Review: Xiaomi Smart Camera C300

The market today are overflowing with smart cameras, each vying for the attention of security-conscious consumers who seek a remotely accessible and affordable home monitoring solution. We’ve spent over a week to test out the new Xiaomi Smart Camera C300, and we’re happy to share our experience and showcase its impressive features.

Retailing at a budget-friendly price of PHP2,399, the Smart Camera C300 might be the answer you’ve been looking for.

But does it deliver on its promise of reliable home monitoring? Does it offer features that go beyond just the basic home security device and is it worth the investment?

Let’s explore these questions and see if the Xiaomi Smart Camera C300 earns our recommendation.

Unboxing

The box of the Xiaomi Smart Camera C300 is made of thick cardboard type material with a very simple design. It’s box sports in an all-white color in a matte finish. You’ll find printed elements on the box includes an image of the device, brand logo, key features, specs, certifications, company info and more.

Upon opening the box, the first thing you’ll see instantly is a compartment box which holds some of the included accessories. The Xiaomi Smart Camera C300 is securely tucked underneath it.

You get the following items out of the box:

Xiaomi Smart Camera C300 unit
USB-C to USB-A Cable
Warranty Card
User Manual
Base Plate with Screws

Design and Build Quality

The Xiaomi Smart Camera C300 has a compact size measuring just 115mm tall and 78mm wide. With a weight at only 327 grams, the device is easy to mount in a variety of locations.

The main body of the Xiaomi C300 is very simple yet sports an attractive design. Everything is made of durable polycarbonate plastic material with a two-tone color in white and black on the camera.

It has a spherical ball shape with the camera sensor and LED indicator light in a pill-shaped cutout design placed at the center. The camera lens is equipped with a dual-axis motor which is able to tilt up and down at 108 degrees vertically. The whole spherical ball shape can rotate from its main base reaching viewing angles of 360 degrees horizontally.

Just below the lens, tilting the camera lens upwards will reveal the microSD card slot to save your footages from the device.

At the back of the body’s camera you’ll find a circular speaker grille, then a reset button and USB-C port at the base.

The smart camera rests on a stable flat base with the bottom having a four evenly spaced circular grips around its circular edge for added stability. With the included base plate, screws and plastic screw covers placed at the device, it can now be mounted on either a ceiling or wall. There’s also a QR code for you to connect the Xiaomi Mi Home app to get it connected and operate it remotely using your smartphone.

Installation and Storage

Setting up the Xiaomi Smart Camera C300 is easy. First you need to download the Mi Home/Xiaomi Home app and connect the USB-C cable to the device then the USB-A connector to a power adapter.

It will automatically turn on the camera, there’s no power button on the device. The smart camera will then instruct you to scan the QR code located at the base. In case you don’t scan the QR code right away, an audio prompt will say “Awaiting connection” to inform you about the process.

Open the app from your phone to click the “scan code to add”, once you are connected with the smart camera an audio prompt will advise you a successful pairing. It took us less than 5 minutes to finish the setup.

Storing your videos on the Xiaomi Smart Camera C300 offers three storage solutions to back up your recordings thru a cloud storage, local storage like your phone or NAS device, and microSD card directly on the camera. It has an integrated Xiaomi Security Chip, preventing privacy leaks caused by video streaming, device forgery, and more ensuring your data stays safe.

If you opt for the cloud, Xiaomi is offering its very own secure and fully encrypted video storage service with Xiaomi Home Secure. It allows for continuous 24/7 recording with unlimited video length, AI-powered detection features like person and motion recognition, and starts at an affordable price of PHP 140 per month for a 7-day event history. For longer surveillance requirements there’s a 30-day plan available for PHP 185 per month.

For the MicroSD card, the videos are saved instantly. We do recommend using reputable brands like Kingston, Lexar, Transcend, etc., that offer Class 10 / UHS-I / V10 or above for high-definition video recording. You may need to invest also on a higher storage capacity, a 256GB microSD card can record up to 24 days.

We were able to quickly review our recordings on the Xiaomi Smart Camera C300 through the MicroSD card with fast-forward speeds up to 16x.

Camera

The Xiaomi Smart Camera C300 captures high quality videos in crisp 2K HD resolution at 2304 x 1296 pixels using a 6P lens with an aperture of f/1.4. The large aperture helps the camera pass in adequate light even in low light conditions to capture more details of the image.

The camera also offers a lower resolution of 360p at 640 x 360 pixels for smaller video file size and conserve storage space.

Poor lighting conditions often compromise video quality for many cameras. However, the Xiaomi Smart Camera C300 is fitted with enhanced night vision to tackle this challenge. Equipped with invisible 940nm infrared LEDs, the C300 can capture footage in either full color or black and white mode to maintain good video quality even in low-light environments.

For privacy protection, you can easily set the camera into sleep mode thru the app and wake it up again to resume recording.

In terms of video quality, the camera captured clear images with decent color reproduction, and minimal noise during well-lit conditions. On low light situations, you still get an amount of decent details but we feel that the images are a bit soft. If you took photos with the app, we suggest to use the 2K resolution which has larger image size compared to the 360p. The motorized camera operates silently during initial startup and the movement is smooth as well.

Here are some sample photos we took with the Xiaomi Smart Camera C300.

2K Resolution, Indoor, Ambient Lighting

360p Resolution, Indoor, Ambient Lighting

2K Resolution, Outdoor, Ambient Lighting

2K Resolution, Outdoor, Low Lighting

2K Resolution, Outdoor, Low Lighting

Sharing our sample video recording on the Xiaomi Smart Camera C300

Using the Mi Home app, the Xiaomi Smart Camera C300 has a talkback feature, it basically allows you to communicate with those back home and they can also speak back to you. The two-way audio is pretty good with clear voices and a loud speaker on the camera to hear you well. This feature is probably one I liked the most and helpful especially when you have a delivery at home or simply just want to say hello to your kids at home.

It has an effective AI-assisted human detection feature to capture movements of people seen on the camera which can be accessed to your Mi Home app under the surveillance option for you to check the footage immediately.

The Xiaomi Smart Camera C300 and Mi Home app has obtained BSI Kitemark certification which means that the product has been tested independently and repeatedly by experts to be safe, secure, and quality assurance.

One thing I discovered during the review was the Xiaomi Smart Camera C300 with its USB-C port is able to be powered by a portable power bank. This feature can aid users to establish a temporary surveillance in any location. Imagine needing to monitor a vacation rental property or a backyard gathering and want to keep an eye on valuables left outside. This smart camera powered by a power bank, can be placed strategically for that added peace of mind.

Conclusion

With an affordable price of PHP2,399, the Xiaomi Smart Camera C300 boasts a good set of features to keep your homes or small offices secure and monitored daily to see what’s going on.

The smooth motorized pan and tilt of the camera lets you look around and the image quality of its 2K resolution on the recorded video is pretty decent. Although the overall design is very simple you get excellent build quality.

Unlike some other smart camera models in the market, the Xiaomi Smart Camera C300 offers the flexibility of choosing where to save your videos. It has three storage options either on the local storage via microSD card, a NAS device, or thru its own cloud storage service.

There are features worth mentioning such as the talkback feature, AI human detection, sleep mode, and able to record videos in full color even in low light conditions.

In general, the Xiaomi Smart Camera C300 does a decent job as a reliable home or small office monitoring security device and it’s also portable. So, for users prioritizing both affordability and dependable security, the Xiaomi Smart Camera C300 is a recommendable choice.

Price and Availability

The Xiaomi Smart Camera C300 has an SRP price of PHP2,399. It is available in all Xiaomi concept stores nationwide and its official e-commerce partners on Lazada and Shopee.