Hi I'm CNET Ry Crist and I'm here with the iSmartAlarm if you saw at CES this year and on Kickstarter.
Now, the iSmartAlarm is a clever do-it-yourself alternative to more expensive home security options.
The iSmartAlarm comes in packages starting at $199 and those won't come with any contracts or subscription fees, although come with what you see here.
You got the CubeOne which is sort of the mother ship of the whole set.
It's gonna connect to your router and
hack all the other devices and kind of organize them into one system.
You got a motion detector here that works up to 30 feet and you get 2 remote tags.
These are little keychain attachments you can use to control the system and you get 2 of these contact sensors and you can stick anywhere and this will detect when the door opens or closes but detecting when they separated and come back together.
For $150 or more, you can add in the icamera and this is the camera that will take a picture of an intruder during a break in and entering; however, we found that it didn't work that well.
It's kind of finicky to set up and we had the same problem on multiple networks.
It would lag and it was tough to get into work when we want it too.
So, not the most reliable thing.
I wouldn't recommend getting the camera at this time.
Now, you'll control all of these with the iSmartAlarm app and this app is available in iOS right now, but it's coming soon to Android too.
The app is easy to use and intuitive and it's got a lot of information package into it that was helpful so we follow the really strong feature of the system.
From the app, you can arm or disarm the device.
You can tilt at your home or you can activate
the panic function to have the siren starts sounding and it's pretty loud.
The thing that probably distinguishes the iSmartAlarm with most in the competition aside from the low price is the fact that it is a do-it-yourself system and that doesn't just mean setting it up yourself or managing yourself.
What that means is that if someone intrudes in your house and the alarm goes off, you'll get a phone call or text automated from iSmartAlarm, not a live person and they'll have you call the cops.
They won't call the police for you.
They won't call emergency services for you.
You have to do that.
Now some people might actually like this.
They don't want the police to be called
every time there's a false alarm.
But other people might want the security knowing that if something happens, the police will be called automatically.
So if that's what you want, this might not be the system for you.
That's it.
I was very impressed with the system myself.
And testing it, the contact sensors worked perfectly, the motion detector was very nice, everything just work the way it should with the exception of the iCamera and the $199 option; all of these, to me it's a great value.
And if someone just moved in to 1-bedroom apartment on the first floor of a building, I'm kind of considering getting it for myself.
If you're looking for a do-it-yourself home security option and you're looking to say if somebody too, the iSmartAlarm might be the perfect fit for you.
Thanks for watching for CNET.
I'm Ry Crist.
