A look at the TP-Link Tapo C300

Papa needed a simple surveillance system for use at home and settled on the TP-Link Tapo C200. It was bought at SM Cebu and retailed for ₱1,300.00. The camera itself goes up to 720p at 15 fps, and has a horizontal view range at 356° and 114° vertical.¹ The camera can be mounted to a ceiling but we didn’t bother. Local storage is available in the form of a Micro SD Card, which we used with a separately bought SanDisk 128GB Micro SDXC UHS-1 card for around ₱500. The C200 is also capable of 2-way audio, meaning that the camera is capable of receiving and transmitting audio through the built-in microphone and speaker.

As an IOT device, the TP-Link C200 requires internet connection for use and is a paperweight without it. Decent internet is recommended, it works ok for me at around 20 mbps. The C200 uses Wifi connection only, and is usable only through a mobile client, with no client available for PC unless ran through an emulator or VM. The TP-Link Tapo app is available in both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. It is necessary to create a TP-Link cloud services account to use the TP-Link C200. With a TP-Link account and TP-Link Tapo app in hand, it is now possible to set up and configure the surveillance system.

Thoughts

It isn’t the fanciest system in the world by a long shot, but the C200 is a simple and functional little surveillance camera. The camera is nowhere near as complex as smartphones nowadays, but it’s simple and serviceable for its use case. The unmistakable aesthetic of CCTV-like loss of detail and graininess is definitely present, but it is not something to be bothered by. The sound and microphone quality is there, and it works, sounding telephone-like. A personal concern of mine is regarding security and privacy; the ‘S’ in IOT stands for Security, but I digress. The setup process is of easy to moderate difficulty and is pretty linear. I can recommend this camera for a cheap, easy, no-frills surveillance system.