With its Tapo brand, TP-Link has built up a considerable range of very good smart home products. This is now expanded with the Tapo D230S1 Smart Battery Video Doorbell.
I think the name says quite well what this is about. We have a wireless, networked doorbell, which, unlike many other models, has no subscription fees or anything similar.
Thanks to the built-in battery, it can also be used very flexibly and should last up to 6 months on one charge.
Sounds impressive! But what does it look like in practice? Is the Tapo D230S1 Smart Battery Video Doorbell really good and reliable?
Let’s find out in the test!
At this point, many thanks to TP-link for providing the Tapo D230S1 for this test.
Tapo D230 Smart Battery Video Doorbell Review
The Tapo Smart Battery Video Doorbell consists of two components. On the one hand, we have the battery-operated doorbell itself, as well as a small “base station”.
The base station is a small white box that is connected to your network via LAN. This base station then connects wirelessly to the doorbell.
In the base station you will find a memory card slot as well as a speaker that serves as a gong. So when someone sounds at you, the base station also sounds.
The doorbell itself uses the usual elongated design. TP-Link largely uses white plastic, which is partially interrupted by a black high-gloss surface on the front. I really like the design of the doorbell. This looks modern and tidy.
On the front of the bell we have the camera lens, a sensor, an LED headlight and a large bell button. The bell button is very large, but it may not be easy to recognize at first glance. TP-Link Tapo probably also thought of this and also provides stickers that you can use to make the bell button a little more obvious.
With battery
The Tapo D230S1 is a battery-operated doorbell. The Tapo’s battery is removable and can be charged externally via microUSB. It’s a bit of a shame that we still have microUSB here, but I still think the principle with the removable battery is great.
So you can buy a second battery for +- €25 and easily switch back and forth when a battery is empty.
And yes, the Tapo A100 battery used really only costs €25, which is very fair!
Battery life
The battery life of battery-powered surveillance cameras depends heavily on how often they have to start up to take pictures.
If you have this on a quiet front door, it will run much longer than if you have it facing a street.
Tapo provides the following guideline values here:
Private courtyard (10 shots per day) – approx. 6 months Apartment (20 photos per day) – approx. 3 months Front door facing the street (60 photos per day) – approx. 1 month
This is completely honest information! I can’t wait to test the Tapo D230S1 until my battery is empty, but the running time seems to level out at +- 2-3 months for me.
App
The doorbell of course uses the Tapo app, which you may already know from other Tapo smart home products, such as WiFi sockets, etc.
The Tapo app is generally very successful and is also visually clear and beautifully designed. The structure corresponds to the common standard of universal smart home apps.
Here you will find an overview of all connected Tapo (and TP-Link Kasa) products. If you tap on one of them, you will end up in the corresponding view.
Connecting the Tapo doorbell to the app is very easy! You connect the base station to a network and power. You then start searching for a new product in the app. This should be found and connected there immediately.
Then all you have to do is insert the battery into the doorbell and it will be recognized and connected more or less automatically.
If you now tap the doorbell in the Tapo app, you will land in the live view within 1-2 seconds. From here you can manually start photos, videos and 2-way communication.
When someone rings, you will receive a corresponding notification on your smartphone, which will take you directly to the app and 2-way communication, and the base station will also ring.
Motion detection and recording
Basically, the Tapo D230 Smart Battery Video Doorbell works like a surveillance camera on your front door.
This means: You can receive notifications when motion is detected and the camera will then record even if no one rings the bell.
The camera can distinguish between the following “objects”:
People Pets Vehicles Packages Other Movements
In the app you can deactivate recognition for individual categories if you want.
In principle, the smart motion detection seems to work well, although not always 100% perfect.
The range of motion detection is relatively high for a battery-powered camera, although not huge. If you have a large yard in front of your front door, the camera will no longer detect movement at the other end.
Local or Cloud
Camera recordings are saved locally on a microSD memory card in the base station or in the cloud.
Cloud storage is chargeable if you want to use it (€3.49 per month).
Frankly, I see no reason for this thanks to the good local storage on the microSD card. Buy a 128 GB microSD card and you’ll be equipped for lots of recordings, because the doorbell only records when it detects movement anyway.
For example, 128 GB is enough forever!
Pleasingly good image quality
The Tapo D230 has a 5 megapixel sensor that records with 2K resolution. This has a 160 degree viewing angle and a recording in 4:3 format.
Very good! Because this way you can usually see a person standing in front of your door completely.
The general image quality is good, if not very good, day and night.
TP-Link / Tapo did a great job here.
Conclusion
Fortunately, the Tapo D230* is a highly recommended video doorbell! I would even say one of the best I have tested so far! Why?
Low purchase price of under €100 No mandatory subscription Long battery life and cheap additional batteries Function was completely convincing
There are without question a lot of good smart doorbells. For example, Ring’s models are undoubtedly great, but like Nest, they require a subscription to be able to record. This is simply a bitter aftertaste of paying for your doorbell every month.
The Tapo D230, on the other hand, has a low purchase price and no follow-up costs. Yes, there is also a cloud storage subscription, but this is completely optional. As a rule, all your recordings are saved on a memory card in the base station.
The image quality of the D230 is good, as is the battery life. If the battery is empty, it can be easily removed and charged via microUSB. Additional batteries are also very cheap at €25.
The Tapo is functionally flawless, just like the doorbell in general.
In short, if you are looking for a simple, good “Wi-Fi doorbell” without a mandatory subscription, then the Tapo D230 is simply very good and cheap.