Eufy SoloCam S340 review: Our favourite outdoor security camera

What if you could install an outdoor security camera and never worry about it running out of battery? That’s what the Eufy SoloCam S340 promises, and thanks to a dual-lens camera, motorised 360-degree coverage and AI-powered motion detection, it’s also packed with useful features.

This isn’t the first outdoor camera to top up its batteries with solar power, but it’s a reminder of just how useful a small solar panel can be; essentially, it means that, once installed, this camera never needs plugging in for a charge.

Since it’s from Eufy, the camera doesn’t force buyers to pay a subscription for cloud video storage. Instead, clips are saved to 8GB of integrated storage and can be viewed via the Eufy smartphone app.

And as with Eufy’s S350 indoor camera, it comes with twin lenses, which means it can record at 1x and 3x optical zoom simultaneously, giving you a better view of what’s going on in your recordings.

Eufy SoloCam S340 review: What do you get for your money?

Right out of the box, the £179 Eufy S340 feels like pretty good value. It’s only £50 more than the aforementioned S350, but adds weatherproofing for outdoor use and that solar panel, which plugs in with a cable and can be attached directly to the camera, or mounted up to a couple of metres away to absorb as much sunlight as possible.

The Eufy S340 has a pan and tilt motor, which means it can rotate through 360 degrees and angle the camera up or down. Combine this with smart motion detection and it will follow the movement of a person as they walk around. You can also create four preset views for quickly moving the camera to a certain position with a tap of your phone.

The camera comprises a 3K resolution (2,880 x 1,620) wide-angle lens with a 135-degree field-of-view and aperture of f/1.6, and a 2K (2,304 x 1,296), 2x telephoto lens with 8x hybrid zoom and the same aperture. There’s also colour (or regular greyscale) night vision, 2.4GHz Wi-Fi (no 5GHz option, sadly) and optional compatibility with Eufy’s HomeBase S380.

As well as the camera and solar panel, the kit includes mounts for both items and all of the screws and wall plugs you’ll need to install everything securely. Since I can’t drill new holes for every camera I review, I fixed the S340 to the outside of a window box; a little crude, perhaps, but it did the job and ensured the camera had a clear view of the parking spaces below.

Naturally, the solar panel is the stand-out feature here. It can be mounted separately or attached to the top of the camera itself with a ball-and-socket joint that allows for plenty of adjustability, before being screwed tightly to stay in place. This adjustability is important, as you need to be able to position it so it gets the most sunlight possible during the day. Eufy says the solar panel can provide the camera with enough power so it never needs charging, even with just two hours of daily sunlight exposure.

As with other Eufy security cameras, the S340 is clever enough to tell the difference between humans and other types of movement, and labels such events accordingly.

Other features include the option of having a spotlight turn on when movement is spotted at night, and the camera can play a recorded message at potential intruders. There’s also a speaker and microphone for two-way audio, and it’s compatible with Alexa and Google Assistant, so you can ask your smart home butler of choice to show a live video feed on a smart display such as the Nest Hub or Amazon Echo Show.

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Eufy SoloCam S340 review: What does it do well?

Setting up the S340 is quick and easy, especially if you already have a Eufy system. Even if you don’t, it’s just a case of creating an account in the Eufy app and adding the camera. The app is nicely designed, quick to respond and intuitive to use – all the things we praise in a home security product like this.

There are quite a few menus to get your head around and plenty of settings to adjust, but it’s all logical enough and the entire setup process shouldn’t take you more than an hour, including the physical installation of the camera itself.

The benefits of the two-lens setup might not be immediately obvious, but after a few days’ use I realised how useful it is to be able to see a 1x and 3x view at the same time. In my case, the former shows a view of the entire parking area, while the latter provides a close-up shot of my car and its immediate surroundings – and because this is an optical zoom instead of digital, the quality is nice and sharp, with lots of detail. I can imagine how the camera could also be used to see a view of your entire garden and a zoomed-in shot of the decking, patio or gate at the same time.

Also impressive is the S340’s ability to spot movement and follow it. I found it was more reliable at detecting movement from long distances than other security cameras I’ve used recently, and it did a great job of locking onto movement, such as someone approaching my car, and following them.

The camera can sometimes get confused when two people are in frame at once, with it jumping from one to the other. That said, set up in a quieter area – a private garden, for example – and configured to respond only to human movement at night when the owner is away from home, it will be far less prone to distractions. Eufy’s embedded AI also prevents it from being triggered by other movement, such as birds, pets or the shadows of trees blowing in the wind.

The solar panel works very well. Positioned outside an east-facing window, the panel I tested received a few hours of direct sunlight every morning. This was plenty, not only to charge the battery from 70% to 100% over the course of a few days, but also to keep it comfortably above 90% for the duration of my testing, even during consecutive overcast days.

The Eufy app neatly shows how the solar panel is performing, and the way it connects to the camera with a ball-and-socket joint means it can be angled to capture as much sunlight as possible.

If you need to install the camera under a ledge some other location in the shade the solar panel can be mounted separately, though the included cable is only around two metres long so this might not be a solution for everyone. I was surprised by just how well the solar panel worked, and quickly grew to love how the camera is always fully charged, even during a typically British springtime with plenty of days filled with grey skies.

In my opinion, the reassurance solar charging brings is absolutely worth the extra cost. It means the camera is always working and always charged, even when set to record more frequently than the default option. Not having to reach out the window, unplug the battery and charge it every few months is also a welcome convenience.

And remember, at £179 this camera is only £20 more than the Ring Stick Up Cam Pro (battery). Both are outdoor security cameras, but for an extra £20 you get a 3K resolution, dual-lens setup and a solar panel. And, as I’m sure you’re well aware, the Ring practically requires a monthly or annual subscription to function properly, whereas the Eufy doesn’t, thanks to local video storage.

Speaking of footage, the app makes it quick and easy to view recordings and download them to your phone. All you need to do is ensure the camera has a good Wi-Fi signal; if it’s installed a long way from your router you should consider buying a network extender.

With a good signal, the Eufy app will send a notification to your phone within about five seconds. The app doesn’t open as fast as some other systems, such as Ring’s, but after a further three seconds or so you’ll be shown a recording of whatever motion the camera just spotted – and that footage actually includes a second or two from before the motion began. In other words, it will show you an intruder walking into frame, so you can see exactly what they’ve done and where they came from.

Eufy SoloCam S340 review: What could it do better?

Unlike Eufy’s S350 indoor camera, the outdoor S340 doesn’t have geofencing. I can appreciate why this feature is more useful with an indoor camera, where it effectively switches off when your smartphone is at home, preventing constant false positives. But I would like the option for the outdoor camera, too. That way, it could be set to record and send a notification only when the Eufy app knows the owner’s smartphone is away from home.

A more granular approach could even see configurability where the camera always monitors when you’re away from home, but switches off when you’re home during the day, before arming itself to keep an eye on the garden or driveway at night, regardless of your location. The geofencing system used by the indoor S350 is in beta, so hopefully Eufy will bring this to its outdoor cameras once it has been fully developed.

Otherwise, there are few concerns to report. Consumers looking for a very simple security camera might be initially overwhelmed by the level of configurability on offer here, but the app is mostly clear and understandable. Just make sure you work through each setup process slowly and allow plenty of time to adjust the various settings – such as motion detection sensitivity, night vision, AI tracking and activity zones – before leaving the camera to get on with its job.

Eufy SoloCam S340 review: Should you buy one?

There’s a lot to like here. The Eufy S340 looks and feels like a premium product that will stand the test of time. It’s fairly compact, easy to install and set up, and the solar panel does a fantastic job of keeping the battery topped up.

I’d like to see the option for geofencing, but with it being in beta on other Eufy products at the time of writing I have hopes it will come to the S340 at a later date. For now, you’ll need to remember to switch the camera from the “I’m staying” to the “I’m leaving” mode, or set up a schedule for when the camera switches between its Home and Away modes.

Video quality is very good, and I like how the dual lens setup shows you a view at 1x and 3x zoom simultaneously, with no loss in image quality. The way the camera tracks movement is also impressive, and the night vision (whether you opt for colour or not) works well.

Ultimately, this is an outdoor security camera that addresses two specific needs – for constant power without wires, and for optical zoom with motorised panning and tilting. The Eufy S340 delivers on these requirements very well indeed, and on that basis alone I feel it is worth the money. The lack of ongoing costs, in the form of the subscriptions used by rivals such as Ring, seals the deal.