Thursday, May 9, 2013

ISmart Alarm - Is it really that Smart??? An honest review of the ISmart Alarm

Picture of Preferred PackageI just stumbled across what at the very first moment I saw it screamed "Toilet Alarm" When looking through the spec's of the uber hyped "Ismart Alarm" the first thing which concerned me was, of course, the wireless aspect. Oddly enough, I did really give the ISmartAlarm an honest look through as far as the specs went, so here is what I discovered in my review of the ISMART ALARM.

The ISmart Alarm Camera - First of all, this camera is pretty much a standard off the shelf wifi camera available for half the price by simply searching for wireless ip camera. So why the hype??? I guess you need a camera in the ISmart Alarm because of the high false alarm potential of wireless alarm systems.

The ISmart Alarm App - Nothing overly special here which is not available through many other alarm system apps, however, what happens if your cell phone battery dies or you are out of range and cannot receive the Push notification? not to mention the added data usage of monitoring your IP Camera via your cell phone data plan. I read something where ISmart Alarms was going to have their Ismart Alarm dial 911. Well, I can tell you right now the police departments will be right on banning this feature as soon as they realise the number of false alarms due to the wireless sensors in the ISmart Alarm

The ISmartAlarm Wireless Sensors - Speaking of the wireless sensors which come with the ISmart Alarm, with all the hype around the whole Wifi component of the ISmart Alarm, one would assume the ISmart Sensors operate on the same platform... Well, that would be incorrect. The ISmart Alarm Wireless contacts and motion detector specs are as follows:

  • ISmart Alarm Wireless Door Window Sensor Frequency: 908MHZ

  • ISmart Alarm Wireless Door Window Sensor Range: UNDER 100m ( Outdoor, open space)which means far less inside your home.

So what does 908 MHZ mean when it comes to the review of the ISmart Alarm? Well first of all, the ISmart Alarm wireless transmitters operate on a frequency which when placed in close proximity to a WIFI device.... um like the the ISmart Alarm CubeOne, will clash. This means both ISmart Alarm wireless technologies cannot coexist in the same area and will in fact defeat each other. So not only will your WIFI suffer, as clearly indicated in the lacklustre range of the ISmart Alarm Wireless Door Window Sensor specification, the range of the ISmart Alarm Wireless devices will also suffer, if not completely fail.

The ISmart Alarm Warranty... Or Lack Thereof - This is the part which really caught me by surprise. The folks over at ISmart Alarm do not even trust their own technology enough to offer any kind of warranty of guarantee with their initial product roll out. Do I really need to go any further?

I guess the one good thing about the ISMART ALARM is with the current price point, at least you won't be loosing much if it fails, oh ya right, the valuables in your home.