Vivint Review: Best Pro Installation

The company monitored and installed a wire-free security system. We opted for basic environmental and security protection. Still, home automation with voice commands made this firm stand out for us. In the overall research, we found out that the company worked with several top smart home assistants such as Alexa and Google Home to create a fully autonomous house. Many company customers were homeowners with lengthy security contracts, and the majority gave the brand great reviews. If you seek bargains for the devices from the brand, do not miss their fall sale. It has free pro installation and a gift card to purchase any new system. But even without any deal, it is one of the best home security systems you can buy.

When you order any system from Vivint, you can buy whatever hardware you require, such as the window & door sensors, thermostats, cameras, and motion sensors. The Vivint Starter Kit arrives with a Smart Hub, a motion sensor, a couple of window & door sensors, and a water sensor. Users also get a credit of more than ninety dollars towards more components. The service plan of the system is about fifty dollars per month and gives the user round-the-clock pro monitoring and unlimited usage of the mobile app, including the alert notifications. It also allows the user to control smart home devices such as thermostats, video doorbells, and door locks. It gives support for Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa voice commands also.

Other advantages of the service plan are two weeks of recorded video storage for clips which are a minute-and-a-half in length, a month of persistent storage with the purchase of the Vivint Smart Drive, in-home technician services, an expanded equipment warranty, and round-the-clock telephone and online technical support. A service plan from the company is not compulsory. Still, without it, you will have to monitor the home security system yourself and let go of the mobile app's usage, remote access to the system, and round-the-clock tech support. The company now gives a DIY kit that you can use to install the system yourself. For $300, you get a hub panel, a motion sensor, a couple of window & door sensors, and a tabletop stand for the whole panel. For more than $400, you also get an indoor camera or a doorbell camera, and for more than $550, you get both cameras. The company does not give the Outdoor Camera Pro a portion of the DIY package because it needs pro installation.

The costs of the additional components are much higher than what you will get from the rivals. The window & door sensors are priced at more than forty dollars each. But some rivals give it for about fifteen dollars. A glass-break detector from the company costs more than ninety dollars. Some competitors give it for under thirty-five dollars. The cost of the Element Thermostat is quite similar to what you can expect from any usual smart thermostat offering from rivals in the industry. The Vivint Ping Camera is a unique offering because it can initiate communication by using a call button that will send a notification to users connected to that system. This function works well, and the camera gives great day and night video, interacts with the other smart home devices, and supports the event-triggered recording.

The Vivint Outdoor Camera Pro is an outdoor security camera that allows the user to see what is happening outside and utilizes the Smart Sentry tech from the company to let intruders know that they are under constant surveillance. The camera also gives clean both-way audio and functions quite well with the other installed components of the firm. One of our favored video doorbells, the Vivint Doorbell Camera Pro, also utilizes the Smart Sentry tech to prevent package thieves and gives great HDR video quality with a wide viewing angle. The company recently announced that users could buy this doorbell separately without having to buy the full security system.

The Smart Hub is the nerve center of the Vivint Smart Home. It has a six-inch full-color touch display that makes it simple to unlock and lock doors, see recorded and live view, modify the cooling and heating temperatures, and activate the emergency services that include the Burglary and Panic alarms that go to the local police department. This panel also allows you to assign and edit the user codes, run diagnostics, disarm or arm the system, modify the camera settings, and adjust the alarm volumes. But, you cannot change the sound of any of the alarms, which can be a little problematic. The hub utilizes many wireless tech types that include door locks, sensors, control cameras, Z-Wave, RF, Wi-Fi, and more.

A user can control the system remotely by utilizing the free iOS and Android apps and a computer using the web console. It is also compatible with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa voice commands and functions with Philips Hue smart light bulbs and Nest Thermostats. Using the mobile app, the home screen shows how many windows and doors are presently open and which doors are unlocked. It also has a big button for disarming and arming the system and buttons for unlocking and locking the doors. The taskbar at the bottom of the display has icons for Activity, Cars, Devices, Cameras, and Security. Tapping on the Security icon will take you back to the home screen. Similarly, tapping on the camera icon will take you to a screen showing the live video from all the cameras. There are also clips from recorded events such as when someone rings the bell or a motion is detected.

he Devices icon takes the user to a page where they can turn the light switches and the wall outlets off and on. Suppose someone has a Vivint Car Guard installed in any of their vehicles. In that case, they will see a Cars icon that will take them to a screen where they can see info on each vehicle, such as fuel levels, battery, and mechanical issues. The user can tap a car to see its present status and location and offline driving or parking. If the vehicle is presently driving, the user can tap the map to find out where it is and track its journey in real-time. The user can also see the trip history maps and look at total distance traveled, rapid acceleration events, and harsh braking.

The Activity icon takes the user to a screen where they can get the info, such as which doors are unlocked and which windows are open. There is a history of car trip start and end timings, motion detection, and door closings and openings. The user can see motion-triggered video clips here also. The settings icon is used to create rules, enable notifications, and configure the sensors.

Our Vivint review shows that you get a complete home security system monitored constantly and a home automation solution that can be controlled from about anywhere. The system includes a device to monitor the cars, a high-resolution video doorbell, and cameras with Smart Sentry. You can save a lot of cash on devices with a DIY home security system from SimpliSafe or Abode. But that means you will be solely responsible for installing and maintaining all the components. As with nearly all completely monitored home security services, this system is not exactly cheap. But if you would like the peace of mind that tags along with knowing that your house and family is protected and secure round-the-clock, it is money well-utilized according to our Vivint review.