XPJ Wireless Doorbell Camera Review: a simple video intercom that works best if you keep expectations in check

I’ve been using this XPJ wireless doorbell camera with the 7" screen for a little while to see if it’s a decent alternative to the usual Ring/Blink style stuff. What pushed me to try it was the combo of local TF card storage and the fact it comes with its own indoor monitor, so you’re not forced to use a phone or pay monthly fees. On paper it ticks a lot of boxes: 1080p video, two-way audio, motion detection, Tuya app, and a 7,000 mAh battery for the outdoor unit.

In practice, it’s a mixed bag. Some things are pretty solid for the price, especially for people who don’t want to mess with cloud accounts or who don’t have a smartphone on them all the time. Other parts feel a bit budget, and you can tell where they cut corners. It’s not total junk, but it’s also not on the same level as big-brand doorbells that cost more.

I set it up on a typical UK-style front door with a small front yard and a pavement a few metres away. Wi‑Fi router is in the hallway, so the signal isn’t crazy strong but not terrible either. I used both the indoor screen and the Tuya app on my phone, and I left motion detection on medium for most of the time. That’s enough to see the good and the bad of the motion sensor and battery life.

If you’re expecting a polished, plug-and-forget smart doorbell like the top brands, you’ll probably be a bit disappointed. If you just want a no-subscription video doorbell with a big indoor screen and you’re ready to tweak a few settings and accept some quirks, it does the job. The rest of this review goes into the details: design, performance, motion detection, battery life, and whether I think it’s worth the price or not.

When you look at value, you have to compare this XPJ kit to two types of products: the big-brand smart doorbells (Ring, Nest, etc.) and the cheaper camera-only doorbells from random brands. This one sits somewhere in the middle. The key extras here are the 7" indoor screen and the local TF card storage with no monthly fee. If those two points matter to you, the value is actually pretty decent. You’re paying for the convenience of an all-in-one video intercom that works even for someone who doesn’t own a smartphone or doesn’t want to use one for everything.

Compared to a Ring or similar, you usually pay a subscription for cloud recording, and you don’t get a built-in indoor screen unless you buy extra hardware. Those systems are more polished, have better apps, and probably better long-term support. But they cost more over time. Here, once you’ve paid, that’s it. The video quality, night vision and two-way audio are good enough for normal use, and installation is easy since it’s wireless. So if you’re on a budget and want to avoid any recurring costs, this XPJ starts to look like a reasonable deal.

On the flip side, there are some compromises. The PIR motion is a bit too sensitive in some setups, which can hurt battery life. The monitor battery is basically pointless for long use, so it’s essentially a plug‑in screen. The software interface is basic, and customer support doesn’t sound very strong based on some user feedback. Also, the Amazon rating hovering around 3.6/5 tells you it’s not a universally loved product; some people are happy, others are clearly annoyed by specific issues.

So in terms of value, I’d say it’s good value for the right user, average for everyone else. If you specifically want: no subscription, local storage, and a big indoor screen for an elderly relative or someone who hates apps, then it’s a sensible buy. If you’re already deep into a smart home ecosystem and care more about smooth apps and long-term reliability, you’re probably better off spending a bit more on a better-known brand.

Design-wise, this XPJ doorbell camera and screen are pretty standard. The outdoor unit is a rectangular plastic block, nothing stylish but not ugly either. It’s the usual black plastic with a lens at the top, a button, and some indicators. It’s water resistant, so rain shouldn’t be a problem, but I wouldn’t call it industrial-grade. It feels like typical consumer plastic: light, a bit hollow, but not so cheap that you think it will crack in a week. If you install it under a small porch or at least not directly hammered by weather, it should be fine.

The 7" indoor screen is also plastic, with a simple bezel and touch interface. The screen size is actually one of the strong points: you really can see what’s going on clearly, which is nice for older eyes or for glancing quickly without squinting. The resolution is 1080p, and for a doorbell camera that’s more than enough. It’s not a tablet screen quality, but it’s clear enough to see faces and details like parcels or license plates close to the door. The touchscreen is responsive most of the time, but there is a slight lag on some menus. Nothing dramatic, but you notice it.

Installation is screw‑in, so you’ll need a drill and a bit of DIY confidence. There are no complicated wires to run, which is the big advantage. One thing to keep in mind: they explicitly say don’t put it on a metal door if you can avoid it, because metal kills the wireless signal. That’s not just theory; you really will see range and stability drop if you mount it on a big metal surface. If your only option is a metal door, you might want to mount it on the wall next to the door instead.

Overall, the design is functional: it blends in, the screen is big, and the buttons are clear. It doesn’t feel premium, but it also doesn’t feel like a toy. For the price point and the feature set, the design is good enough and practical. If you care a lot about aesthetics, this won’t impress you, but for a security gadget that just needs to sit by the door and work, it’s fine.

The battery situation on this kit is a bit two-sided. The outdoor doorbell camera has a 7,000 mAh battery, and the brand claims 45–60 days on a full charge. That’s technically possible, but only if your motion detection isn’t constantly firing. In a quiet cul‑de‑sac or if your door is set back from the street, you can get close to that. In a busier environment, with people and cars passing in front all day, the PIR sensor will trigger way more than you actually want, and that eats into the battery life quickly.

One of the Amazon reviewers said the sensor was picking up people and vehicles much further away than the 5 m claimed, and that this filled the TF card and drained the battery, forcing them to limit usage. I get where they’re coming from. If your door faces a pavement or road, even at 6–10 metres, constant movement means constant recordings. The battery then becomes more like a few weeks instead of two months, and you’ll find yourself recharging more often than you hoped. You can lower PIR sensitivity, but it doesn’t completely fix it if you’re in a very open or busy spot.

The indoor 7" screen has its own 5,000 mAh battery, but honestly, think of it more like a UPS backup than real cordless use. They openly say the screen drains quickly and you should keep it plugged in. In my use, if you leave the screen on a lot, you’re looking at maybe 5–7 hours tops before it needs power again. So the normal way to run it is simply to keep the monitor connected to mains and forget about the internal battery, except for short outages or moving it temporarily.

So overall, the battery story is: the outdoor unit is fine if motion is under control, but if you live on a busy street, be ready for more frequent charging or consider placing it where it doesn’t see so much movement. The indoor screen is basically a plug‑in device. If you go in with that mindset, you won’t be too disappointed. If you were dreaming of a fully wireless system you rarely touch, this isn’t quite that, unless your front area is pretty quiet.

Durability is always a bit of a guess with these lesser‑known brands, but there are a few things you can pick up from the build and the way it’s put together. The outdoor unit is plastic and water resistant, not fully waterproof. It should handle typical rain and cold, but I wouldn’t trust it in very extreme conditions without some basic protection like a small overhang. The buttons feel fine, not mushy, and the casing doesn’t creak when you press it, which is a good sign. I didn’t see any glaring weak points like exposed seams where water can easily get in, but again, it’s not a pro‑grade device.

The indoor screen is the part that feels more fragile to me. It’s light, which is nice for mounting, but it has that budget tablet feel. If you drop it or knock it hard, I wouldn’t be surprised if the screen cracks or the casing pops open. Mounted on a wall and left alone, it should be okay. The main risk is more about power: since it’s meant to be plugged in constantly, the charging port and cable will see a lot of use. If you’re rough with the cable, you might wear out the port over time. So treat it like a cheap tablet: don’t yank the charger, don’t twist it too much.

There’s also the software durability side: firmware, app support, and customer service. One buyer mentioned that after a while, the support email wasn’t available anymore, which is not very reassuring. With big brands, you expect years of updates; with this, I wouldn’t count on much. The good thing is that it runs on Tuya, which is widely used, so the app side should keep working for a while even if XPJ disappears.

Overall, I’d rate durability as acceptable if you install it sensibly and don’t abuse it. It’s not built like a tank, but it’s not total junk either. For the price, that’s pretty normal. If you want something to survive kids kicking balls at it or extreme weather for years, you might want to invest in a more robust, branded system. If you just want basic, careful use on a normal house, it should hold up reasonably well.

In terms of raw performance, the XPJ doorbell is decent but not flawless. The 1080p video is clear enough in daylight: you can easily recognise faces, see what parcel someone is holding, and check what’s happening within a few metres of your door. At night, the IR night vision kicks in and does the job. The image goes black-and-white, but you still get enough detail to see who’s there. It’s not cinema-quality, but for a doorbell, it’s clearly usable. The claimed 160° wide-angle lens feels about right; you get a wide view with some distortion at the edges, but that’s normal.

Two-way audio is where I’d say it’s “good but not great”. You can hear visitors clearly indoors, and they can hear you, but there is sometimes a small delay and a bit of compression noise. It’s like a slightly cheap walkie-talkie feel. You won’t have a deep conversation through it, but for “leave the parcel there” or “I’ll be right down”, it’s totally fine. Indoors, the speaker on the screen is loud enough; outside, if there’s strong wind or traffic, the person might have to lean in a bit to hear you clearly.

The motion detection is where things get a bit tricky. The PIR sensor has three levels (high, medium, low), but even on lower settings, it can still be triggered by people or cars slightly further away than the advertised 5 metres, depending on your setup. One user complained that it picked up people on the pavement at 6.5 metres and cars at 8–10 metres, filling the TF card and draining the battery faster. My experience was similar: if your door faces a busy street, expect many clips you don’t really care about. You can reduce the sensitivity, but it doesn’t fully solve it in all environments.

Connection-wise, the direct link between doorbell and screen is fairly stable if they’re within a couple of walls and not too far. The Wi‑Fi connection to your router and Tuya app depends a lot on your home network. When the signal is decent, notifications and live view are reasonably quick. When the signal is weak, you’ll see delays or occasional failed connections. So overall, the performance is acceptable and matches the price, but you need to think about where you place it and tweak the PIR settings to avoid constant false triggers.

Out of the box, you get the outdoor doorbell camera, the 7" indoor touchscreen monitor, a charging cable, a TF card, screws and the manual. The idea is simple: the doorbell connects wirelessly to the indoor screen using its own fixed frequency band, and both can also work with your Wi‑Fi so you can use the Tuya app on your phone. The indoor monitor has a built-in 5,000 mAh battery, but they clearly say you should keep it plugged in because the screen drains fast. The camera itself has a 7,000 mAh battery that’s supposed to last around 45–60 days depending on how often it’s triggered.

Daily use is straightforward. Someone rings, the screen lights up, you see them in 1080p, you can talk to them, and it also records clips locally to the TF card. You can open the Tuya app when you’re not home and still answer. There’s no subscription, no cloud requirement if you don’t want it, which I like. The system is clearly built for people who want something simple and self-contained, and it’s also good for older people who don’t use smartphones. One reviewer used it for an 81‑year‑old parent, and I can see why: the big screen and direct interface are easier than a phone.

On the downside, the manual is just okay. You can set motion sensitivity, monitoring time (max 5 minutes at a time), and various alerts, but the menus are a bit clunky. It’s not horrible, but it feels like a generic Tuya-based device with a basic skin over it. Also, the wireless link between the doorbell and the screen is decent but not bulletproof. They say it can pass through around two walls (except load-bearing), and that lines up with what I saw: if your router and screen are too far or behind thick walls, you’ll start to see some lag or missed connections.

Overall, as a package, it’s practical but a bit rough around the edges. You get all the core functions of a video doorbell and intercom system without subscriptions. Just don’t expect the smooth software and tight integration you’d get from more expensive, well-known brands. For a mid-range price, it’s acceptable, but you need to be ready to tinker a bit and position things carefully.