The $199 Soliom Video Doorbell (£155 and AU$265, converted) has a couple of things going for it: It’s solar- and battery-powered, and it has a microSD card slot for optional local storage (the microSD card is sold separately).
You don’t find those features on many smart doorbells. They’re clever additions because you can bypass any need to hardwire your buzzer — or pay for cloud storage. And even if you don’t want to buy a microSD card and go the local storage route, Soliom’s app can store as many as 20 video clips at a time in the cloud. That isn’t many, but it’s something.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get this product to work. At all. And I don’t recommend that you buy it.
That said, there’s a lot of opportunity for the Soliom Video Doorbell to improve over time. It’s still in the midst of its Kickstarter campaign, and I technically reviewed a “test production unit.” A spokesperson for the startup told me the full production unit “will have a little bit better performance.” Here’s hoping.