TP-Link Tapo Indoor/Outdoor Home Security Wi-Fi Camera C120

Don’t let its $39.99 price and diminutive size fool you, the TP-Link Tapo Indoor/Outdoor Home Security Wi-Fi Camera C120 is a full-featured security camera that offers 2K video, color night vision, intelligent alerts, and built-in spotlights. It will store recorded video locally or in the cloud and it supports Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant voice control. It wouldn't work with the smart home automation platform IFTTT in testing, but the C120 otherwise offers similar features and performance to the outstanding Wyze Cam V3 Pro and costs $10 less, making it equally worthy of our Editors' Choice award.

Compact, But Powerful

The puck-shaped C120 measures 2.6 inches wide by 1.3 inches deep and sports a white finish with a glossy black camera face. It sits atop a round magnetic base with a 1-inch mounting arm that gives the camera 360 degrees of tilt and swivel maneuverability. There’s a microSD card slot behind a rubber cover on the right side of the camera and the back side houses a USB-C power port and a speaker. The C120 comes with a 10-foot USB power cable, a USB power adapter, mounting hardware, a metal mounting plate, a round adhesive mounting pad, and a quick start guide.

(Credit: TP-Link)

The C120’s IP66 weatherproof rating means you can use it indoors or outdoors. The 4MP camera captures 2K video (2,560 by 1,440 pixels) at 20fps with a 120-degree vertical field of view. It uses a Starlight sensor and the same ColorPro Night Vision technology as the excellent Tapo C325WB ColorPro Outdoor to capture color video at night if there’s enough ambient light. You can also configure the camera to use built-in white spotlights for color night vision or low-intensity infrared LEDs for black-and-white night vision. When the camera detects motion, the white spotlights can automatically turn on and the speaker can sound a siren or play a custom warning to scare away intruders.

Besides the lens and lights, the camera face holds a microphone and a status LED that blinks red and green during setup, slowly blinks red while connecting to Wi-Fi, shines amber when connected to Wi-Fi, and glows green when the camera is connected to the cloud.

An embedded 2.4GHz Wi-Fi radio connects the C120 to your home network, allowing you to control the camera from your phone and pair it with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant so you can use voice commands to view its video stream on an Amazon Echo Show or a Google Nest Hub smart display. You can also use Alexa or Google Assistant routines to have the camera interact with other third-party smart home devices. A company spokesperson told PCMag it supports the home automation platform IFTTT, but product listings mention no such integration and we couldn't get it to work with the service in testing. It also lacks support for Apple's HomeKit platform.

The camera records video when it detects motion and offers free intelligent alerts that differentiate between people, pets, vehicles, and other motion events. It can store video locally on a microSD card (up to 512GB) but you have to supply your own media. If you’d rather have the camera store video in the cloud, you need to subscribe to a Tapo Care plan (starting at $3.49 per month or $34.99 per year, after a free 30-day trial). A Tapo Care subscription includes 30 days of cloud storage for event-triggered video clips, rich notifications, and Smart Sort video filtering.

The C120 uses the same mobile app as other Tapo devices, but it has received a facelift from the last time we tested it, offering newly designed Home, Activity, and Status screens while also gaining support for TP-Link Kasa smart devices. The camera gets its own panel on the Home screen under the All Devices tab, but you can also find it by tapping the tab at the top of the screen for whatever room you assigned it to.

(Credit: TP-Link)

Tap the camera’s panel to open a live stream that you can view in full-screen landscape mode by turning your phone sideways. Below the video panel are buttons that let you capture a photo, record a video, mute the speaker, or place a two-way call through the camera. A separate microphone button also enables two-way talk, but you must hold it down when you speak. Additional buttons on this screen let you enable or disable the alarm, lights, on-screen display tag (that when enabled shows the current video speed in Kbps and a Live tag on real-time streams), and privacy mode (which temporarily disables streaming and recording). Finally, a Tapo Care button takes you to a screen where you can subscribe or view your current subscription information.

Below the video panel is a button labeled Playback & Download. Tap into this section to view thumbnails of event-triggered and manually captured videos and snapshots. Tap a thumbnail to view, download, share, or delete the clip.

A gear icon in the upper right corner of the video panel screen takes you to the Settings menu where you can configure motion and sound detection options. It supports motion detection for people, pets, and vehicles, and offers a line-crossing option, which lets you draw a boundary line that when breached will trigger an alert. It offers sound detection options for a crying baby, glass breaking, dog barks, or cat meows.

Under alarm settings, you can configure sound and spotlight options including brightness and duration. Additional settings let you configure notifications, Wi-Fi, night vision, and video quality, as well as disable the status LED, and format an SD card.

Easy Installation and Flawless Performance

Installing the C120 couldn’t be easier. I already had the Tapo app installed on my phone, which you need to get started. I tapped the plus icon in the upper right corner of the Home screen, tapped Add Device, and selected Outdoor cameras from the list. I then selected the Tapo C120, powered up the camera, and verified that the LED was blinking red and green. I connected my phone to the camera’s Wi-Fi SSID, returned to the app, and entered my home Wi-Fi SSID and password. The camera connected within seconds, then I gave it a name and selected its location. To finish the setup I unplugged the camera and attached it to a deck post in my backyard using the included hardware. I plugged the camera into a GFCI outlet and was ready to go.

(Credit: John R. Delaney)

The C120 performed admirably in testing. Daytime video provided rich colors and sharp detail with no noticeable distortion. Black-and-white night video was also sharp and showed good illumination and strong contrast. Like the Tapo C325WB ColorPro Outdoor, the C120 provided good color night video. Don't expect the same level of color saturation that you get with daylight video, but its nighttime color quality is still better than what most outdoor cameras offer.

(Credit: TP-Link/John R. Delaney)

Motion alerts arrived instantly and were correctly identified, and two-way audio was clean and adequately loud. I created an Alexa routine to have a Wyze Bulb turn on when the camera detected a person and it worked flawlessly. Additionally, the camera instantly responded to Alexa voice commands to stream video to an Echo Show.

A Supremely Versatile and Affordable Security Cam

If you’re in the market for a feature-rich security camera for indoor or outdoor use but don’t want to spend a bundle, the TP-Link Tapo Indoor/Outdoor Home Security Wi-Fi Camera C120 deserves a spot on your shortlist. The C120 delivers sharp 2K video with strong color night vision, smart motion and sound alerts, local and cloud video storage, built-in spotlights, and voice control support. HomeKit and IFTTT support would be nice, but for less than $40 it’s hard to complain. If IFTTT support is a must, check out the $50 Wyze Cam V3 Pro. Otherwise save $10 with the C120, our latest Editors’ Choice winner for affordable security cameras.