Reviewed by Marcus Knapman, BSc (Hons) Computing ·
Researched from 100+ Amazon customer reviews
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Sixteen pounds ninety-nine for a video doorbell. Go on, read that again. It sounds like a typo, or the sort of price you'd see on a dodgy marketplace listing with a name that looks like a cat walked across the keyboard. It isn't either. It's the Blink Video Doorbell Add-On, and the catch is right there in the product title: the Sync Module isn't included.
That catch matters, because it decides whether this is a bargain or a mildly irritating way to spend extra money. If you already own a Blink system with a Sync Module sitting on a shelf somewhere, this is about as cheap as smart doorbells get. If you're starting from scratch, you'll need to budget for the hub as well, and the sums look rather different.
I haven't bolted this to my own front door. What I have done is go through the spec sheet and the wider body of buyer feedback on Blink's setup. The Amazon rating for this specific listing isn't available at the time of writing, so I'm leaning on the features and the way the system is built rather than pretending I've got a star count to wave about. My view? It's a sensible, low-fuss doorbell with a clever pricing structure, and a couple of compromises you should know about before you click buy.
Let's get the confusing bit out of the way first. Blink sells this doorbell in two flavours: one bundled with a Sync Module Core, which is the recommended route for newcomers, and this one, the Add-On, which is the doorbell only. The Sync Module is the little hub that talks to your router and to the doorbell. Without it, the doorbell is a very expensive-looking paperweight, or rather a very cheap one.
So the headline price is flattering. Think of £16.99 as the entry fee for existing Blink owners, not the total cost for everyone. If you're new to the brand, buy the bundle instead. Buying the Add-On by accident and then having to order a hub separately is the sort of mistake that makes you mutter at a doorstep.
This is the feature that stands out most. The spec sheet promises up to two years of battery life from the three included Energizer lithium AA batteries. No charging cable, no pulling the doorbell off the wall every few months, no ladder.
Here's my caution. 'Up to' is doing some heavy lifting. Battery life on any wireless camera depends on how often it wakes up, how busy your street is and how much you use live view. If you live on a road where every passing cyclist triggers motion, expect that two-year figure to shrink. Still, even a year of hassle-free running beats a doorbell you have to charge, and lithium AAs are cheap and easy to swap when the time comes.
There's no need to rewire anything. The box includes a mounting kit with screws and anchors, and the setup is wireless, so you're not wrestling with your existing doorbell cable or hunting for a transformer. For anyone renting, or living somewhere with a gloriously uncooperative brick frontage, that's a real selling point.
You can also pair it with a Blink Mini 2 camera, sold separately, and use that as a plug-in indoor chime. That's a handy trick, because a battery doorbell is no use if you can't hear it from the back of the house. Without a chime accessory, you're relying on phone notifications or an Alexa-enabled device, which works but isn't quite the same as a proper ding-dong.
The picture here is HD with a head-to-toe field of view, which is exactly what you want from a doorbell. A narrow, letterbox view that shows someone's chest and the top of their hat is no good when you're trying to spot a parcel left at ground level. Infrared night vision covers you after dark, and two-way talk through the Blink app lets you tell the courier to leave it round the back without getting off the sofa.
The spec sheet doesn't give me a resolution figure or a precise viewing angle, so I won't invent one. What I can say is that the design priorities are right: see the whole person, see the doorstep, see it at night.
Now for the grumble. Basic functionality works without paying anything extra, but the more useful features sit behind a Blink Subscription Plan. Person detection alerts, Blink Moments and extended live view all need it, as does cloud storage for saving and sharing clips. There's a free 30-day trial of Blink Plus to get you started.
It's a familiar tactic across the smart-home world, and Blink isn't the worst offender. Still, the £16.99 sticker price doesn't tell the whole story if you want proper person alerts rather than being pinged every time a branch moves in the wind. Factor in the ongoing cost before you decide this is the cheapest option going.
If you've got an Echo or another Alexa-enabled device, you can answer the front door by voice, arm and disarm the system and so on. For households already invested in Alexa it's a neat extra. If you're not, you lose nothing important, as the Blink app handles the core tasks perfectly well.
One more point: the IP65 rating in the product title means the doorbell is built to cope with rain and dust, which is rather important in Britain, where our weather has opinions. It should shrug off a typical downpour, though I'd still avoid mounting it somewhere that gets a constant blast from a drainpipe.
The Sync Module requirement is the obvious one. The less obvious one is that you're tied into the Blink ecosystem. That's fine if you like what Blink offers, but it's worth knowing before you commit. There's also no mention of a built-in chime, so the doorbell itself won't ring indoors without that Blink Mini 2 or an Alexa speaker doing the work.
If you already run a Blink system, the Blink Video Doorbell Add-On at £16.99 is an easy yes: cheap, wireless and long-lasting on its batteries. If you're new to Blink, skip this version and buy the bundle with the Sync Module Core, and be prepared to consider a subscription for the best features.
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