Wyze Cam vs. Wyze Cam Pan: Which should you buy?

Wyze Cam Pan

The Wyze Cam Pan is a fantastic security camera with the ability to pan across the entire room, and then some, while also providing improved Night Vision capabilities. There are some limitations, but none of these will make you want to look elsewhere for a great security camera for your home.

Wyze Cam

While not as impressive as the Cam Pan, the Wyze Cam is still a great security camera since it's light enough to be placed anywhere in your home. This, combined with the lower price point, will make it easier to get cameras in every corner of your home.

Wyze figured out how to provide excellent "budget" security cameras for your home with the Wyze Cam Pan vs. Wyze Cam. The Cam Pan gets the advantage thanks to the broader field of view, along with that it can pan across 360-degrees in just 3-seconds, and can even tilt. The standard Cam is excellent due to its small size since you can put these pretty much anywhere, and Wyze includes the mounting kit needed to get these installed, but you will have to be okay with a stationary camera. So, which one should you choose, and are these worthy of being considered for the best smart home security systems?

Wyze Cam Pan vs. Wyze Cam Extremely similar, but vastly different

When looking at these two cameras, you would think that there would be a night and day difference, which is true in some aspects. However, outside of the design and some key features, the Wyze Cam Pan vs. Wyze Cam are incredibly similar, which is great for those who don't want to break the bank on an in-home security system. Let's look at the specs.

The design of these cameras is the first significant difference, as the Cam Pan measures in at more than 5-inches tall, while the Cam is only a bit more than 2-inches tall. The Cam Pan is also much heavier, weighing in at almost 250g (8.78oz), compared to the smaller Cam, which weighs in at only 100g (3.53oz). However, the reason the Cam Pan is so much larger brings us to the next major difference; it can pan across 360-degrees and tilt up to 93-degrees.

Being able to view every corner of the room is something that can come in extremely handy, as you won't have to worry about the fact that your security camera "missed" something because it was outside the field of view. Speaking of, the Cam Pan features a 120-degree lens, which is slightly wider than the 110-degrees offered by the Cam.

The ability to view 360-degrees around your placement of the camera is beneficial, and you can even use IFTTT integration to set up automatic panning schedules. There is IFTTT integration with the Wyze Cam, but you would likely need a couple of these to view the same amount of area as what's covered by the Cam Pan.

Another difference can be found in the Night Vision capabilities. While both cameras can view up to almost 30 feet with the included IR LEDs, the Cam Pan includes 6 of these specific lights, whereas the Cam only sports two of the same LEDs. The additional LEDs in the Cam Pan don't provide any additional range, but Wyze states that it will distinguish "18 steps of gray", which will provide users with a much clearer image when Night Vision is engaged. 16:

Wyze Cam Pan vs. Wyze Cam How similar are these cameras?

When running down the spec sheet for comparing the Wyze Cam Pan vs. Wyze Cam, you'll notice that the similarities are striking, and that's for good reason. Wyze took everything great about the standard Cam and included it in the Cam Pan. This includes features such as the CPU, amount of RAM, camera resolution, and more.

Some other similarities between these two come in the form of the extra functionalities of these cameras. These cameras support two-way audio, push notifications, microSD card expansion, and can be integrated with either Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa, along with IFTTT for scheduling purposes.

Wyze did the right thing here because you can use the standard Wyze Cam in individual rooms, but the Cam Pan would better suit larger areas. So it made sense for there to not be too much disparity in what these two cameras are capable of providing users when it comes to keeping your home secure.

When it comes to one of the best budget home security systems, you usually expect to see the company make its money in other areas, such as a subscription. That's not the case with Wyze, as the company includes "free, rolling 14-day cloud storage". You get access to video recordings for up to 14-days; the footage from day one gets overwritten on day 15.

Wyze Cam Pan vs. Wyze Cam Which should you get?

We've mentioned a few times that the Wyze Cam Pan and Cam are similar in the camera quality and other features. However, the Cam Pan takes the cake because it can pan across 360-degrees for full coverage of an area. With the broader field of view and better Night Vision capabilities, it is our top choice.

That's not to say that the Wyze Cam should just be tossed to the side. It's a competent security camera, but it just does not match the versatility offered by the Cam Pan. The lighter weight and magnetic base make the standard Cam easier to put in different places so that you can have this in any room without the worry of additional mounting brackets.