I tested the eufy E340 video doorbell because I was sick of Ring's monthly fees – the video is crisp, audio is clear and it's so easy to install. I'm never going back

Upgrading to the eufy E340 video doorbell was the direct result of my feeling sick and tired of paying monthly subscription fees to store the video data on my older Ring model.

It's proven to be a big leap forward from my old one, with crisp video and sound quality both in the daytime and at night, no subscription fees (hurrah!), quick wireless installation, and a much longer battery life.

I've now thoroughly tested the eufy E340 doorbell in my home for five months, and much like the best robot vacuums I've had, I'm never going back.

My one-minute verdict on the eufy E340 video doorbell

I'm a big eufy fan, as having tested many of their home technology products, I can confirm installation of eufy products, including the E340 video doorbell, is consistently easy as pie. The device functionality is superb, the sound and video quality is crisp and clear, even at nighttime, and the app's navigation, menu and settings are easy to use.

It's an extremely reliable video doorbell, helps me feel safe at home (it's one of the easiest security tips to implement), and especially as a disabled person with limited mobility who does 95% of my shopping online to be delivered to my house, this doorbell genuinely makes my life so much easier.

I particularly love the dual-view camera, so you can instantly see who is at the door, and what has been left on the floor, as well as the automated answers you can pre-select, and easy-to-select privacy settings, so my neighbors' windows are not recorded.

It is slower to open live events than my old Ring doorbell when I'm further away from my Wi-Fi router, but given all the other benefits, this is a minor gripe and something I have lived with without too much annoyance for five months of 24/7 use.

eufy E340 video doorbell: Specifications

eufy E340 video doorbell: Installation and setup

After charging for a couple of hours, it took around 20 minutes to install and set up the eufy E340 video doorbell. In fact, it was really simple, and though the box comes with a printed quick start guide, I skipped straight to the eufy app and followed the step-by-step instructions there, which come with images, words, and visual animations that make the whole process so easy, even if you've never done this before.

I mounted my eufy E340 on the exterior masonry of my home and drilled it easily using the positioning sticker. I then tried the video doorbell with and without the wedge and decided because of the close proximity of the wall on the left of the camera, the wedge, and therefore angling the camera away slightly, would be better to reduce any glare at night from the built-in dual light.

During installation, and when following the app instructions, it easily connects to your Wifi (my app was already connected to my network because of my eufy robot vacuum, but it's quick enough, even without that saved connection) and gives you a live view of what the camera is seeing, so you can make sure your angles and height placement are correct before committing to the drilling or mounting.

I chose to skip wiring it in, and instead used the rechargeable battery function for ease of installation, but if you prefer to wire yours in, the hardware needed is included, as pictured above.

I already had a drill in the house for my DIY projects and was experienced in drilling so I felt confident installing it. However, if you do not, you can instead purchase an anti-theft no-drill mount from Amazon, which is specifically designed to fit the eufy E340 video doorbell and means no damage to masonry, siding or other exterior materials.

This no-drill setup makes it a good renter-friendly security option.

As part of the setup, I also added privacy boxes to the video's view, to help keep my neighbors' windows, which are all in proximity in our compact and newly-built estate, out of recordings. It's easy to adjust the panels for size and position and it doesn't impact the quality or thoroughness of your recordings. You can also custom shape a view that the feed records – it will ignore all else.

When releasing the camera from the mount, it's much simpler than Ring doorbells, which require you to unscrew two tiny screws underneath the mount. This simply has a custom key which fits into a pin hole at the top and when you press down, bingo, it releases.

eufy E340 video doorbell: Video quality

Image 1 of 6

Face clarity with sunshine behind

Night clarity and privacy boxes

Cloudy morning

Dusk

In the dark

Daytime: Faces are clear and easily recognizable around the clock, thanks to the 2k Full High Definition (FHD) dual cameras. The floor detection camera has a slightly lower resolution but it's not something you can easily pick up by eye. You can pre-identify regular visitors in the app, so when you go into the events list on the app, instead of visitor, it will say the person's name, and what time they were at your door, and whether it was a missed call or not. You can just about read registrations on passing cars and the larger branding on packages, but not addresses or small print.

Nighttime: Visibility is great at night and is a big leap forward from my old Ring doorbell. The eufy E340 gives you full color at night, the first in the industry, and you can clearly see who is at the door, and clearly see their face, even on the darkest nights. It automatically turns the built-in light on when it's dark, and it senses motion or a ring at your door for better visibility, which does make a difference to the video quality. Even without that light, it is still clear enough to identify who is there. The motion sensor is very sensitive when on full sensitivity, so I have toggled mine down for less sensitivity and less recording, for example, to avoid picking up my neighbor's multiple daily dog walks.

The spec promises clear nighttime viewing up to a distance of 16ft (5m), and I can confirm this to be the case in my months of testing, as pictured above, though you can see the facial features are not super clear at that distance at night.

Dynamic light: The eufy E340 balances bright and dark areas well, making visits in all sorts of weather, including sunny afternoons and heavy rain, clear and crisp. Even when the sun pans around to the front of my house, a visitor's face is clear to see and the camera adjusts lighting and focus to allow for the best view of your visitor. In five months of usage, spanning late spring, summer and now early fall, I've not had any problems with video capture quality or lighting.

eufy E340 video doorbell: Audio quality

Audio is crisp and clear both ways, with minimal live delay. The only snipe I have about the entire device is the up to 20-second lag of switching from an app notification to the live event. The delay is also there when you click into the app and access live view when someone is at the door. This seemed to be related to the Wi-fi as the lag is worse when I am upstairs, and quicker when I am on the ground floor and nearer the router.

The only time I have experienced any echo is when I bring up a live event view on my phone via the eufy app, and I hold it near the doorbell's mic. Otherwise, I have not experienced any echoing in day-to-day use.

As I live in a quiet cul-de-sac that is fairly protected on all sides, the area outside our front door does not often get much wind or traffic. However, even on stormy or very windy days, when the weather's noise is audible when you open the window, there is no echoing or interference on the microphone.

Airplane noise and traffic, which is audible to the visitor at the door, is not picked up on the microphone, which instead homes in on the visitor's words, rather than any background sounds.

eufy E340 video doorbell: App and smart features

Image 1 of 1

Live feed settings cog menu

The app is stable and intuitive, but it's helpful to know there are several rounds of settings that can be accessed in various areas. One is the main settings menu access on the dashboard via a hamburger menu symbol on the top left of the page. The other is accessed through the settings cog on the live view (pictured above), which is where the privacy settings and drawable privacy squares can be found, added, or edited.

It is very easy to check a past event, and you can toggle the date at the top to the event needed, and scroll down the page and select all to delete, or pick the ones you would like to download or share. You can also use this page to share videos with eufy so they can improve AI detection or work on other features with real-life videos and recordings.

It has package detection so I get an alert if a courier drops a package and bails, as well as up to six auto-replies.

The eufy E340 video doorbell works with Alexa, Google Voice Assistant devices, existing chimes (though it will not pair with my old Ring chime), or you can pair it with the eufy HomeBase S280, eufy HomeBase S380, eufy Minibase Chime (T8023). It is worth noting that the eufy E340 video doorbell is not compatible with the original eufy Wi-Fi Chime (T8020) or eufy Chime (T8740/T8742).

If you have the HomeBase S380, you'll need the firmware version V3.3.2.6 and above for the connection to be successful.

In the five months I have been testing, I have been relying on the app alerts on my phone. It also pushes eufy notifications through to my Apple Watch, so if my phone is on silent, my watch alert vibrates and I don't miss visitors at the door.

Additionally, you can either have the dual-camera in a split view mode, showing both split horizontally across the screen (visitor and floor), or you can have picture-in-picture mode, where the package detection and floor-view camera is in a little box you can move around on the main video. After using it for a month, I decided split-view mode was my preference so you can clearly see if there are any packages on the floor at a glance.

eufy E340 video doorbell: Motion detection and notifications

The eufy E340 video doorbell's motion sensor sensitivity can be toggled. The higher it is, the more notifications and chime sounds you get, as well as the more video and data storage is used. You can decrease or increase the video recording time up to 20 seconds after the motion is detected. For longer pre-recording, you'll need larger storage, be it a local add-on device or a subscription for larger storage.

For day-to-day needs, I have found the free 8 GB local storage on my non-wired video doorbell to be more than adequate. It auto-deletes the oldest footage when it's full, so I have not had to manually select each video on every date and delete to clear up space. You can do this daily or weekly if you wish, but there is not need for it.

Notifications can be excessive if you have the motion sensor set to the highest sensitivity, so you will have to play around with it till you are happy. You can also snooze these for varying time periods, say if there is work going on outside your house.

It doesn't miss visitors or motions outside the house and is accurate. I have yet to experience any false alarms. The corresponding footage is easy to access, too, and you can easily download or share a video.

If a package is left at your door, and someone approaches it, you'll get an alert thanks to the Delivery Guard feature. You can also set reminders in the app to remind you to pick it up.

The app buzzes almost instantaneously when a visitor rings the doorbell or pops into view on the motion detection settings, and it records for a few seconds before if you select that option for extra security. I like this option, and improving my home security was the main reason I got a video doorbell, so I like having this record of visitors' behavior before they ring the bell. For longer pre-recording, you'll need bigger storage locally, or via subscription.

My main snipe on this doorbell, as mentioned earlier in this review of the eufy E340 video doorbell, is how long it takes to open the live video after tapping the notification.

For me, this appears to correlate with how far away I am in the house from my router.

Upstairs, in the weakest point of our home's internet connection, it can take up to 20 seconds to access the live feed. If I'm downstairs, it's around 5-10 seconds. This also impacts if I am out of the house when a visitor rings the doorbell. There have been times I haven't been able to access the live feed or answer a call as my mobile signal was poor.

This was similar to the Ring doorbell when I was away, though it was much quicker to access my Ring's live feed, even when upstairs in my house. For context, the Wi-Fi bar shows as full upstairs when I check it on my phone, but calls also drop out regularly here, so there is clearly a distance-from-router issue going on during my testing.

eufy E340 video doorbell: Power and battery life

I use the rechargeable battery feature, and in five months of 24/7 use, I've had to charge it up three times, giving me around seven weeks of constant use before it needs charging. It takes a few hours to charge fully. This fares better than my old Ring device, which needed charging every four weeks or so.

I love how easy the eufy 340 video doorbell is to remove from its mount. The release key easily clicks into the pin hole at the top and releases the catch. One of the things I hated about my Ring doorbell was that you had to bend awkwardly and unscrew two tiny screws from beneath the mount to release the doorbell for charging. As a result, I lost one of the screws within a couple of months and eventually misplaced the screwdriver.

eufy's solution is much more sensible and user-friendly.

eufy 340 video doorbell: Connectivity and reliability

Mine has stayed connected to Wi-Fi, but the further you are from the router when at home, the longer the lag is to access the live feed and respond to notifications.

Over a week of consistent testing and observation, I did not miss any events whilst I was at home. I have occasionally missed events when I was out of the house due to poor mobile signal on the move. Luckily, my husband, who also has access to the app and doorbell events, was at home and answered instead.

eufy 340 video doorbell: Privacy and security

I have set two privacy zones to block out the windows of my neighbors' properties, as they would have a reasonable expectation of privacy, especially for the ones at the back or upper floors of their homes.

The black boxes are easy to set up from the app's menus, and you can drag or draw them as privacy zones instead. However, the black boxes that appear in those privacy zones are set to a function similar to 'send to front' on computer software. This means that unless a person's face is extremely close to the doorbell, that black privacy box may block recording or site of their face. This is a sticky oversight in the app's privacy setup in my view.

As I live in a newly-built home, on a new residential area where, as most modern developers often do, the houses are packed close together. I have to use the privacy boxes for my neighbors' windows.

The videos are stored locally for free (up to 8 GB) or you can sign up for subscriptions for larger cloud storage.

Warnings pop up to alert you to how your data and videos will not be shared or accessed by eufy unless you choose to share it with them. I like this feature for my peace of mind, as my daughter is often captured on the videos, and likes to talk to me through the eufy 340 video doorbell when she arrives home after school. It's a fun novelty for her. The app does have an optional two-factor authentication for an added layer of user-privacy and security.

eufy 340 video doorbell: Price and value

As pictured, the eufy 340 video doorbell comes with the mount, a quick start guide, positioning sticker, release key, wiring, and hardware, as well as a mounting wedge and charging wire (the latter two are not pictured above).

The usual cost is $149.99 at eufy,and you can also get a few variations, including and extra $40 for it to come with a chime, for $199.99 to include a spare rechargeable battery bundle, two doorbells in one kit for $299.98, and others.

It can be integrated with the eufy HomeBase at the steeper price of $329.98. At the time of writing there are a few coupons and discount vouchers on the eufy site, making it more affordable by 25% or between $20-40, depending on which bundle you pick.

I think overall, it is a good value, especially if you buy it at a discounted rate during a sale event. You are getting what you pay for, and the ease of installation and lack of monthly subscriptions are the biggest markers for how valuable a buy it is.

Starting with a great video doorbell is one step toward beefing up your home security. Learn how else smart tech is transforming how we use our homes, and don't forget to check out our top home security tips, including renter-friendly options.