Amazon Blink Indoor And Outdoor Cameras Promise Four Years Of Battery Life

Smart security cameras have become the fad these days as houses and their occupants get smarter and more connected to the Internet. Not all such cameras, however, are easy to set up and those that are often come with compromises when it comes to battery life and storage. That is why Amazon is launching two new Blink cameras that leave the decision making to owners where they want to store their recorded footage and whether they want their cameras to last four years or only two.

Amazon's big boast the new Blink cameras' battery life is thanks to two things. First is the proprietary chip technology that promises to squeeze out two years of battery life from two AA lithium batteries. The other is the expansion pack that will let you connect two more AA batteries to get a total of four years, at least on "normal" use, whatever that means.

If the camera will last that long, it's likely your recorded footage will span gigabytes by then. Amazon gives Blink owners the option to store clips on the cloud at $3 a month for just one camera or $10 monthly for an unlimited number of cameras in the same location. Alternatively, owners can opt to store and manage everything locally but they will need to buy a separate Syn Module 2, which can connect up to 10 Blink cameras, and their own USB storage.

Also new to this generation of Blink smart security cameras is a privacy zone feature that lets you cut down on unnecessary alerts by selecting the areas you want to monitor. Other than that, the cameras still have the same features that may have endeared them to homeowners, like 1080p video recording, IR night vision, two-way audio, and the ease of setup.

The new Amazon Blink cameras come in an Indoor model for $79.99 and a weatherproof Outdoor camera for $99.99. Pre-orders for these cameras start today but there is no word yet on that expansion battery pack that's still to come later this year.