Blink Mini 2 Boosts Amazon's DIY Home Security Lineup With A Key Feature From Its Best-Selling Camera
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Nearly four years after Blink launched its first-generation, low-cost security camera — the Blink Mini — the Amazon-owned company (acquired in 2017) has finally come up with a much-needed successor. The new product — aptly named Blink Mini 2 — retains most of its predecessor's attributes, including its compact dimensions and wide feature set. Being the second-gen model, the Blink Mini 2 also brings with it several new feature updates.
Unlike the first-generation Blink Mini, which was strictly designed for indoor use, the Blink Mini 2 is quite comfortable being exposed to the elements. Amazon requires users to pay extra for a new weather-resistant power adapter to make the device outdoor-ready. This, of course, is an optional extra.
Other improvements that make it to the Blink Mini 2 include improved video quality, better low-light imaging with night vision in color (thanks to an LED spotlight), and, of course, a much wider field of view compared to its predecessor. It is important to note that despite Amazon's claim of improved video quality, the video resolution of the Blink Mini 2 is the same as before — topping out at 1080p.
While the original Blink Mini supported motion detection, its successor just went a step ahead and made the Mini 2 capable of person detection — a feature it borrows from the Blink Outdoor 4. This feature — again, purely optional — lets the Mini 2 differentiate between a person or an animal in the frame, alerting the user when it only detects a person.
Most good features are still behind a paywall
One of the major concerns people had with the first-generation Blink Mini was that users did not have access to several crucial features unless they spent more. For example, the first-gen Mini only lets users watch a 90-second live stream of their property. To access older recordings, Blink users were asked to either subscribe to Amazon's paid subscription or purchase and set up the Blink Sync Module 2.
Things are somewhat similar with the Blink Mini 2 as well, with users getting the aforementioned person detection, cloud video recording, and 60 days of unlimited video history features only if they pay $3 a month ($30 if they subscribe to the yearly plan.) With this subscription, users also get the ability to monitor the property in real time, with each session lasting 90 minutes, as opposed to just 90 seconds on the free tier.
The Blink Mini 2 retains its predecessor's tried-and-tested, successful design language and remains quite a looker. It also features a new custom chip that enables most of its newly added features. The Alexa-compatible product goes on sale via Amazon starting March 14, 2024, with prices starting at $39.99. Those bundling the Mini 2 with the Weather Resistant Power Adapter will need to shell out $49.98. This is, of course, aside from the aforementioned subscription fee.