Tapo D235 video doorbell review: a top-quality pick with no subscription required

When it comes to the best video doorbells, the requirements are pretty clear: these devices need to be simple to set up and operate, reliable when it comes to alerts and video playback, and of course able to deliver a top-quality video feed from outside your door.

In this Tapo D235 video doorbell review, I'll tell you how the device scores in all those categories and more. If you're in the market for a smart device that'll let you check who's at the door from your sofa – or from the other side of the world – it's worth considering.

The experts on the T3 team are always busy checking out the best smart home kit so we can pass on honest opinions and advice to you. Check out our guides to the best smart bulbs and the best security cameras for some recommendations, for example.

Tapo D235 review: price and availability

You can pick up the Tapo D235 video doorbell from several retailers. Check the widgets embedded on this page for the most up-to-date pricing, but at the time of writing the device is going to set you back around £120 (it's not currently available in the US). You can pick it up from sellers including Tapo and Amazon.

Tapo D235 review: design and setup

The Tapo D235 is one of the chunkier video doorbells I've come across – though that's perhaps not the most important consideration for a device like this. If you're measuring up your door for it, the dimensions are 150 mm x 50 mm x 38 mm. In the box you also get a small chime you can plug into any plug socket, mounting brackets, plus a USB charging cable and wires for connecting the doorbell up to an existing chime.

You can use the Tapo D235 in a wired or wireless configuration, so straight away it ticks the versatility box. Both the doorbell button and the camera are nice and big and clear – neither delivery drivers nor the neighbours will mistake it for anything else – and while it's not the most stylish of gadgets, it gets the job done.

When it comes to setting up the doorbell, as usual this is handled through an app: everything is straightforward and quick, and I was up and running in less than 10 minutes. That doesn't include the time to fix the doorbell to your door, which should take another 10-15 minutes on top, depending on your setup.

The accompanying app is polished and responsive, if a little bit on the cluttered side. You certainly get plenty of information about setting up your Tapo D235, and plenty of settings to play around with once it's up and running – including custom detection zones, LED light strength, motion detection sensitivity, and more. As far as software settings go, you certainly get plenty of bang for your buck.

Tapo D235 review: video and features

The 2K, 5-megapixel video feed offered by the Tapo D235 is great, not that you really need stunning visuals to see who's at the door. Night vision isn't best-in-class, but it's perfectly fine, and the option to switch between infrared and full colour modes (powered by the doorbell's LED light) is very welcome. That the video quality can be adjusted if the Wi-Fi network gets busy is another welcome feature.

You've got a 180-degree horizontal and 140-degree vertical field of view here that packs in a lot of picture, as well as two-way audio, a siren, and the option of a preset audio response if you're not in. Thanks to on-board AI, the camera can distinguish between people, pets, and vehicles, which worked rather well (though not infallibly) in my testing. It's actually difficult to think of any features the Tapo D235 is missing.

In my testing, there were no issues with dropped video or audio, with just half-a-second or so of lag between what was happening outside the front door and what came up inside the mobile app. Of course this is going to depend to some extent on the quality of your Wi-Fi network, as well as how many devices are competing for bandwidth.

The time between recharges is quoted as 210 days from the large capacity 10,000mAh battery: I wasn't able to test it for that long, but based on battery draw over a couple of weeks, it seems about right. It does of course depend on how often you use it, and how many times per day you have people ringing your door.

You do get a lot of options when it comes to battery monitoring and power saving – the options here are as comprehensive as they are on a phone. You can, for example, have the video recording activated by motion detection or only when someone actually presses the doorbell. Alternatively, you can have it hooked up to a wired doorbell system, in which case you don't need to think about recharging.

Full marks to Tapo and parent company TP-Link for making a cloud subscription optional: all the AI detection features are free, and if you slot in a microSD card and use local storage, you can easily do without a subscription (they start at £2.49 a month). It's worth remembering that storing videos online means you've still got them if someone swipes the device off your door though (which you can protect against with an alarm sound).

Tapo D235 review: verdict

The Tapo D235 is one of those gadgets that it's hard to find fault with. First and foremost it works as advertised as a video doorbell: you can quickly and easily call up video from your front door any time you like. The video and audio quality is great, the night vision is fine, and you can keep all your recordings stored on a local memory card if you don't want to pay for a cloud subscription.

You then get just about all the extras you could ask for. You've got detection zones so your phone isn't overloaded with alerts (you can just focus on your porch and not the wider street for example), you've got the ability to tell the difference between packages, people, and pets (very handy), and you've got an LED light and a siren too.

The doorbell gives you the versatility of a wired or battery-powered setup, and whichever one you choose, you'll be up and running in no time – I didn't get any of the slow or failed connectivity that I've seen with some other smart home gadgets. It just works, which is perhaps a low bar to aim for, but it's worth saying.

Even the app is well done, though it could probably be a bit less cluttered in terms of its interface (a consequence of all those different features). On top of all that, it's a reasonably priced video doorbell too. While the Tapo D235 isn't quite the perfect doorbell, it manages to get pretty close.

Tapo D235 review: alternatives to consider

The SwannBuddy4K video doorbell will do a great job for you: although it's a little bit more expensive than the Tapo D235 I've reviewed here, you do get 4K resolution video, and it's nice and compact. It's another video doorbell that can record video to a locally installed memory card, so you don't have to invest in a cloud subscription.

Ring is of course one of the bigger names when it comes to video doorbells, and the Ring Battery video doorbell gives you a lot of bang for your buck. It's cheaper than the Tapo D235, though you don't get quite the same video quality or field of view. What's more, the chime is extra, as are features like object and person detection.