Review: Imilab EC4 Spotlight Battery Camera with Solar Power and Smart Hub
By: Brady Betzel
Tags: Xiaomi, Solar Power, Security, Security Camera, Night

Where the Imilab really shines in my opinion is at nighttime. Not only does the EC4 have a really helpful spotlight to act as lighting for the video but also to scare away any would be intruders — it also allows for full color night vision. As you can see in the above video, the time is about 8:30pm during the summer. While the light isn’t completely gone, in reality it is very dark at that time. The EC4 has a powerful color night vision process that allows you to see clearly even at night. It is really incredible.

Imilab EC4 Rechargable Security Camera with Solar Power — Detection Zone

The Imilab EC4 has some other really helpful features including Detection Zones to specify zones that the camera shouldn’t waste it’s energy monitoring. The Solar Panel as well as the EC4 are weatherproof and can withstand rain, snow, and heat. They will operate in temperatures from -4° to 122° Fahrenheit.

In addition to using a microSD card for storage, Imilab also has cloud recording abilities that you can purchase (24hr monitoring/smart monitoring/cloud storage/encrypted upload):

3-day overwriting $1/month

7-day overwriting $1.99/month or $19.99/year

30-day overwriting $3.99/month or $39.99/year

I was using a microSD card to monitor my recording and while it is useful it is a little tricky to find the video clips inside the phone app. You have to click through a few menus to find the SD card storage. It’s even trickier to download the clips. I had to remove the microSD card and access it through my laptop to extract videos. Which I guess could be considered a security feature but I would love to have password access to be able to download my own clips. The file-layout on the SD card is nice though, there are folders separated by dates and times.

Imilab EC4 Rechargable Security Camera with Solar Power

In the end, The Imilab EC4 rechargable security camera with solar power charging looks and works great. The Imilab Smart Hub is a great way to funnel local camera traffic outside of a router so you don’t tie up your internet speeds. I love the solar power charging without having to interrupt recording of videos. Randomly, I was near my Google Nest Hub and asked it to show my the “Backyard” (I named my EC4 “Backyard”) and to my surprise it worked after adding it to my Home setup! This was a really welcome and surprising feature. I actually found myself using the Imilab EC4 through my Google Nest Hub more than the Imilab app on my phone. The addition of an audible alarm and two-way voice communication helps to keep me connected to the perimeter of my house at all times. And the AI features including human detection vs. animals really helps when setting up text based alert notifications. Furthermore, if you find yourself being bothered with overly sensitive notifications, you can adjust the duration of how long someone would have to be detected before the camera will record and or notify you.

Imilab EC4 Android App

Imilab EC4 Android App

What could be improved on the EC4? The Android App could really be optimized. While it can be figured out, I always imagine how my parents would fair if they had to set these types of electronics up and use them. I think my parents would be calling me every day. So if you are technically inclined and don’t mind using some technical elbow grease, the Imilab EC4 is a great alternative to some other name brand security cameras.

You can find out more about the Imilab EC4 on their website: https://store.imilab.com/.