Y-cam Cube HD 1080 review

It may be a little, palm-sized package, but Y-cam’s latest Cube HD 1080 IP camera crams in the features. It has a top resolution of 1,920 x 1,080, 802.11n wireless networking, night vision, motion detection and it offers direct recording to a microSD card or NAS appliance.

The body is too small to accommodate a standard Ethernet port, so Y-cam uses a combination of mini-USB port and Ethernet adapter. The external power supply has a decent 3m lead, but Y-Cam also offers an optional PoE adapter.

Y-cam’s setup utility finds the camera for you and offers quick access to its web interface. Three video streams are available: the first goes up to 1080p, the second supports 720p and the third offers up to 256 x 144 pixels for mobile access.

Unlike Aztech’s WIPC402, we had no problems during wireless setup – the Cube HD 1080 connected to our Netgear WNR3500 11n router in a matter of seconds. The web interface provides a search facility so you can browse SSIDs and choose which network to connect to.

Video quality at both 720p and 1080p is average at best. Colour balance and contrast are good, but the focus isn’t sharp enough. The camera also had difficulty coping with bright sunlight streaming through the lab windows.

With 28 infrared LEDs surrounding the lens, the Y-cam’s night vision is impressive. We found coverage easily went up to the claimed 15m. Once again, though, poor focus limits its usefulness.

For motion detection, there are four windows, each with their own sensitivity settings. When triggered, the camera can send snapshots to its microSD card, network share or HTTP, FTP and email servers. It can record continuously to either a NAS share or microSD card, and you can also upload the card’s contents to an FTP server.

We had no problems linking the camera to an Asustor NAS appliance, where we could store snapshots and movies. You can also remotely browse the folder contents from the web interface, view recordings and delete them.

For such a tiny camera, the Cube HD 1080 is packed with features. Crucially, though, image quality isn’t up to par. For this price, we’d expect better all-round performance.