Tom's Guide Verdict
The Eve Cam does what it claims, offering a HomeKit-first experience with support for HomeKit Secure Video – but since its release, better and more affordable options have popped up.
Pros
- +
Versatile placement
- +
Easy to set up
- +
No third-party app required
Cons
- -
No HDR
- -
Expensive
- -
A little cheap-feeling
- -
MicroUSB rather than USB-C
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Dimensions: 4.8 x 2.56 x 2.36 inches
Resolution: 1080p
Field of view: 150 degrees
Person detection: Yes
Works with: Apple HomeKit (including HomeKit Secure Video)
It's hard to believe, but it's been six years since Apple launched HomeKit Secure Video in 2019 – but even in those six long years, there’s only been only a handful of the best home security cameras that support HomeKit Secure Video. Perhaps one of the most loved of those cameras is the Eve Cam, a scaled-back and minimalistic security camera that's purpose-built for HomeKit Secure Video.
But the Eve Cam itself isn't new, either. The camera was originally launched all the way back in 2020. But five years later, it's still being sold from the Eve website. Is it worth buying in 2025, or are there alternatives that you should consider first?
Eve Cam review: Price and availability
As mentioned, the Eve Cam has been available for five years now, and it's still being sold straight from the website, or from other retailers like Amazon. It’s priced at $149.95 and is only available in black.
Eve Cam review: Design
The overall design of the Eve Cam isn't necessarily much to write home about. It’s built to be simple and basic. It's only available in black plastic, which is matte everywhere except for the face of the camera, which is glossy black instead. Its teardrop-shaped design reminds us a bit of the original Nest Dropcam.
On the front of the camera, you can find the camera lens along with a status light, while on the back, there's a speaker grille. On the bottom of the main camera module, you can find a MicroUSB port.
That's right, in 2025, the camera still comes with the incredibly dated MicroUSB. It actually seems as though there are USB-C versions available in other regions, likely due to EU restrictions that mean all cameras sold in the EU have to offer USB-C. Unfortunately, the model being sold in the US still has MicroUSB – though thankfully, Eve does include a relatively long cable in the box, so you don’t have to go digging through your cable drawer to find one.
The camera does offer some versatility in terms of placement, though. Not only can the camera module swivel forward and backward, but it can also rotate 360 degrees so you can essentially point it anywhere you want. The base of the camera is sturdy enough for you to simply place it on a shelf or table. However, it also comes with the hardware necessary to mount it on a wall or ceiling, which it attaches to magnetically.
The camera does feel a little cheap though. That's perhaps not a huge issue, considering the fact that you're likely to place the camera where you want it and leave it there. However, if you need something that can withstand a bit more, then you might find that the Eve Cam's construction doesn't work for your needs. And it's important to note that the camera is not built for outdoor use. Eve does build an outdoor security camera called the Eve Cam Outdoor ($249 at Amazon) – but if you want to record footage from outdoors with this camera, you'll have to point it out of a window.
Apart from the camera, the cable, and the aforementioned mounting hardware, the camera also comes with a USB-A power adapter, and attachments for the adapter for most international plug types. It’s a little strange that despite the EU variant coming with USB-C, the U.S. variant still comes with a European power adapter attachment.
Eve Cam review: Image and audio performance
The image quality offered by the Eve Cam is somewhat limited, but that's not really Eve's fault. The camera has a 1080p resolution, with a 150-degree field-of-view. It supports infrared-based night vision up to 5 meters (16.4 feet) away, and two-way audio.
1080p is still the maximum resolution supported by HomeKit Secure Video, even six years after its initial launch. I've been a HomeKit Secure Video user since its initial launch, and I've been hoping for an upgrade to the maximum resolution that entire time. 1080p is perfectly fine for some use cases, but whenever I review a camera that has a higher resolution, I always feel a little bit of FOMO. Not enough to subscribe to another platform, but I still hope that Apple updates HomeKit Secure Video to support higher resolutions soon. After all, these days 2K is a common resolution for security cameras, and there are plenty that offer 4K support.
The Eve Cam doesn’t support HDR, which is a bit sad to see for an indoor camera in this price range. The lack of HDR meant that highlights were seriously blown out. I had the camera in my living room, where there’s some darker shadows from furniture and areas far from a window, but also some brighter areas right near a window – and those brighter areas were essentially bright white blobs in recorded footage.
Generally, the footage was fine, but not incredible, and colors in general were flat and lacked vibrancy. You could see pixelation not just from the lower resolution, but also from the compression used by HomeKit to reduce file sizes. Additionally, I found that the camera seemed to sometimes skip a few seconds of recording, especially at night – and while it’s unclear if this is Apple or Eve’s fault, it’s not something I’ve experienced with the EufyCam 2C Pro, a HomeKit Secure Video cameras that I use regularly. It wasn't particularly quick when it came to motion detection either, generally starting recording a second or so after motion should have been detected.
The night vision offered by the Eve Cam was pretty good, but not incredible. The lack of a spotlight means that you're limited to infrared-based night vision, though you likely wouldn't want a spotlight in an indoor camera anyway. That said, the night vision wasn't the most detailed, especially for a camera in this price range, and while I could see my cat perfectly fine when he was closer to the camera, objects in the distance lacked detail.
Eve Cam review: Smart home integration
The Eve Cam was specifically built for use within the HomeKit ecosystem, hence the support for HomeKit Secure Video. You can, of course, add it to Eve's app, but doing so won't get you any additional features or settings. In that case, the Eve app will essentially work as a HomeKit control app.
The idea of HomeKit Secure Video is simple. Instead of using third-party cloud platforms to store security footage, which demand additional subscription fees, HomeKit Secure Video bundles cloud security camera storage with iCloud. For many, that will mean not having to pay any extra in subscription fees to use the camera, though some might have to upgrade their iCloud plan. The 50GB iCloud+ plan ($0.99 per month) allows users to add a single HomeKit Secure Video camera, while the 200GB plan ($2.99 per month) supports up to five cameras. The 2TB plan ($10.99 per month) and above support an unlimited number of cameras. The other big benefit of the service is end-to-end encryption, which helps keep your security footage much more secure, and frankly isn’t as common as it should be in the security world in 2025.
Contrary to what you might assume, HomeKit Secure Video is a feature of iCloud rather than just a place for footage to be stored. Footage captured by a camera connected through HomeKit Secure Video does not count against your iCloud storage plan – so you don’t have to worry about limiting recording settings for the sake of preserving storage.
HomeKit Secure Video cameras don't get the same automation features as other HomeKit accessories. As mentioned, you can automate cameras based on motion detection, time, and facial recognition. But you can't automate them based on other accessories within HomeKit, and they can’t be included in Scenes with other accessories.
Unfortunately, this camera is only built for HomeKit. You can't use it with Google Assistant or Alexa, and it doesn't support the universal smart home standard, Matter. I expect that when the Matter specification includes security cameras, Eve will either update this camera or release a new one, considering how readily the company has adopted other kinds of Matter accessories.
Eve Cam review: Settings and features
Generally speaking, HomeKit Secure Video is relatively easy to use. You can add cameras to your favorites, which will put them at the top of the Apple Home screen, then showing a constantly updating thumbnail of any events the camera captures – but not an actual live feed of footage. To access the live feed, simply tap on the thumbnail, and the feed will initiate.
You can then access settings for the camera by tapping the little “Settings” cog in the top left of the screen. Here you'll be able to set automatic streaming and recording options based on your location. A typical setup for an indoor camera might involve the camera turning off when you're home and allowing streaming and recording when you're away. You can add others to your Apple Home too, so, for example, when either my wife or I are home, the camera is off – and when we're both away, the camera switches to allowing streaming and recording.
Apple offers facial recognition through HomeKit cameras that can tell you who was detected in or near your home when it recognizes someone. I have used HomeKit Secure Video for some time now and have found this feature to be a little hit-and-miss. I'm regularly told that I was recorded outside my home when, in fact, it was our local FedEx guy. Admittedly, we do look somewhat alike, but it still demonstrates that the feature isn't perfect.
Other settings include the ability to set Activity Zones, which can either be used as an area to trigger recording, or to not trigger recording (for example, you might not want recording to be activated by a car driving past). That’s slightly less useful in the context of an indoor camera, but could still come in handy to, for example, reject any motion on the floor when a pet’s in the shot. And, you can set up notification preferences for when people, pets, and packages are detected.
Eve Cam review: Verdict
There are plenty of things that make the Eve Cam feel dated. Some of these are Eve's fault, like the use of MicroUSB instead of USB-C, and the cheaper build quality. Some of these aren't Eve's fault, like the fact that HomeKit Secure Video still only supports 1080p recording.
Regardless, the fact is that cameras don't have to do much to support HomeKit Secure Video, and it's pretty cheap to make a security camera with a 1080p sensor. In fact, there are plenty of alternatives to the Eve Cam that are much cheaper; while we haven’t tested it, the Aqara G2H Pro has a list price of $69.99, supports Alexa and Google Assistant as well, and even a Zigbee hub built into it. At around $50-$80 or so, the Eve Cam would be a solid choice, but at $149.95, you should look elsewhere.
