can access the stored video captured by the D-Link Omna when it detects motion. The size of the card will dictate the amount of videos stored.
With our 8 GB card, the D-Link Omna only took approx. 5 GB’s to store two months worth of motion triggers in a high traffic area of our home. You can access all the videos by plugging the card into an MicroSD card reader. However, in the app, you can only access 2 days worth of videos.
It should be noted that the ability to store video clips of detected motion without having to pay for a 3rd party service like Nest is a standout feature of the D-Link Omna. D-Link Omna provides the same peace of mind as Nest without having to pay to $120 dollars a year for the same services. Although Nest Aware feature do provide more storage options, you really don’t need that unless something bad happens. And if something bad does indeed happen, there’s a good chance that you’re going to catch it immediately and download the video.
In terms of the video feed access, you can be able to access the live feed from your home app. While the D-Link Omna app, on the other hand. can help you access the feed remotely and store the videos. There isn’t any corresponding Apple Watch app but you can view the status of the device on your watch instead. We also didn’t come across any issues with connectivity as the D-Link Omna has been sitting on our home network and Apple Home setup for several months now.
The notification will get annoying over time due to the app notifying all the motion in your home. We are hoping for the future versions of the Home App will allow to only detect motion whenever you are not home. Or have some sort of time frame when to trigger the motion sensor. One of the things that we really like about the Nest Cam IQ is the familiar face feature. This feature minimizes the unnecessary notifications about motion when you’re home.
Compatibility – Works great on Apple Home!
D-Link Omna only works with Apple Home so if you’re not tied to Apple’s smart home platform, we suggest you shouldn’t consider the D-Link Omna. If you’re looking to integrate a smart home video camera into an existing setup, however, the D-Link Omna is going to be your only choice.
With that being said, we don’t think it is necessarily important to have a HomeKit compatible smart home camera in your Apple Home setup. Because you can’t really use Siri with it . The only circumstance to get a HomeKit compatible smart camera is if you plan on using the motion activity to trigger an automation within Apple Home.
We’ve been using my Nest cameras with my D-Link Omna and we can tell you that it didn’t bother us having the Nest cameras connected independent from our Apple Home. This is the complete opposite of non-HomeKit compatible smart plugs.
Hopefully our D-Link Omna review has helped you out. If you liked this post and are considering getting one for yourself, check out our links to purchase your products. Let us know if you have any comments or questions in the comments below!
