eufy Video Doorbell E340 Review: dual cameras and no subscription, but not as flawless as it sounds

I picked up the eufy Security Video Doorbell E340 mainly because I was tired of paying a subscription to Ring just to see recordings of people at my own front door. On paper, this thing ticks a lot of boxes: dual cameras (one for faces, one for parcels), 2K video, color night vision, local storage, and it can run on battery or wired power. Basically, it looks like a Ring competitor with fewer ongoing costs and a few extra tricks.

I used it as my main doorbell for a couple of weeks, replacing a Ring doorbell I’d been using for a while. My setup is pretty standard: UK semi-detached house, door slightly recessed, decent Wi‑Fi, and a mix of Amazon Echos around the house. I tested it both as a pure battery doorbell and then with low-voltage wiring connected, because battery life is one of those things that can make or break these devices.

What I wanted was simple: reliable motion detection, clear video, decent night vision, and no monthly fee. I also wanted something I don’t have to babysit every few days by recharging or rebooting. Compared to Ring, I expected to lose some polish on the app side, but I hoped the local storage and dual camera setup would make up for it.

Overall, it’s a mixed bag. There are things it does really well and a few parts where it just feels half-baked, especially if you rely heavily on smart home integration or expect bulletproof reliability out of the box. If you’re thinking of jumping from Ring or Arlo to save on subscriptions, it’s worth hearing the good and the annoying bits before you commit.

Price-wise, the E340 sits in that mid-to-high bracket for video doorbells. It’s not the cheapest, but not the most expensive either, especially if you compare it to buying a Ring plus paying a subscription over a couple of years. That’s the main selling point here: no monthly fee to access your recordings. If you’re currently paying Ring or Arlo every month, this thing basically pays for itself after a year or so, assuming it meets your needs.

For the money, you’re getting dual cameras, 2K video, color night vision, built-in storage, AI detection, and the option to go wired or battery. On paper, that’s pretty strong value. In reality, the missing indoor chime, the iffy Alexa integration, and the motion detection inconsistency drag the value down a bit. You might end up buying extra stuff: a spare battery, a compatible chime or HomeBase, maybe even a hard drive for the base if you go that route. Suddenly the total cost creeps up.

Compared to Ring, it’s a bit of a trade: you save on subscription and get better local control of your data, but you give up some polish and reliability in the ecosystem. Ring’s app and integrations are more mature, but you pay for that every month. With eufy, once you’ve bought the hardware, you’re done, but you have to live with the quirks. If you’re the kind of person who hates ongoing fees and doesn’t mind tinkering a bit with settings, zones, and maybe the physical mount, the E340 can feel like decent value.

If you just want a fire-and-forget doorbell that “just works” out of the box, including solid smart home integration and a proper chime, this might feel slightly overpriced for what it delivers in practice. I’d call it good value only if you’re really committed to avoiding subscriptions and you’re okay with the trade-offs that come with that choice.

Visually, the E340 looks quite modern and low-key. The matte black finish doesn’t scream for attention, but it’s noticeable enough that a delivery driver knows where to press. The two cameras stacked vertically make sense once you see the split view in the app: faces up top, parcels and the doorstep down below. It’s not huge, about 15 x 5.2 x 2.8 cm, so it fits fine on most door frames without looking like a brick.

The plastic housing feels decent, not premium but not cheap toy plastic either. It seems solid enough for outdoor use, and the button has a clear click when pressed. The front face is smooth, so it’s easy to wipe off rain spots or dust. The LED ring around the button is bright enough that visitors see it at night, and the status LED is discreet. Overall, from a distance it looks like a modern video doorbell, nothing more, nothing less.

Where I’m less convinced is the mounting and anti-theft design. The doorbell clips into a plastic backplate that you screw into the wall or frame. To remove the doorbell, you poke a small pin into a hole at the top. eufy gives you a tool for that, but honestly, anything long and thin (paperclip, thin screwdriver, even a cocktail stick) can trigger it. If someone wants to steal it and has half a clue, it’s not hard. That’s especially annoying because the built-in storage is inside the unit, so if the doorbell goes, your recordings go with it.

You can try to improve it yourself by putting a small screw in the release hole or placing it somewhere slightly harder to access, but that’s DIY hacking, not a proper security design. For a device that literally advertises itself as protecting your entrance, the physical security feels a bit half-hearted. If theft or vandalism is a concern in your area, this is something you really need to think about before relying on it without a HomeBase backup.

Battery life is one of the big sticking points with this doorbell. eufy suggests you can get several months out of a charge on recommended settings. In practice, that really depends on how busy your front door is and how high you crank the quality and detection features. With a fairly active front door (post, parcels, kids in and out, a few visitors), running it in higher quality and full-feature mode, the battery drops way faster than the marketing suggests.

Some users have reported getting less than a week on higher settings, and around a week or so even when dialing things back a bit. That lines up more with what I’d expect if you have a busy door and you’re using motion detection, dual cameras, and color night vision. If you live on a quiet cul-de-sac with maybe one or two events a day, you’ll probably get better life, but I wouldn’t count on the “months” claim unless you really trim the features and your doorstep is basically dead most of the time.

The upside is that the battery is swappable. You can buy a second battery, keep it charged, and just swap them so the doorbell is never offline for charging. The downside is that extra battery is not cheap, and it’s one more thing to manage. Also, because the mount release is just a little pinhole, you’re constantly poking at that weak point every time you want to swap the battery, which doesn’t inspire confidence in long-term durability.

If you have the option, wiring it in (8–24V, >10VA) is the better move. Even wired, the battery has to stay inside, but the wiring keeps it topped up so you don’t have to think about charging. For renters or people without existing doorbell wiring, you’re stuck with battery mode unless you run new low-voltage yourself. In short: on pure battery, expect more maintenance and shorter life than the glossy numbers, especially with a busy front door.

On the video side, the E340 is actually pretty solid. The 2K resolution gives a clear enough image to recognize faces, read logos on jackets, and see details around the door. The dual-camera setup is not a gimmick: the top lens gives you the usual head-to-chest view, while the bottom one shows parcels and feet. For deliveries, that lower camera is genuinely useful. You can clearly see if a package was left, where it is, and if someone comes back to grab it later.

Daytime image quality is clean and sharp, with decent colors. Night vision is also decent. You can choose standard black-and-white IR or a color night mode using a built-in light. The color mode looks nicer and makes it easier to recognize people and parcels, but it uses more battery. The claimed 5 m of clear night view feels about right in practice. For anyone standing on the doorstep or just in front of it, you see them clearly enough.

The bigger issue is motion detection reliability. When it’s behaving, it picks up people walking up the path, detects parcels, and sends timely alerts. But there are reports (and I’ve seen some of this) where it simply misses whole chunks of activity: people entering and leaving, deliveries, and no motion clips recorded, even with human detection on and sensitivity cranked up. That’s a serious problem for something sold as a security product. It seems to work fine some days, then randomly has gaps where it just doesn’t trigger.

Smart integrations are also hit and miss. The eufy app itself is fine: you get alerts, live view, and access to recordings. But if you rely on Alexa to announce motion or doorbell presses through Echo devices, it’s flaky. Sometimes all speakers announce, sometimes just one, sometimes none. The official Alexa skill has bad ratings for a reason. If your main goal is a doorbell that plays nicely and reliably with a bigger smart home setup, this will probably annoy you.

Out of the box, the E340 is basically the doorbell unit, the rechargeable battery, mounting plate, some screws, a wedge, a USB-A to USB-C cable, and a couple of small wires if you want to hook it to an existing chime. There’s no dedicated indoor chime included, which honestly feels a bit cheap at this price. You either use your phone, pair it with certain eufy bases or chimes, or rely on Alexa/Google with some limitations. If you were expecting a classic “push + ding-dong box” combo, that’s not what this is.

The doorbell itself is a tall, matte black rectangle with two lenses stacked vertically: the top one for faces, the bottom one for packages and the ground. There’s a ring-shaped button that lights up, and a tiny status LED. It connects over Wi‑Fi to the eufy app, and you can choose to run it purely on battery or combine battery + low voltage wiring (8–24V). Even in wired mode, the battery still has to be installed, which is a bit weird but that’s how they designed it.

Once it’s set up in the app, you get a split view: top camera and bottom camera. You can define motion zones in a polygon shape, not just one straight line, which is actually pretty handy if you’re on a street with passing cars and want to avoid constant alerts. There’s also human-only detection and package detection, and you can set whether you want alerts just for button presses, or also for motion. The local storage is built into the doorbell (about 8 GB), and once it fills up, it overwrites the oldest clips automatically.

In daily use, the basic stuff is there: someone walks up, you get a notification, you open the app, and you see them. If they press the bell, you can talk through two-way audio or tap a quick reply. When it works, it feels pretty solid and you forget about the subscription angle entirely. The problem is that the reliability and integrations are not as consistent as you’d expect from something that’s supposed to sit at your front door 24/7 and just work.

From a pure functionality point of view, the E340 does a lot: motion alerts, human detection, package detection, dual camera angles, 2-way audio, local recording, and optional remote access through the app. When it’s working properly, it genuinely covers the basics of a front-door security setup quite well. You can see who came, when they came, what they left, and talk to them if you’re not home. The polygon motion zones are especially useful to cut down on false alerts from the street or neighbors.

The problem is consistency. Security gear is only really useful if you can trust it to catch the important events every time. The reports of whole days with no motion detection, missed deliveries, or random gaps in recordings are a red flag. If it misses the postman or a courier dropping a parcel, that’s annoying. If it misses someone snooping around your door, that’s worse. And because the main storage is on the doorbell itself unless you pair it with a HomeBase, a thief can just pop it off and walk away with both the device and the evidence.

On the plus side, local storage is a big win if you’re trying to cut subscriptions. You don’t pay monthly, and once you set it up, it just overwrites the oldest clips. That’s a big reason people look at eufy instead of Ring or Arlo. The two-way audio is usable, not studio quality, but good enough to tell a courier where to leave a parcel or to tell someone you’re not interested. Pre-recorded quick replies are a nice lazy feature if you don’t feel like talking.

Overall, I’d say it improves your awareness of what’s going on at your door, but it’s not as dependable as I’d like from something in this category. If you’re okay with the occasional missed event and some quirks, it still does the job most of the time. If you want something rock solid for security, especially without adding a HomeBase, I’d be cautious and maybe look at other options or at least wait until eufy clearly fixes the detection and integration issues with updates.